Learning to dive, a Half Moon and on a stroll to the second highest mountain in Asia

Well it's been quite an eventful few days since my last post.....

I think the last time I checked in I'd travelled down to Ko Phi Phi to endulge in a few beers and a bit of rest and relaxation. It went so well that I decided to do a bit more of that in Ko Tao and Ko Pangnan.

On the way to Ko Tao we took a sleeper boat and bumped into a Brazilian guy I met in Bangkok and for the next week or so, two became three as Moa joined Morris and I for a party and some diving. After leaving Ko Tao I am now officially a certified 18 metre scuba diver as well as a connoisseur of Thai Buckets.

Deciding that we hadn't quite had enough of the Islands we made the short boat journey to Ko Pangan to do something a little different...meet some new people and have a party. It just so happened that the Half Moon Party was on which is a derivative of the more famous Full Moon Party yet equally as good.

Nursing a hangover the three of us decided to head down to Kuala Lumpur for a few days. After a relatively good journey down (a 23hour mixture of minibus and coach) we arrived at 3am Malaysian time where some friends we met in Ko Tao picked us up and have very kindly put us up for a couple of nights.

I didn't really know what to expect from KL (as it's known) but from what I've seen so far it is an extremely modern city with all the trappings of a western society. Whether that's a good or bad thing I've yet to decide but what's certain is that it's actually quite nice to move on from Thailand. From what I've gathered so far KL and Malaysia as a whole is a cultural melting pot of Malay, Chinese and Indian people living side by side in a Muslim state with no divides or racial tensions. A few Western states could perhaps take note.

Anywyay, the plan is to fly out of KL to Borneo in a couple of days and to dive in Pulau Sidipan (Sidipan Island) which according to a Guardian article is amongst the top 10 dive sites in the world!! From there we're going to take a stroll up the second largest mountain in Asia...Mount Kinabulu.

So it's all still exciting and I'm looking forward to experiencing something new after almost three weeks in Thailand.

See you at the top of the mountain....