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Koh samuri to Kula lumpur
We arrived back at Koh sumuri and said our goodbyes, but what I was going to do next I had no idea!
I had lunch and then somehow ended up booking an overnight train to Malaysia, this was going to be another epic journey and also my first ever land boarder crossing.
I managed to blag a free swim in the hotel we stayed In before we left for Koh Toa, before showering and catching a taxi to the ferry port.
There are 2 types of taxis here in Thailand, the standard rip-off private tourist taxi and the public, super cheap but slow pick up trucks everyone bundles on to!
Of course I decided to go on the second one, after a few minutes I was joined by another 5 Thai guys who were all in the Thai navy. They were asking me if I liked Chang beer (which by this point I was really feeling the hangover and hated that 2day Chang after taste!) of course I said I liked it but better than that I even had one in my bag, left over from pre drinks the night before! When I pulled it out I offered it to the guys and they were so happy, even singing! we passed it around and it was definitely another one of them "can't pay for this kind of experience" moments.
I made the ferry to the main land and then a bus followed by another taxi to the station. I arrived at the station around 7.30pm but my train didn't depart until 1am! I wasted my time in 2 different restaurants and talking to people on my phone and watching films on my iPad! The train ended up being nearly 2 hours late, so as soon as I was aboard I went straight to bed!
I slept well on the train although I did feel exhausted from all the partying and the late night at the station! Sleeper trains are 100% better than the busses and for the same price totally worth it! We made it to the boarder with Malaysia around 9am, it was quite a fast process between the boarders. First we had to leave the train with all our belongings and pass through the Thai checks then through the Malaysian boarder where I had my bag searched and back on to the train! The train had some problems so we sat at the station for another 2 hours!
When I finally arrived in butterworth I took the ferry over to Penang and checked into the Reggae mansion hostel which was very nice! Like the hostel back in Bangkok the beds were like capsules so you have so much more privacy! I met 2 girls one from the UK and another from the Netherlands as soon as I arrived.
We had dinner at a local hawker food court that night. Hawkers are organised street food vendors, this one had every kind of food you could think of from Japanese, Thai, Chinese and even pizza and western good and the best part about it is because it's street food it's extremely cheap but really good! I settled for a Thai fried noodles dish, not to keen on the Japanese and Chinese food especially in a hawker centre... Could be dog or maybe rat!
There was a stage in the middle of the tables with a terrible singer trying to sing European music, It sounds like she is mumbling her words and occasionally she would say an English word!
The next morning we decided that that we would rent mopeds out and travel round the island.
We rented bikes form "happy ken- the happiest man in Malaysia!" And I think he was as he didn't even bother to ask us for our driving license, passport or a deposit, he just told us to be back the next afternoon!
Now I have always said I wouldn't take a moped out especially after what happened to Jeff in Thailand! I don't want to get ripped off due to a tiny scratch I haven't made! These bikes were covered in marks and happy ken never kept out passports so I wasn't so worried! We paid maybe £3 for 24 hours riding and it came with a full tank of fuel!
We had an absolutely amazing day, blasting around the island! We started off by driving through the city which was really fun with the hundreds of other scooters on the roads we scooted through the cars and pedestrians, after headed out to the country side which was full of mountain roads! The mopeds were 125cc so really shifted even with the Canadian girl I had on the back of mine! The roads were really good quality and fairly empty once we were in the hills. We decided that we would head over to mainland Malaysia from the southern bridge and then head back over the northern one.
The southern bridge must have only just opened as it wasn't even on most of the maps we had! The bridge was a staggering 28km long, when we reached the other side most of the roads hadn't been finished so we managed to get lost for a good hour before we figured out where we had to head to! We were low on fuel when we finally reached a main road again so we stopped and fuelled the bikes up and our selfs!
We found a backstreet indian half street food, half restaurant. These kind of places never bother me any more! I have eaten at so many dirty looking food places now that I just really don't care... And so far I haven't been sick at all!
The next morning over breakfast I was chatting to Mayke the Dutch girl and we had decided... Very last minute that we would take the 11am bus up to the Cameron highlands! There were only 3 of us on the bus, another Dutch guy too. We all ended up sharing a room as it was the only one we could find I have to say I wasn't too impressed when we first arrived and by the end of day 1 I really hated it!! Malaysia really wasn't how I thought it would be!
The Cameron highlands are famous for rolling tea fields and beautiful views but the tea fields were all covered in plastic and it wouldn't stop raining! We spent the 1 day we did have there walking trying to find the footpaths but they were all closed due to a crazy man with a knife running about... So we just played cards, drunk and booked the first bus back down to Kula lumpur!
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