malaysia!!!

Me and Rob left thailand on the 6th march for malaysia. we got a night boat which was about 100 people on the boat, about 30 lined up along the floor on thin mattresses on each side. it was like being in the army! it took 9 hours to reach surri-thani from ko tao, then from surri-thani we got the bus to penang island malaysia which took 12 hours! we had to change busses alot. and i was scared for my life as the driver was driving like a maniac! and we saw 4 major accidents on the motorway of crushed cars and busses. We stayed in Chinatown in Georgetown. penang was so different from thailand. it is like a bowl of ingredients of chinese, japanese, indians, and thai, there didnt seem to be as many malaysians there as in singapore. There is such a mixture of cultures, for example Harmony road is a road in penang which has mosques, temples and a huge anglican church down it. It shows the diversity of cultures there, and the fact that everyone is at peace there i found really amazing. It rained sooooo much when we were there!!! We went on a tour around the island, we saw where the first chinese settlers built houses in penang on sticks by the river and saw fort cornwallis and other english buildings and there is a lot of history between english and penang. We went for a curry and had a good talk to an indian man about the history between india and england, people love the english there!! We went up ''Penang hill'" which was over 7000 meters up! ( i got a bit sick and nearly blacked out on the way down!) There were indian girls who asked us for a picture with them! they must have thought we were celebrities! and people kept stopping us to ask us "where are you from"? People are so interested in you, and i find that really endearing. We visited a snake temple, but i wasnt scared as i think the snakes were doped up or fed a lot as they didnt hardly move! And also visited many temples high in the mountains which were beautiful and very moving, one with 10 thousand gold buddahs in.There is a statue being built high in the mountains which we saw up close it is of such religious importance we felt privelaged to see it. We left penang on monday the 10th and got the bus to singapore (another 12 hours)! We went during the day so got to see kuala lumpar!! It was a very busy place, in some ways similar to singapore. Today we went into the heart of singapore, and realised there is one thing they love to do here and thats shopping! There are hardly any westerners here either, but they dont stare at you like they do in malaysia. It is very modern here and seems to be a lot like america. Tommorow we are going to hopefully go to singapore zoo and on a wheel that is just like the "london eye" to see all of singapore! We fly to Darwin on the 12th march! Lots of love to everyone, from nat and rob x x x x x x x x x x x x x