Tara Regent Hotel Narathiwat

... first thing in the morning. So we set about finding a hotel. Rantau Panjang, the Malaysian side of the border, is a one-horser that shuts up shop round about 6pm. We passed the only guest house in town thinking that it would be a real last resort (it looked far grottier than anything we have stayed in EVER) and found the Zainan Palace Hotel. We checked into our £10 a night room (with no private facilities I might add) which was probably worth £4 anywhere else we've ...

... people, and ate lots more! When 20:23 finally arrived I was relieved! The train was the overnight express to Singapore and it was scheduled to arrived in Singapore at 10:10 the following morning. I had booked a lower berth in the best carriages on the train (at a cost of 11 pounds). The train was amazing, the berth was very comfy, the sheets were clean and the train had air conditioning! I quickly feel asleep, and had one of the best nights sleep of my travels so far.

... a shock after having an entire beach to myself just days before but in truth the water here was even clearer than before, you could wade out for metres and metres and it'd still only come up to your shins, gorgeous and warm, calm as owt it was perfect for lying back skulling around and generally relaxing. At night the resident bars would set out tables with little candles and pump out music. Some where geared ...

... than planned and would be in Kota Bharu to meet me that afternoon. I decided to stay an extra day to hang out with her and go to the free music and dance performance at the Malaysian cultural center. It was well worth seeing. My favorite part was the group of 12 drummers playing on 6 drums. We were even given a chance to try (it was not so easy, but I think I managed to keep up fairly well). Of course we visited the night ...

... not all) were manned by the womenfolk while the men were just sitting around smoking, eating and talking. The 86-year-old trishaw driver: After exploring the market, we ventured to the streets to catch a trishaw back to our Hotel so that we could experience a trishaw ride as we have always done in most parts of the world we have visited, before we catch our cab to Kuala Besut ...

... decided to go to bed. After getting undressed Mark came down and knocked on the door to say they also had some vodka if we wanted to change our minds. We did not but that shew us what nice young people we had had the pleasure of spending our time with over the last few days. Said goodbye to Anastasia and Nacho although they are going to the islands and we may meet up again. Great fun but we are very tired and the old knees are playing up.....must be coming downhill.

... laying in bed getting ready for sleep to catch our early train into the jungle, when Amanda picked up our already injured alarm clock, tried to set it and completely demolished it. Seeing as we had to wake up around 5 AM, we set out, largely against my will, to find a new one. It was nearly midnight, but the night market was just closing up shop. We couldnt find one, and just as we were getting very tense with each other, we ...

... be off that bus. Next bus was much better, except that the driver wouldn't turn ff the air con, so i was like a human ice lolly in the back, making it rather hard to sleep. Wingeing aside, i arrived in Kota Bharu safe and sound, caught up on the sleep I'd missed, then checked out the markets here. The towns only supposed attraction (other than a few uninteresting museums) is its central market, which is actually one of the largest markets I ...

... enjoyed that kind of thing in Bali but it turned out to be a rather sad bunch of musicians and a compere who was cajoling tourists in the audience to come and join in by playing the drums, Yikes!! Needless to say we stayed about 2 mins! We've thought of a new slogan for the tourist board for Kota Baru "Disapointing in every way!" The most interesting thing we saw there was a mobile phone advert, I'm not ...

... font plonger sur une 'deep dive' (pour eux = >18 m) sans avoir pu prouver que j'ai deja fait une plongee dans ma vie. Ca me stresse un peu vu que j'ose pas trop leur demander comment est-ce qu'on fait ci ou ca encore. La plongee : descendre sur une epave vietnamienne riche en vie corallienne et de poissons. Cette epave se situe a -24 m. On va faire un tour a -24 m, et ensuite un tour a -16 m autour de cette epave. On descend le long d'une corde car il y a beaucoup de courant ...