Malaysia

I'll be honest with ya, I wasn't expecting much from Malaysia. If it weren't for the fact that our flight out was from KL, we'd probably have given it a skip. It would have been a monumental mistake. We only had a week there, but it was one of the best spots so far.

The trip from Thailand was a bit of a journey. 3 buses to the border, got across about 10pm, then hopped in a few taxis and headed to the nearest town, Kuala Besut. We spent a night there but after all the traveling we were just ready for bed. Next morning we were up early and on the first bus to the port. There were two options when we got there, a slow boat and a fast boat. We splashed out and got the fast boat - they weren't lying. Two outboard 200 horsepower engines. Think formula one car on water. We absolutely flew across the South China Sea.

The thing about Malaysia, is that most of the population is Muslim, and non drinkers, so the government know that they can tax drink as much as they like, and it won't affect the voters. So they do. Heavily! Coming from the 8 weeks we had endured, our bodies deserved a break, so we decided to take a few days of detox. We ended up staying a week on The Perhentians, most of which consisted of afternoons on the beach, sunset games of beach volleyball (the 5 of us managed to somehow win a set against the locals; an average height advantage of two feet each probably helped), and then a rather large evening meal at a restaurant owned by a lady from Carrick on Suir.


We had planned to do a few activities there, but our laziness kicked in, and the fishing and diving trips were put on hold. The one day we did something was a snorkeling trip. We had expected to see coral and a few fish, but as you see from the previous blog entry, we were greeted by Turtles and Black Tip Sharks. The boat driver assured us they wouldn't bite, but there was one moment, when there were about 6 of them circling us, that I wasn't too confident. Kevin Eddie versus a Shark could be a good storyline for Jaws 5.The last night before we left was a bit of an adventure too. Having booked the 7.30am boat off the island, we decided to get an early night and were in bed by 12. We were reading and listening to music for a while but once the lights went out, Ed spotted a rat - a BIG rat. So Ed "informed" us, and we turned on the light for a look. Sure enough there was a fairly sizable animal on the wardrobe. At this point, 5 of us were in boxer shorts standing on Ed's bed, Darragh with a skipping rope for protection (the Rat's natural enemy). If you looked in the window you'd have been worried. So anyway, deciding that there was no way we could sleep, we went down to the bar for a nightcap. We regrouped and tried to come up with a plan for the night. Option 1 was to sleep on the beach, but then it started raining so that was out of the question. Option 2 was to go back to the room. Having a quick think, we realised that the rat only came into the room when it was dark, so the lights were to stay on anyway. Then we decided that the rat would figure out we were asleep, so we needed some noise, preferably conversations. There were two options on the iPod - the Michel Thomas Spanish lessons, or Darragh's collection of Ray D'Arcy podcasts. We went with Ray, hoping that the rat wouldn't figure out that he was listening to an Irish Morning Radio show. We fell asleep eventually - Trick woke at one stage to see a rat climbing into the frame of my bed, but thought better of waking me thankfully. We survived!

Kuala Lumpur was our next stop, and a lovely spot. After the rat adventure we decided to go for the posh area of town and found a lovely hostel walking distance from the shopping malls. KL is very western, quite like times square. The shopping centers are amazing. Very posh altogether. Mick wandered into what he thought was a car showroom at one point - turns out it was the car park! The food court of the shopping center was about the size of Dundrum Town Center.

The sightseeing was a weird experience. The Petronas is free to go up, but unfortunately you need to be there early. Well, earlier than we were there anyway. So we went up the 460m KL Tower instead. It was 8 Euro to go up which we thought was a bit steep, but the views were well worth it. It made the skyscrapers below look like a Lego city. In addition, for some strange reason, included in the price with the ticket to go to the top, was entry to a zoo, a Telephone Museum, a pony ride, and a trip in a Formula 1 simulator. Not too sure what the logical connection is, but it justified the price to some extent. The Zoo was a bit of an awakening. Spiders, snakes, and all sorts of life threatening creatures - all of which seemed to live in Australia. Not looking forward to meeting them again!

The F1 simulator was interesting too. We're planning on renting a vehicle of some sort in Australia, and this was a bit of an audition for the drivers seat. I finished a respectable 10th in the race, Ed somehow crashed on a straight, and Darragh went one better, toppling his vehicle! They can cook or something!