Kuala Lumpur & Penang!

I had the most amazing time in Kuala Lumpur, it has been my favourite city on this trip so far. As soon as we arrived we immediately scouted out a reggae bar just around the corner from our hostel, and after our journey with heavy backpacks, treated ourselves to some greasy food and a few jugs of beer.
On one of the days we took a trip to the Batu caves, where Hindu's celebrate Thiapusum, a festival in August. There are 270 steps leading to the caves which I climbed on my own because of Jess's vertigo. When I got to the top the views were breathtaking. The cave was so huge, I felt tiny in comparison. I'm not sure if it was the enormity of the cave or because I had forgotten to take my bottle of water up with me to climb such a long way in the beating sunshine, but the heights of the cave ceiling made me feel slightly dizzy. Walking back down I was a lot faster because I was being watched by some monkeys and we had been warned to keep our distance from them as they sometimes bite. We found the most amazing Indian vegetarian restaurant where we tried a selection of dishes served on a banana leaf.
Our travel book had mentioned a rooftop bar not far from our hostel which sold extremely cheap drinks, so when we got back to the city naturally we decided to find it. I am so glad we did! The manager was a great guy and allowed us to bring in coconuts we had brought in off the street to fill with rum. We stayed up until the morning drinking and chatting, even after he had closed the bar and locked everybody else out.
We visited a Batik shop where we were got to paint our own. I really enjoyed doing something creative, even though mine ended up looking like a piece of art made by a child compared to the ones in the shop made by professionals.

That night we met some people on the rooftop of our own hostel. They were amazing fun, and I hope to keep in contact with a few of them. After copious amounts of vodka we were given salsa dancing lessons by a the lovely Susana and David. I had a glorious time!
The markets around the corner from our hostel were good, and we spent a day eating and shopping. When going out for dinner I had a rather disappointing fish soup, so asked for some chillies to spice it up. Tip: When in Malaysia, homemade chilli sauce is LETHAL. I was too cocky with it and poured in quite a bit before I realised I had now turned by soup into a firey mess. I was not to be defeated though and powered through it, even though my face had turned such a bright red I looked like I was about to explode. People walking past the restaurant were all laughing at me struggling with the chilli, and Jess getting to grips with how to eat rice with chopsticks.
We left Kuala Lumpur to travel to Penang, which was a five hour bus journey. Sounds horrible, but was actually fine as our bus was air conditioned with comfy seats with lots of leg room.
Our hostel was amazing- instead of a backpackers they advertise themselves as a 'flashpackers'. Although we had booked the cheapest room with shared bathrooms, they had made a mistake with the booking and so upgraded us to a nicer room with our own shower and toilet. The difference was probably about a pound, but was still a nice surprise. We met a lovely girl called Becky in our room, and as it was just the three of us in a six bed room it was like we had visited a hotel together. The hostel even provided Ipads for people to use the internet. Again we found a reggae bar with cheap drinks and had an amazing night.
The next day we all visited a snake temple, which had been advertised as having tonnes of snakes all chilling in the surrounding garden and on the steps, but were disappointed to find just two big boa constrictors and some other smaller poisonous snakes. After travelling all the way to see it we had to have our photo taken with one of the huge snakes.
Me and Jess are now in Thailand. Our backpackers seems great with some friendly people and we are extremely excited for the arrival of Madeleine on Sunday!! 

Jakarta!

