Malaysia

May 16, 2015

Shopping City

Usually I get a bit glum when we head back to a big city as I much prefer exploring the smaller cities and towns in a place, however I was really looking forward to exploring Kuala Lumpur. I was particularly looking forward to having a bit of a shop around too. We stayed close to Chinatown so we had an excellent place to explore on our first afternoon. We walked down Petaling Street which is covered market where you can buy pretty much any counterfeit or rip off clothing, bags and jewellery. It is also home to some hawker food stalls but instead of getting distracted by the food we powered through to visit the Central Market.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA O

Continue Reading

May 13, 2015

High(lands) Tea

After a stunning few days in the Perhenthian Islands our next stop had a lot to live up to. As we drove through winding roads up to the Cameron Highlands in the pouring rain, it wasn’t looking like it would make the cut. Unfortunately, the rain kept up all afternoon but we were staying in a lovely guest house that had cosy lounges and a sheltered courtyard so we had a nice place to relax while we waited it out.

It finally stopped so we made our way down to the main town of Tanah Rata to check out the scene. There was one main road, with a whole bunch of restaurants, shops and tour agencies so our exploration didn’t last too long. Luckily, the sights of Tanah Rata highstreet weren’t the reason we were visiting the highlands.

DCIM101GOPRO

Continue Reading

May 9, 2015

Island Paradise

From the island of Penang we decided to head across the country to visit the Perhenthian Islands. To do this we had to take what was thankfully the last night bus of our trip to Kuala Besut and from there jump on a boat across to Pulau Perhenthian Kecil (small island). The night bus was pretty comfy, but it did arrive at 5am, which meant we had two hours to wait until the first boat left. We were so exhausted by the time we got onto the boat I fell asleep on the journey and woke up in paradise.

We stayed on the Coral Bay side of the island and as our boat pulled up to the jetty all I could see was bright torquoise water, white sandy beach and palm trees. As we walked along the beach to our resort we passed about 4 guest houses, a couple of beach front restaurants and a few dive shops. That is it! Probably the closest I will ever get to a deserted island paradise.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Continue Reading

May 5, 2015

Penang Revisited

After a fabulous two weeks in Cambodia it was time to move on to our second last country – Malaysia. Our first stop was the island of Penang, which I had actually visited on a family holiday 15 years previously. I was really excited to revisit a place that held fond memories and explore more of Malaysia. The last visit was with family friends and was centred more around lazing by the pool and beach. This time we were staying on the other side of the island so I was interested to see how different it was.

By the time we had arrived from the airport and checked into our guesthouse in Georgetown it was about 5:30pm. So we thought we would have a quick wander of the neighbourhood before the sun went down to get oriented before grabbing dinner somewhere. As we wandered around we spotted our first of a bunch of amazing street art murals as well as the wire cartoons put up around Georgetown by UNESCO. Along with the amazingly beautiful old colonial houses and traditional chinese architecture the whole of Georgetown is a sight to see.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Continue Reading