Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

As London continued to show us how cold winter could get, we escaped some of the chill by heading on a short trip to Malaysia. This was bliss - everyday ranged around 30+ degree Celsius and our pasty skin had a fighting chance of regaining the colour it held when we were in Melbourne. Travelling from London to Asia is normally not a 'short trip and involves longer than a weekend trip. However, when work schedules get in the way, we had to make do with just a few days to celebrate the wedding of our friends: Ben and Weekin.

Langkawi, Malaysia

Langkawi (also known as the jewel of Kedah) is best known as a resort island with a handy duty-free status. It is a very popular destination for honeymooners and has stunning tropical forests that were recognised by UNESCO, awarding it World Geopark status.  Before we moved to London for a couple of years, we thought it would be good to fit in one more trip to a tropical island. The alternative was to spend the last three days in Malaysia gorging our stomachs at hawker stalls - so it was a tough choice.

Hatyai, Thailand

The need to get up before 5am whilst on holiday is usually due to the need to relocate to a new destination. In our case we were leaving Taiping by 9 seater van and driving across the Thai border to the shopping town of Hatyai.

Our driver / guide was a local and by nature turned on the air-conditioning to full as soon as he got into the car. This would have been ok if the van had spent all day baking in tropical heat. However in the early morning, we required additional blankets to the amusement of Mei's relatives who commented "how are you both going to survive London?".