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Malaysia Truly Asia! What a difference after Singapore! This past week has been a definite whirlwind!
Melaka was our first port of call. We got dropped off on the opposite side of a dual carridgeway to the bus station itself! So with our bags we had to cross through the traffic without getting killed and jump over the near metre wide drain systems! What a welcome! But after the hairy first few mins Melaka was great! We got to our hostel and were greeted by the really cool owner Howard. He was young and doing the place up - which in all honesty it probably needed but it was fine! We were introduced to all the other travellers and instantly being on 1st name terms with everyone made the place seem 100times more friendly! We explored the town and were sure to make it back by 6.30pm as that was when Howard planned on taking us out! We went all together to an open food court restaurant place and he knew all of the staff and recommended certain dishes to us. We sat and ate and then went back towards some bars where we sat for some time chatting about all of our experiences thus far! It was a really relaxed atmosphere and the chinese lanterns which lit up the streets meant that the town itself looked so pretty. It was only ruined by the blinged up disco tuk tuks which went up and down the st looking for business!
The following morning we got breakfast from a little cafe called Limau Limau which served the best smoothies I have ever tasted! Howard escorted us to the bus stop and after a bit of panic in the bus station we found seats on a bus up to Kuala Lumpur. The traffic in KL was horrendous! In the end as we were clearly close to the bus station the driver decided to let us all off. That wouldn't have been a problem had we not been in the middle of a 6 lane motorway! As we tried to get our bags out so many buses nearly knocked us over but eventually we made it to the 'pavement'! We were then accosted by a million taxi drivers - why on earth they thought we would want to sit in that traffic again I do not know but we had planned to walk anyway and just said no several times! We found the street the hostel was supposed to be on and soon discovered that it was the single longest street in all of Malaysia! None of the numbers were sequential and it took us a long time to find it! Only then to be told that they were fully booked!! Lesson learnt! The lady in the hostel found us a room after some time and a guy came to show us where it was - this hostel was in a very different league! I have never spent a night in prison but I imagine it would have been something like that!!! We had one window which looked onto the corridoor and had bars on and the toilets were frankly foul! Welcome to Asia! It was in the middle of China Town and everything about the place was intense and opressive. There was no room to move and you were constantly being sold things. The stench was offputting enough but the rats were the final straw! The following day we went to see the Petronas Towers and to Time Square shopping centre, which has a fully fleged rollercoaster inside its 14 stories! It was a different world to China Town but even so we decided to book tickets out of KL and flew to Langkawi the next day!
Langkawi is a small island off the north west of Malaysia and in comparison to KL it was blissfull! White sands and clear blue sea! We had a little chalet just off the beachfront and spent our time just chilling out! We sat down and planned what we were going to do for the rest of the trip in that our plans had changed somewhat after KL! We found a little Irish Bar which was such a little haven! Every time any customer came in or out the staff all said in unison hello/thank you goodbye! It was hilarious! We made friends with the bar staff and had a few good nights in there. It was such a relief after KL and needed preparation for Phuket and Thailand!
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