Malaysia

We left phi phi and headed for krabiby boat and then got a bus to somewhere else and had to wait around for an hour at a stuffy travel agents to then be picked up and dropped round the corner to wait for a further 3 hours. We were both very hot, hungry, grumpy and irritable by this time and luckily after a short walk, found a MCDONALDS!! We wrote our phi phi blog there but just as we were uploading it the wifi cut out after an hours work! Back to the travel agents and on to the coach at 6:30 for an 11 hour coach journey! Tom didn't find it that bad but then he slept J I was amused for a couple of hours by a chinese man opposite that couldn't seem to figure out how his chair went back and when he did he crushed the girl behind him numerous times… obviously I just sat and watched entertained instead of helping him. He then tried chatting up another Asian in from of him… this was also interesting to watch.

After the dreadful drive we arrived in kuala lumpur at about 5 am and managed to get a taxi to our pre-booked accommodation (though no one knew where it was so had to stop at a kfc to get wifi to get the phone number of the place for the taxi man to phone- see we knew the laptop was a good idea J) Arrived at 'smile boutique' in the suburbs of kuala lumpur. We were ment to have a qeen sized bed though the room we were given was definitely a small double so tom upgraded us to a bigger room with a tv J slept til 2:00 pm the next day and then explored kuala lumpur. We found a big mall next to the twin towers which are the biggest in the world though we both felt like peasants walking into this 5 floor mall. The only shops were designer such as Armani, Gucci, prada, luis Vuitton, chanel, jimmy choo…. And there we were in our flip flops, shorts and my concert t-shirt. Tom was ok as he had is Armani shorts on (which we have realized have been bleached by the last laundry service we got- very unhappy Thomas) we spent 5 hours at the mall just enjoying the air conditioning and oh my goodness I found a TOPSHOP!!! Funny thing is though walking round there I wasn't too bothered about buying anything and wasn't fussed about the clothes at all. Funny what 3 weeks travelling can do to you. We also found a cinema which we were excited about and bough tickets (5 quid in total) to see 'transformers'- (tom's choice obviously) I was satisfied with the popcorn as a bribe J He failed to tell me that the film was like 3 hours longand it funnily cut out towards the end at the main part of the film though resumed after a while. Headed to 'china town' which we lasted 5 minutes in (busy and boring) and then found a Lebanese restaurant which I got my way in eating in J Tom was not impressed especially as we had seen some pizza huts earlier in the day! Headed back to the hotel and our taxi driver told as that we were staying in one of the rough areas that was known for drug crime- brilliant. He advised us not to go out in our area at night and to not trust anyone. That helped us sleep! In the shower I got an electric shock from the shower pipes and after tom looked at it he asked reception if we could move rooms asa 'line default' light appeared on the shower case. Someone came to look at it who was clueless and just started hitting it and tom found that all the pipes and earth was live!! They didn't give us a new room, instead put a little note on the shower switch to remind us not to use it!- cheers!It was a dive outside and we were ready to get out of kuala lumpur after a day.

Awoke at about 11:30 and headed to the monorail as taxi was quite dear. Got 2 monorails to the bus station we were told would take us to the perhentian islands (someone we'd met told us it was a nice holiday destination) everyone just laughed when we asked them where it was which stressed me out and later found I'd been pronouncing it wrong. The bus station told us we were at the wrong bus station to get there and the one we needed was an hour away and that the perhentian islands were an 8 hour journey instead of the 5 we'd been told and it was north (we were moving south). We decided this was too much effort, found a kfc and some wifi to plan what to do instead. One of the workers mentioned that the 'tioman islands' were nice so we got a ticket to there instead. We got a 5 1/2 hour coach to 'mersing' found a nice hotel that upgraded us for free and then the next day got a ferry to the islands. The ferry terminal was absolutely heaving with chinese (the island is on the china sea so guessing this is where they all come for their holidays) The terminal was stuffy and our ferry was an hour late. The ferry was packed shoulder to shoulder in the leather seats and the sea was rough which panicked us both as we were scared of being sick. I was sat next to a guy who was sleeping with his mouth open- yes it was not a good journey. Finally arriving at our part of the island- bajaya we got a hotel bus transfer to the hotel resort we had found online with a good promotion. Oh but things only got worse and we were told the promotion was not valid anymore and the best promotion they could give us would be 300 pound for 2 nights! After a serious discussion we agreed that this was too much so blagged the free bus back to the ferry putting on 'the language barrier trick' when the bus driver asked our room number. Well there was no way we were walking half an hour back to the ferry with our rucksacks. After some tears and heated words we saw 2 white girls from Germany and asked where they were staying and without even really thinking about it, as we kind of didn't have a choice anyway, we got a taxi to 'mutiara resort' on the north side of the island where they said they were staying. Half an hour it took through a very bumpy jungle trek but we arrived safely and checked in to a chalet for 120 rm (20 quid) which is a bit overpriced but it had air con, 2 beds and a hot shower. Went for dinner and sat with the german girls (I think we eat too fast as we left while they were just finishing) Tom had sweet and sour chicken, I had sweet and sour prawn and then after a little walk up the beach found a restaurant serving pancakes so treated ourselves to cheer ourselves up J That night we fell asleep to the sound of squeaking bats outside the chalet and an hour later a guy tried opening our door obviously at the wrong chalet. The next morning we were woken to a woman trying to get into our chalet, obviously at the wrong door- safe to say we did not get the best nights sleep!

The next morning was spent at the beach which was quite nice and we topped up on our tan. Had a siesta played some cards and had dinner which was probably one of the nicest meals we've had which was good J they also had some English magazines in the restaurant which kept us occupied for a while! J

All in all we are both disappointed with Malayasia but looking forward to Singapore and Bintan resort! We leave 2moro for Singapore.

Thanks, Love Amy and Tom. xxxxx