Time to head north – and to leave Malaysia for Thailand. After spending so long in other countries – 3 months in Oz, a month in the States, Canada and New Zealand – it seems odd to be leaving Malaysia after just less than two weeks. However, we have spent over 2 months in Malaysia before, and this trip was mainly for the girls to get a feel for it, and to see some of the things we remembered from last time. It has been great to visit – the food especially is a highlight of Malaysia, because of the many different types available. The other main memory will be the backstreets of Georgetown, with all of the Chinese shops and houses squeezed together, with barely enough space to live in. Because of the open nature of the house-fronts, its easy to see how sparsely furnished their houses are, and how many people are packed into a small space. This was especially true down one of the narrow alleys lined by shanty huts, where whole families lived their lives in a space the size of our spare room at home.

We caught the afternoon sleeper train to Bangkok – although it is a 22 hour journey, we always prefer to travel by train, as there’s normally more space and freedom to move around, and you see more of life drifting past the window. The girls were looking forward to the ‘sleeper’ moment, where the railway staff convert the seats to beds, and we all settle down for the night. But as you can see in the photo, it turned into a ‘non-sleeper’ train, as they were so excited by it all that they couldn’t get to sleep. No surprise there then! Eventually, by 10 o’clock, they were sleeping soundly and we were all tucked up in our blankets, trying to escape the icy blast of the air conditioning.