Malaysia

Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur

Out of Singapore and into the jungle... The train stopped at loads of places, and finally got to KL at 9:45pm. 7 ¾ hours... So we grabbed some Ringgits, grabbed a taxi and headed to our hostel. It was quite near the centre of KL and close to where all the backpackers places were. We dumped our stuff and went out for a delicious Indian meal, noticing loads of rats in the backstreets as we went. We noted how dirty the place was in comparison to Singapore, Africa and indeed anywhere we'd been. Back in the hostel and it was equally as oppressively hot. Trouble was, the room had louvre windows, the noise outside never stopped and neither of us got much, if any, sleep at all. Next morning, after hearing the mopeds, shops cleaning up etc, I made the executive decision to find us somewhere else to stay. I'd seen another hotel advertising decent rates for their rooms and headed over there. I got us in at the special rate and went back for Jenni. When I got back, they had let my room go and gave me another one overlooking the main road again! I asked for a quieter room and they did eventually give us an inside room with no windows. Blissfully quiet!

We just headed to the mall, I got some prescription sunglasses ordered for the next day, Jenni got some contact lenses. Picked up some other necessities like shorts! We had Thai for dinner and went to sleep some more! Next day we headed to the petronas towers fairly early and got ourselves some tickets, then breakfast. I'd been feeling a bit ropey, so after breakfast I was sent back to bed with some aspirin for my temperature. A day of sleep then back up the twin towers for the view, dinner in the food court, which was no longer a challenge for us!

We weren't upset to be leaving the next morning as KL is not the nicest place. Early morning taxi to Sentral Station and took the skybus to the airport's low cost terminal. Had breakfast at a fake KFC style place and it was disgusting, so didn't really eat. After checking in (Jenni purged her stinky trainers to meet the baggage requirements, we had a doughnut and some snacks. The air asia flight was pretty good, apart from there being 1 extra person on board than had checked in. I think someone neglected to mention a baby or something! We also bonusly got moved to the emergency exit as some people with kids had sat there. Some people are so stupid! It was great for us, Jenni especially, as there was a stinky guy next to her and we got more leg room!

Kota Kinabalu

KK is in Sabah – a state of Malaysia – but is on the island of Borneo. A short 2 ½ hour flight from KL on what I thought was a domestic flight, but we still had to come through immigration. Oh dear, this is where our train trip caught up with us! We were near the front of the line (after getting off the plane last – the Malaysians are not very courteous, respectful, have manners or common sense) and the poor girl had to get the boss in as we hadn't actually been stamped into Malaysia as of that time. After checking our tickets, the train ticket and some deliberation, we were stamped in and 5 minutes in a taxi got us to our chosen hotel, KK Times Square Hotel.

It was just outside the town on it's own little complex about a few minutes drive to the town centre. Not far to walk either, but you had to take the long way round. We checked in to our 99 Ringgit room and put our stuff down before heading for a nosey round town. We got to reception, asked about the wireless internet, where our toilet paper was and so on. The manager asked us where we were from, then after we'd said England, he upgraded us to a room with a better view of the waterfront. It was also a bigger room! So we moved, already KK was working out better! I got a haircut, my first on the trip, had italian for dinner – really good italian food too – and the restaurant manager was talking to us for ages! Again, so friendly... The hotel manager recommended that we go to the island, and to the nearby resort. But we just milled around Friday and Saturday. Had great Indian food at the same Kohinoor restaurant both nights!! One of the nights, we were walking to town, when a guy we'd spoken to at the bar, a friend of the manager, drove by. He stopped, picked us up and dropped us off at the waterfront. So nice!! Sunday we went to the Sutera harbour resort. Very plush. We just hung by the pool, drank cocktails. The manager took us there, came back for a drink and was coming back again later to swim. That again shows how friendly they were. Even tried to tip the free shuttle driver and he looked mortified!

Time to send another package home, when we can find out when the post office is open!

The hotel manager arranged car hire for us at a good rate for the Monday morning, waited around for us and gave us directions as to how to get to Poring Hot Springs and Sandakan. We signed no documentation for the car hire, just picked it up and went!

