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Published: June 25th 2007
ko lanta was pretty nice, though it's officially sealed our 'no-more-thai-islands' deal. we're over it. i'v never been the lie on a beach type and i don't think that'll ever change. we spent 2 days here just pottering around and chilling and playing with the baby lobster thingys on the beach. when we decided to race them we new it was time to leave the island...boredom had soared to new heights.
lonely planet on trang; 'we love the vintage tuk-tuks and the lolly coloured vespas.....blabla.....cultural mecca....blabla.....night market....blabla....feast for the senses....blabla'.....NO! what a hole. truley this is by far the worst destination i have ever had the pleasure of visiting in all my travels. filthy, stinkin', creepy, dark hole. it looks like the set of a horror movie, and not a single thing to see or do. for once i would like the lonely planet to tell it how it is. 'trang. do not slow the bus down to look out the window. keep you'r eyes forward and you'r nose blocked'. we spent one very long night in trang.
to be honest, hat yai wasn't much either, but after trang it was refreshing. it's the major border city on
the train line for entering/leaving thailand/malaysia, so it was suprising to see that there wern't any tourists. there seemed to be some pretty heavy security in the town with car/bag/person checks going on almost everywhere. the train into malaysia and the border crossings was much the same with the cops doing random checks and carrying machine guns. i just thought that they were really strict on immigration. by the time we got to malaysia, we found out that there had been some shootings and bombings in hat yai among muslim extremists just a few days prior, hence the machine guns on parade and zero tourists. sometimes it's best not to know these things as we enjoyed ourselves in ignorance.
so, malaysia! woohoo!! stoked to be outta thailand!we did a night in kota baru in the north of malaysia, then headed to pulau perentian the following day for 2 days. tropical islands of perfection, white sands, crystal waters, coral gardens... monitor lizards. i know i said no more beaches but just had to see these and besides it's all jungle from here on in. we did some more snorkelling, and swam in a reef shark area where a metre
long fish swam across my path and i swollowed my stomach. i had thought it to be a shark, but it was a school of about 10 or so bump-head fish which was pretty cool. saw a turtle also, but not as exciting as it sounds. they keep turtles in a large netted off section of the beach and all the boats go around looking for a turtle then the captain shouts out and about 50 people jump in after it and it shoots off of course. reminded me of that ad on tv where the scuba divers are at the bottom of the ocean bumping into each other. anyway, it was quite the absurd spectacle! what else...ate lotsa seafood bbq's on the sand, got sunburnt, and got ripped outta my doze on the beach by 2 massive, prehistoric monitor lizzards goin hell-for-leather in the bushes behind me. absolutley scared the bejuesus outta me! though the guys down the beach thought it pretty amusing.
we went back to kota baru for a few days of healing burns/blisters/rashes (im sure we're allergic to the beach!).
now we head into the jungle...
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Minerva Must Hofa
non-member comment
Kasihan kamu (Malaysian for poor you)
It must be terrible to be sick of tropical islands. I really feel your pain. I'm quite sick of low single figure mornings and having to go to bed with a hot water bottle, but unfortunatly I'm not able to move on to another place... God I'm jealous.... And for me there's not end in site. No 2 weeks till holiday, all I've got to look forward to is losing 500grams by having a small useless organ removed..... baaa winter baaaa