From 6th until 10th May, we had an Air Bnb apartment booked with Liam and Shannon and Jonho got the time off work at the hostel. We stayed at the same block of apartments that we did last time.

We checked in, had food and chilled in the pool for the rest of the day drinking cheap gin and fanta.

The next day – KERRY’S BIRTHDAY! We spent another day chilling out by the pool and then Jonho had a surprise. We went to the helipad bar which was really nice. We sat and drank expensive cocktails/beers and had a view of the whole city. Afterwards, we went out for food and splashes out getting all our favourite things. Then we went back to the apartment, played drinking games ect before heading out onto bar street!

We had a lie in the next day, spent another day at the pool (making the most of it) then took liam to a Tepenyaki place for food where we have been before. Afterwards, we went to KLCC Park to watch the water light show which wasn’t that impressive but it was worth going as we got a really good view of the petronas twin towers.

The next day Liam and Shannon went out to explore the city and we stayed by the pool and then went for some food and to a comedy night in the evening which was good fun.

The next morning, Liam and Shannon left to fly to Borneo. It was so good to see Liam – we have had a proper laugh!

For the rest of our time in KL Jonho went back to working at the hostel to keep his foot rested and Kerry did a mixture of exploring and chilling out. Kerry visited the Eco park and did a canopy walk through the jungle and a short trek, went to more shopping malls (it’s kinda good not having Jonho around for them as he would moan anyway), walked around the historical centre with the old buildings and by the river, had a couple of chill days watching netflix and went to Melaka for the day. We both went out for food and drinks together, went to a roof top pool at a posh hotel a couple of times, visited the hospital, went on the monorail train which Jonho really enjoyed for some reason and met up with Gee (from the Cameron highlands) a catch up and food. Oh and not to forget, Jonho had his worst haircut yet. The barber insisted on doing a ‘fade’ and wanted him to have ‘spikey hair’ and actually refused to cut any off the top to begin with… he had to have it blended as best as possible by the owner of the hostel when he got back as it looked as though the barber had put a bowl around his head and cut around it. Kerry found it all extremely funny.

Jonho’s foot is now MUCH better. We are not coming home!!! (Sorry peeps). He can now walk with just a tiny limp, the swelling has gone down and DR. Emily has given him enough tablets to carry on with our travels. We are going to take it chill!

We arrived here in the afternoon, checked in and then me and Liam went for a walk to a waterfall. In the evening, we had some food and then decided to go to the bar next door to the hostel for a couple of drinks as we planned to do a trek the next day. After one too many drinks, we headed to bed.

The next morning we woke up with a bad head, feeling a little hungover so when it started chucking it down raining we were secretly very happy as this meant we wouldn’t be able to do the trek. Apparently the trails turn into waterfalls once the rain starts.

It brightened up a bit in the afternoon so we went for lunch and were going to do a shorter walk. We met a guy called Gee in the hostel and he came for lunch with us (he’s from Kuala Lumpur so has been here before and took us to a nice place). Afterwards, Gee said he would drive us to the tea plantations where we could have a walk around and get a cup of tea at the cafe afterwards, so we did that. And then in the evening didn’t do much apart from go out for some food and a bubble tea (which is one of our favourite things about Asia).

The next morning we had a bus back to Kuala Lumpur!

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Ipoh was mainly a stop over to break up the journey between Penang and Cameron Highlands (and because Kerry wanted to go to the hot springs which are open at night). We arrived in the afternoon, took a taxi to the hostel which was a journey in itself. Our taxi driver decided to take us on a tour of the whole city, even if it meant him taking us the longest way. But he was really nice! In the afternoon we had a walk around the old town and then to the hot springs in the evening!

The next morning Kerry woke up and went to a dim sum (Chinese dumpling) place for breakfast as it was recommended by our taxi driver as the best place in the town. He wasn’t wrong- there wasn’t a table free. A family invited me to sit with them and helped me order the best dim sum dishes. (They probably felt sorry for the lonely white girl haha). Malaysian people are generally just really nice and genuinely want to help you though, which is a massive change after India where they just want your money!!

In the afternoon, we got a bus to the Cameron highlands.

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Kerry got the bus to Penang to meet up with Liam and his friend Shannon. After arriving at around 4pm – went for a walk around, had a couple of beer stops and in the evening went out for some food and drinks.

