Malaysia. Penang.

We had a very long day of travelling ahead of us. We left for the ferry at 5:45 and caught the 7:00am ferry to the mainland. From there we got a mini bus to the boarder. As we were queueing to exit Thailand the heavens opened and it was torrential! Great timing!! We huddled undercover and got stamped out and walked over to the Malaysian side for a new stamp in the passport! We then got in another mini his for the long ride to Penang. 

We arrived in Georgetown Penang in the evening and the Mingood hotel, pretty minging! We crossed the longest bridge  in the world to get to Penang, it was 23km long! But it was in a good location. We took a walk around the city and then went for dinner at a food court. These food courts are great, but so hard to decide what to have! There was some love music which was funny, especially when this old Malay lady started yodelling! 

Georgetown was an old English town and still had a lot of the old English settlers buildings. It was a really pretty town and looked great by night. They are very keen to keep their buildings painted white and they look great. 

In the morning we had a tour of the city my rickshaw. It was two to a bike but the seats were so small! Not quite big enough for two westerns! We were such a struggle for our old guy to cycling with that he had to keep getting off and push us. I've really piled on the pounds!

We cycled around the city and were showed lots of street art, both paintings and these iron animation sculptures. 

We stopped off at a Chinese clan building which was used as a meeting place for a particular clan. It was beautiful and very ornate. They had a stage which was used for opera, but this opera looked a bit more like a pantomime. 

We then went to the harbour side where lots if the Chinese clans set up home on the water. They lived there as they did not have to pay for the land. It is still inhabited but many of the new generations don't want to live there. I can see why, it's pretty basic. 

After a bit more sight seeing we were dropped off at the Blue Mansion which was the home of a wealthy Chinese business man and was supposed to be the finest example of a traditional Chinese mansion outside of China. I had high hopes and was expecting something like Jim Thompsons house in Bangkok, but it was not so amazing. Pretty but not awesome. 

We got ready to leave Georgetown and head up to the cool hills of the Cameron Highlands. Looking forwards to some less hot weather!

Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur.

We arrived in KL in the morning and went out for a walk to a food court in Chinatown for lunch. I had an amazing clay pot noodle thing which the stall owner basically forced me into having, but it was delicious! We then had a half day tour around the sights of KL. We started off at the palace of the king. This was a newly built palace costing £1.8bn! Each of the 7 sultans gets to be king for 5 years and then it passes to the next sultan. As we were at the palace the king drove in! Exciting! Trumpets playing and guards doing stuff with their guns. Not quite Buckingham palace. It also seems like no one really cares about the king as he just spends all their money and does nothing. 

Next stop was the national mosque. This was a modern building so not so pretty as other mosques I've been to. As heathen women we had to be robed up, headscarf and all. I like to think I totally rocked it. 

The most interesting thing were the Islam information pamphlets. The anti Jesus one was pretty interesting but the sex in Islam was the most enlightening! After drowning in sweat and polyester we had a look at the old English area of KL. The daily 3pm downpour started and we rushed into the KL art gallery where we learned about the beginnings of the city, "the muddy estuary" where two rivers joined and then saw an amazing light show over miniature KL city. It was amazing!

We huddled back into the mini van with the help of a giant sun umbrella to keep us dry! Then we headed to the Batu caves. It was chucking it down so much in order to avoid a soaking when walking the steps up to the cave we stopped off at an Indian restaurant. It was amazing. We had roti canai which is a typical dish here. It's like bready pancakes served with curry sauce on the side. But these sides was literally a bucket of curry. I wished I'd taken a photo!!! It was delicious and all four giant containers of curry were delicious. The rain stopped and we went to venture into the caves. These are a branch of Hindu worshiping place. It was a long climb up and there were loads of monkeys! When we got inside it was not so interesting, except how the Indians had even set up stalls selling tat inside too!

This was our final stop before heading back into town. We were meeting the rest of our group at the Petronas Twin Towers to have drinks in a sky bar. It was one of our groups birthday so we were making a night if it. 

