Travel diary
Malaysia and Singapore
Oops, it's been a while since I last wrote anything. So a quick rundown from Malaysia through to Singapore...
The boat joruney from Ko Tao went smoother than expected - mainly due to the sleeping pill I took working its magic, and I snoozed for almost the entire journey! The minibus down to the border was less fun with the driver thinking we were sardines being squeezed into a tin, not a pleasant experience. Nine hours of hell later and we were at the border. Very weird crossing an international border by foot! All went surprisingly smoothly - after all the horror stories about Malaysian customs I was expecting them to strip search me, but I just said hello to the customs guy and that was customs!
I spent a day in the town of Kota Bharu (very odd, very strict - still has separate queues for women anhd men in shops!) before heading down to teh Teman Negara National Park. That journey was again a bundle of fun. I took a train due to take about 8 hours, which ended up taking 10 and meant I arrived at the place I was staying, Jerantut, at 4am where the guy from the guesthouse had been waiting for me for 2 hours! Hardly worth staying there for 2 hours sleep! Hohum. Bright and early the next morning, we had a 3 hour sampan trip to the park itself (I can't remember the name of it at the moment). Did a little hike that afternoon with a French couple I'd met. After a couple of hours in the majorly-humid jungle, we were looking forward to having a dip in the river at the swimming point marked on the map. When we got there, it was just a cutting in the shrubbery to reveal a not very inviting brown river. Dispite the swealtering heat, we decided to give it a miss!
Did a hike to some caves the next day with Matt, a guy I'd met on the sampan the day before. The caves were excellent, with hundreds of bats - and associated bat poo, which wasn't so excellent! The canopy walkway was cool as well - a 400m walkway about 20m above the ground.
Had a fun-packed trip down to Kuala Lumpur. When I next do the journey I must remember that every man, woman, child and anything else that moves, does it on a Sunday, and book well in advance. Having made my way back to Jerantut on a rickety local bus, nearly bouncing completely off my seat several times, I was told that all the buses were full that day, so got one to the next town, where they told me the same. So I was stuck in, er, somewhere, with severe diarriah (I forgot to mention that) and a lovely fever to go with it, with no idea of how to get to KL. In the end, found a long-distance taxi which did it for the bargin price of about £2!
On getting to KL, I decided to treat myself to a hotel for the night, as an en-suite bathroom would definitely be an advantage! Must also remember that "Health centre" means something distinctly different in Malaysia, a rough translation being "brothel". This led to a small amount of confusion when I went to see a doctor and was asked if I wanted normal or special service, which was later put more succinctly as "you want fuck fuck?" by which point I understood better what was going on! A couple of quiet days in KL followed mainly DVD shopping with a bit of the cultural stuff splashed in for good measure.
On my way to Singapore I stopped off at Melaka, which was well worth it. It has a medly of different-style buildings thanks to the colonisation by various countries over time.
Only had a day to explore Singapore before my flight down to New Zealand, so it was a quick tour of the museum and a stroll around the other main sights, followed by the obligitory Singapore Sling at Raffles hotel, which I spent too long drinking and consequently had another panic-ridden journey to the airport. All taxi drivers in Singapore change shift at the same time, which happened to coincide with when I needed one, not good. Luckily I found one, and got to the airport with 1.5 hours to spare. I must stop the flight near-miss thing, tis not good!
So on to New Zealand...