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Hi all, it's that time again to let you all in on my latest adventure's abroad.
So when I left it last I was in Koh Phi Phi on my last day in Thailand and had to be up at 7:30am with Laura to get to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia. Foolishly we decided to go out that night and get get pretty hammered on a night when we all lost each other and then found each other again and I decided to steal a push bike and nearly broke a few bones attempting to do some sort of BMX stunt on it!!! I believe we all made it to be bed about 5am meaning myself and Laura had about 2 hours sleep or so before going on one of the worse journey's of the trip so far.
So the alarm went off and we dragged ourselves out of bed, still pretty drunk and left Nicci and Lucy in bed and didn't even get a goodbye off them since they were still snoring away!! Headed for the pier and got a couple of sandwiches for the journey on the way to the pier and expected to sleep most of the journey. But when we got on the boat the sea was quite rough which made sleeping difficult, especially when at one point the boat nearly capsized after hitting a particularly big wave much to the dismay of everyone on the boat and the captain very wisely decided to go a bit slower. Now I never get seasick, but factor in the hangover and I was feeling pretty rough. When we booked the trip we were shown pictures of shiny new minibuses and assured this is what would be taking us to Sungkai Kolok the Malaysian border and were made up to find one waiting for us at Krabi port. This adulation was short lived though when this lovely mini bus dropped us off at the travel agency and we were presented with something that looked like they had picked up from the local scrapyard and we were squashed into!! You could hardly move in the bus, the floor was that hot you couldn't take your flip flops off and the A/C felt and smelled like it was been fed straight from the exhaust!! Plus there were a few mosquitoes trapped in there with us that were quite happy to feast on us.
So after 6-7 hours of been cramped into the van we were unexpectedly told to get out of the van at some random bus station that I still have no idea were it was with an elephant outside and was instructed to head to bus stop 22. Confused we headed off to bus stop 22 and were informed we would have to wait an hour till our next bus that would take us to Sungkai Kolok and would arrive there at approximately 8:30pm. Now this should be fine you think but the border shut at 9pm so we would be cutting it fine and Laura still had to pay a fine for overstaying her visa by 2 days. The wait at the bus station was not the nicest I have had, we were the only white people there and got some rather glaring stares from the locals that made me feel very uncomfortable. Eventually our bus arrived and i am glad to report this one was alot nicer than our pervious transport and were boarded it along with the rest of the passengers and some tv's.
The other thing I failed to mention is that we were travelling through an Islamic part of the country that has had some terrorist activity. So along the way we kept getting stopped at some rather scary checkpoints and had some torch lights shone in our face at regular intervals. The time was fast approaching for the border closing and Laura was freaking out slightly when she notcied that we were heading in the opposite direction to the signposts for the border!! Eventually the guy stopped and dropped off all the tv's at some random house and slightly further down the way dropped off a teenage lad at a shop were the shopkeeper was armed with an AK47!! With Laura starting to freak out we eventually made the border at 8:47pm and ran to the Thai border were laura was paying her fine and the customs guys kept telling us that the border would close very soon!! So we grabbed our passposrts and ran the 500 metres inbetween no mans land and the Malaysian border and burst through the doors just as they were trying to close them at 9:01pm and made it by the skin of our teeths!! A most stressful journey.
We then got a taxi to Kota Bahoru were we were staying for a night before heading to the Perhentian Islands the next day.
So we arose slightly later than planned and after finally finding somwhere to get something to eat got ready to get the bus to Kuala Besut to get the speedboat over to the Perhentian Islands. However we did not realise that the place basically completely shuts down from 12:30-2:30 for afternoon prayer and had to get a taxi to Kuala Besut and to say this guy drove like a maniac would be an understatement!! He spent most of it on the other side of the road and going over 120mph all the way. So we arrive there pretty quick and a little relieved!!Booked our speedboat and shot over the waves to the Perhentian Island of Kecil which is the smaller of the 2 islands and we were staying on Long Beach.
Sadly we couldn't stay in the place we wanted and after trakking up and down the beach for an hour or so we finally stayed in a place called Panaram which was not the nicest place to be honest, but it was the best of the rest.
So let me tell you some things about the Perhentian Islands which is one of the most interesting places I have stayed. It only has electricity during certian hours of the day, there is no bank or ATM and you can only buy booze from the 2 beach bars on Long Beach. Now I have never been to Jamaica, but this has to be the most laidback places I have ever been and everyone remembers your name. I am astounded how they get by in the beach cafes and restaurant's there, because once you have ordered expect a good hour to hour and a half wait for your food and then when it arrives most of the time it is wrong or they have missed something and then laugh, walk off laughing saying sorry and then have to wait another hour for them to bring the correct thing out!! I put my washing in and was assured it would be ready the next day and imagine my surprise when i returned to collect it and they didn't know what I was talking about!! It was finally ready 2 days later!!
