Renaissance Kota Bharu

Well .. i stayed on the Perhentians last night after all .. and spent the day under the umbrella and in the sea .. lovely.

This morning i got up super early in order to catch the 8am boat back to the mainland! I then met up with 3 other people who also wanted to go to Kota Bharu and we took a taxi rather than wait for the bus .. i got to the train station in Wakaf Baharu at about 11ish and the only train that i could get was at 8pm so ...

Well it's not every night you party on the beach...and lose your shoes!!

Got up this morning and went for a shower in our...ummm...toilets if you could call them that and there is a frog on my towel...this reminds me that there was frog on the toilet seat last night when I was drunk too...euuuugh how am I going to use my towel with this slimy thing on it?!

I pass on the shower and head straight to the sea and then onto the ...

... that was pretty cool to watch as well. The next day it was incredibly hot and muggy... and all we wanted to do was swim... in anything, beach, pool, rancid stream... it didn't matter. Turns out there is no pool nearby so we took a city bus out of town towards the coast and paid to visit a resorts pool for just the day. We got on the bus right around the time that the local schools let out... so all along the way as many human bodies as could possibly fit did fit! Kota Bahru is clearly ...

... tails are quite deadly. We saw a couple of snakes too, one of them made me jump out of my skin when it leaped up out of the plant pot beside the toilets yesterday. The other one was busy eating a gecko, so he wasn't moving anywhere fast, we gawped at him for some time. We finally put a face to the noise we have been hearing throughout Asia, it's an 'oh oh' a bit like the sound a child might make having just ...

After 10 fantastic days on my desert island I had to leave to make the long journey to Singapore. I happened to meet a Russian couple who were also planning to catch a train on the same day as me, so I joined them (they were very prepared, they had maps etc, - all I had was a rough idea of how to pronounce the station name). We set off early - catching the 8am island boat ...

... beach.It is a Muslim country , so you cannot find alcohol everywhere.
After the first beer in the bar, they ran out because the boats haven't come yet to deliver! We went to the next one and were joined by Ulrich and Anna, a German couple who was also snorkelling with us. We stayed all night talking and piling up the cans like knackers and when we decided to go for food everything was closed!
Today was also the start of the week ...

It was a short 15min ride from Jerteh to Kuala Besut where we were dropped off at the Bubu Resort office at Samudra Hotel along the coast.. It was a pretty hassle-free process of settling our speedboat tickets and completing the guest forms at the main desk (Ah! The conveniences of getting a package!), but the resort speedboat would only depart at 10am (Ah! The inflexibilty of getting a ...

Day 20 (Saturday) - KOTA BHARU Flew to Kota Bharu. Prof Zulmi awaited us at the airport which was a pleasant surpise. Our drivers were Adi and Razmi, staff of Prof Zulmi, pleasant and easy-going. Lunch - Nasi ulam restaurant under the traditional wooden museum. Everyone ate with gusto. I felt horrible and sick. Then we visited Istana Jahar. Hau felt sick and asked to go back to hotel. I wanted badly but felt obliged to bring the rest to visit ...

... tops, big beefy tops 4kg upwards hurled onto the floor with bits of waxed rope, lethal as demonstrated by one of the European guys attempts, aswell as ploughing his top straight into the floor, he whipped a guy clean across the face, now this is a sport. The second attempt by this chap there was a noticable gap around him. The pros are amazing making it look simple, knocking tops this way and that. Thursday 9th: With as I'm sure you have noticed the ...

Malaysia here we come. Once the group met up in Singapore we headed on an overnight train to Palau Perhentian. The train was comfortable enough, except for the loud sounds of the steel trains banging together and the constant jarring from side to side. The train was right on schedule and at 8 am we were dropped off into the hands of a local who would be out taxi to the ferry terminal. A fast jet boat ride later and we were in ...