Facts About Malaysia:

It's between Thailand and Singapore but most pass so quickly, they almost miss it altogether

CD's and DVD's are actually cheaper than in Thailand

The undiscovered islands on the east coast have all been discovered

The national language is Bahasa Malaysian though knowing a Chinese dialect will serve you well on the west coast. German, or any Scandanavian language would do you well on any of the islands.

It was a mere 50-minute songtheaw boat ride from Thailand to Malaysia - and was clear from the modern highways that we were getting closer to the first-world luxuries we had left behind so long ago.

Our first stopover was Penang, where our friendly guesthouse introduced us to Malay classic dishes such as Kueh Tow and Nasi Goreng. Other than a trip to the mall for sushi and a few cold beers at some of the classic ex-pat establishments, Penang was simply a rest stop before and after Sumatra. Unless you count giant sewer rats and Malaysian-style guy-girls as wildlife, we really didn't do much in the way of sightseeing here.

Our bus journey from Penang to Khota Baru took us across the peninsula to the country's most Malaysian and Muslim city. We were pleasantly surprised by 'KB' and enjoyed one of the best night markets on our entire trip, with beautiful stands of noodle dishes and large vats of rice coloured blue, yellow, and purple.

The sole purpose of this stopover was to make our way to the popular Perhentian islands. After a short taxi ride and a 40 minute fast-ferry, we had arrived on Kecil, the beautiful small island.

Choosing to stay on the quieter Coral Bay side, we quickly discovered we didn't have to leave our cabin to enjoy nature. Giant monitor lizards, colourful snakes, and even an armadillo made cabin-side appearances during our stay. Although the weather was uncooperatively rainy at times, we still enjoyed plenty of fresh fish dinners and good waves at Long Beach. Having mastered the game of Backgammon, we took advantage of the rainy afternoons to develop our chess skills. To put it kindly, we have a lot of room for improvement.

On Kecil, we met a number of interesting companions - one, a Canadian from Winnipeg, whose travel adventures included every illegal substance known and some still-to-be-classified. He swore he had 'seen the roof blown off, and been catapulted through the tunnel of light, past the more common gray aliens and had full conversation with the little green men' on numerous occasions. Less sensational, but just as enjoyable were our friends from Leeds, a young family with Tom (age 5) and Daisy (age 7). They were nearing the end of a six-month travel excursion and dazzled us with a worldliness beyond their years.

For our last two days we moved to Perhentian Besar, the big island. Besar was slightly pricier, and slightly nicer, and ideal for snorkelling right offshore. We had colourful coral, spectacular fish, and an up-close-and-personal encounter with a reef shark...the only thing not cooperating was the weather! It was time to head inland...

The morning after returning to KB, we prepared for a 4am wake-up to take the slow jungle train to Kuala Lumpur...Note to self: an express train runs this route now during the day...much faster! Ask any local and they'll tell you the slow train is the only option and that you must bring your own food. It was disappointing when we got on-board, weighed down with bags of groceries, only to discover there is a restaurant cabin and plenty of vendors! Twelve hours of lush green shrubbery is more than enough to get the jungle experience - the day-time express would do it. Luckily, the Leeds family joined us to keep us entertained throughout the journey.

We found Kuala Lumpur to live up to the architectural wonder it's billed to be, complete with the spectacular Petronas Towers - very impressive day or night. We covered much of KL by foot and spent our evenings in Chinatown where you can barter with street vendors selling the latest in knock-off designer sunglasses, watches, pirated cds, dvds, and computer software. Just down the road, the street restaurants fight for customers, all seemingly identical in menu and appearance. We enjoyed the food here immensely, and found the people-watching to be top-notch.

We had decided to finish off southeast asia by treating ourselves to a few days of luxury in Singapore. However, with the SARS epidemic, we were in a dilemma as to whether to head to the border or spend our final days in historical Melaka, the birthplace of Malay civilization.

We arrived in Melaka in the evening and were treated to an excellent guesthouse stay. Being a little off the main strip, we also managed to experience an authentic night market, where we were the only tourists in the crowd. The next day, we decisively made the call to keep our reservation, no, ignore our reservation, no, cancel our reservation, okay, keep our reservation, and head to Singapore.

This meant we wouldn't get to experience all that Melaka had to offer, a trade-off we were willing to accept. We caught an afternoon bus to JB and walked over the border into Singapore, as visions of "Hilton Executive Lounge" danced in our heads...