Queensland, Australia. The sunshine state. After a 3 & 1/2 hour bus journey from Canberra it was just 1 hour & 15 mins flight to Coolangatta which is the Gold Coast airport, right on the border of New South Wales and Queensland. The airport is a tin shack. I took off the plane and walked through to where I would collect baggage and there was my friend Kylie waiting for me in the baggage hall. Basically, anyone can walk it and take a bag. They wouldn't have got far with mine though, it was so bloody heavy! So I'm gonna keep [View Full Entry]

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Ok ok ok.... so Australia !!! Sorry this has been so long coming (that’s if you’re not sick of receiving the updates email yet!). It took a few days to get to Sydney from Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. I had to fly from KK to Johor the southernmost state of Malaysia on the Peninsula, and then take a bus to Singapore. This is only a short journey by distance, but it includes taking one bus to the Malaysia border, disembarking to clear Malaysia customs, taking another bus along the causeway which links Malaysia to Singapore, and the disembarking for Singapore customs, [View Full Entry]

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So, on to the final stop of my journey in Borneo. I had to take a boat from Pulau Labuan to Kota Kinabalu. This was a very choppy ride. I was sat at the front of the boat with no window, and the boat was hitting the waves hard. So it was a white knuckle ride all the way. The crew were havin a laugh when they put the Godzilla movie on the tv. There were some very nervous people. Not the nicest 3 hours I have ever spent on a boat, although the movie was good. Arrived into KK in [View Full Entry]

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Since I spent much more time than anticipated in Kuching I had some ground to make up on my journey to the top of Borneo. So I spent the next three nights traveling through Miri, Bandar Seri Bagawan and Pulau Labuan (Labuan island).. First stop was Miri. This is still in Sarawak, Malaysia territory. I had two options - 16 hour direct bus journey, or boat trip inland through river to Sibu & 7 hour bus journey from there to Miri. I took the boat option as it's more scenic and I don't like sitting around on buses for hours on [View Full Entry]

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Borneo!! I arrived in the sunny island after a flight from Langkawi via KL. I am staying first in Kuching, which is the state capital of Sarawak, the southernmost of the two Malaysian states in Borneo. I arrived late at night & headed straight to the hostel, Singgahsana Lodge. The book highly recommended it. It is fantastic - well driven to a travellers needs. It is on 5 floors. A lobby, with internet. two floors of sleeping rooms, and a bar on the top which you have free use of the tv & dvd player (for evenings & when the monsoons [View Full Entry]

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Langkawi - what a paradise... 2 & 1/2 hour ferry ride from Penang to Langkawi. Pleased that I didnt need to go back onto the mainland as it would have made the journey a whole deal longer. Really nice scenery coming into Langkawi as you can see from the pics. Took a taxi (as there are no buses in Langkawi) to Pantai Cenang which is the main resort area for budget holiday hotels. The other beaches are for the more luxury resorts. Pantai Cenang is very nice though. Took myself on an orientation of the area, there's lots of shops & [View Full Entry]

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Well, after a hellingshly long bus trip on the dirtiest bus in Malaysia (with no air-con again), I finally arrived in the island of Penang. The island is linked to the mainland by bridge so the entire journey was made on the bus. As I arrived around 9pm in the evening I decided to stay in the Georgetown, the main town, for the first night as all I wanted after that 7 hour bus journey was a some food, a cold beer, and a bed to lay down on. I stayed in a hotel called Blue Diamond which was in Chinatown [View Full Entry]

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This was to be a fairly long journey so I broke it up and stopped for a night halfway in a city called Ipoh. The book suggested it was worth a stop, but sadly it wasn't. The place is a large lattice of big dangerous roads and not much else. I saw one guy get knocked off his scooter by a lady driving one-handed while talking on a mobile phone. Amazed I didn't see more accidents. There are some interesting cave temples nearby, but I waited and waited for the bus which never seemed to arrive so I took a walk [View Full Entry]

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After the hecticity (I just made that word up) of KL I wanted a few days of relaxation. So after running through the lonely planet bible I decided to head for the island of Pangkor. It was a fairly straightforward 3 hr bus journey to Lumut, which is the departure point for the island. The boat journey only takes about 20 mins. The island has these shocking-pink mini buses which are the local form of transport and they all have set fares which is good because you know how taxi drivers can be. It cost about GBP1.20 to get to Teluk [View Full Entry]

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Trip from Melaka was straightforward. We took a bus that took around 2 hours to get to KL but then we stood in traffic for around 45 mins when we got here and realised that we were only about 100 yards from the bus station so we decided to get out & walk. We hadnt walked far before some guy pulled us in to look at a hostel accross the road. It's an old converted cinema 3 floors up between Chinatown and Little India and right next to the bus station. Perfect location. Rooms are ok, not bad for only around [View Full Entry]

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