East coast of Malaysia

  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Monday, July 14, 2008

From South Thailand, I decided to make my way down to Malaysia. In order to get there, I had to take a two hours bus ride from Trang to Hat Yai and then another one to the dodgy border town of Sugai Kolok in Thailand then cross over and find a way to get to a main town in Malaysia.  This border crossing has the  reputation of being one of the most dangerous or let's say least secure with unlucky stories to report in both South East Thailand and North East Malaysia. To make it quick and hopefully less painful, I left early in the morning hoping I could make it all the way in just one day. Of course, it did not work out that way. The first ride was a big 50 people bus that stopped every five minutes along the way to pick up more and more people. We ended up being about 150 in the bus, hence three on my seat, of course, no A/C and the two hours bus ride ended up being a five hours bus ride.

Once in Hat Yai, I decided not to take a big bus again as I have already given my fair share to that kind of ride for the day. Instead, I took a minibus which waited until full before departing but nothing new here. It got dark half way through the minibus ride and the closer we were getting to the Malaysian border,

Malaysia border

the more gates and fences we could see in front of stores and houses. When we got even closer, the security fences became thicker and the locks bigger. We had to go through a dozen of security check points with army guys fully equipped with knives,  hand guns, revolvers, automatic guns, bludgeons, machine guns and many more toys that I did not even dare staring at. Once in Sugai Kolok, I managed to get the driver to drop me off right in front of the hotel that I saw listed on the lonely planet as the least freaky one in town. I went straight into my bedroom, double locked it and of to bed. So far, so good, everything appeared to go pretty smoothly.

The next day, I needed to make my way across the border which is a couple of kilometres away from Sugai Kolok. I got offered a ride with one of the hotel car so I could not refuse. The border itself was completely empty. No line, no visa requirements, no need to bribe custom officers but instead, there were lovely muslim ladies stamping your passport and escorting you all the way to the other side. Before I knew it, I found myself in Malaysia. What was supposed to be the worst border crossing ended up being the smoothest.

Once at the border town in Malaysia, as there was absolutely no public transport whatsoever, I had to take a one hour taxi ride to get to the harbour of Kuala Besut from where I could catch a boat to the Perenthian islands.

Perenthian sea

I had to wait until the storm goes away before I could get in a boat, but it was worth it. Absolutely amazing turquoise waters, stunning beaches with thin, soft, white sand. Breathtaking diving. The water was so clear that I could see miles away, swim in what looked like a forest of corals animated with bright colored fish of all sizes and shapes. I even dove with  dozens of sharks and yes, they were big shark looking white reef sharks. A never to be forgotten experience.

The beach at Long beach on the east side of the Perenthian Kecil island is a party beach scattered with bars all along and litterally ON the beach.

Perenthian team

As soon as the sun goes down, you can walk across the island to get to Coral beach and view the sunset sipping a drink from the pier. By the time you make your way back to Long beach, all the dive centers, shops and restaurants have put sarongs on the sand to make out sitting spaces and candles on plaques of wood to use as tables. The only thing you have to do is sit, relax and enjoy the "dangerous monkey juice" from the island. The next morning, you get the most amazing sunrise...and headache. [

Perenthian sunrise

On that beach, everybody is a backpacker and everyone is your friend, It is a big reality facebook scene with a long strech of a group of friends hanging out together. Amongst others, I hooked up with two Swiss girls with whom I  travelled down south Malaysia.
 
We stopped at Kuala Terrenganu, which is a very traditional muslim town where every single woman and little girl is covered from the bottom of their toe to the tip of their head and where you can hear the whole night prayers dictated on loud speakers from anywhere in town and even from under your pillow at the bottom of your bed. Our visit of the town, its monuments, little chinatown and bubbly marklet was punctuated by about a thousands of "hello", where you from" and " I love you" rythms from, I guess, every single man in town. Quite refreshing but also a bit annoying at the same time.

After our experience on the Perenthian islands, we were all missing the beach, so we took a bus to Cherating beach on the east coast of Malaysia. Cherating was much more relaxing than anticipated but we still spent a couple of days there. We had to change hotels though cause in the middle of the night, as it was raining, it was pouring down water straight onto my bed. It was like somebody just took a bucket and emptied it on my bed. Luckily, there were bunk beds, so I crawled into the other bed from which I could only feel sprinkle and small drops of water compared to the heavy cold shower I was having before.  Well we ended up spending the next night sharing our bunglaows with cockroaches, geikos, monkeys and monitor lizards, so not sure what was the best or the worst.

Cherating is where the turtles come and lay their eggs during the nesting season so the beach is shared between the leatherback turtles and club Med. While coming to watch the turtles, I managed to sneak my way into the club Med where I had great food and drinks by the pool for the rest of the day. It was nice to chat with all the GO's that even made me sing in the microphone doing their crazy signs...That was as discrete as I could be I guess. In the evening, I met with a couple of English people who had rented a car and were making their way to Kuala Lumpur the next day...so I took a ride with them. As we left very early in the morning, we were in Kuala Lumpur by lunchtime and enjoyed a stroll around town, half of it beign under sprinkle of rain, the other half being scattered by extremely heavy rain. Little India, Chinatown, hundreds of temples, big park and bird sanctuary, we walked it all.

From the bridge on the Petronas towers

Of course, we climbed up the Petronas towers,  well up to the bridge that links the two towers on the 41st floor and from which you have to start queing at 8 am in order to get a ticket for 4 pm. It was worth it though and nearly as nice as the view we had from the Menara towers

View of the Petronas towers from the Menara towers

on which we can actually get to the top.  One of the English girl had some friends living in Kuala Lumpur, so we ended up having a great dinner in one of the best restaurant in town and her friends would not let us pay for anything...

Dinner in Kuala Lumpur

The next day, I had to catch a very early flight to famous Bali in Indonesia. I tried to sleep most of the flight but the views were so stunning that I could not close my eyes....To follow next week...