Panang Georgetown - Malaysia

We came for the Indian food, we stayed for the atmos... Georgetown was a fantastic stop for a few days, I continued my quest to eat anything cooked by an Indian and hold at least 4 snakes at one time (check). Leah held none, but considered feeding a live chicken to a 9 meter long constrictor...

Pangkor - Malaysia

We didn't spend long on this little island, but we sure enjoyed the crashing waves that tried to smash you into the beach-trees. Good times.

Melaka and KL - Malaysia

Back to Malaysia and we popped over to the other coast to visit a lovely little town called Melaka, the closest thing to a touristy-town we came across in the whole country. Ate some fantastic chicken and rice balls, took lots of nice walks and prepared ourselves for KL.

KL, of course, was just another big city for us. A place to buy some DVDs (24, seasons 1-6), eat some street food and plan our next step. We did however visit the national mosque which was an interesting experience - while you hear the Muslim call to prayer almost everyday in Malaysia, it's very unusual to be able to actually visit a mosque.

Singapore

We only spent a short time in Singapore, but it was a lovely break from what we had grown used to. We keep the gum in our pockets and the durian off the metro and meet up with some old friends from Jane and the Dragon. All together a lovely experience as we took a deep breath before plunging back into the land of head-scarves and squat toilets.

Tioman Island - Malaysia

BEACHES!

When you find yourself shrugging at amazing museum pieces and historic locations in South East Asia, you know it's time to head to the islands. Tioman perhaps.

We intended to spend just a short time on this tiny island off the coast of Malaysia, which somehow extended into almost three week. Where did the time go? Diving, drinking and writing. We slummed it for the first week, then meet up with my dad for week of luxury and Shiraz before moving to a small village at the bottom of the island to eat copious amounts of roti.

Learning to Scuba Dive was an amazing experience that we will both remember for the rest of our lives. So many goodies down there, makes walking in jungles seem utterly boring.

Angkor - Cambodia 3

All up, an awesome experience. It was sad to finish traveling with Julz, but we had hot sand beaches waiting for us in Malaysia

Angkor - Cambodia 2

Monks and monkeys hid between the trees and moss covered temples, both imploring you to fill up a memory card with photos. We were, of course, happy to oblige.

Our grumpy tuk-tuk driver (with the standard 3 kids and wife at home, dropped in during payment negotiations) whisked us from amazing temple to amazing temple. This gave us a quick break from climbing the world's steepest steps and had an added benefit of providing a needed breeze.

Angkor - Cambodia 1

After a brief mix-up with our tuk-tuk driver who wanted to take us to 'his friends hotel' instead of the one we had a booking at (which apparently we didn't, as we later found out), we went to sleep anticipating a fantastic day scooting around magnificent temples amongst the trees. We weren't disappointed, but we were quite sweaty.

Phnom Phen - THE TIP 2!

Some more photos from the tip.

Phnom Phen - THE TIP 1!

Rounding out a few strange days in PP, Leah put forward the idea of visiting a rubbish tip... After what I'd seen the last few days I figured "well, how bad can it be?"

It wasn't any tip, it was huge, in a populated area and was itself populated. Families and children lived atop the giant heaps of smoking rubbish, eeking out a life of pillaging. It's recycling, but not as you know it.

We spent a few long hours there, taking lots of photos and talking to the children. Leah walked away with the intention of putting her thought down, from a development/environmental point of view.

Phnom Phen

We arrived in Phnom Phen from our lovely Mekong cruise into a sea of aggressive, persistent Tuk-tuk drivers... it wasn't an auspicious start. Leah, having visited before, wisely decided to forgoe the depressing (and famous) killing fields and 'the toture school' left behind by the reign of the Khmer Rogue. This left myself and Julia to wallow in the sad history of the area by ourselves.

An interesting place, but not one I wish to visit again soon.

Team Rothman + One

So, we'd been traveling with Leah's older sister for some time now, which was great as she helped us deal with tuk-tuk drivers extravagant demands and explained the meaning of 'reverse osmosis.'