We got changed and went to the sky bar on the 33rd floor of a hotel opposite the twin towers. It was ladies night, so free cocktails, yay!!! The view was great and there was a pool in the bar!! 

5 cocktails later we moved onto the next bar and had an amazing drunken evening. Dancing on tables, cake fights, karaoke and more roti on the way home! Ha. Much hangover shame to be had. 

The next day I forced myself out of bed to go on a city walk. It was really hard work! But we were all feeling worse for wear. First stop was another bloody mosque. More gowns. I had to leave early as the guy showing us around just went on for ages! I was dripping and so had to do and sit down! Next stop was the old English part again. It was centres around a cricket ground and there was a club house which looked so English! This is the first part of all the places that our guide are English, that actually looked like England. There were loads of old buildings around it and we all posed in front of the I love KL sign. 

We headed next to the central market which was a market set up in 1880. Selling more of the usual tat. But we stopped for lunch which was a good rescuer! Next up was Chinatown and the final stop was a cafe which would create animals out of milk foam on the top of your coffee! Amazing! So Chinese! I got a Chinese cat on my amazing macchiato. 

We ended the tour and went back and had another wander around the market and then went to the National Textile Museum. It was pretty good and I learned a lot about the fabric and especially the iban fabric which has warp yarns wrapped in raffia before dying to create a resist pattern. So unnecessary complicated! I was the only one in the museum for most of the time! I took a little joy ride on the sky train too to have a look at the city. Such a geek! In the evening I got some knock off makeup in Chinatown. Should have haggled harder as found it cheaper on another stall. Dammit! Always the way! I heart KL!

 

Malaysia. Cameron Highlands.

We wound our way up the steep and windy roads up to the Cameron Highlands in the afternoon. The landscape got so much greener the higher to climbed and there was jungle everywhere. The hills were so steep and there were little staircases all over the hills, I'm not sure if there were for people or for rain channels. As we got higher the land became very commercial and there were farms everywhere. There is so much fruit and veg grown here and they are famous for their strawberries and tea. There was so much touristy strawberry junk everywhere! But the landscape was not as pretty as I was hoping. It was being so developed and there were giant hotels and apartments popping up everywhere that it really looked spoilt. The farms too really ruined the landscape as they just covered the land with poly tunnels. Not as beautiful as I was hoping. 

We arrived in the evening at our hotel and  I actually felt chilly for the first time since leaving England. No need for air con here! We went out for dinner and had some not so amazing Indian food. There is such a mix of Chinese, Indian, Thai and Malay food in Malaysia it's great! We were staying in a pretty small town so not much nightlife! 

In the morning we had a day trip booked to see the sights. It started with a hike to find the rafXxx which is the biggest flower in the world. Our guide led us through the jungle for about an hour to find it. It was pretty slippery going in my toms! 

Being in the jungle was great! Our guide knew where one which was a day old was. They take 4.5 years to develop and then flower for only a week. They live parasitically off another plant or tree so have no leaves. It was pretty huge!

We hiked back and I did an impressive slip onto my ass. Shoes like glass! We then had a demonstration of a blow pipe which was and still is used to hunt animals using a poisoned dart. We had a go and then got asked to buy one, not sure how anyone would attempt to get it through airport security!

We stopped for lunch at the BOH tea plantation (best of highlands). I had the best cup of tea I've had since leaving England! The cakes weren't up to much and those who had scones were definitly mugged off! But the tea was great and the views of the platoon were spectacular. 

We had a look around the tea processing plant and I found out that all teas come from the same leave. I though green and white teas were different plants, but no just different processing. Green tea is unfermented. I bought some tea as it was so good!

Out next stop was the strawberry farm, more of a tourist stop with loads of different strawberry things to eat. I chose so badly and had a milkshake and ice cream. The ice cream was fluorescent pink and tasted so fake and the milkshake was crappy :( 

We left the Cameron Highlands early the next day down the windy roads again to head to Kuala Lumpur and back to the heat!!

