Aug 2006

So we managed to drag ourselves away from the Prehentian Islands and onto a night bus to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived at 4am, checked into a hostel in China Town we'd had recommended and hit the sack for a few hours.

I have to admit that our first stop when we got up was Nando's and it tasted as good as ever, plus, after 3 months of Asian food I have finally graduated from a "Lemon & Herb" guy to a "little bit spicy" guy. We spent the afternoon wandering around and sussing the place out like we always tend to do when we arrive somewhere new. First impressions of KL were pretty good, not as hectic as the likes of Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh city, abit more chilled out. The weather took as turn for the worse later in afternoon so we took refuge in the local multiplex cinema and watched Nacho Libre the new Jack Black film - hilarious!

One of the main attractions in KL are the Petronas Towers so we were up early the following morning to secure ourselves some tickets. As geeky as it may sound I was pretty excited about our visit as I had seen them featured on National Geographic's "Asia Mega structures". At 452m tall they were the tallest building in the world at the date of completion in 1998. However, some smart-arse has since built a taller building but they do remain the tallest twin towers. The ticket allows you to visit the sky bridge which links the two towers at the 41st floor (out of 88) so it just less than half way up but you still get a pretty impressive view of KL.

And who's this handsome fella...

The following day we visited the National Museum which catalogued the history of Malaysia and it's culture. With the population being made up of Malays, Chinese and Indian it was interesting to learn about how this all fits together.

After 3 days in KL we moved onto Melaka a two hour bus ride south. Melaka is a pretty small place but it has quite abit of charm about it. We visited China Town on our first day which is probably one of the nicest we have seen. It is home to the Cheng Hoon Teng which is Malaysia's oldest temple dating back to 1646. We also visited a really wierd museum about beauty and how different cultures perceive beauty in the human form. It had alot the pictures of tribal people with massive plates inserted in thier earlobes and lips and chinese women with bound feet. I think we were only people who had visited the place in years, it was deserted and the ticket guy looked abit shocked when we rocked up at the entrance.

We arranged to go mountain biking the following day with a guide. We were driven about 30 mins out of the centre of Melaka into the countryside. The majority of the ride was on trails through the forests. We learnt about rubber production from the rubber tree's and saw the guys slitting the bark and collecting the rubber from the night before. We had the opportunity to sample lots of wild fruits and went to go and have tea and cakes with some locals from this little village. It was really good to get some fresh air and be hurtling through the tree's on a bike.

In the evening we got chatting to a local guy called Alex who said he knew a restaurant that served free food. We were abit wary at first but agreed to go along with him if it meant saving some money. It turns out the food is free for a reason, there was alot of stewed vegetable type things, other unidentifiable food stuffs and some very strange green soup. As soon as we sat down he started asked us again all about our religions, it turns out to be a Buddhist restaurant and he was trying to convince us we should give it a whirl. The bad thing was that he had given me loads of the food and wouldn't let me leave until I had eaten it all. I kept saying I wasn't hungry but he was insistent that I eat it all because it was bad karma to waste it. Eventually we managed to escape but I'm pretty sure we're not welcome back.

The last few days have been the build up to Malaysia Day which falls on the 31st August. It is a big celebration of the countries independence. Everyone goes out on the night of the 30th and they have a countdown to midnight similar to our New Years Eve. So we went out last night and had a few beers to be part of the celebrations. They certainly know how to party, everyone goes crazy. We ended up in quite a swanky bar which was full of young trendy Malay's, we were the only westerns in there, it was like being a celebrity for the night. Everyone comes up to you and wants to chat and have a dance. We ended up partying till the small hours with a really nice group of people and had a really good night.

Our next stop - Singapore.

Our next move was to Pulau Perhentian Besar one of the Prehentian Islands 21 kms off the east coast. It involved a pretty lengthy bus journey across Malaysia but if there is one thing Malaysia does very well its public transport. We were completely spoilt with fully reclining seats, foot rests and karaoke on the TV so the time just flew by.

Obviously you need to take a speed boat for the final stretch to the island and as we pulled onto the beach I realised we were going to be spending the next few days in heaven on earth. The island is nothing short of a white-sand paradise with the clearest turquoise blue water I had ever seen. We had heard beforehand that the islands were becoming increasingly popular with travellers and holiday makers so you can experience difficulty securing accommodation. We eventually found ourselves a room after being unsuccessful at five other places. It's fair to say it was a pretty basic hut with literally four walls, a kind of roof and two beds but who's complaining when you can lie in bed and have an awesome view of the beach.

