As ever the sumptuous VIP bus delivered us back to Kuala Lumpur in comfort and style. We arrived in KL around 8 o’clock, dropped neatly at the end of the road we needed in Chinatown it was a short walk down to the Grocers inn again.

As soon as we were checked in and our bags off we headed out to the bus station to book our tickets away (how very pro-active), next stop Singapore. 

Another 39 ringits later and we had our VIP bus from Kualar Lumpur to Singapore sorted, feeling triumphant and a little smelly we went for some top class Chinatown nosh.

As we sat eating our food we couldn’t help noticing how many Brits were walking past, it seemed like every other person was British, maybe it has something to do with the same cheap flights we got?

Our bus was booked the next day for 8:30 not a time we usually like to see but when we have places to go and people to see it gives us a little extra drive, that in mind we went back to our guest house to watch a hookie DVD we had picked up in Hat Yai and get an early one…. Not fucking likely, the film was Watchmen and it lasted about 3 hours…!

8:30 came around all to quickly but it was no problem for the adventurous two who despite having very little sleep soldiered on. Also the fact it was a VIP bus meant it would be all to easy to sleep along the way.

The Malaysia – Singapore border is like no other land border we have ever done, it’s more like a very flashy airport terminal, with big long escalators and shiny walls but all this means it took best part of an hour to get through all the formalities… Including having my cigarettes taken off me because I didn’t have the Singapore dollars to pay the duty on them… Oh well.

We crossed the bridge that connects the two countries and were in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown in no time, our destination however was Little India, seeing as while in KL we stay in Chinatown it was only fair.

First impressions of Singapore have to be how clean and well kept it all is, no litter, no cigarette buts and no real chaos you would normally expect to find in a South-east Asian city. 

With little to no drama we got a taxi (no need to haggle as it’s the law here to use the meter) and found our way to little India.

Hostels are the order of the day here and although very clean and nice they’re a little on the pricey side and for your own room were talking a small fortune, we stopped our search at a pub and had a cool refreshing pint to regroup then I left Georgie with the bags while I found us a wicked place to stay… At a discount!

Footprints backpacker hostel is it’s name and for S$65 we got a lovely fresh, new room with air-con, free Wi-Fi and free breakfast. Because we’re only staying 1 day we thought our budget could stretch, we dropped our bags and slumped on the bed, smelly and tired from 2 long days of travel.

I fired up the computer and soon realised we had made a bit of an error, I had forgot to check ahead about border crossings from Singapore into Indonesia and it seems they are not as straight forward as we assumed. It is possible to take a ferry to some nearby islands  which are Indonesian and then get a connecting ferry to Sumatra but this would take an age and not be very cost effective… The only option we had left ourselves was a flight to Jakarta, which turned out to be only £24 each.

Crisis averted we could get back to relaxing, starting with a MUCH needed shower in probably the nicest shared bathrooms we have ever had.

Being in Little India what else could we have for dinner except a curry… Nothing is the answer and after a mighty fine one at that, we retired back in our room so Georgie could have a little cat nap and sleep it off.

Next on our list of things to do was see the famed shopping malls along Orchard Rd, now I know this isn’t conducive to our budget but we are only here for a day and despite being pretty knackered we can’t just sit in our room. Getting there meant we had to suss out Singapore’s MRT (tube) system… No worries, everything here is in plain English and so efficient and simple it’s child’s play. Again it surprised me how much nicer everyone else’s public transport network is than the UK’s, it’s of course spotlessly clean, cool and quite frankly a joy to use.

We stepped out of the MRT station and out on to Orchard Rd… Swanky is the best word. It’s a lot like London’s Oxford street with big glitzy flagship shops and huge malls, all naturally and a little eerily spotless.

As we walked into one mall a distant poster caught my eye, Oasis are playing in Singapore   on April 5th, a few days before my 21st birthday but sadly… No very Sadly! A few days after the flights I had booked a few hours earlier.

Felling a little gutted I followed Georgie around a few shops before I caved and bought some snazzy shorts to cheer me up. Now we had to leave this place of awesome shops and boutiques before we spent every penny we had, it seriously wouldn’t be hard as the shops here are stocked with amazing clothes and shoes and everything a traveller has had to leave behind to travel.

Singapore is what I imagine London could be like if people gave a shit, if they used bins and public transport didn’t smell of stale beer/piss, if people smiled back and had even a little pride in their city.

But they don’t and maybe thats why London is great!??

