No Itinerary

Day 140

We started our travels in Malaysia on the west coast, visiting Melaka (just north of the border) and then Kuala Lumpur (or KL as everyone seems to prefer to call it). Melaka was a fascinating town, with a thriving historic Chinatown full of beautiful temples and many hangovers from the Dutch occupancy of this old colonial port town. It was somewhat amusing for us as Europeans to find a place in SE Asia where the biggest tourist attraction (for Malaysians) was the Dutch windmill, tulip gardens and other european style architecture.

Kuala Lumpur was lots of fun, but suffered from torrential downpours most afternoons which made sightseeing a bit of a gamble. When it wasnt raining it was blazing hot, so after a few days of tiring of carrying umbrella, suncreen, sunglasses and waterproof jackets we decided to head to the East coast where we could avoid the monsoons!

Our first destination on the east coast was Cherating, a small quiet coastal village. We spent a happy couple of days there with little to do but laze on the beach, enjoy roti canai for breakfast, and watch out for monkeys and goats which appeared now and again on the roadside. And we watched a lot of the world cup.

Our stay in Cherating was only slightly marred by the fact that I managed to slip on the wet bathroom floor and hit my back on the sharp step, thereby becoming unable to sit comfortably for 2 days. People soon got used to seeing me carting my pillow around town for comfort!

After Cherating we went up the coast, and then across the sea, to Pulau Perhentian, a group of 2 tropical islands. The islands were absolutely stunning, and of course attracted a large backpacking crowd which made for lots of fun in the evenings. We also did an excellent day of snorkelling, where we got to swim with sharks and giant turtles and saw some incredible coral reefs. The only downside being we both managed to burn our bottoms, mine quite severely which meant I continued to have trouble sitting down everywhere I went!

And now, we are in Khota Bharu close to the Thai border on the east of the country. Tomorrow we head to Butterworth and Penang on the west coast, and from there we will cross the border into Thailand in the next couple of days.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 at 1:59 pm and is filed under 154 days around the world. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.