The first day of Chines New Year started well, We said goodbye to Mr Stephen from the KL Chinatown2 hotel and loaded our hungover heads into the minivans that would take us to Port Dickson which should only be 2 hours away, but because Port Dickson is the nearest beach resort to KL the Chinese new year tourist traffic put us back by another few hours.

The hotel we stayed in was quite full of people celebrating the New Year, although it was all very strange to see the pool and beach full of fully clothed people. I’m not sure if it’s because I’d been spoilt by the beaches of Thailand, but the beaches of Port Dickson seemed really bad with large areas of what I assume was coal and you have to go out about 100m before the sea comes past your belly button. Also because it is a predominantly Muslim resort, we couldn’t get a beer anywhere.

We past the first evening playing cards, drinking coke and eating crisps. We had heard that there was a small secluded beach about 30 mins walk away, so we spent most of the next day down there. We had the beach to ourselves for most off the day but swimming proved to be a bit troublesome with all the sharp rocks quite close to the surface threatening to cut our arms and legs to shreds.

The next day we headed down to Melaka, which is more of a happening place, with more of a small city feel to it. Kate gave us a quick guided tour of the city and left us to explore the the central area and Jonker Street which I found very good for cheap t-shirts. Alot of the restaurants where still closed because of Chinese new year and the ones that where open were fully booked, but we did manage to find one small one open, but unfortunately turned out to be one of the worst meals of my travels. Everyone’s order was wrong and the food that did come was almost inedible. It was all a bit of a shame because it was the last meal we would have together as a group. We ended the night drinking rum that I’d smuggled from Thailand and playing cards in the garden of the guest house we where in.

We were all up for 6am the next morning to catch a public bus down to Singapore, my last stop before heading home. I spent the afternoon with the girls in a shopping mall before we headed over to the Raffles hotel for Singapore Slings in the famous Long Bar. I’d heard from everybody that it was the one “must do” thing in Singapore. Personally I was a little more interested in trying to work out which parts of the city were used for the F1 Grand Prix (but that’s just me being sad). It took a while to find the bar, we started off in the normal hotel bar, and it took me a while to convince the girls that the place we wanted had peanut shells all over the floor, anyway we eventually found it and paid the equivalent of £14 each for our cocktails (they were good, but I’m not sure they were worth £14). The rest of the evening was spent at the Clarke Quay area which is full of theme bars and restaurants but it was quite expensive and not really my scene so I left after one drink.

I was supposed to spend two nights in Singapore, but I was able to move to an earlier flight for free which meant that I would be able to have a couple of days recovering from jetlag before I went back to work. So I had a 13 hour flight home and jumped on a national express back to a very cold Coventry.

I guess that’s it then, until my next trip…

After 3 days on the beach in Krabi it was time to get back to city life with two nights on the Island of Penang and another two in Kuala Lumpar (or KL as the locals like to call it).
Penang is a fairly small island of the Northwest coast of Malaysia. The population of Malaysia is mainly Muslim and because of that the cost of Alcohol is roughly 3 times that of Thailand (actually about the same price as in the UK but I’ve been getting used to cheep booze over the past few months.
Next door to our hotel in Penang was a mosque. Normally I’m quite happy to go along with most local customs and respect people’s religious beliefs but the 05:50 call to prayer was pushing my tolerance levels a little.

We had an orientation walk around the city and a meal at a very cool food court although I’m not entirely sure what I was eating, but it had all been incredibly well deep fried. I was a bit but off by the stall selling curried fish heads though.

The following day we went for a guided tour of Penang with our guide Mr Stephen who was a little camp, but I thought he was quite funny. He took us to a Fort Cornwallis (apparently the first British settlement in Penang). The Chinese piers which I didn’t really understand and 3 different Buddhist temples.
That evening we went to little India for dinner and for less than £2 you can buy: tandoori chicken, nan bread, salad and a fruit juice. Following that we found a fairly quite local bar for a few pints (that cost twice as much as the meal).

From Penang it was a 6 hour trip to KL where we stayed in Chinatown on Petaling street (famous for fake designer clothes). Not long after arriving we went for an orientation walk, and after 20 minutes the heavens opened and we were trapped under a pergola that did little to keep the rain out. We had to abandon the walk and run back to the hotel for a quick shower and change before we headed over to the Petronas towers (probably best known from the end of the movie entrapment). We must have spent a good hour at the towers just taking photos; I was really impressed with the way they were lit up, totally dominating the skyline. We headed back to the hotel for a few rum and cokes (I smuggled the rum from Thailand) and a movie in the hotel lobby. One of the guys on reception at the hotel (another Mr Stephen) joined us and I think he took a shine to one of the girls in the group because he went out and bought some DVD’s for us along with a more rum and cokes for us all. We also decided to go out the following night with him and a few of his friends for Chinese New Year.

We spent our only full day wondering about the city, firstly we tried to get into the National Mosque at which we were told that it was closed to “Non Muslim Tourists” followed by a trip up the Menara tower (the 4th largest communications tower in the world) from which we got a really good view of the city. Included in the price was a visit to the Winter par (a really tacky collection of inflatable snowmen and polar bears), Animal World (with very questionable animal welfare) and a go on an F1 simulator but unfortunately I was too tall and fat to be allowed on. We also had an Indian buffet which may have been some of the most delicious food I’ve ever eaten.

That evening we met up with Mr Stephen and his friends and were taken to a club advertising “Malaysia’s Premier Rock Band” I thought they were great but most of the group didn’t really enjoy. The club also sold drinks by the bottle (I mean vodka not beer). For 300 RM (£60) you get a bottle of your choice of vodka a bowl of ice and as much mixer as you want. After the band finished they played some more danceable music which seemed to put a bit more of a smile on everyone’s face. I heard a few fireworks going off for Chinese New Year, but after all that Vodka, it was time to leave