Post script

Well we've been back now nearly 2 weeks and sadly the memory of our fantastic holiday is beginning to fade. It took about 4 days to get over the jet lag - we were waking up at 4.ooam and feeling very tired by tea time - but quite a bit longer to re-adjust to reality! School, work, and the lack of it in my case!

One thing we did do, being somewhat guilty about the amount of flying we've done, was to calculate our flying mileage and carbon emissions. We used the Carbon Footprint website to do it and it was quite a shock! In total we had 12 flights and covered just over 26,000 miles (41,900km) and we are thus personally responsible for about 9.5t of CO2 each. Ouch. But hey quite simple to wash away the guilt, as the ready-reckoner on the website offers you several easy ways to offset. From £68 for a re-forestation scheme in Kenya, to about £78 for a contribution to a clean energy fund. Sadly they can't tell me how many trees I should plant, or how many goats I should buy, either of which I'd quite like to do instead.

Finally a huge great big thank you to all the family and frioends we stayed with in Malaysia and Australia. Without you hospitality the holiday would have been a whole lot more expensive, and much less interesting!