Jakarta is huge. It is chaotic in a completely different way to Kuta, with the city spread over a huge area, lacking in pavements and road rules. Even the taxi drivers have no idea where they are going. This was my first experience of being an ethnic minority, and felt slightly uncomfortable with the way everybody would stop to look at us and call out to us in the street.
Outside our hotel was a complete contrast to the inside. One one day a man tried to sell Jess a live goat just down the road from where we were staying. We decided it was probably best if we didn't.
We visited a museum on our first day, although it took a while to find after we got dropped off in the wrong place and then given several different directions as to which way it was to get there. However, this turned out to work in our favor as we got to see the monument national, and arrived at the museum just in time for the free English speaking tour. The museum was completely different to those you would see in the UK, with hardly any barriers to protect ancient artifacts. For example, the first record of writing in Indonesia was just placed in the garden of the museum for anyone to touch. We saw some absolutely amazing things. We then got driven to the backpackers region of Jakarta to check out a few small bars. Apparently it used to be extremely popular with a large amount of tourists, yet there have recently been hotel bombings (although there have been in Kuta also, Kuta has recovered it's tourist economy whereas Jakarta seems to still be struggling).
We visited a huge market selling all sorts of clothes, jewelry, and even Christmas trees, and then crossed the road to an enormous mall selling electricals. I was thinking of buying a small notebook so I could make use of the wifi we can access in our hostels on the way around and also upload some photographs, but couldn't really make sense of them and didn't really know what to look for. My Dad would have been in heaven though!
The next day we wanted to go to a club called Stadium we had heard about. On a normal weekend it stays open from Thursday to Monday. The guy on reception at our hotel asked if it was ok for his friend to come along with us to be our 'body guard'. At first we were apprehensive as we didn't feel unsafe and didn't want to drag somebody out if they didn't want to, but when we arrived at the club it was obvious he was having a great time, and dragged us up to the dance floor when it was still empty to pull some shapes. Willy was great fun!
On Saturday we wanted to go out again, but when the taxi pulled up the club was closed. Typical, we had visited what lonely planet describes as 'the clubbing mecca of south east Asia' on a religious holiday. Yet the next day Willy invited us out again with some of his friends. We had such a fantastic night! The club was enormous. (Strangely showing football on a huge screen whilst pumping house music? - it seems the Indonesians are mad about their 'soccer') Unfortunately, cameras were banned inside the club so we couldn't take any photographs.
Our last day we spent in bed ill feeling very sorry for ourselves. I had been slightly ill for a week, but had been ignoring it and still partying which had taken it's toll, but am now much better and loving Kuala Lumpur.

Bali!

Bali was the first stop on our journey through Asia, and we stayed in Kuta, which is known for being extremely chaotic yet very touristy. The majority of people are Australian bogans getting trashed, as Kuta is to Australia what Magaluf is to England. We stayed at a hotel where there is a bar in the swimming pool so spent quite a bit of time drinking Bintangs in the sunshine. The streets surrounding the hotel are so intense with people everywhere saying hello, trying to sell things, even shouting some quite rude things and grabbing our hands. After a couple of days we got used to this and began to relax a bit when we ventured outside the hotel. The humidity has been easier than I thought it would be to deal with, although can get a bit too much when in bars and clubs. We found a great reggae bar where we could enjoy Indonesian covers of reggae classics whilst smoking flavored Shisha. (The strawberry tasted like the smell of 'My little pony'!)
We had massages in the shade on the beach, drank cocktails, and sunbathed. Living the dream!

It is very cheap to hire drivers over here so we went on a few trips. We saw some traditional Balanese dance called Balong; it was great fun. They acted out a story which at times was quite hard to follow but they gave us a piece of paper letting us know the basics. We then went to a place where women made the most amazing pieces of art on material using batik. I wish I could have taken photos but cameras were banned in the shop which is a bit of a shame as they were so beautiful but quite expensive. We also stopped in to see the surrounding gardens of a temple which was absolutely beautiful. I wore a long skirt, but was worried I was going to offend people as I still had my shoulders out. The guide said that it wasn't a problem though as we weren't actually entering the temple. Jess was given a sarong to cover up her legs which we were allowed to borrow for a small donation. We washed our faces in the holy water which on one side is meant to give you youthful skin, and on the other good luck. I washed my face in both so hopefully I will remain wrinkle free and lucky!
Another place we went to was a coffee plantation where we got given samples of loads of different coffees, cocoas, and teas. We also drove to a mountain where we had a beer looking at the amazing views.
We went to see 'monkey forest' where there are loads of monkeys you can get close to and feed bananas. This was fine until one mother monkey got stressed out and bit someone, then soon after one jumped on me. I have had my rabies shot, but I'm not  willing to test it out!
It is so cheap here - a nice change from expensive Australia, and the food is amazing (although I had a bit of an upset stomach today I don't know if it is the food or the beer).
We fly to Jakarta tomorrow, which is apparently less touristy so will be an adventure.