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Published: April 30th 2009
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Our last day in Thailand and we were up early hoping that enough passengers wanted to go to Malaysia and the boat would be going!
We missed breakfast as we wanted to get an early start but made a pit stop at the 7-11 for milk en route. Once we arrived at the port we got our passports stamped and headed for the jetty.. however as we speedily approached the pier there was very few people about! Surely someone wanted to go to Malaysia! The driver told us we needed 10 for the boat to go.. so far they had sold 3 tickets.. including 2 to us!!
Standing on a pier in between countries eating cornflakes was a strange feeling.... but after 3 hours of waiting and Lee asking everyone who passed if they would like to go to Malaysia we had our quota and were soon on our way.
After being on the longtail boat for an hour we arrived in Malaysia and took our customary 'new country photo' (one of each of us - see pic) and we had a new stamp in the crowded passport. 90 days completely free!!! Its great not paying for a
visa!!!
We didn't have any official plans of 'where to go' in Malaysia and we were both asking each other where next! There was a town in bold letters on the google map when we looked the other day.. so surely this must mean its like a tourist place to go or something.. we hopped on a bus and headed for that place... Alor Setar??!!
From the moment we stepped of the boat in Malaysia we knew that things would be much easier as most people speak English, transport is cheap/easy and the food is a mix of Indian and Chinese cuisine!!! our favourite!!
The first bus we boarded had rows of 3 seats rather than 4....wow sounds great doesn't it!!... no really this means that when you sit down .. rather than have space just for one cheek you have space for both and a few wiggles!! The seats are padded with soft cushion and lined with sweat free cloth... THEY FELT GOOOOD!!!!
When we asked the driver to tell us to get off at Alor Setar he looked a little surprised, coupled with the fact we had not seen ANY tourist for the
last couple of hour's had our brains ticking. Had we come to the wrong place, was there something we didn't know about Alor Setar? is it safe??...
One thing we did notice when we got off the bus was all the women were covered up and dressed in Muslim attire. Street signs are in Arabic and a mosque peeking over coffee shops in the background. We knew Malaysia had a large Muslim population but it felt like we had got off in the Middle East. What a brilliant feeling...talk about a complete change of scenery! Moving from Thailand to Laos to Vietnam to Cambodia certainly has is differences but not as big as this... we both felt quite excited.. like a new part of our adventure had started!
After heading into the main centre and discovering that the only choice of room was 2 international hotels, which I am sure business guests enjoy...but not for us. We headed back out of town and luckily came across a haven called Bee Garden!! (not even in the Lonely Planet guidebook - should be though its excellent). We settled on a room with air con - such a treat after lugging
our bags around for an hour (and sneaking a MCdonalds in between) and working up a sweat. Already we felt that Malaysia was much hotter than Thailand.
Our first night we headed into the small centre and had a wonder around. confirming that we were the only Europeans in town (we didn't see any others in the 4 days we were in Alor Setar). The next day was spent walking 5 miles to see a stunning mosque with a true Taj Mahal style man made pool in front of it. We wanted to go inside and have a look but as we approached the entrance we were stopped and sent downstairs for questioning. A young chap approached us and asked us what country we were from and what we were doing at the mosque. He continued the questions and stated that if we if we wanted to carry on with our tour we had to be Muslims... 'are you Muslim?' he asked us both... and after answering with 'yes we are Muslims' we continued.
We also discovered 3 air conditioned shopping malls selling all kinds of weird stuff.. including some tasty Lebanese food.. which we had for tea
(our first ever Lebanese meal!).
That same night we had our first Malaysian sunset which was out of this world..
It was about 7ish and we wanted to get some snaps of this huge mosque just around the corner from our 'motel'.After getting some amazing pictures of the sun dipping over the mosque suddenly prayers started coming out of speakers strapped to lamp posts everywhere... of course it was prayer time - which nearly the whole city observed. Hundreds of small birds flew above us... just when you thought the scene couldn't get any more eerie... the sun finished setting and the whole sky turned orange red.. like it was on fire (see pic)!!!
The next day we found a bowling alley and Lee whooped Michelle's ass! scoring an all time high of 198... yes that's 198 in 1 game.. a record! The other major landmark (apart from bowling and mosques) in Alor Setar is the communications tower. Its the worlds 19th tallest telecommunications tower, stands at 165.5 meters and costs 40 million ringots (can you tell I just got that info from a leaflet!).
We paid the entry fee and headed up for a sunset
over the city (one price for locals, one for tourists!!) The lift is glass and as you shoot upwards you get to see the ground slowly disappear!! At the top is an observation deck where you can wonder round and see the views over the whole city. The floor moved slightly from side to side.. and it was a little windy up there.. never the less .. amazing views.
Next stop is Penang (which we have done some research on this time!!)..
See you soon
Lee and Michelle
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Tracey Ball
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You are both so brave
Can't believe how brave you both are embarking on an adventure like this. It is great to see all your amazing pictures and read all your stories, keep them coming!!!!!!!