We are enjoying the sunshine in Sydney, it's funny to be back in the western world.... we went to see some bands last night and it was just like going to like a gig in London. On the first day we walked down to Circular Quay and the harbour and saw the opera house (but didn't actualy kiss it like Josy and Dave) and today and tommorow we're hoping to get down to the National Park and at least a couple of the beaches.

Congratulations to Steve and Bert, who became parents for the first time yesterday!

We're back in Bangkok, tieing up a few loose ends before we fly tommorow to Sydney. We'll looking to stay there until the 30th, taking in my birthday - and then fly to Auckland. It's strange to think that we'll be back to 'real life' in about a week - things like flats, jobs, interviews and mobile phones are starting to play on my mind...... :(

The hotel is everything we'd hoped - a huge suite, with hot showers, a bath, three(!) tvs, a dvd player - and outside two big swimming pools, a gym and spa. Unfortunately it also has a number of very expensive restaurants to go with all this, but we've managed to get enough food in from the Supermarket to feed ourselves while we are here...... It is pretty isolated - there is nothing around for miles, but there is a free shuttlebus which we can take to visit the ladyboys and wall-to-wall magaluf-stylee package-tourists[1] in Patong.
We tried to apply for our visas for Australia on-line, but for some reason (possibly height restrictions????) I got refused a visa.... so we're going to head straight back up to Bangkok on Sunday to visit the Australian embassy and hopefully get things sorted out.
[1] - copyright Helen Crumpton 2003

We've been in Phi Phi just two days, it's fairly quiet here, and we've been doing lots of relaxing, although we did manage to get some kayaking in yesterday...... I've also managed to finally get my iPod working, it's taken me this long to find an internet cafe which had all the things I needed (available USB port, CD-Rom and Windows XP or 2000) as well as having staff who weren't bothered about random people plugging things in and installing software on their machines! Anyway, I've managed to get about 700 songs on the thing (making it about 8% full) and I love it! Methinks my minidisc player is headed for the bin.....

We take a boat later to day to Phuket, where Helen's mum (thanks, Kate!) has managed to book us a week at the Marriot Beach Club using unused timeshare points! I'm looking forward to the luxury :)

Brunei was pretty similar to Singapore - clean, efficient and expensive. We didn't stay long as there wasn't much to do, although we did have a good time at the Jerudong Park Playground, a huge theme park which could probably accomodate the entire population of Brunei if they chose to come on the same day. Most of the rides were idle when we walked up to them and had to be started up specially for us, and we had 3 gos on the rollercoaster on the trot, with the two of us being the only passengers!

On Saturday, after taking a boat to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, we set about finding a hotel for the night as it was getting dark. I was carrying both my pack (on my back) and Helen's (on my front), while Helen was doing the navigating. It was at this point I learnt one of the reasons why backbacks are designed to go on your back and not your front - you can't see where you are going as well with a big backpack in front of you! Along the side of the pavement in this particular part of KK was one of those drainage ditches they have all over asia - most of them are covered by metal grids or somesuch but this particular one wasn't and I ended up eating pavement. I was still attached to the packs and for a second or two couldn't move at all, like an insect you've flipped onto it's back, until Helen helped my arms out of the straps. My ankle was so upset with my acrobatics that it decided to swell up to the size of a small grapefruit, making walking almost impossible and putting an end to my hopes of conquering Mount Kinabalu.

We decided to cut our losses and try to get back to a nice beach somewhere in Thailand to recuperate. We took a flight back to Kuala Lumpur on the Peninsular yesterday and we'll take a train up to Thailand tommorow night, from where we can choose our island of rest. We've been living in a bit more luxury as well as I can't carry either of the bags now so we're getting taxis everwhere and getting 3 star hotels where they have porters to help Helen out with the luggage. We've also decided we aren't going to hit the town here in Kuala Lumpur, it's a shame cos it seems like there are some nice places to check out here, but I'm taking lots of paracetamol and so don't really want to drink. I'm sure we'll make up for it in Thailand though. :)

We've made it across Sarawak to the city of Miri, where we arrived yesterday. We took a bus to Lambir Hills national park today to do a bit more treking, and are planning to get up early tomorrow to make the trip into Brunei. I think if you'd asked me where Brunei was before I set off on this trip I wouldn't have had a clue, but seeing as we are here I quite like the idea of checking it out, if only for a day. It's very expensive there, so we'll head straight out again eastwards to Sabah.

Our flights from Bangkok have been confirmed for the 24th, so we'll be hitting the Sydney nightlife for my birthday, before flying into Auckland for the beginning of October. Now that we have a definate end-date we are trying to force ourselves to get up earlier, and see as much as possible before the flight-date - we'd still like to see more of Thailand before we leave Asia.