Anyway, we couldn’t come to Singapore for a day and not get a Singapore sling at Raffles Hotel could we… No! So back on the MRT and after some wrong directions from a local and a brisk sweaty walk through the stunning riverside/business district, we were soon propping the bar.

Unusually for such an up-market place there was crunching under foot, on closer inspection it was a 2ft wide carpet of peanut shells taken from the bar, shoveled into customers mouths and then the husk’s tossed to the floor, apparently the done thing!

Raffles was of course beautiful and elegant, with hand fans hanging from the roof mechanically swaying to fan all the punters necking their slings, we were no exception and despite it costing us nearly as much as flights to Jakarta we had ourselves a Singapore sling at the bar in the Raffle Hotel where they were born.

We couldn’t stay too long as the MRT closes around 11pm and we didn’t want to get stuck with a hench taxi bill so off we totted back to Little India to get some R&R before our flight the next day…

Sitting at the bus station with our new compadres the time flew by and soon enough we were all aboard the local bus headed for Kota Bharu, it wasn’t until we were about 45 minutes into our journey that I realised time was getting on and the border must have a closing time… After some frantic searching through our lonely planet books and trying to work out the hour time difference we resigned to the fact we probably wouldn’t make it and if we did the Thai border would have shut an hour ago… Suddenly the taxi ride offered to us didn’t seem like a bad idea and what the taxi drivers knew and we didn’t was how fucking slow the bus was…

We arrived at Kota Bharu bus station just after 4 pm, the border – an hour away – closes at 5 pm, we strapped our packs on and started to walk in the direction of a guesthouse.

A mere 50ft from the station we found a wicked guest house called KB Guest house that offered us a cheap 4 person room with 2 massive beds and a short walk in the morning to catch the bus to Rantau Panjang where we could cross the border into Thailand.

Everyone was feeling hot and tired from the journey so we settled into our room and got sorted. Georgie was hell bent on making the best of a bad situation and convinced us all that we should go in search of booze and get ourselves hammered… Being a small city close to the border Kota Bharu wasn’t exactly buzzing, it’s mainly used buy tourists as a transport hub and it is a very very muslim place, but under guidance by our guest house owner we set off under a very heavy sky in search of a mysterious Chinese liquor shop…

We found the place but it seemed to be closed with a giant sliding garage door pulled across and a lone Indian man banging on it and looking through a gap, as we approached he knew exactly why we were there, the same reason he was. He got chatting to us telling us all how beautiful our white skin was, while all the time banging and shouting at the door, he told us the Chinese woman inside was eating her dinner and very slow, feeling a little bad for disturbing her we were about to leave when a small 6 x 8 inch hatch opened up and through it poked the booze that the Indian fellow was craving, with his help at translating we got a super cheap bottle of vodka and quickly made it back to our guest house.

Georgie still trying to get us all wankered decided to start up a game of ring of fire… It didn’t quite happen but we did manage to drink half the bottle while trying to teach Sam the rules… We settled instead for a game of shit head and more sociable drinking speeds.

Leon and Sam were a pair of wicked people and we all got on like a house on fire, driven by the far too cheap vodka we set off to see the only sight in Kota Bharu… The night market. It was around 10 pm but for some reason the night market was closed, by now all this staggering had worked up a ferocious hunger so we popped into a Chinese shop to by what I though were wasabi peas… They turned out to be just dry, hard, tasteless peas and our hunger became even more intense!

Everything seemed either closed or closing except one place… Pizza hut!

When the lady asked for Sam’s name he gave her his surname, Brown which she confused with “prawn”, this had us falling about laughing and when she asked for Georgie’s name the reply she got was the spice girls. 15 minutes of drunken chatter late the lady emerged from her window and called “ Mr Prawn… Mrs Spice Girl”… Oh how we laughed and so did she…

Armed now with pizzas the size of manhole covers and a bag of beers we retreated back to our rooftop terrace to watch pirate a movie and eat ourselves silly… Of course the DVD froze just before the crucial last 5 minutes which left our little gang of pisshead completely miffed… No more beer, pizza or even a conclusion to our movie we headed off to bed…

yle=”letter-spacing: 0px; font-size: 13px; “>We all woke up in the morning in good time considering, had breakfast together which consisted of the finest banana roti ever, chatted to another traveler who had just got around the new Thai visa regulations of 15 day stay by applying in town before the border, it took 2 days but he got 2 months and filled his time while waiting by playing online poker which turned out to be his main way of financing his travels.