The whole vibe of the place was total relaxation, the small beach is lined with beach huts, dive centers, small restaurants and the odd shop. The best thing is that it still has that untouched innocence that many of the Thai islands have now lost due to their growing popularity and party culture. There is only one bar serving alcohol on the whole island which is a great place for meeting people as pretty much everyone ends up there (including locals) to sample the local whiskey (Monkey Juice) and have abit of a dance. I have never met such genuinely nice people and with it being such a small place after a few days everyone knows who you are stops for a chat.

We soon discovered that there was better accommodation available on the island and we got abit sick of people taking the piss out of us as apparently our place "Rock Garden" is commonly referred to as "Rock Bottom" with it being the cheapest place to stay. Also we had got abit concerned about the increasing number of wildlife we seemed to be attracting. We had three small lizards living in the rafters which kept on shitting all over our mozzie net, but it when I came back from the bathroom one day to see a Monitor Lizard so bloody big I was convinced it was a crocodile (it was seriously about 5ft long) that we splashed the cash on somewhere slightly less jungle like.

This turned out to be the best decision as we moved to a place run by the coolest and funniest group of Malay lads you could ever hope to meet. From then on we had the best time with them playing cards, volleyball (not naked), Frisbee and this weird Malayan sliding counters game which has to be the most addictive game ever.

Howie, one of the guys ran snorkeling trips so we headed out with him one day and visited five different sites. You wouldn't believe how much sea life we saw just snorkeling on the surface, the visibility was amazing. Our first stop was Shark Point where we saw three Black Tip Sharks at pretty close proximity. They are completely docile so there is no risk of them attacking you but it was pretty thrilling to see them swimming so closely around you. Then we went to Turtle Point and saw two massive sea turtles. We spent about 20 minutes following them just glided along all chilled out, then it would come up to the surface for more air and then carry on swimming again. Other highlights were Stingrays, Triggerfish, Clownfish (Nemo's) and amazing coral. At one point we were all given bread to feed to the fish and you get completely surrounded by all different kinds. It was such a good trip that we didn't even bother diving as we didn't thing it could top it.

We had originally planned to spend four days on the island but ended up staying for eight as we got so settled with such a great group of people. To be honest it was pretty hard to leave but all good things must come to an end.

Our next stop - Kuala Lumpa.

It was time to move from Thailand (we needed to dry out more than anything else) so we decided to spend a few weeks doing Malaysia before hitting Singapore.

After a good trot on the journey's front recently we had abit of a rougher ride into Malaysia involving alot of hanging around for no real reason, having to change buses 4 times for no real reason and being scammed out of our remaining Thai Baht, so we were pretty relieved to finally arrive in Penang 16 hours later.

Whilst we were in Thailand a fair few people had told us not to bother with Penang as it was abit rubbish but I recon you need to see these places for yourself and make up your own mind. Once we got used to the fact there are open sewers running down the side of the road and there are rats the size of Alsatians it kind of grew on us.

The first thing that hit me was the cultural diversity of Malaysia, the people come from a number of different ethnic groups - Malays, Chinese & Indians but they all get along really well so it makes for a pretty vibrant atmosphere and you can imagine how good the food is given all those influences...

On our first day there we went armed with our Lonely Planet to have an explore around China Town and Little India. We dropped in at a Mosque which had been flagged as a highlight and we promptly found ourselves sat with a "Religious Consultant" who began reading and then singing to us from the Quran. It was a slightly bizarre experience although pretty enlightening, I decided however that I was a good Catholic boy at heart - it seems to have served me well thus far.

