Blogs from Malaysia, Asia - page 750

3rd Sept: I repacked all my winter gear into my other bags and left them in storage and repacked all my summer stuff and food into my backpack and found out how I was to get to Malaysia. I took the local bus into Malaysia ($2.50) and through the border and customs then changed my Singapore dollars into ringets about 1S$-2RR and got back on the bus to JB and the main bus centre for lower Malaysia arrived there at about 10.30, and found out the next bus to Mercing(where I had to catch the ferry) was only at 2.30!! I had read it was going to be at 11 but I had forgotten it was a Sunday to that bus didn’t run! So I bought a ticket and waited around in the food court and ... read more

Time to leave Kuala Lumpur again - this time for the Cameron Highlands, a temperate highland region two hours' drive to the north of the capital. We have been looking forward to visiting the highlands as the average temperature there is ten degrees below what we have been used to for the last three months ! That and the absence of humidity makes the Cameron Highlands a very popular stopover for visitors to peninsular Malaysia. As we get off our bus from Kuala Lumpur in Tanah Rata, the main "town" in the Cameron Highlands - more of a large village really - the drop in temperature hits us immediately. On go the jumpers - and they won't come off for our entire time here ! In fact on several occasions during our two-day stay here we ... read more

After Penang we crossed the short stretch of sea to Butterworth where we took the sleper train to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived very early in the morning after terrible sleep to be whisked off to our booked accomodation opposite the bus station in mingville. We made an immediate executive decision (helped also by some strange man skulking around us) to get into another cab to a nice hotel. Kuala Lumpur improved a lot after that. We went up to the sky bridge that links the two Petronas Towers, ate at the revolving restaurant up the KL Tower and got sprayed with foam and streamers by crowds of excitable teenagers in the streets on the eve of Malaysian Independance Day (Merdeka). We purchased more 'original' goods at the Chinese Market and enjoyed the cities various sites including ... read more

We step off a terrifyingly bumpy flight from Kota Bharu (nearest mainland airport to the Perhentian Islands) into Kuala Lumpur's huge international airport. We are actually in a brand new terminal called the LCCT - Low Cost Carrier Terminal ! It's nice to know where you stand I guess. Air Asia is such a huge player in the airline market here that the company has its own mini-airport within an airport ! It's late when we arrive and the usual logjam in trying to get out of the plane means we only manage to get on a city centre-bound bus at 8pm or so, and the journey to the centre takes a whopping hour and a half. The authorities here decided to build the city's main airport some 80km away from the city itself, making for ... read more

Arrived in KL unscathed. Sitting at Starbucks now, and trying to enjoy the coffee/creamer (i miss real coffee with real milk already!). Gotta love the free wireless internet. It's 9:50pm Malaysian time, don't fly till 1:00am...so I have some time to kill. Highly recommend Malaysian airlines, purely for leg room and seat accomodations. BTW - KL airport is VERY big, and craps all over Melbourne. I have to catch a train to the other terminal to catch my other flight. Blog in Korea next, another 8.5 hour flight - hope to get some shut eye on thisnext leg. Colbs.... read more