I really enjoyed the laid back vibe of the place and enjoyed myself, even getting into a bit of sunbathing!! Plus the beach bars on the night were fantastic and once again served buckets Now why this phenomenon has never caught on in England is beyond me, it was like it was designed for English binge drinkers!! They poor a minimum of a quarter litre of booze into it and then a can of fizzy drink and away you go!! But you must always respect the bucket or it will bite you in the arse. So I fully hope that Wetherspoons gets onto this bucket idea soon!!
I won't go into detail each day of what I did because it was pretty much a similar itinerary each day with myself and Laura, so here is just a basic rundown.
I was there from June 24th to 27th with Laura and then 27th to 30th with Nicci and Lucy.
We would get up most days about 10-11am and go for breakfast before hitting the beach to get our tan on. Then pretty much every night at some point there would be a thunderstorm for a little bit so we would just try and dodge that for an hour or so. One night though the storm was out at sea and we basically had our own light show it was amazing. Then another night the storm literally ripped the roof off the beach bar we were taking shelter in!! The food was always good when they finally got the order right!! And would usually have a few beers on the beach and some shisha afterwards. One day myself and Laura did a snorkel tour of the islands at coral bay, then Shark Point, sadly I never saw any sharks but Laura saw 3. We then stopped off at Turtle point and swam with 4 turtles in the water which was amazing. After sadly seeing Laura off Nicci and Lucy arrived and we went out that night and got pretty drunk, sadly Nicci's bag got nicked from the beach that night and it had her camera and cards in, so that put a bit of a downer on things. We squeezed a dive in on our last day in the Perhentian Islands and went to Shark Point and this time I got to see 7 black tip reef sharks that got quite close. There was also the incident when we found 3 cockroaches in our room upon returning one day and I was ordered to get rid of them by Nicci who hid in the bathroom whilst Lucy was standing on the bed, unfortunately my attempts to get rid of them forced them under the toilet door much to mine and Lucy's amusement and not so much to an hysterical Nicci!!!
We left the Perhentian Islands on June 28th and headed to my current location of Penang Island after another interesting bus journey. Thankfully this time we had a decent bus and there was only us 3 and a chap named Joe in the bus so we had plenty of room. However, our bus driver was somewhat bleary eyed and had apparently only had 2 hours sleep and insisted on driving at crazy speed's on mountain roads we found it best not to watch the road!! At one point though he pulled into a cafe for something to eat and more red bull and had locked us in the van. He had left the keys in the ignition and I was told by the others to climb out the front, get the keys and let them out. I did so and got to the sliding door and managed to set off the very loud van alarm at which point them s***houses hit the deck leaving me to frantically try and turn it off!! I even had a guy from the car wash come over and try and help!! Eventually after realising that I couldn't get the door open they all climbed over the front. After some lunch we set off again with our somewhat lecherous bus driver who whenever we stopped always made some slimy pass at the girls!! But we arrived in Penang Island no problem. We were slightly gutted when we saw Joe's amazing new hostel that had I-Pads instead of computers for use by residents of the hostel!! But the owner very kindly arranged a taxi to our modest guesthouse.
It does feel good to be back in a big city and not having to worry about getting sand everywhere!! It has a place called Georgetown that is a world heritage site that is lovely to walk round, reminds me very much of a colonial town with all the shutters. Once you get out of Georgetown though Penang is very modern and clean, with big massive shopping malls, luxury apartments and amazing eateries. No one seem's to walk anywhere though, so the roads are chockablack all the time which makes crossing them a dangerous affair as we found yesterday after a few near death experiences!! I truly have to say though that I have found the Malaysian people not only the most friendly I have met, but almost the most helpful, nothing seems to be too much for them to do.
Yesterday we went to the mall and got Nicci a new camera. Then went to a temple were they have the lifting Budha. You pay homage to the Budha, make a wish and if you can lift the Budha then the wish is possible, place it back down and wish that you cannot lift the Budha, if you can lift it a 2nd time then the wish will come true. Hoever none of us managed it!! Plus once again I got me fortune told using one of the machines there and once again it was very gloomy, I really should not bother with all that b******s!! We then spent the day wandering round Georgetown. Sadly we all have had a bit of a bug that has knocked the stuffing out of us and have been home early every night watching a film!!
Tomorrow myself and Nicci head off for a few days in Kuala Lumpar and Lucy heads back to Thailand. Then on July 5th I fly into Oz for the next leg of my adventure.
Hope everyone is ok at home, as you can see I am still having a great time and time is flying by. I'll get some more pics up as soon as I can. Still missing you all and I'll be in touch soon,
Mup
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