Blogs from Terengganu, Malaysia, Asia - page 24

It's not terribly difficult being a vegetarian in Malaysia. There is a large enough Hindu population that you can always find an Indian restaurant serving vegetarian food, and plenty of 'Western' food anyway (I ended up eating more pasta in Malaysia than I probably will in Italy). At first I was worried that it would be different on the Perhentian Islands, which I had heard were small and sleepy. I wondered if I would end up living off the remaining mandarin placed in my hand by a kind old Indian woman who we chatted to while waiting for a bus. I considered stocking up on a supply of cup noodles but in the end only had room for the important things - a bottle of red wine, a small bottle of gin and a small bottle ... read more

From the Perhentian Islands we took a boat back to the mainland and from there we took a a very packed public bus to Kuala Terengganu. We didn't have much planned for our time there but I hoped that we would get to visit Kenyir lake- the largest man made lake in Asia. We checked into a mediocre hostel and enjoyed our first McDonald's in a long time! Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country and this was more evident in Kuala Terengganu (and the journey there) than it had been on the islands. Pork was off the menus and the women were dressed traditionally and covered their heads. We followed suit as much as the heat would permit us to! The town itself is actually very large and turned out to have a lot to do ... read more

Having decided to depart Thailand a day later than our visa technically allowed us to, we expected some hassle at the border. That didn't turn out to be an issue but the journey itself wasn't the best. We took a boat from Koh Phi Phi to the mainland and then caught a bus from Krabi to a town called Sungai Kolok on the Thai/Malay border. From there we walked into Malaysia (stopping briefly to pay our fine and get stamped in of course!) and took a taxi to the small town of Kuala Besut. The taxi turned out to take 90 minutes and the journey itself was a further and unexpected 110kms! We eventually reached our destination a lot later than planned and booked another boat to the Perhentian islands, leaving the following morning. After a ... read more

The Perhentian Islands are supposed to be one of the most beautiful group of islands in Asia, totally deserted and no electricity, you cant even buy alcohol! We were quite dissapointed as we would be in the area at the end of February which is still in Malaysia's monsoon season and no boats run to the island. However, when we reached the Malaysian border town of Kota Bharu the guy at our hostel said they'd been having very strange weather, and the Monsoon had finished a few weeks ago and the weather had been excellent. We only had a week until we flew to Oz from KL but we managed to fit in another 2 days relexing on a beautiful island! The speedboat trip was probably the scariest boat ride i've ever been on, actually lauching ... read more

27/09/07 With the roads in North Western Malaysia being UK standard, or dare I say it, better than UK standard, and the usual maniac behind the wheel, we reached the outskirts of Penang in no time. We drove onto the island via the huge, and originally named, Penang Bridge, and arrived in Georgetown (named after Britain's King George III, an early hint towards the British colonial influence), which is a major, bustling commercial centre. The city itself reeks of cash, although not OTT Hong Kong/Singapore bucks, but compared to Thailand, this place has it all, including pavements!!!!! The minibus dropped us at Banana Guest House, which, after a quick look around, looked fine. We were debating air-con or fan, but Chloe and Amy wanted AC, so AC it was...... After a quick shower, and Amy replenishing ... read more