Malaysia

For $2 you can have these fish eat the dead skin off your feet for 10 minutes

Petronas towers at night

Small Sharks in the reef

Wildlife Park

Burmese Python

Wild, devious monkeys (they steel whatever you have in your hands)

Beach at hotel in Langkawi

We got around Langkawi on a scooter. Good thing Brad remembered how to drive one from Taiwan. (I had forgotten how to start it!)

Rice paddy

Hotel Pool

Brad got us some really cheap flights to Malaysia with a new low cost airline (Air Asia) that is now flying directly from Christchurch to Kuala Lumpur. We were in Malaysia for 8 days- five days on the island of Langkawi and 3 days in Kuala Lumpur. It was so hot! 30 degrees plus extreme humidity- but the ocean water was really warm. There wasn't great snorkelling right at our hotel- although the beach was really nice. We went out scuba diving & snorkelling to a marine reserve that has a coral reef. The marine life was amazing and we especially enjoyed the scuba diving although we both had a bit of trouble equalizing our right ears when we got deeper (10m). Malaysia's population is about 66% native Malay, 26% Chinese, and 8% Indian. Malaysia is a Muslim country- most of the Malay population and some of the Indian are Muslim- which was quite interesting. Tourism is definitely not as prominent there as it is in Thailand, and unlike Thailand, most of the tourists are from other Asia countries, but there is definitely still lots to do. Kuala Lumpur has some amazing markets with lots of cheap stuff - if you barter that is.

Woolshed Creek

This day walk has a bit of everything: narrow gorges, steep cliffs, mountain tops, waterfalls, tussock & forest. The hut at Woolshed creek is top-notch too- it's brand new with a nice wood fire place and lots of room.

President's Cup & Soil samples

Last weekend Brad played in the Presiden'ts club (a re-do of their previous attempt at holding the tournament). His team won gold!
I spent the week in Auckland and finally did some testing and got some soil samples at a landslide along state highway one.