Especially now our pre arranged Thai visas are worth their weight in gold, giving us as many 90 day stays as we want (for those that don’t know and are BRITISH, google “Thai consulate hull” and its a multiple entry catergory “O” tourist visa valid for a year)

The bus was hot but not too bad and we were soon at the border, it’s a fairly long border to walk in the midday sun but it’s a painless one and within 20 minutes we were across into Thailand once again!

The walk however to the bus stop was not as simple, it was a good kilometer and in that heat it nearly killed us, this is where we said goodbye to Sam and Leon as they were going to try and hitch all the way to Krabi… We however had places to go and people to see so we caught a minibus… A hot and cramped four and a half hour minibus to Hat Yai to begin our new career as travel writers.

Sitting at the bus station with our new compadres the time flew by and soon enough we were all aboard the local bus headed for Kota Bharu, it wasn’t until we were about 45 minutes into our journey that I realised time was getting on and the border must have a closing time… After some frantic searching through our lonely planet books and trying to work out the hour time difference we resigned to the fact we probably wouldn’t make it and if we did the Thai border would have shut an hour ago… Suddenly the taxi ride offered to us didn’t seem like a bad idea and what the taxi drivers knew and we didn’t was how fucking slow the bus was…

We arrived at Kota Bharu bus station just after 4 pm, the border – an hour away – closes at 5 pm, we strapped our packs on and started to walk in the direction of a guesthouse.

A mere 50ft from the station we found a wicked guest house called KB Guest house that offered us a cheap 4 person room with 2 massive beds and a short walk in the morning to catch the bus to Rantau Panjang where we could cross the border into Thailand.

Everyone was feeling hot and tired from the journey so we settled into our room and got sorted. Georgie was hell bent on making the best of a bad situation and convinced us all that we should go in search of booze and get ourselves hammered… Being a small city close to the border Kota Bharu wasn’t exactly buzzing, it’s mainly used buy tourists as a transport hub and it is a very very muslim place, but under guidance by our guest house owner we set off under a very heavy sky in search of a mysterious Chinese liquor shop…

We found the place but it seemed to be closed with a giant sliding garage door pulled across and a lone Indian man banging on it and looking through a gap, as we approached he knew exactly why we were there, the same reason he was. He got chatting to us telling us all how beautiful our white skin was, while all the time banging and shouting at the door, he told us the Chinese woman inside was eating her dinner and very slow, feeling a little bad for disturbing her we were about to leave when a small 6 x 8 inch hatch opened up and through it poked the booze that the Indian fellow was craving, with his help at translating we got a super cheap bottle of vodka and quickly made it back to our guest house.

Georgie still trying to get us all wankered decided to start up a game of ring of fire… It didn’t quite happen but we did manage to drink half the bottle while trying to teach Sam the rules… We settled instead for a game of shit head and more sociable drinking speeds.

Leon and Sam were a pair of wicked people and we all got on like a house on fire, driven by the far too cheap vodka we set off to see the only sight in Kota Bharu… The night market. It was around 10 pm but for some reason the night market was closed, by now all this staggering had worked up a ferocious hunger so we popped into a Chinese shop to by what I though were wasabi peas… They turned out to be just dry, hard, tasteless peas and our hunger became even more intense!

Everything seemed either closed or closing except one place… Pizza hut!

When the lady asked for Sam’s name he gave her his surname, Brown which she confused with “prawn”, this had us falling about laughing and when she asked for Georgie’s name the reply she got was the spice girls. 15 minutes of drunken chatter late the lady emerged from her window and called “ Mr Prawn… Mrs Spice Girl”… Oh how we laughed and so did she…

Armed now with pizzas the size of manhole covers and a bag of beers we retreated back to our rooftop terrace to watch pirate a movie and eat ourselves silly… Of course the DVD froze just before the crucial last 5 minutes which left our little gang of pisshead completely miffed… No more beer, pizza or even a conclusion to our movie we headed off to bed…

yle=”letter-spacing: 0px; font-size: 13px; “>We all woke up in the morning in good time considering, had breakfast together which consisted of the finest banana roti ever, chatted to another traveler who had just got around the new Thai visa regulations of 15 day stay by applying in town before the border, it took 2 days but he got 2 months and filled his time while waiting by playing online poker which turned out to be his main way of financing his travels.

Especially now our pre arranged Thai visas are worth their weight in gold, giving us as many 90 day stays as we want (for those that don’t know and are BRITISH, google “Thai consulate hull” and its a multiple entry catergory “O” tourist visa valid for a year)

The bus was hot but not too bad and we were soon at the border, it’s a fairly long border to walk in the midday sun but it’s a painless one and within 20 minutes we were across into Thailand once again!

