We left Mumbai early in the morning by train from the massive Gothic inspired railway station for the four hour trip up into the Western Ghats. Our first Indian train trip was enjoyable - you find the right platform and train, check that you actually have a seat by checking the computer printout which is pasted on the side of each carriage and load your bags aboard. The train started right on time - no announcement was made so there was a rush as everybody dived on as it started to move - and we headed out of Mumbai through endless [View Full Entry]

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Our flight from KL was 3 hours late leaving and eventually left at 11.30pm making our last day in Malaysia very long and by the time we arrived in Mumbai at 3.30am Indian time (5.30am Malaysian time) we were very tired! Our luggage took ages to arrive and we actually thought that one piece had gone astray but it did eventually turn up. After booking a taxi we were given the taxi number to find on the street which again took ages as there were literally hundreds of them parked outside - all the same - black with yellow tops - [View Full Entry]

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We left Georgetown at 6am and spent the next 4 and half hours winding our way up into the Cameron Highlands. We were both feeling a little car sick by the time we arrived at Tanah Rata and were wandering whether we had chosen our destination wisely as it wasn't anything like we imagined it would be. The highlands were renowned as a vegetable, strawberry and tea growing area, as well as a popular tourist destination. We had passed dozens of vegetable farms which were really ugly as the plants were all covered with white plastic roofs so the 'green' hills [View Full Entry]

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We had a very comfortable bus trip to Georgetown in a super VIP bus, armchair seats, plenty of legroom and no dvd at full volume. We still had 3 nights prepaid accommodation to use up so headed to our hotel - another Air Asia Tunes hotel, with some reservation remembering the size of the rooms at the airport that we had previously stayed in. We were however pleasantly surprised as the room was much larger, the showers just as powerful and the beds as comfortable. The hotel exterior colour scheme was the same as well, vibrant red and white - pretty [View Full Entry]

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Kuching - which means cat in Malay - was a wonderful city to relax in. We had booked a lodge on the river waterfront and were very comfortable there for the nine nights we stayed. The staff were wonderful, particularly the man who organised our breakfast each morning. He was so attentive I'm sure he would have spoon fed us had we wanted him to! The riverside has a long paved promenade lined with landscaped gardens and restaurants and is well used by the local people. The city was very clean and the area in which we were staying was lined [View Full Entry]

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An early start saw us at the ferry terminal to buy tickets for our trip to the island of Labuan, which is 8 kilometres off the coast of KK and as it sits at the mouth of Brunei Bay is the route most people take to get to Brunei. It takes 3 hours to reach Labuan and I hated the whole trip. Boats and I don't gel and as my stomach was already queasy I spent the whole trip with my eyes glued to the horizon. It was on Labuan that the Japanese forces in Borneo surrendered at the end [View Full Entry]

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After an interesting 6 hour bus trip which circled the very impressive slopes of Mt Kinabulu we arrived in Kota Kinabulu, the capital of Sabah. It appealed to us immediately, maybe because of it's setting on the ocean, but it also seemed a fairly relaxed place. Forgetting that it was the beginning of the long May Day weekend (we've lost track of time) I hadn't prebooked a room and we had trouble finding anywhere to stay. Eventually we ended up in a newly opened lodge on the corner of Beach Street and overlooking a big open air entertainment/ restaurant area. The [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Sandakan in Sabah, called by the local people the 'Land Below the Wind' as it is geographically below the typhoon belt and after looking for a bus stop we took the easy option and caught a taxi to our hotel - the Seafront Hotel - which did surprisingly have a view of the sea. I think we were given one of the better rooms as it was large and comfortable and certainlAftery good value at 69RM a night which included the usual Western breakfast - an egg, coffee and slightly browned tasteless bread and jam. We set off [View Full Entry]

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Our last couple of days in KL were great - we've settled into to the flow but still haven't got our suitcases sorted re living out of them. We need to get into the habit of putting things back into the same spot so we don't have to constantly rummage! We ended up catching the monorail to the Kampung area of KL, which is dominated by the Petronas Towers but is really just like a country town. The area is home to predominately non migrant Malaysians and is full of the old wooden houses with gardens and chook pens. We didn't [View Full Entry]

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After a great couple of days spent with Devin and Jane, Jerry and I boarded our flight with Air China for the beginning of our trip. For the next 6 - 8 weeks we'll be spending time in mainland Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah. The flight was smooth and surprisingly comfortable - we had actually been dreading it as both are suffering from some degree of back pain. We overnighted at a golf course resort on the island of Taiwan. I think that we were virtually the only guests. On the half hour drive to the resort I realised how much living [View Full Entry]

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