The next day we were up early to get the bus to Penang National Park. Here there were three different beaches and a turtle sanctury which we visited. The 1st and 2nd beaches were fairly easy/doable in the heat. The 3rd however, was so tiring. The trail was really steep, the bridges were all broken, we were dripping wet with sweat and by the time we got there, we were hoping there was a boat to take us back to the entrance (there was on the other beaches). We had no such luck! We had to hike all the way back. It took us 5 hours in total.

The next day, Kerry woke up and went to Penang Hill which you had to get a fununcular train up to. Liam had already done this a few days ago. There was a good view of the island from up there! In the afternoon, we took the ferry and a bus to Ipoh.

We had a good flight – Did you know you can ask for an extra meal on the plane if you’re still hungry? We do now!! (Haha).

On our first day here we went straight to the hospital to see if we could get Jonho’s foot sorted.. another x-ray, more blood tests and referred to a specialist…

The next day we just sat around the hostel, Kerry has been going out to bring takeaway back but on this afternoon we treated ourselves and got a taxi to NANDOS!!! It was amazing.

The following day was another day spent at the hospital. We saw three specialists who all agreed Jonho doesn’t have an infection or cellulitus and in fact, he has reactive arthritus. (We are happy there is a reason the antibiotics weren’t working but it feels like we’re back to square one). We decided to book an airbnb so Jonho can rest up, we can chill out by the pool and hopefully the steroids will start working.

So our week at the airbnb was pretty chilled out. The roof top pool was amazing, looking over at all of the sky scraper buildings.. it felt like we were in New York or something (especially at night). Kerry went around the shopping malls and had a walk around the city and brought food back each day until Jonho’s foot started to feel a little better and then we went to the pavillion shopping centre together. This is the really posh one with all of the designer shops – it’s pretty impressive! Kerry pushed Jonho around in the wheelchair then we had a walk to a pub to watch the football.

On the Monday we were back to see the specialist at the hospital who basically said it could take another 2-4 weeks. We sat and thought about what we are going to do. Come back home or not?

We decided to stay and see if there is any progress in the next week or two. Jonho was getting bored sitting round with nothing to do so decided to work in a hostel checking people and chatting to people. Kerry has decided to go and meet her friend Liam in Penang, spend a few days with him before heading back to Kuala Lumpur for her birthday.

On our final day together in Kuala Lumpur we went to the cinema and went for the best food ever where the chef cooked the food in front of us.

Next stop for Kerry, Penang.

Next stop for Jonho, receptionist at DORMS KL…

It took over 8 hours to get here and once we arrived and checked in, a storm started again. We haven’t had the best weather in Nepal (It’s rained pretty much every day from 3pm) and haven’t been able to do the trek we wanted due to Jonho’s foot… so it looks like we will be back to Nepal one day!

We weren’t too bothered about exploring the city as it is basically a cleaner version of an Indian city which we have seen plenty of. So, we went out and got a kebab and chilled in the hotel room ready for our flight to Malaysia the next day!

Next stop, Kuala Lumpur…

We came to this village as we haven’t done any trekking yet and although Jonho’s foot still isn’t better, we were told this place was nice and Kerry could do a short trek. We arrived here, had breakfast and chilled out for the day as there wasn’t much to do here and it rained in the afternoon anyway.

The next morning we woke up for sunrise from the balcony. Jonho stayed here and Kerry went for a trek to Australian camp. She was told it was mostly uphill and they didn’t lie!!! It was a tough wakk all uphill, especially when the sun started to come out. From the top there was a 360 degree view of the mountains, the lake and the valley which was good! Once Kerry made it back down, we got the bus back to Pokhara, went out for Chinese food and went back to the hotel we stayed at previously. We spent one last night in Pokhara and got the bus to Kathmandu early the next day.

After the 6 hour bus journey we arrived around 2pm and the owner of the guesthouse took us straight to the hospital as we wanted to get Jonho’s foot checked out. We were there for the rest of the afternoon and then went out for Chinese food in the evening.

The next day, Kerry went for a walk around the town and by the lake, stopping off for a drink at the lake side, did some shopping for toiletries (exciting haha) and left Jonho at the guesthouse resting his foot, chilling on the hammock. We went out for some food in the evening.

The next day we both got a taxi to the lake side where we spent most of the day eating and drinking. The food in Nepal is much better than India -mostly because it’s safe for us to eat meat and we hated being vegetarian! We walked back to the guesthouse via a coffee house which made the best English tea. You wouldn’t think it was that complicated, but no where seems to be able to make it?! It was a bonus at 35p for a pot!

