Blogs from Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia, Asia - page 3

So, there apparently was a first class lounge at Kuala Lumpur train station. After we dragged our sorry arses upstairs to find it, we happened upon a dark, hot, empty room which seemed not to have had any occupants in it since 2006. This ddn't bode well for the journey but at this point we were still too stupidly naive and full of excitement at the thought of leaving KL and spending the night on a first class sleeper. If we'd chanced to look past our reveries on having dinner in the fabulous dining car or a cheeky vodka cocktail whilst watching the jungle fly past gracefully, we might have just clicked that all was not as it should be. All I will say is that I can now see why people get murdered on trains... ... read more

Taking the jungle train up through the shack villages was like stepping back through time. Houses consisted of tin sheds mostly squeezed between the railway line and either a cliff or the jungle. Most villages won't much bigger then a dozen of these sheds and im not sure where their income came from, although there were two bigger villages in the rail line there wasn't much else, suppose that's why they call it the jungle line. Arriving in Kota Bharu in the middle of a tropical storm wasn't the best especially when we were greeted by a taxi trout who was adamant on overcharging us (Anki, a russian guy I couldn't pronounce the name of and myself) for a taxi to the backpackers Anki had been recommended. Arriving at the backpackers it was by far the ... read more

Coucou, voici la suite de nos aventures. Apres un petit episode maladif, nous revoila sur les routes. Nous avons fait une etape par la jungle malaisienne ou Kate a ete un peu malade. La bonne consequence de cet episode et que nous avons rencontre un medecin chinois 'doctor Chong' tres sympathique qui nous a emmene dans la ville ou il habitait (Jerantut), il etait tres content de nous faire decouvrir pleins de choses et nous a emmene dans plusieurs restaurants. Tout ca ete tres interressant, il nous a aussi emmene dans un temple boudhiste et nous a explique sa religion. Apres 2 jours passe a Jerantut, nous avons repris le train aujourdhui pour un trajet de 7h. Ce train sappelle le 'Jungle Train' et comme son nom lindique il travers la jungle, ce qui nous a ... read more

Chris's Section Apologies for the delay since our last blog. We haven't had much internet. In fact, in some places we haven't even had electricity, but more on that later. This might be a long-ish one. The last time we blogged we were heading to Georgetown. We really liked this place, particularly our guesthouse which was really nice (Hutton Lodge). Georgetown is a colonial town on the island of Penang. The colonial bits aren't nearly as interesting as I thought they'd be, but I still generally liked this town. It has a real mix of cultures and some excellent food - you can have a roti (flat-bread type thing) with curry dipping sauce for about 20p from a road-side stall. Very very tasty. We met an English chap called Ben on the boat over. He's ... read more

Das Sultanat Kelantan im Nordosten von Malaysia gehoert zu den konservativsten Regionen des Landes. In Kota Bharu, der Hauptstadt des Bundestaats, gibt es nur wenige Sehensuerdigkeiten im eigentlichen Sinne. Die Stadt ist eher aus kultureller Sicht interessant. Es bestimmen muslimische Malaien das Stadtbild. Die Stadt ist durch und durch islamisch gepraegt und die meisten Frauen tragen bunte Kopftuecher und viele Maenner die islamische Kappe. Waehrend des Freitagsgebets steht das oeffentliche Leben still. Malaiische Laeden, Banken, oeffentliche Aemter und Museen haben geschlossen. Gleiches trifft auf viele malaiische Restaurants zu. Selbst McDonald's, der damit wirbt 24 Stunden am Tag geoeffnet zu sein, schliesst fuer eine Stunde am Freitag mittag. Gluecklicherweise gibt es fuer den hungrigen Traveler aber auch noch ein paar chinesische Restaurants. Es gibt mehrere kleine Mussen, ... read more