Back into Malaysia
Trip Start
May 03, 2006
1
24
48
Trip End
Ongoing
Kota Bahru,
Malaysia
Thursday, September 7, 2006
(Diary) '...Good night's sleep as the train rattled ever southwards. Woke up, very rural. Southern provinces have been a little 'hot' over the last few years - religion of course. I started noticing a miltary presence in the small towns we past through - in some I spotted full on guard posts, chaps standing behind sandbags with large machine guns. Late morning we arrived at Sungai Kolok - more police and army, more guns. Jumped on a motorbike - the drive wedging my bag between his legs and we drove for a few minutes to the border. Passed through immigration and then strolled across the border, a bridge spanning a river (no-man's land I guess) - would have been a nice photo opportunity but I decided against it and whistled my way over to Malaysia. Felt quite pleased to be back - dunno why - for after going through border control and mucking about at bus stop for half an hour, Thailand looked quite tempting - and I was feeling a tad quilty that I hadn't given it enough justice and seen enough places to warrant much of an opinion.
An hour bus journey south and we arrived at Kota bahru - very Muslim - made me wonder what chances of a cold beer later? Had no idea where I was staying, I wandered down some street - stumbled across a backpackers hostel and checked in, basic, but reasonable and friendly staff. Freshened up and then lazed the remainder of the afternoon away on the rooftop terrace in a hammock - reading. The hostel organised transport to various places - very much still in the mini-van zone similiar to Southern Thailand! Once again after a bit of asking around - I grew frustrated at the difficulties of independent travel - more the logistics of it - and so ended up buying a ticket to the Perhentian islands the following day from the hostel. Mini-van to Kuala Besut, speed-boat to the islands - departing 8am the following morning. Went out for a bite to eat - found a chinese restaurant and had a cold Tiger (beer) - early night.
