I was surprised I had actually slept a bit. After all, we were laying on the ground in a cave, animals that probably inspired many horror movies in every little dark corner of it, a porcupine roaming around, bats sprinkling us with guano and there was a decent chance to be woken up by a leech feasting on one's eyelid. Taman Negara is supposedly the oldest virgin rainforest in the world and we had spend 8 hours trekking through it that day, half of the time in the pouring rain, ankle-deep in the mud, the whole time under attack by an army of blood thirsty insects and 8 more hours of that awaiting us the next day. We wouldn't have missed it for the world. Although not that well prepaired (I only brought the clothes I was wearing), Flo and I had had the enlightened idea of wearing long pants and tucking them in our socks. It left us looking incredibly fashionable and the hungry mouths of the leeches unsuccesfully searching for a meal. Other, misinformed, members of our group were less fortunate, with the little basterds ending up in necks, armpits and belly buttons. That group was a great bunch of people who made the experience even better.

Before getting welcomed to the jungle we had spend several days in Penang where we endulged ourselves in this foodie Mekka. Being the multicultural place that it is, it brings together several Asian cuisines with a Malay twist to it. Apart from checking the main place Georgetown out, I remember my previous visit mostly from donating liters of sweat to my clothes every second of the day and was happy to find the humidity being much lower. Besides filling our bellies, we checked out some other parts of the island and went to the botanical garden. The Chinese were still celebrating their new year so we joined in on that a bit and we heard there was a two day Tamil festival going on. With Penang having a big Tamil community it was something to check out. And let's be honest, who wouldn't like to see men with spikes pierced through their cheeks and countless hooks in their upper bodies. Since that was an important part of it. It was interesting to watch the colourful procession go by and a good place to, again, try lots of food. The second day of the festival we didn't go, but found out that the Tamil boys like to get in the mood with some Scottish delicacies and are happy to share. With an American guy we met that night we set off on some more exploring the next day before jumping on a bus to the Cameron highlands, home of amongst others, the famous postcard tea plantations. Above all it was the place where we would meet up with the lovely Carmen, yet another friend from Switzerland who decided to honor us with her company.

Tioman: turqouise water, friendly people, monitor lizards, fruit bats, 80's rock and 3 for 2 Hoegaarden. Still exactly the place we remembered falling in love with two years ago. Minus one, our trekking group all had the idea of heading for Tioman after Taman Negara so together we ventured down to Tioman to change trekking shoes for flipflops, trekking for beach lazing and leeches for sandflies. We had an amazing time hanging at the beach and our bungalows and it was absolutely brilliant to see a seeturtle three times while snorkeling. The boys from the Pusaka restaurant provided for great company in the evening and we had loads of fun. The group became a bit smaller every day and after a week it was our turn to leave for Kuala Lumpur. Some guys from Borneo we met in Tioman convinced us to come over to Borneo, so that's our next destination!