Malaysia

It was a hard decision leaving Koh Tao but at the time there wasn't enough work and plus not having my own equipment I wasn't making any cash. Drinking my traveling money away at the Lotus bar I decided enough was enough and to move on boo hooo. However I did end my stay with the best six dives ever with loads of Grey Reef sharks another turtle and some excellent schools of fish!

Before going to Malaysia I stopped off at Koh Pangyang a slightly bigger island south of Koh Tao. On arriving I had no where to stay so convinced two girls to let me stay on there porch in my hammock, lucky I had my mozzy net too so had a comfy nights sleep. The next day I acquired some accommodation in the north of the Island. Most of the time I spent relaxing on the beach and I now have a tan of sorts (not bad after nearly 5 months in Asia). A group of us went to see some Thai Boxing one night and the following evening went to the full moon party by taxi. Seeing none of us had been before out plan worked out quite well and we all made it to see sunrise the next morning however all completely drunk. After spending a day to recover I caught a boat to the mainland and then a night train to the Malay border.

This was my second time in Malaysia as the first had been on a visa run from Koh Tao to a place called Panang which is on the east coast which I explored for a couple of days on a moto while I was waiting for my visa to come through. Georgetown is really nice and the food in little India was amazing and cruising around the island and the one way systems in town isn't as scary as Vietnam or Thailand.

Back to the present. So on arriving at the border with Malaysia by train a group of us walked across the border. As we were going through customs we were all asked to open our bags and they noted down what medicines and needles we were carrying. The guy looked at my day bag and I opened up my big bag he looked at the state of my packing and then just waved me through. I think he had enough writing down all the anti histamines and epipens that I had had in my day bag.

Once across the border a group of us got a shared taxi only 50 ringet, as we asked for the air con to be switched off making us a handsome saving of 10 ringet! (how sad). We headed for the Perhentian Islands. We stayed on the small island on Long Beach at a place called Rock Garden which was pretty basic so basic in fact that we havd no fan and to switch the light off I had to unscrew the bulb. I decided to do some more diving including some wreaks and a nice drift dive adding some more marine species to my seen list. We also went on a snorkeling trip which was excellent I have never seen so many turtles and black tipped reef sharks.

Leaving the Perhentian Islands I headed for Taman Negara National Park which has one of the oldest primary rainforest's in the world (according to my guidebook). I spent two days getting lost in the jungle as I was to tight to pay for a guide (don't worry mum all the paths were signposted). Although I didn't see any wildlife except for loads of ants and leaches, one of which had his fill of my leg by the time I had found him. However I did book on one tour as I fancied a go at using the locals blowpipes and also learn't and of course had a go at making fire the local way, man I am turning into Ray Mears.

After having my full of the jungle I caught a boat down the river to catch a bus to the Cameron Highlands. On arriving I found a nice guest house and then the next day hitched with two girls I had met in the hostel to the next town so we could climb the mountain nearby. Once loaded with water and some biscuits for energy we headed on and had a really nice walk finishing in a tea plantation where we had a cuppa and a scone. We then hitched back to our guest house and were up early the next morning to do the other mountain nearby and some waterfalls. After all this walking I was knackered so the next day headed down to Kuala Lumpur (KL) and then onto Melaka, which is a historic town in the south of Malaysia where I toured around on a trishaw, which the locals pimp up with flowers and some even have lights and sound systems.

After a day and a bit in Melaka I headed back to KL where I found some cheap accommodation in China Town and got a metro ticket and went off for a look around the city. The Metro is super efficent and KL is a nice city but similar to Bangkok in many ways with a more concentrated CBD and of course the Petrones Twin Towers. I found a bar near my guesthouse and had a couple of drinks and played some pool with the weirdest rules I have ever used. My apponent still lost ha ha I have a sneeking suspision by his suprised look that he had been making the rules up. I packed the next morning and headed for the airport and am now sitting in Bali after tiring myself out with a days surfing. May have to have a couple of beers tonight to recover.

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