The next day started with a haircut for Jonho. This was his funniest haircut yet. The guy got his scissors out and went to start cutting before even asking Jonho how he wanted it, spent more time giving a head massage than actually cutting the hair and used a very strong oil which made his eyes water. After this, Kerry went for a back massage which was also quite a funny experience. Someone was outside the room playing some rap music, the woman giving the massage flipped her shoes off and got on the massage bed to give the massage and afterwards, Kerry’s back actually hurt more! We went back to our favourite cafe for a pot of tea and were going to head to the park but a storm started so were glad we didn’t. It was Nepalese new year’s eve so in the evening we got ready to go our for food and drinks and were told there was a concert in the park so headed there. The ‘concert’ was essentially someone DJing and everyone jumping up and down loving it. We thought it was a bit poor and the singer’s were awful. We stayed until midnight and they didn’t start the countdown until around 2 minutes after… It was all a bit of a let down haha!!

We woke up later the next day so had some brunch, went back to the hospital for Jonho and then a storm started again! Back to the cafe for our usual pot of tea and then we spent our evening in a pub watching the football.

The next day we got a taxi to the peace pagoda which had views of the lake and the town and again, there was a storm afterwards so we went back to the room and went out for food later on.

The next day Jonho rested his foot back at the hotel on the hammock and Kerry went on a walk down to the other side of the lake, through the park and had a look around the shops. She went to the lake side after for lunch and Jonho joined. We went to the cafe, out for food and back to the hotel for an early night as we were getting up early.

We started the next day with a 5am wake up to get a taxi to the Sarangkot viewpoint. Kerry was so scared in the taxi as it was struggling to make it up the hill, revving the engine and spinning the wheel on the edge of a cliff. Kerry nearly got out of the taxi. It was a good viewpoint once we got to the top as you could see lots of the mountains! Afterwards we got a jeep to Dhampus.

We arrived around mid-day and checked into our hotel. We decided to stay at a nicer place right by the entrance to the national park with a view of the river as Jonho still couldn’t walk properly so we would still be able to see if any animals came to the river. As we arrived there were already some crocodiles by the river! We didn’t do much in the afternoon, mostly just chilled out in the hotel.

The next day we woke up early and took a walk/ hobble down by the river to see if we could spot any animals. We saw some more crocodiles and some deer which was pretty cool as they ran across the river bank in a big group. In the afternoon we sat at a restaurant by the river having a drink and eating momos (fried or steamed dumplings.. amazing). We played cards and as we were leaving we spotted a rhino in the water further down the river. We got a little excited so headed straight there and spent ages watching it! It was there all afternoon.

The next day we started at 6.30am for our jeep safari through the jungle. It was such a good experience seeing all of the wild animals. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any tigers or sloth bears but we did see 17 rhinos, lots of peacocks, grey langur  monkeys, bison, two types of deer, wild boar and people riding elephants. It was a very fun day!

The next day we went down to the riverside and chilled out at one of the restaurants again and had some drinks and food, watched some buffalos across the river and some people riding elephants. Later on, a rhino came to the river again so we spent ages watching it until it started walking up the river bank and down the street!!! We were literally about 3 metres away from this wild rhino and followed it (keeping some distance) down the street until it walked into an overgrown garden. We thought this place was so cool!

The next day we were up early for our bus to Pokhara.

Arrived by bus 15 hours later (only 5 hours later than scheduled). We arrived around mid day so had lunch and basically just chilled out and didn’t do much all day apart from a visit to the pharmacy as Jonho’s foot was still hurting. From what we did see of the streets of Varanasi, it wasn’t the most pleasant. It was really dirty, but it was more obvious as the streets were so narrow which meant we were constantly trying to avoid cow shit and rubbish on the floor.

The next day we woke up around 5am ready for a sunrise boat trip down the river Ganges. It was really interesting seeing the locals bathing in this toxic water, doing their prayers, doing yoga and down one end of the ghats (places with steps down along the river) there was lots of wood around and this is where they carry out cremations of their loved ones. Varanasi is the holiest of cities, on the banks of the most sacred Indian rivers and Hindus believe that releasing the ashes of a dead body into the river will cleanse the soul of the corpse. We didn’t get very close to this but we did see people carrying a body down to cremate. In the evening we did another boat trip at sunset and everyone was outside the temples singing, people were having a swim and there were ‘holy men’ stood around naked, covered in ash (very strange). All in all, a very interesting experience but it’s not somewhere we would spend more than a couple of days.

This is our last stop in India…. next stop NEPAL!