Almost Finished

KUALA LUMPUR: It feels like ages since I've updated the blog - it has been - and I've been thinking that this will be one of the last times I do it. I fly home tomorrow night, then it's Sydney for Anna and Joe's wedding as well as catching up with Flo and Lou, then off to the Blues Fest for a couple of days then it's back in Brisneyland. And I don't know how much I've got to add to this Bogan tale, or indeed who is still reading, after that so I'll probably shut it down.

I'm full of trepidation in this internet cafe. I've spent the last couple of days browsing around the city, eating as much food as possible and watching films in the upmarket mall at the foot of the Petronas Towers. I also hooked up with my friend Apple from Luang Prabang and she showed me some of the sites of her lovely city.

Prior to this I was on Paulu Perhentian, an island in northern Malaysia where I drank too much rum, talked about the recent election with the guesthouse staff, swam with sharks and turtles, bemoaned the weather that was far from perfect and lay around the beach with one the best crews I've had in my travels.

Getting down to KL was an adventure. They'd sold out of tickets so we had to (I was with a group of about five tourists) get on without tickets, pay a $3 fine and spend the night trying to sleep in the hard seats in the dining cart while the lights shine d in our eyes. It wasn't the best way to travel but we got here.

Before Malaysia I lazed around on Ko Jum in Southern Thailand where the weather was similarly average. I did get to go snorkelling a lot though and even saw a Moray eel. Actually I startled it at one stage so I had a chance to watch it unfurl itself and swim into a little nook in the rock. I also got out to Phi Phi on one day but unfortunately all the tourist crowds are back. Evidently my post-tsunami visit in 2005 was the best time to go.

So that's the last couple of weeks in a nut shell. I'll add a little bit more in a couple of days and then that will be this bogan signing off...