I would have to say that the highlight of our stay was Penang Hill, which is a massive hill (didn't see that one coming) 821 meters above sea level. We had heard that it is possible to trek to the top so being the energetic young lads that we are this seemed like a wicked idea. After a quick trip to 7 Eleven for some supplies we arrived at the bottom of the hill ready for our exhibition. Now its pretty difficult to imagine what a 821 meter high hill looks like but I didn't expect it to look like a bloody mountain! I'm ashamed to admit that we actually ended up opting for the wusses route and took the "scenic" cable car ride up there. Once at the top the views were amazing, you could see the whole of the island including the infamous Penang bridge (21 km's long) which connects Penang island to the rest of Malaysia which I had incidentally missed on our drive in (you'd be amazed at how tiring a 14 hour bus ride can be)

Not to be defeated by the hill, plus the fact that we had lugged 4 liters of water to the top in order to keep ourselves hydrated we decided to trek down to the bottom. Turns out this is alot easier in theory than practice. We had two attempts at getting back down but without a map and minimal sign posting our homing instincts were pretty rubbish and we managed to walk in two complete circles back to our stating point, so it was the cable car back down again for us.

On a positive note Malaysia has served us well as a rehab clinic, we were shocked to find that a beer here is nearly as expensive as home (2.50 a pint) so it has been fruit shakes all round - bring back The Blue Posts I say....

Our next stop was the Perhentian Islands.

We took the sleeper train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok - a cool 14 hours. I'd heard alot about how amazing Thai trains were supposed to be so I was a tad disappointed when it turned out to be abit of a shit-heap really, maybe it was my own fault for getting too excited about something as basic as a train journey (how things have changed...)

Bangkok was exactly the same as last year - smelly, smoggy, sweaty & seedy but we were using it purely as an over-nighter before we hit Koh Samui. We did a spot of shopping and then tracked down a really good bar we had visited last year which plays live music. We ended up partying with a load of Israelis's til the early hours - a good night.

The next morning we started our journey to Koh Samui (complete with thick heads). In the interests of saving 500 Bht (7 whole quid) we had fashioned probably the most complicated and long-winded journey known to man. Rather than taking an hours direct flight we opted for a triathlon of transport. So, 6 hours later after a 50 min flight to Surat Thani, a 2 hour bus ride and then a 90 min ferry we arrived in Samui and promptly re-invested our so preciously saved 500 Bht in Singha beers and Pad Thai.

The following few days in Samui were either relaxing or lazy depending on how you look at it - up by mid-day, abit of food, chilling on the beach, abit more food, beers then bed. We were staying in a great guesthouse and were sort of adopted by the guys who run the bar so we spent the evenings chilling with them. Some of our best nights have been spent with the locals, they are far more interesting to talk to and have an awesome sense of humour. We did manage to go and watch some Muay Thai one evening at Samui's new posh stadium. We were lucky enough to see some decent Championship fights with three of the six flights resulting in knockouts so its fair to say we got our moneys-worth of bloodshed.

Next stop was Koh Phangan, the island itself is about half the size of Samui and about 10 years behind interms of being wrecked by westernisation. We had arranged to meet Rob & Kristy our Canadian friends we travelled through Vietnam with so we had three good days catching up with them before they headed back to Vancouver. The nightlife in Koh Phangan is based largely around bars on the beach, they all put mats and little tables out at night so you can drink on the sand. Some of them have massive TV screens and show movies so it is like going to the cinema at home apart from it is free and your lying under the stars drinking a Singha beer.

The coolest thing in my opinion though are the fire dancers. These guys are so talented and they basically dance on the shore with either two chains or a long stick which has been dipped in oil and then lit so at night you can just see these mad flames and they do loads of different tricks. At one bar they have a dancer at each end of the matted area where everyone sits drinking and one guy will throw his flaming stick or chain over the crowd so all you can see is a flying ball of fire above your head, his mate will somehow catch it (I have no idea how as it really dark) and do some crazy tricks then throw it back. I'm wondering if there is a demand for this sort of carry on in Clapham...

Koh Phangan hosts a monthly Full Moon Party which is probably one of the craziest nights we have had whilst travelling. We were lucky enough to get accommodation on Koh Phangan but many people don't so as the evening is warming up there is a constant stream of speedboats pulling up on the beach to drop people off from neighbouring islands. By about 11pm the main beach is absolutely rammed with up to 8,000 people all covered in fluorescent paint dancing and drinking to banging music. There is such a good atmosphere and luckily there was hardly any cloud cover so you could see the moon really clearly, it looked really impressive reflecting off the water. The party usually lasts until about 9am and then there is an after-party on the other side of the island. We had been partying pretty hard on the build up to Full Moon so I threw in the towel at 6am..... what a lightweight!

Our next stop - Penang (Malaysia)