Day 5 of our Malaysian adventure and we were up and out early and on a plane to Terengganu for four days of paradise at Tanjong Jara Resort near Dungun, where my younger sister Emma is interning at Lang Tengah Turtle Watch.

I have never before (and may never again) stayed somewhere so beautiful and peaceful. From the moment we were met from our (almost dodgy) taxi right to the end of our stay we were properly looked after, and with in an hour of arriving I had seen (and held) a baby Turtle.

Basically days 5,6 and 7 looked like this;

But sometimes there was some added rain, (it is almost monsoon season).

At Tanjong Jara the Lang Tengah Turtle Watch team and rangers look after nest that are laid on the beach, they are put into the hatcheries and checked until the little baby turtles are ready to go off into the world. By doing this they prevent poachers from getting the eggs, and can make sure turtles head to the sea (instead of up towards the hotels, they are attached to lights), and they go in large numbers, giving them the best chance they have to survive. The project started on the Island of Lang Tengah and began it's first season on Tanjong Jara earlier this year. Check out their website or Facebook for more information on their fight to save the sea turtles.

Night 7 there was finally a massive storm, which was incredible/scary (massive lightening loud bang, floor shook kind of storm). The rain was epic.

Day 8 We woke up extra early to go snorkelling!!

we jumped on a bus, then a boat which took us to Tenngol Island just 45 minutes away.

Now, I'm a strong swimmer and swim in the sea a reasonable amount during the summer, but when it comes to floating I'm not a natural. Also when you wear a snorkelling tube you become very aware of your own breathing and for whatever reason I panicked a bit, over exaggerated my breathing and generally had a minor freak out. Once I'd calmed myself, I was off, and swam out pretty far to make sure I saw some clown fish and sharks!!! (Yes actual sharks, they might only be Reef Sharks that do not hurt humans, but a shark is still a shark right?)

So I actually had a pretty amazing time, and we saw some pretty epic things, and maybe we spent a bit of time discussing why Ariel was a idiot for wanting to be part of our world (yep both Jenny and I were singing 'Part of Your World' in our heads).

So after this wonderful swim, we had to swim, back to beach, and that's when we realised how far out we went, so we headed back for some food and a rest feeling pretty proud of ourselves.

Later we headed back on our boat and out to Turtle Point for some more snorkelling fun times! To answer your question, no we did not see any turtles – blame Emma, she has previous for not seeing turtles. This time the water was deep, and once again I panicked and could not get my breathing right, and then began to worry that because the water was deep I would actually swim too far, get to tired and drown, even though there was plenty of other people around and a beautiful boy who had afloat in case anyone got in trouble I was still concerned, so I made one of the best decisions I made all holiday.... I wore a life-jacket!!!!! I could actually float! Hurrah! And it was incredible...

Later, after a shower and well deserved rest we joined Emma and her gang and headed to Dungun for the night market where we tried loads of different food, including some rice cooked in bamboo or some kind of leaf (which I am so desperate to find and make) as well as more Putu Bamboo and pancake type things with peanut butter, a sweet sauce and sweetcorn in, which my mouth enjoyed but my brain struggled with.

Then it was back to the resort for our final night, for a drink of two and to see some more tiny turtles being released.

Our last day was spent helping Emma with her turtle talk and colouring in some turtle pictures for the upcoming beach clean and lounging by the pool, before we sadly had to say our goodbyes and head back to KL that evening.

One final night in KL, and we headed back home, and yea, I cried.

I had such an awesome time and fell in love with Malaysia, and am already planning another trip!

I also need to send a lot of love to Jenny, Jo, Emma and Turtle crew for an awesome experience. I had the best trip, with the best people.

Picture by Jenny, make sure check out her blogs about Malaysia too!

Day 3 of Malaysia fun-times and I was up at 5am to meet Emma who had just got the overnight bus down to Kuala Lumpur from Dungun. So we tried to watch the sunrise, but there were buildings in the way, so we got coffee and croissants and sat/swam up on the roof for a few hours.

