Mighty Malaysia

The morning of Thursday 15th March and we are departing Singapore on a bus from the Golden Mile Complex. £14 for a 6 hour bus journey to Kuala Lumpur! The seats on the coach are very comfortable and recline - much better than on a plane.

We have to get off the coach to walk through Immigration at the Singapore border, and then do the same once we have crossed the bridge between Singapore and Malaysia. After a couple of break stops, and an interesting lunch, we get to Kuala Lumpur just before 4pm. We get dropped at the Imbi MRT station - the monorail - and we buy a token to get us to Chinatown. By the time we get to our hostel, Reggae Guest House 2, we could fill a bucket with the sweat pouring from us.

We head out for dinner and grab a meal with a couple of drinks - 44RM (Ringgits), being just under £10. Asia is getting cheaper and cheaper! We head into the night markets in Chinatown and have a look around. The market is down 4 streets linked to each other, like a cross. We walk down one strip with stalls either side of us. The pathway is about a metre or so wide so its pretty hectic especially with all the stall holders trying to entice you in to buy a watch, bag, shirt or other delight they want to sell you.

The next morning we head out and send a parcel home. Our parcel is 10kgs and costs a mere £14.30 to send - the same cost us £104 from Australia!

We spend the next couple of days exploring Kuala Lumpur. The main train station is KL Sentral but Kuala Lumpur Railway Station used to be where most trains would come and go. We go and have a look at the castle of islamic arches and spires.

We go to the Central market which was built in 1888 - there are various stalls in the building selling a variety of goods. There are so many stalls that they have expanded outside into the street that gives out a great atmosphere at night too. Just around the corner there is a Muslim mosque, as well as a Chinese temple.

We go into the city centre and take a tour of the Petronas Twin Towers. They are the tallest twin towers in the world at 452 metres above street level with 88 levels. There is a skybridge on level 41/42 that is 58.4m in length and is how you access tower one to tower two. We look out over the city that is being surrounded by storm clouds and we catch the odd bolt of lightning in the distance.

We are soon being ushered back in the lift and we get taken to the 84th floor. We get to read about the history of the towers, finding out it took four years to plan and complete the build (from 1992 to 1996). You used to be able to take a tour for free and tickets would be issued on a first come, first served basis. However, now you have to pay 50 RM which still isn't too bad. In the main lobby there are two Formula 1 cars hanging in the lobby which is cool.

 We go to Times Square - this is not what we expected in the least. It is a 12 storey shopping mall and has a theme park built in to it - there is even a rollercoaster!

Sunday 18th March and we get a night train from KL Sentral station to Penang. The train leaves at 11pm so we stay in the hostel for as long as we can to kill time. We don't get to the train station until around 10pm and we decide to have a McDonalds ice cream.
At around 10.50pm they open the gate so we are able to board the train.

We hardly get any time to settle before the train has set off for Butterworth - literally 2 minutes! The carriages are sleeper carriages that have upper and lower bunks. Bex and I have been assigned to coach M6, beds 5 and 6. They are actually pretty comfortable and have curtains, pillow and a sheet.

With the sound of the train going against the rails it was a surprisingly good nights sleep considering! We set our alarms for 6am so we don't miss our stop but we turn up to Butterworth half an hour late anyway.

We disembark and follow the signs to the ferry for Penang. It is not a long walk - just have to go over a bridge and straight on to the passenger ferry. It cost a mere 1.20RM for the 15 minute ride.

We walk to the hostel, it only being around a 15 minute trip, and get there at 8am. We are lucky enough to be able to check into our room as it is not occupied. We both doze off!

Whilst in Penang we go round and see the main tourist sites - we walk past the Cathedral of Assumption, Penang state Museum which was almost destroyed in WWII, and St Georges Church. The church is said to be the oldest Anglican church in South East Asia.
We walk past the Town Hall and City Hall and then walk down the Esplanade to the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower. The 60ft clock tower was built in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee. Each foot represents a year in the Queens reign.

The next stop was Fort Cornwallis. We pay 2RM (40p) to enter the site and have a wander and read about its history. It was built in 1786 when Captain Francis Light first landed in Penang. It was originally a wooden stockade that was subsequently replaced by a brick structure in 1804. Inside there is an Anglican church that Light built, a gunpowder magazine and cannons with the famous Dutch cannon displayed. It was really interesting to have a look around.

We spend some of our time trawling the streets of Penang looking for the key sites that are listed on our map. We find the Mahamariamman Temple - the oldest Hindu temple in Georgetown that was built in 1883. There is the Kapitan Keling Mosque - founded in 1801, it is the largest historic mosque in Georgetown.

And then we came to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. This was quite a spectacular building with some awesome contents. The Mansion was built at the end of the 19th Century by local historys famous personality, the Kapitan Cina Chung Keng Kwee. The mansion is a typical example of the home of an affluent Baba, recreated to allow visitors a glimpse of what their lifestyle, customs and traditions were like. Inside, we got to view over a thousand pieces of antiques and collectibles from large banquet tables to the fine china and vases.

We really enjoy ourselves in Penang - things here are very affordable and we find a Hawker centre to have dinner. I would definitely recommend a visit to Penang for a couple of nights!

Wednesday 21st and we catch the local bus to the airport. We looked at the cheapest, easiest way of getting to Phuket and flying ticked all the boxes. £56 and an hour to fly, or £47 and 10 hours to get a bus plus having to extend our visa for Thailand. If we flew into Thailand then they would issue a 30 day tourist visa but if you went in by land then it would only be 15 days!
Our bus to the airport only cost around 50p and we were soon checked in to our flight to Phuket. We fly with FireFlyz - a low cost budget side of Malaysian Airlines. The plane is pretty small - has 19 rows of seats with 2 and 2 across. We are sat right by the propellors (rotors, all the same!) - not engines but propellors!!

It takes just over an hour to get to Phuket where our Thailand stint of the trip begins!!