Thailand. Koh Samui.

We sailed a short distance to our second and final island of Koh Samui. It was instantly recognisable as being a lot more built up and touristy. We drove to our hotel and then had a wall around the town and to the beach. The beach was really busy and not my thing, expecially in comparison to yesterday's paradise. We headed back to the hotel after having a look at some shops and tailor shops. I spent the afternoon at the rooftop pool which we had all to ourselves. 

In the evening after a rainy poolside drinks and my first taste of durian (smells ok, tastes like raw onion) we went out for dinner at a street market which was a bit empty of food vendors as the heavens had opened not long before and it's low season but managed to get a delicious prawn tempura and a giant corn on the cob cool to order. Yum! After dinner some of our group went to watch a lady boy show, but I've had enough of those so just went to the pub. We came home after the shops had shut so I missed out on getting some great tie dyed clothes! I've gone in for tie dye big style! 

On our second day we took a day boat trip to the Ang Thong paring park. It was a very early start, but we got to get some great seats at the front of the boat :) it was beautiful. Looked very similar to Ha Long Bay, but with about 5% of the number of boats. It was really empty, it was stunning. There were all the limestone kasts and island popping out everywhere. 

We landed at a beautiful beach and got off to go swimming. There was a hike up to the top of a hill, but I knew my limitations after the last hike I failed on in this heat so just stayed and swimmed. To get to and from our boat we took long tail boat which were filled with us and the other Chinese and Indian tourists. Felt very unsafe and a bit like a boat shipping immigrants! After lunch we stopped at another island and went kyacking and snorkelling. The kyacking was great. You could see the coral so close under water and the rock formations were stunning.  The kyacking was pretty short but great. We then climbed up some pretty vertical steps to a viewpoint to see a green lagoon. Such hard work! But great views. 

Snorkelling was pretty good but the water was so shallow I scared myself at how close we were to to the fish and coral! We sailed home and it was a great day! Got some great tanning in too!

In the evening we went to a food market and I got a great pad thai and another enormous corn of the cob and then a waffle! So greedy! But it was all so cheap so hard to say no!

After the food market we hit the main market and got spending our left over baht as it was our last day in Thailand. Prices were a bit higher than the mainland, but I got some sunglasses and flop flops for 200 baht each and the. Had the hardest haggle for a tiedye jumpsuit and top. The guy had really bad maths so it was hard work! But got them both for 750. Tie dye is my new thing it seems!  Just can't wait for Indonesia to wear them as got to be a bit more conservative when in Malaysia. Heading there next!

Thailand. Koh Pha Ngan.

We arrived surprisingly at our train station and rushed to wake up and get off the train. It was 4:30 so pretty hard to get up!  We had more travelling ahead of us and after a cafe breakfast we got on a bus which must have been sized for Asian children as the leg room was non existent! We raced to the ferry terminal and boarded just in time. I was so tired and we took over the children's playpen to sleep in! After an hour and a half we got to Koh Pha Ngan. I think the ferry rise would have been beautiful as we passed through many islands, but I was too sleepy to appreciate it! We boarded some fancy songtheaw / utes and drove to our hotel. It was the bumpiest track down to the hotel but it was worth the scary drive. The hotel was one of three small hotels on a private beach. It was stunning. We stayed in little cabins and  had our very own little piece of very hot paradise. 

I successfully managed to do nothing but beach it all day. We did a joke in the afternoon up to a lookout point, but it was so unbelievably hot and humid I had to give up and turn back. 

In the evening there was a half moon party on the island. Most of the group went, but I was not feeling it and didn't want to fork out 1200 baht for the pleasure so stayed back. Didn't sound like I missed out on much by the reports. 

Day two was another amazing relaxing beach day. Sunbathing, swimming and hanging out in hammocks or at the bar. Amazing. 

On out final day we left at 5:45am so a bad start to the morning but we saw a good sunrise over the beach. 

We headed back to the ferry port and sailed off to Koh Samui away from the isolated paradise to a more built up island.