Later on we regrouped and headed off towards Dataran Merdeka to check out some of KL's sites, museums and visit the Petronas Towers.

We took a whistle-stop walking tour of KL, starting at the oldest Mosque in the city, Misjid Jamek (Jamek Mosque), unfortunately it was closed to visitors due to maintenance work, but looked beautiful from the outside so is definitely on my list of places to go next time. Then from the bridge heading towards the Dataran Merdeka (independence square) we got a brilliant view of the two rivers that give Kuala Lumpur its name.

Ready for the fun fact? Kuala Lumpur means “Muddy Confluence”. The confluence in question is of the meeting of rivers Klang and Gombak.

A little walk later and we found ourselves at the Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and the KL City Gallery. In the Gallery there is a wonderful display about the History of KL and Malaysia, from colonial times to when they received their independence on 1957 and the development of the city. Make sure you go upstairs to the model city presentation, it is incredible and keep in mind that this cost us just 5MRY (so about £1) it is totally worth that just for the model city lightshow presentation thing.

Once we had bought out postcards and fridge magnets from the gift shop we continued with our walking tour around Dataran Merdeka, and after a wonder found ourselves in at the Central Market and then Chinatown. It was hot sweaty and full of cheap/fake perfumes and designer handbags, but I did manage to find some pretty funky trousers and a fan (the best 12MRY I spent al holiday -seriously it's hot so get a fan!). You do have to haggle, which I found daunting but also really fun, and you should try some of the street food. We grabbed some Putu Bamboo (a cake like thing made from rice flour, sugar, pandan leaf and coconut) and Rambutans (a small fruit).

While that was great fun, the real treat of the day was heading up to the Petronas Twin Towers. Fun fact number two... Until 2004 they were to tallest buildings in the world and remain the tallest twin towers!

Once we (finally) found the entrance to head up to the towers, via a mall (hint hint KL.. so more signage would be super handy) we were soon up on the bridge, which is a mere 41 floors up, with some incredible views. Then we jumped back in the lift and headed up to the 86^th Floor for some evne better views and the beginning of sunset. This is when my camera began to run out of power and my spare batteries were in my bag, which you have to leave downstairs (boo), but its just another excuse to go back to KL again – more photos, haha!

Day 4 and our last day in KL (Big Sad face)

There was only three of us as Jo had to head back to Hanoi early morning, so we began the day, like proper grown ups, with cheesecake for breakfast before heading to The National Park. Our major challenge of the day was crossing 4 lanes of traffic to get to the park (as someone who hate crossing roads anyway, this was utterly terrifying, but we made it and we didn't die, whoop!)

We headed for the bird park but on route found an observatory.

The bird park was great and it was really awesome to get up close to the birds and not have them all in cages, it was less fun being pooed on by a bird! (yes that happened and yes it was gross, but you've got to get your good luck somehow right?) It was also a lot bigger than anticipated and took up most of our day! We saw Hornbills, Flamingos, Parrots, Pigeons with great feather styles, Storks and so pretty angry Milky Storks being fed, and plenty of others I don't know the names of. We also headed to the deer park, which in comparison was a total disappointment, all the deer we saw were in cages, with the only animal free to roam was a monkey.

With that we headed back, popped to the shops, a quick dip in the pool, ate a lot of Sushi and then took Emma back to the bus station for her overnight bus back to Dungun, I'm pretty sure you can guess where Jenny and I ended our last day in Kuala Lumpur.....

So just in-case you missed it across my social meeds, time week I was in Malaysia!! That's right me who, this time last year had just gone back to work for a mere eight hours a week after my surgery was actually having a real life proper adventure half way across the world! Jenny and I headed out there to see my little sister, Emma who has been interning at Lang Tengah Turtle Watch (more on that in another post).

So here's a little re-cap of m first couple of days , spent in Kuala Lumpur...

