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BANGKOK the return.
It is true to say that we were not wholeheartedly excited about the prospect of our return to Thailand's capital, but our initial reluctance was swept away in a whirlwind of excitement as we landed at the brand new airport on its first day of opening – whooh! Film crews massed in numbers to film our plane touching down on the freshly laid tarmac, another glimpse of celebrity for lj and Dan. So back to Khoa San Road we headed full of admiration for the still half built new airport.
The plan of attack for Bangkok was as follows;
1/ Find a room
2/ Arrange our transport to Malaysia
3/ Go to McDonald's
Reminiscent of our arrival in Hong Kong, it took around an hour until Big Macs were in hand. Another fast food capitulation we know, but in our pitiable craving for (cheap) western food, words alone cannot describe the satisfaction it gave us.
Surprisingly, we found Khoa San to be different from our last visit, it was quieter and felt a lot more chilled out than before, maybe it's something to do with the end of summer season, but we generally enjoyed the couple of days we had there and managed to bag a flight to Malaysia for less than 23quid for both of us, which saved us making the 24hour trip by train – get in.
MALAYSIA
We only had just over a week to work our way through Malaysia to Singapore, so we decided to keep the plan simple.
PENANG
The first British settlement in Malaysia was also our first port of call. Penang is a small island connected to the mainland by a bridge and we decided to base ourselves in its capital, 'Georgetown'.
A pleasant town immersed in traditional Malay culture, Indian colours, British buildings & Chinese cuisine, it's fair to say that all cravings for western food were swept away under a wave of fantastic Cantonese and Indian delights. The desperation's of Vietnam were now a distant memory. It goes without saying that Malaysia had made a most welcomed first impression.
PANGKOR
Again as our time was limited, it seemed entirely appropriate that our next destination should be the beach, although we could only spare 3 days this time.
Pangkor is a tiny island off the west coast of the peninsular and is totally untouched by tourism. Just how untouched only became apparent when we attempted to get something to eat on our first afternoon. What we discovered was a virtual ghost town, bereft of any life whatsoever and eerily quiet EVERYWHERE. When we did locate another living sole, it was only to be told that the town's only restaurant didn't open until 7pm.
Fortunately that one restaurant, TJ's, was an absolute cracker and we had finally found our deserted paradise beach....literally. We were the only people on the beach for the full 3 days and the only time we saw other people was at dinner, when everybody on the island congregated back at TJ's.
The peaceful beach life was idyllic, lj topped up her tan and Dan got sun burnt (again).
KUALA LUMPUR
The capital. A major business centre and one of Asia's power houses, home to the world's 2nd tallest building – The Petronas Towers. We only had a day and a half to explore, so we basically just did the usual, eat, shop & drink, although one activity was unavoidable...
Having taken note from a certain message on our journal site, Dan decided that he had no other choice, he could go no longer, he had reached the end, a chapter was coming to a close...he had to go for a trim.
Owing to budget constraints, it was clear that a full head massage & complimentary beverage at Vidal Sassoon was out of the question, and we found ourselves in the Ki Marie hair academy. For the bargain price of one whole British pound, our barnets were placed into the questionably capable hands of a couple of academy students. We both nervously sat down as the 'cadets' strapped on their equipment holsters and the painful process began. We still do not know for sure whether Dan's 'cadet' was male or female and whether lj's was even human. What is clear, is that neither of them could actually cut hair! Lj had been sat in the chair for almost an hour, and a glimpse on the floor proved that no hair had been cut whatsoever and that the thing in charge of the scissors was merely 'pretending' to carry out the trim. A glimpse to her left put her in a temporary state of shock as Dan had apparently disappeared only to be replaced by a ginger Luke Skywalker. Salvation eventualy appeared for both of us as the lady in charge soon took over and finished us off adequately, but not before lj found herself sat with a 70's Farah Fawcett style doo. In all fairness the final result looked great, but the cadets have got some way to go. A really funny experience and a good way to end our time in the capital.
One thing that has been clearly noticeable as we have travelled down the country, is how progressively western Malaysia is, a factor which helped prepare us for our very final stop in Asia – Singapore.
SINGAPORE
The stepping stone to Oz.
When we set off 5 months ago, we always pin pointed Singapore as a significant milestone of our trip. It would mean the end of our Asian travels, but the beginning of our Australian adventures and a complete change to the nature of the trip. In that respect, Singapore is perfect as it sits, culturally and geographically, somewhere between the two. It has the high rise developed shopping malls of any western city, but also the traditional Chinatown and Little India areas to remind you of where you actually are. We've been in celebratory high spirits since our arrival and have even treated ourselves to a couple of bottles of plonk and dinner in a decent restaurant.
We leave early in the morning and all that remains for us to do here, is head down to the world famous Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling in the bar where it was invented.
Watch out Ozzy, here we come!!
Missing you all, will update soon from down under.
Us xx
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