What A Strange Country - Oh Wait, It's Malaysia!

Malaysia! Such a beautiful, underrated holiday destination, but also a rather strange place! We crammed a lot into our 3 weeks, and hopped all over the country, visiting the capital, an island, the jungle, another island, with Sharon's house on the mainland, some tea plantations in the mountains, another island, a historical city, then a short stop in Singapore, before the overnight train back to KL.

On Pulau Tioman we saw loads of fish, quite a lots of monkeys, and I got sprayed by a cat whilst at dinner one night!

We had the most amazing Satay one night, as well as some scrumptious Singapore noodles and far too many cocktails.

After a short stay in the jungle where we encountered far too many leeches than is necessary (only about 5 but that's 5 more than I' comfortable with) we headed to Penang for a stay with Sharon! She was an amazing tour guide and took us to all the best places and made us eat all the local delicacies. Including Cendol. Do not eat cendol - it's weird! Who puts noodles and beans into their pudding??

Onto another island, and we headed to Pulau Pangkor which was very calm and quiet compared to Tioman, but we did manage to persuade one of the local barmen to bring us mojitos on the beach at sunset every day. And there was an inflatable obstacle course in the sea. And a temple with a Mickey Mouse and a mushroom. What more could you want?

From Pangkor we headed to Melaka (my Greek housemate says this means 'arsehole' in Greek so finds it pretty funny every time I mention this!) which was a beautiful old city. It was baking hot but we still managed to fit in lots of wandering and a visit to one of the local night clubs.

Then we headed South to Singapore (followed by a Frenchman who we were very rude to) and spent a classy day and a bit in a posh hotel with a rooftop pool, a cocktail at the Raffles Hotel and then a good explore.

We overnight trained it back to Kuala Lumpur and did a final bit of sightseeing and finished off our bargainous shopping, before partying in style at the Reggae Mansion - the best hostel in the world!

I loved Malaysia (so much more than Thailand!) and would definitely recommend it as a holiday destination!!

Did Angelina Jolie really give Brad a waterfall for Christmas - and other random questions?

Did Angelina Jolie really give Brad Pitt a waterfall for Christmas this year was the title of one of the emails in my inbox this evening. Apparently the answer is yes, but so that he wasn't too spoilt, it was a joint birthday and Christmas present. Top that!

As is usual in my house, we have been asking many other random questions to each other tonight. Usually we don't know the answers, and so look them up, but I actually knew the answer to one! (How big are tunas? - I'm so proud - The answer is massive, bigger than dolphins).

So tonight's main questions are:

Q. How much tomato ketchup would you need to eat to get one of your 5-a-day?

A. Apparently 1/2 a cup - although I don't know if this is endorsed by Heinz. Also - it does mention the rather high sugar content of ketchup and so this would probably be about 500% of your recommended daily allowance of sugar. So not the best idea.

Q. My house mate then asked which part of beans is part of your 5-a-day.

A. My answer is the tomato as beans aren't a vegetable, they're a pulse. Plus spaghetti hoops also say this and pasta is definitely not one of your 5 a day!

Q. Do fire hobs use more power than plate hobs?

A. (Apparently you should just call them gas or electric hobs). The answer is that electric hobs use less power than gas hobs, but electricity is more expensive so overall, it will cost you more to use an electric hob than a gas hob.

That's all for now!