Day 1 Began on a plane for 7 hours a quick stop off in Dubai and another 7 hour plane journey, and ended in a roof top bar.Leaving Gatwick at 10am we arrived in Kuala Lumpur (KL) 9am the next day despite the flights travel time being just 14 hours (F-yea! Time Travel!).

So we arrived at our hotel, The Aloft in KL Sentral and hooray, we managed to go straight into our room, before heading our for food (Ramen at the local mall) and then back for a much needed nap.

Later we hit the rooftop pool and bar while we waited for Jo to arrive before heading out for a walk in search of food and then for a walk around Little India, the area right next to our hotel. While walking around I got the first sense of adventure that I've been craving, and luckily for me that was just the start.....

At the top of the bottom of the 272 steps there is a 50ft statue of Lord Murugan and at the top there are stunning views of the city and beautiful shrines dedicated to various Hindu deities. It really is an incredible place.

After a brief monkey attack (he tried to steal my bag when I was getting water out) I eventually made it to the top and it really was magical (despite the building work) The views, the caves and simply seeing how much it means to people to be there was amazing. I spoke to a man who told me how important it was for him and his family to have made the pilgrimage to the caves and why it was so important to them. Standing in the caves, under the spray falling in from the earlier rain was a perfect moment. I felt like I was on top of the world, and looking out across the KL skyline, I pretty much was.

On the way down we headed to The Dark Cave, which is a conservation site made up of 2km of passages across 7 chambers of cave. You can take a tour into the caves and learn all about its eco-system, unique and rare wildlife and rock formations. Or if your more adventurous you can book a longer more extreme tour taking you further into the darkness.

Led by our guide we trundled into the blackness like a group of proper explores with our torches and hard hats (assuming proper explorers have selfie sticks) into the first two chambers of the cave. It was great fun, listening out for the bats, seeing mice scuttle past and some pretty big spiders. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the snakes, as they are only seen once every couple of months when they need to feed on bats, but despite that it was an incredible experience and felt like a proper adventure! Next time (yea I'm coming back to you Malaysia) I hope to go even further into caves and see the rare trapdoor spiders!!!

A little bit of light at the end of the second Chamber of the Dark Cave

Our final cave of the day was the exact opposite of the Dark Cave. We went to the Ramayana Cave, which is filled with bright lights and statues that tell the story of Ramayana, features a giant statue and Kumbhakarna and at the top of (even more) stairs has a naturally occurring shrine to Shiva.

I'm not going to lie, without standing and reading all of the notices that tell the story throughout the cave I wouldn't have known what was going on, and even with reading the story I had to have a little google to really understand the story. But totally worth the 5MYR (£1) it cost to get in, which I assume they have to charge to try and make some kind of dent in the electricity bill – its seriously lit up!

Raymayana caves

Inside the Raymayana cave

Kumbhakarna

After another monkey encounter, where he grabbed hold of my trousers and I wanted to take him home because he looked at me with big eyes and I felt instant love, it was time to head back to rest and change. 272 stairs in that heat causes a lot of sweat.

Here's a top tip for you when visiting the Batu caves- Check the train times, they seemed to only come once every 45 minutes and 40 minutes is a very long time when you're hot, tired and a bit smelly.

Once we got back (after sitting in the Ladies on carriage on the train, which is actually a really nice idea, hint hint, Southern Rail/London Underground) w wandered further around our local area, looking for local Chinese Temples and a Mosque then we made it back with all the intention of going to the pool really quick before getting ready to go out....

We failed at the whole going out thing. We ended up hanging out at the rooftop pool and bar (did I mention that our hotel had a rooftop infinity pool and bar yet? Haha), got some great food (BBQ Quail FTW) and took advantage of happy hour and our hotel discount cards and the fact the pool is open late.

All in all a pretty awesome start to our holiday!

Check back tomorrow for more tales of our KL adventures, with added birds and fountain shows!

*For some reason my camera has time stamped (and incorrect date and time) on most of my pictures. I'll possibly edit them at some point.