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Published: December 20th 2005
Tues 29th Nov - Sat 3rd Dec ...caught the bus (coach!) from Singapore to Malaysia. Trying to find a beautiful island to do my Padi Open Water Diver Course - east coast of Malaysia is closed at the moment because of the monsoon season - typical!
Making my way up Malaysia to Penang, where I can get to some islands quite easily.
1st stop, Melaka Did some sight seeing around the town, although it had some nice architecture, it wasn't brilliant, everything had that run down look about it - and it seemed like the town was deserted! - was it something I said? did they know I was coming and decided to move out??!
But the one saving grace for the place is that we (myself and Hans (my Melaka travelling buddy)) found an awesome place to have dinner - it served a satay hotpot - you dip stuff into the bubbling pot of satay sauce - tasty or what!! and the whole thing costs practically nothing!!
Anyway, it was only really worth one day of my time so the next day got on a local bus (yes, really, I got on a local
St Pauls...
...church, on top of the hill, Melakabus - see photo!) to the bus station - actually I would have taken a taxi but was forced to get the bus by Matt ( another travelling buddy!), who didn't believe in backpackers should take taxis!
2nd stop, Kuala Lumpa Went to the night market - I've never been hassled so much in all my life!! All the sellers were trying to get you to look at their stuff - resorting to shouting at you and pulling at your arms! - it was horrible, in the end, we got so fed up with it that we ended up walking through the market very quickly!
Stayed in a lovely hostel - 8ight Guesthouse - amazing building and fab accommodation, the only thing that would have made the place fantastic was a bit more of a lively atmosphere - there were people staying there, but everyone was really quiet!
Word of warning - When travelling through Malaysia, take lots of mosquito repellent with you! I was eaten alive by the little buggers!
Decided that as I was in SE Asia for the next few weeks, I might as well nip over to Vietnam to visit family,
Francis Xavier...
...Can't remember what he did but obviously important for his statue to be placed next to the church! so had to get a Vietnamese Visa from the Vietnamese Embassy in KL - it took about 20 mins which is pretty good by Vietnamese standards!
Went KLCC, a huge shopping mall at the base of the Petronas Towers - wanted to go up to the bridge, but they only issue about 600 tickets each day and you have to start queuing at about 8.30 in the morning - I'm off to Penang in the morning so have missed my chance! - would of loved to have gone up, reckon the views would have been pretty amazing!!
Had a wander round the mall instead! - and I have to 'fess up here, there was a MAC shop and I bought 1 little tube of glitter eyes in blue!! (Lara - you know what I'm talking about here! - limited edition!!)
3rd and final stop - Penang Made my way up to Georgetown in Penang, hoping it would be a nice place to chill out for a few days after the hectic pace of KL - how wrong was I??! It was very much like Melaka, in the sense that it was quite run down, but it
Inside St Pauls...
...where (apart from the tourist touts) there are the tombs of British and Dutch soldiers who fought in Melaka was also very dirty!
Was going to head up to Langkawi Island to find a dive school, but based on my experience of Malaysia so far, decided heading across the border to Thailand was a better bet! Got a tip from a lovely couple I met in Melaka, that there was this island with the whitest beaches and clearest water you've ever seen! So spent my final night in Malaysia before heading off to Thailand in the smallest mini bus in the world...
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