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.

Penang and Taiping, Malaysia

The foodie road trip continued from Melaka up the Malay Peninsula towards the state of Perak where we were meeting up with more of Mei's relatives for one of the main cultural festivals - Ching Ming.

By this stage we had fallen in love with the abundance of tasty cheap local food. Sure, the food may be served on plastic plates full of chipped edges; or eaten whilst being squashed against strangers and their extended families when tables for 4 get transformed to accommodate for 7 more - an experience to remember.

Kuala Lumpur and Melaka, Malaysia

The idea of maintaining a blog to record our travel adventures was conceived in the Departure Lounge of Melbourne Airport. After spells of waiting around playing Hang-man games on scraps of paper or the old roadtrip favourite 'I Spy'; we decided to exercise our creative talents towards journalising the things we did. Partly to be able to keep track of the memories; and more practically as an efficient means of updating  family and friends at home.

So on touchdown at the humidity choked city of Kuala Lumpur, we began to draft out the beginnings of our blog.