Back to the tough road!

What a week it has been!

I write from the southernmost part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra but we have been through Malaysia, as well as Sumatra, at breakneck speed in one week!!

Malaysia seems just a blur now. e.g. We only managed to have 3 hours at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Still it was very impressive and whilst we did not manage to get to the observation bridge we had a great time shopping in the ultramodern shopping mall at its base.

So far Indonesia has been something very different! The roads are bumpy and unmade in lots of places and I was expecting to see huge forests, but the deforestation has been tremendous. The first 3 days of our travels have been through miles and miles of plantations of Palm Oil trees. There also seems to be loads of motorbikes on lorries making their way somewhere, but I don't know where. Can any one tell me as there are thousands of them!!?

Days on the bus have been long here with travel times of between 12 to 14 hours every day. Boredom is tending to creep back in again, so the crosswords and games are doing the rounds.

Some people have also decided to leave the bus and catch up later. Some are in Kuala Lumpur. Others are in Singapore whilst the party animals have gone to Bali to await our arrival in a weeks time. They knew this stage of the journey would be hard so they have taken another option!!

One highlight of the week was the crossing of the Equator. We duly left the bus for photos at the sign that simply read Equator. It was great for those of us who have not been so south before.

So we have been this week:
22nd July we left Koh Samui for Hat Yai.
23rd July we entered Malaysia and stayed in Penang.
24th To Malacca
25th To Indonesia and Pekanbaru
26th To Jambi
27th To Lahat
28th To Bandar Lampung

I need some dinner now so till next time BYE!