Malaysia, a Muslim country where you can still drink beer. Crossing the border around lunchtime we were sad to see the back of Thailand but the tropical island of Langkawi was waiting for us (it’s a hard life island-hopping), as soon as we entered Malaysia it started to rain – REALLY rain! Fortunately it didn’t last long and we were soon on our way, the roads were excellent once more and by 4.30 we were on the ferry. You know how every taxi driver in Asia is a failed F1 driver? Well the ferry captains obviously think they are F1 powerboat pilots! The 1 hour crossing was done at full speed, crashing through rough seas and allowing Christine to discover just how seasick she could be!
On arrival though, all was forgiven. Langkawi is a tax free island so everyone was busy stocking up on tabs, spirits and chocolate as soon as we docked. Another wacky races taxi got us to our hotel where there just happened to be beach on one side and an Irish bar on the other. Pints of the black stuff for a quid, why thank you, we’ll have some of that! Having had enough of the beach for the time being, we decided to move to the interior for a few days. We hired a log cabin in the forest and had a few days relaxing with the unique flora and fauna of this beautiful island. We took a boat tour to see some of the other deserted islands and see eagles feeding, swim in lagoons and have a picnic on the beach. The only downside to the day was when a monkey stole Nick’s Doritos and he chased it down the beach promising to do some serious damage to it if he caught it – fortunately for the monkey (and Nick probably) it was too fast and got away. Nick did get a round of applause from the other tourists though!
Instead of getting on the truck for a 2 day drive to KL, we decided to fly direct instead. Tiger Airways took us on the 1.5 hour flight for less than a tenner and we were soon in the back of a taxi looking for somewhere nice to stay near the twin towers. If you think the traffic is bad back home, try KL for size – where Bangkok, Saigon etc had lots of mopeds, everyone in KL seems to drive a 4WD or S-Class so nobody gets anywhere very quickly. After an hour of sitting in traffic with the most irritating driver so far, we dived into Planet Hollywood for a beer and a bit of ringing round. We eventually caught up with everyone else and spent the next two days shopping for laptops and PSP games as well as lots of pirate games, DVD’s, music, watches and handbags. When the truck left for JB and the border we decided to have a couple of extra days here and take the sleeper train to Singapore.
Queuing up at 8am the next day we got our (free) tickets to go up the Petronas Twin Towers to see KL from the highest twin towers in the world. The views were amazing but the glass viewing bridge was not for the faint hearted. We returned that night to see the towers lit up and gleaming against the black sky. Huge flocks of birds circle ahead in the floodlights giving them an eerie as well as spectacular image. Once again it was cer6tainly a case of the photos not doing the view justice. As our time was nearly up, we headed to the station to catch the overnight train to Singapore. 2nd class sleeper bunks set us back less than $20 and would take from 10pm to 8am the next day at an average speed of 50km/h. Our bunks were basic but clean and comfortable and as usual food was hawked along the carriage for the first two hours, we then settled down with our new toys and eventually were rocked to sleep by the motion of the train. Rudely awoken at 5am, we had to cross the border at JB, brilliant system you simply get off the train walk along the platform to immigration, get stamped out of Malaysia and into Singapore then get back on the train for a couple of hours sleep before breakfast is served. See you in Singapore....
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