We arrived on Koh Pha-Ngan at 9pm after yet another hideous journey, this one taking 12 hours and spanning 5 different modes of transport. On the ferry across from the mainland we had met a guy who was touting his hostel and had agreed to stay there for the first night, partly because he was offering a free transfer from the port and we were too knackered, hot and sticky to try and organise our own transport after a whole day on the road. It turned out that his place was actually really nice. Just a short cab journey away from [View Full Entry]

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Getting from the jungle to the Cameron Highlands was a more arduous journey that it should have been. Even though they look pretty close on the map there is apparantely only one road linking them and it takes you the very long way round. So, we got on the coach at 8am and didn't arrive in the Cameron Highlands until around 4pm, despite the fact that we were only going around 150KM as the crow flies. Fun. However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the Cameron Highlands really is the place to soothe away frustrations. The Cameron [View Full Entry]

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At 8.30am we caught a bus from Jerantut to Kuala Tembeling, a little village on the bank of the Tembeling River which runs all the way to Kuala Tahan, a village on the edge of the protected area of the rainforest. There were about 14 people on the coach with us when we walked down to the jetty we saw a long, narrow traditional wooden boat that really didn't look like it would hold 4, let alone 14. However, we all gently stepped on and settled into our seats and, although it dipped worryingly low into the water, it did hold [View Full Entry]

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Almost up to date now! Yesterday morning Mr Lee drove us from Kota Bharu to nearby Wakaf Bahru to get the jungle railway train to Jerantut, the first stepping stone on our way to the rainforest. The train was due to leave Wakaf Bahru at 6.33 am so we were first in line to buy a ticket at 6am. They only cost 12RM (about 2 pound 50p) each. We had been warned that, as the train is predominantly for locals, it was less than luxurious and that we should be prepared for an uncomfortable 8-11 hour journey shared with agricultural produce, [View Full Entry]

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Hi everybody, Sorry for the lack of blogs recently, we've been in the Perhentian Islands, just off the North East coast of Malaysia. It's a beautiful place but somewhat remote and lacking in internet cafes. We've just got back to Kota Bharu on the mainland and we're heading down to the rainforest in the centre of Malaysia (Taman Negara). The train is at 6am tomorrow morning and is meant to be one of the most beautiful stretches of train line in the world. Once in the jungle we're hoping to do some of the animal spotting activities and try not to [View Full Entry]

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On our final morning in Kota Bharu, Mr Lee brought us a filling breakfast of egg and chicken curry from the local hawker market and arranged a minibus transfer to the jetty in the next town along called Kuala Besut so that we could get the ferry to Perhentian Kecil, another tropical island off the east coast. Perhentian Kecil is the smaller and more attractive of a pair of islands collectively known as the Perhentian Islands. Unlike the large commercial ferry from Mersing to Tioman, the ferry from Kuala Besut to Perhentian Kecil was a private, powerful speedboat that seated 8 [View Full Entry]

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The next morning Mr Lee offered to take us on a tour of the Buddhist temples around the city for 80RM (16 pounds). Although Kota Bharu is mainly Islamic, there is a Buddhist minority which takes it's influence from the Thai border just north of the city. Mr Lee told us that, although he was not religious himself, his father was a Buddhist and used to take him to the temples as a child so he knew where all of the interesting ones were. First was Wat Pothivihan, a temple dominated by a 40m long reclining Buddha, the second biggest in [View Full Entry]

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Finally found somewhere with modern enough PCs to upload our pictures and a quick enough internet connection for me to write a couple of blogs without going mad! After getting the ferry back from Tioman to the (bed-buggy) port town of Mersing we went to the coach station to book tickets to Kota Bharu in the far north east of Malaysia, just under the Thai border. Unfortunately, we arrived back in Mersing at 10am and the coach didn't leave until 8pm. Ah well, a day to kill in Mersing. We mooched around, eating lots (more Nasi Lemak!) and surfing the internet [View Full Entry]

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On our second day in Tioman we decided to get a trip around the island in a boat with Belen, Nils, Henrik and Denise for 100RM each. We were picked up on the jetty by 3 locals at about 10.30AM and took off towards the first of 5 stops. First off was Juara, one of the more secluded and quiter beaches and reputedly, also one of the most beautiful. It took about half an hour to get there at a leisurely speed across the waves. The beach is beautiful but unfortunately the sky was a little cloudy when we got there [View Full Entry]

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Being a tropical island, Tioman has its fair share of scary, fascinating and cute creatures. We had only been on the island a matter of hours before we turned a corner and were face to face with a monitor lizard. Unlike the the cute little 10cm geckos that you usually find on holiday, monitor lizards are carnivorous beasts that can reach up to 7 feet long and it was quite a shock to come face to face with one. Fortunately, they are normally pretty scared of humans and this one did scuttle away when it saw us. Once we had done [View Full Entry]

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