I spent today on a sandy beach on a tropical island! It looked kinda grey today when I got up but the sun was shining over the islands so I decided to make my way over anyway. I'm glad I'm did! There were some good views of the mountain on the way over and then it all clouded over and couldn't be seen for the rest of the day. There were also grey clouds hovering over KK all day yet sky above the islands was sunny and blue!

I went for a walk through the jungle bit to get to a place called sunset point and the noise of all the insects and birds was incredibly loud. I then climbed down to sea level and clambered over some boulders and walked across mini beaches tog et back to the main beach. At some points I ended up wading through the water but it was nice and cooling to do that. i love my rainbow flip flops from America s they are so durable - regular flip flops from places like Accessorize would be trashed by now but my rainbows are still going strong despite all I've put them through! They were perfect for my adventure along the coastline this morning too.

Once I got back to the main beach I hired a beach mat and got some freshly squeezed orange juice and soaked up the sun for a bit. I cooled down with a dip in the sea every so often and was surrounded by little fish each time. Even just at knee height the fish swam round if you stand still! I decided against snorkelling as seaweed creeps me out too much. I still saw heaps of fish though as they all swim about under the jetty, and there is also a submerged walkway you can stand on to see them. They were so pretty!!

Despite excessive use of factor 40 sunblock I still got slightly burnt but generally I avoided any major lobster effect. Most importantly of all my feet are still a regular human colour rather than an alien red that pretty much glows in the dark! This is a major achievment for me! Liz can attest to the fact that my feet went a horrific colour with the sunburn in New Zealand but today it was my lower leg that got a bit of the burn going on, as well as the hard to reach parts of my back and my wrists - I guess I forgot to put suncream on my wrists as that part doesn't usually burn but the sun was pretty fierce today. It;'s not bad sunburn though and it should be gone by tomorrow morning.

Soon after I got back into KK the heavens opened in another tropical downpour - the weather right now seems to be clear and dry in the mornings and then the clouds roll in in the afternoon/ evening and sometimes the rain comes along too. As a result, tomorrow morning I am heading to the bird sanctuary as its possible to walk there over the hills with some views of the mountain in the distance, then in the afternoon I'm going to go to the mosque and the museums as it doesn't matte if it rains there! I toyed with the idea of heading back to the mountain to see if the views are any better but really it seems unlikely it will be clear tomorrow, plus its a lot of money and effort to get there so I'm just gonna stay in KK. I might also go to this place along the seafront that offers massages with a view over the sea - they are pretty cheap and I feel like indulging! I'll probably also get some shopping in. Today I went to the Air Asia office and paid my RM5 charge for checked baggage in anticipation of accumulating a bag before I fly out of Brunei. There are a couple of things I want to buy here, plus there are some things I want to get from the supermarket here that are impossible to find/incredibly expensive in Hanoi, like decent drinking chocolate. I also saw timtams in the supermarket here! I doubt those will make it back to Hanoi as I won't be able to resist once I've bought them.

I'm heading back out into the downpour now to get some food and go and browse the covered markets and part with some of my money!