We drove along the mountain roads past Mt Kinabalu, very spectacular with the clouds beneath the summit. It was particularly slow and bendy roads all the way until we reached the Poring hot springs. The springs were supposedly a natural phenomenon of 98 degrees C water that you could go and bathe in. To me it seemed like a series of baths and swimming pools, nothing special, and I certainly didn't want to go in water that hot when it was about 34 degrees and 90% humidity! We stuck to our initial plan and headed up to the canopy tour.

It was a trek of about 1000 metres up the hills to the treetops and the walkway around the tops of the trees. It was a bit like I'm a celebrity, get me out of here wandering along the planks on ladders surrounded by netting. It was quite safe, but very high. About 41 metres high to be precise – and 158 metres long up in the trees. The views were breathtaking of the surrounding countryside and the trees around us. After we had completed the walk, we headed down again, dripping with sweat – a theme becoming all too common in Asia. Had a bite to eat and trekked to Sandakan – about another 3 hours or so.

Sandakan

We drove into Sandakan, the old capital of Sabah, but it was a bit run down, the buildings weren't very nice and it was all a bit disappointing. We had a little wander, but felt like we were under more scrutiny than anywhere before. So, we stayed the night, got ourselves a parking ticket to the tune of 50 cents – so we paid it once we figured out how to do so! We then headed to where the ferry left for turtle island hoping to make it over there, but the office was closed and other guys sitting around were no help. So in concluding that we were unlikely to see any turtles during the day anyway, we headed for Sepilok.

Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Sanctuary

Sepilok was on the way back to KK from Sandakan, so we would be making a head-start for the following day's driving anyway. We rocked up having researched a few places to stay beforehand, we rocked up – the turning up to places with nothing booked is becoming more alluring all the time – and went to a few places to check them out. One such place – Paganakan – was up a pretty steep hill that I couldn't get the car up for love nor money, so we settled for a place real close to the orangutan sanctuary at a reasonable rate. At 2 pm we went to the sanctuary, saw a promotional video of the place and headed to the feeding platform for 3pm feeding. As we arrived there was one Orangutan on the ropes and she was soon joined by a smaller, younger orangutan. Soon enough they made their way over to a closer platform and got themselves some tasty snacks. Another rangy was waiting in the wings, very politely for her turn and once the other 2 had bugged out, she moved in and had her share. It was interesting to learn about the creatures and see a few of them in action, but overall it was a bit of a lame experience, coming after Africa!!

Kota Kinabalu (Again)

We drove back from Sepilok after breakfast in about 5 hours so returned to KK Times Square hotel at about 1. Returned the car to Mr Kwan and checked in again. Again he gave us a King size room for a cheaper rate. He was ever so helpful! We just chilled out for the day after all that driving, headed for the Kohinoor again for Indian food and their amazing garlic Naans, and the rest of the food was always polished off! The waitress welcomed us back again as that was the 3^rd visit we made!

Next day we took a free shuttle to the mall, bought another book for bookslug Jenni, a postcard or 3 for some people and then headed to the post office, which was open this time, and shipped a package home. After that, we headed to the island – Manukan. We took a ferry across (small ferry - 8 people...) at 1pm. Had some lunch and did some snorkelling. A very strange pink looking fish kept swimming at me then stopping when I turned to look at it. It was a weird showdown really! There were loads of fish just around the shore so it was good to see them. Jenni read her book and complained at the lack of sun loungers!! We took the ferry back at 5pm, the last one off the island, and went for some Italian food again at Fratinis. We were lured by the 50% off pizza and pasta dishes before 6pm. We also knew we had an early start the next day. Surprisingly, the food was awesome!

The taxi we took back to the hotel was a nice guy so we arranged for him to come pick us up next morning at 5am to take us to the airport.

Penang

Not much to say about Penang. A little island, just off the Malaysian mainland, linked by a bridge to Butterworth. Not famous for much apart from it's food. It was quite a historical place, the brits settling in Georgetown back in the day and there were plenty of museums and the likes.

