Malaysia Peninsula

Kuala Lumpur
After the long, long journey from Ko Phi Phi through Hat Yai and the border we arrived at our final place together. We stayed in China Town but as we arrived very late/early in the morning we first went to the most discustingly dirty and smelly hostel we've been to. Eventually we decided we couldni't hack it so got up and left at 5.00am to find another. We found one, thanks to a motorcycling advertisert for the hostel, which was brand new and clean and not much more expensive, yes! Kuala Lumpur is huge, so we walked around for a long time then decided to make our own tour by riding the air conditioned sky train around the city. It is also very tourist friendly having a great computer thing at stations to show the attractions available at different stops. We got off at our first chosen stop which was a mall that has a theme park inside- we were intrigued. This became our last stop as the shopping centre was the biggest building I've ever been in, you think you've finished and, wo, there's another half the building left when you turn the corner. The roller coaster was awesome to see and huge. The great thing was the shops here were really cheap! I found some cheap clothes that I could teach in in Songkla and at home and Shav found some lovely shoes. We also went to the cinema there. The next day we went on a city hop-on hop-off bus tour (I've never been on one and really wanted to) around the city. We saw a lot and stopped off at the history museum where we learnt about the spread of people around Asia and how the islands broke away but also about the Colonialisation. We stopped at the Palace to take pictures and also at the old area where the Colonials and the high society used to hang out near the parliamentary buildings. Very nice!!! We finally stopped at the Twin Towers (Petronas Towers) which are ridiculously tall. The Syphony Concert Hall is inside the building so I wanted to watch a concert but there was nothing on that night :( but we walked around as, again, there is a shopping centre within. We didn't spend long here though as Shav had to catch her flight home. A sad farewell and I was left alone. That night I met up with a girl we had befriended in the hostel at the Towers to see them at night all lit up. Stunning! You'd be pretty impressed John!

I flew to Borneo the next day.

Thailand-The South and the Islands

Arriving, we had a day to kill before getting the night train to Surat Thani. I very trustingly left my bag in a shop which claimed to be the airport bus company shop but was questionable (luckily it was fine). We walked to and spent the day in a HUGE shopping mall. This was pretty good fun and the easiest way to spend the day but on the way out we were hit by tropical rain so got a Tuk-Tuk back to the station. The night train was pretty decent but was 4 hours delayed due to the terrential rain. Eventually, getting the later boat over and having to kill a lot of time we made it to Ko Pha-Ngan. We could not find our pick-up anywhere so we got a Tuk-Tuk to the area, however the driver forgot to stop so it took a while longer than it should but we got to see a lot of the island en-route. The Beach Resort was great. Nice rooms, outdoor attached toilet and nice bar area with beautiful scenery. Mike (friend from Edinburgh) was already there so we chatted away catching up with him. We spent the time relaxing and reading not doing too much, as there isnät much to do, especially when it's raining. The family who owned the hostel were really nice though so made it better. I got to watch a wedding ceremony on the beach as the couple had no guests. You would think that having an exotic wedding on a beach in Thailand sounds quite nice, getting away with no family or hastle, but after watching that it's definitely not for me- you have all the random tourists in bikins watching and someone translated what the person says, very badly. Doesn't seem very romantic to me. My friend Nicky from the Rutland who has moved to Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia to start his own business was on the island too so I met up with him on his birthday with another friend, Tamara, who worked with us (but not whilst I was there). Shav and Mike went home but I stayed out on the Hat Rin area with Nicky and Tamara and had THE best night. It was pre-full moon night so not as busy but amazing. I experienced the Thailand 'bucket' way worse than any Laos bucket danced away until we watched sunrise. I also happened to see a ship literally wreck in front of my eyes as it crashed not far off the beach. Beautiful beach, you can see why the full-moon shannigans started there, however the full-moon thing has kind of ruined it as its just a bit of a mess now. I slept the rest of the day to feel awake enough for full.-moon. Shav, Mike and I headed out for the night. It was pretty good fun but I didn't drink much as it was such a nightmare to buy anything with the amount of people, and drunken mess of people that were there. Not much fun. We ended up doing a lot of people watching. We did meet an awesome French (arguably) dude who I had an 'Opera off' with on the beach and then a group of Essex lads, some of which were sober so much better company! All in all full-moon, bit of a let down but still good fun! We did have the brightest moon for some 30 years or more though due to the alignment etc- beautiful!

Shav decided to change her flight to a little earlier to make things a bit easier, so we decided to stay together a little longer and headed off to Ko Phi Phi on the West Coast. This has to be the worst journey yet. The coach was so uncomfortable with terrible air-con. It was so long! The boat ride to Phi Phi is beautiful. There are stunning limestone cliffs and there's clear bright blue water. Yum. Phi Phi is a small island that has no roads, just paths. It was devastated not too long ago by a Tsumani so is rebuilding parts. Hoever, they had supposedly learnt their lesson from their lack of naturaly front defence and the way all the streests were layed out but when we had a night of storm the streets became unusable as there was just torrents of water flooding down them! Interesting. Phi Phi is lovely but very expensive and has became quite touristy, adding lots of bars etc to try and compete with the party islands, which in my opnion ruins it a bit as its't known or loved for being that so why try to make it so? We took a boat tour around the island, visiting Ko Phi Phi Leh, an uninhabitted island that is used for harvesting swiftlets for medical purposes. We went to Maya Bay, where they filmed 'The Beach'. This beach is stunning and the area and island is amazing however now EVERYONE visits it so when you get to the beach it has boats parked all along it and thousands of people cramming on the tiny beach, and I was one of them! lol Along the route around the islands we stopped for snorkelling and I saw some incredible fish of all shapes and colours, I'd love to know what they were! Ah well. We met a lovely girl on the boar who were were going to have dinner with, however the storm happened and we could not reach her only being able to run across our street to the opposite restaurant where we ate some of the best food of our trip! We posted a sorry and goodbye note through the girl's door in the morning as we headed to the jetty to leave headed to Kuala Lumpar in Malaysia Penisula.

Hat Yai
Along the route we took to Malaysia we had to stop at this border town for 3 hours. We killed time by walking around sight seeing and, do not judge us, in McDonalds. I experienced the biggest meal I have ever eaten, they use American sizes. Its ridiculous, I don't know how one person is meant to eat that! There is not so much in Hat Yai apart from shopping so we were glad to not spend too long there.