Our flight was early leaving and about 40 minutes arriving into Penang. We took a cab to Georgetown and headed for Hutton Lodge. They had a room, so we took it as it looked a nice, clean, friendly place. We were able to check in, even at 10am, so that was great. We had a wander out, only round the corner really, past the local market (stinky!), grabbed some drinks – I think we're addicted to 100 Plus in asia – and headed back to the lodge. We then went to the mall, thought it was a bit dead, most of the shops boarded up, so we had a little nosey around, had some lunch and wandered a little further. We then found the proper mall, round the back – interconnected with where we were!! So, off we went looking around, found a cinema and decided we would go for a 6:40 showing of Terminator. Headed back to the lodge as we were knackered. As we woke up at about 6:15pm, we realised we were a bit late for the movie, so headed out for the 9pm showing. Ended up watching the 9:20pm showing of Night at the Museum 2 after having had some local food. We'd already booked our ferry tickets for the following morning and arranged a cab to take us to the jetty. Aren't we organised!

Langkawi

Langkawi is an island off the west coast of Malaysia, pretty much as far north as you can get without being in Thailand. In fact some of the neighbouring islands belong to Thailand. It was hit by the Tsunami back in 2004, but wasn't too badly damaged. A few resorts were hit and only 1 fatality. It is probably the biggest resort type place we have been to yet, all watersports and island hopping, scooters and beaches.

Took the 8:30 am ferry which took about 2:45 hours via another little island. I'm not the biggest fan of boats, catermarans and ferries, probably less so than fishing boats, dhonis and other smaller vessels. This was no fun for me and having been described as “yellow” by my lovely wife, I guessed outside was where I'd rather be! I was OK after that, soon joined by a pasty looking wife who only managed a little bit of spew! After arrival, we headed for the bakery, got some bready snacks and hired ourselves a car. Bit of a crappy Proton, but did the job. We then headed to the Celang Beach area of the island, lots of hotels, bit resorty, but seemed like the place to go. We cruised the strip and picked out some places to try and stay, ended up in the AB Motel. Clean, beachfront, had a balcony overlooking the beach and sea and a reasonable price. Deal.

Great mexican food, the people here seemed really friendly, but a lot of whiteys!! Took our little car up to the cable car and seven wells waterfalls. The cable car was pretty high, steep, fast and scary looking, all the things that make Jenni tremble slightly, so we headed for the waterfalls. 150 metres. 10 minutes walk... Yeah, right. Maybe to the bottom of the beautiful waterfall, but not to the top where we headed. 638 steps up and more sweating.. Got to the top, dripping, to find several pools of water heading to the top of the precipice and over. Noticed some kids arrive with their parents, after a few minutes the dad went running in to the pool a little higher than where we were and I guess had to save his drowning kids. Stupid idiots. His mobile phone got a bit wet!! So after a bit of wandering about around the pools, getting Jenni to put her feet in despite the tiny fish, I went for a dip. Just jumped in the pool (the rocks were real slippery mind) and splashed around. Used the drops like water slides and had a bit of fun. Jenni joined in eventually, she was very brave.

We tried to dry off a bit and headed down to the bottom of the waterfall. There, a monkey had stolen someone's bag and gone up the tree to eat their bananas... When he came back down, we left as he was not scared of humans one little bit! It was a beautiful waterfall though. Still damp in the pants area, we headed back to base. I didn't fancy the cable car ride – on my own – with thunder rumbling around, so just went back, did laundry before heading out to dinner at a thai restaurant. The food was delicious and fairly cheap. Next day, since we both got a little sun burnt at the waterfall, we just relaxed, read a little then went to the mall for dinner and to find a bum t-shirt for each of us. The shopping, however, was pretty dire. Stuff like Dr Cardin and the likes, knock off gear! The centres were pretty grotty too and not that cheap, so we went back for more Mexican food – it was that good!

Had a bit of trouble handing the rental car back at the airport. The question “Will there be someone there to give the car back to?” must have been lost in translation as there was pretty much no-one at the airport, let alone someone to pick up the car. Thankfully on such a small island I was able to call the guy and he came and picked up his car before we had to leave. We got our Air Asia flight to KL with no problems, looked for our flight to Bangkok, couldn't see it on the boards... Turns out that they just change the time of your flight when there's a delay! We went in the premier lounge at KL. Some nice food bits and bobs and a bit more relaxed than the regular lounge. We know for next time, too...

Our overall impression of Malaysia was that it was kind of dirty, the people didn't seem to take much pride in the cities and for keeping them clean. KL was not a nice place, but we enjoyed Sabah and would recommend it.