The walk however to the bus stop was not as simple, it was a good kilometer and in that heat it nearly killed us, this is where we said goodbye to Sam and Leon as they were going to try and hitch all the way to Krabi… We however had places to go and people to see so we caught a minibus… A hot and cramped four and a half hour minibus to Hat Yai to begin our new career as travel writers.

Things here couldn’t be better… Unless of course we didn’t have to leave. Its so beautiful and laid back here and we’ve felt instantly at home.

Yesterday I was woken at around 8 am, but I didn’t mind much because the sun was already beating down. I did the unthinkable and made Georgie get up too so we could soak up beach life for every available hour.

Coffee’s dealt with we sat on our balcony waking up and watching the sea gently roll in, the island was beautiful when we arrived the other day in fading light and driving rain but yesterday it was just breathtaking. It’s easily as pretty here than any other island we’ve been on so far and with the sun out the sea was brighter than ever, starting on the horizon a deep royal blue and slowly working its way to vivid by the time it breaks to waves against the white sand.

We sauntered along the beach for some breakfast, stopping to have toast, and good actually toasted toast at that, at one of the beach side restaurants where we met our friends from the boat and got chatting.

As I’m sure you can imagine we spent the best part of the day just laying on the beach reading, swimming and Georgie playing poi, a slight amount of disrespect for the sunshine had left us both feeling a little crispy by the early afternoon so we retired to our balcony and I found us some wicked fried rice made by one of the ladies at a nearby shop.

I know that general beach bummery doesn’t really give me much in the way of interesting things to write about but I think that’s the whole point?

Anyway, the evening drew in and while the sun was setting I played frisbee with a local shop owner and actually managed to hold my own, although he could have knocked an apple off my head if he’d wanted he humored me enough until I got the hang of it, the old chap (I’m guessing close to 60) was pulling trick out of the air like jumping up and catching it with his knees… At one point Georgie swore she heard his hip break. I obviously didn’t want to be outdone and attempted to match each trick he did with varying degrees of success but oodles of flair! The game soon ended after the old chap managed to land one right on Georgie’s head, but by tha point I was already dripping with sweat and puffing like and old dog.

We sat on a rock down our quiet end of the beach and watched the sun sink behind the palms and the sky slowly turn a gentle pink, it was beautiful in every way.

The night had fallen and the gentle pink gave way to a crystal clear sky with the stars as bright as I’ve ever seen, we got dressed for dinner and again met up with our friends from the boat for some top sea food, Georgie had a blue marlin steak and I again opted for squid… Cheap and tasty, just how we like it.

With dinner gone down we headed off to the Safety Stop bar again for a few drinks and so Georgie could spin some more fire. Finally some serious appreciation for all that time she spent on the beach practicing, the owner instantly got two frosty beers out of the chiller and handed them over free… Now that I could get used to!

The beach last night was buzzing with people, because it had not pissed down with rain there were loads more people milling about from bar to bar and as Georgie began spinning more and more people came and sat down and more and more free beer found it’s way to us… Sweet!

It’s not even like I have to sit alone while she is up spinning, admiring strangers keen to know more about the cool girl playing with fire invite me to sit with them and between shows Georgie does too, ever modest she tries to play it down saying she is still learning but the truth is by around 10:30 the safety stop bar was the only bar left with people at it.

Towards the end of the night she was getting tired bless her so I stepped in to trow a few through the air for her, met with claps and cheers and camera flashes it went down a treat but in the process I’d managed to singe my sunburnt arms and that was enough for me… Feeling slightly obliged by the free beers she soldiered on for a little longer before collapsing down in the sand next to me knackered and slightly singed here and there.

We said our goodbye’s and promised to return the next night then set off to a quiet dark part of the beach to finish out booty of free beer under the stars, just her and me.

Things here couldn’t be better… Unless of course we didn’t have to leave. Its so beautiful and laid back here and we’ve felt instantly at home.

Yesterday I was woken at around 8 am, but I didn’t mind much because the sun was already beating down. I did the unthinkable and made Georgie get up too so we could soak up beach life for every available hour.

Coffee’s dealt with we sat on our balcony waking up and watching the sea gently roll in, the island was beautiful when we arrived the other day in fading light and driving rain but yesterday it was just breathtaking. It’s easily as pretty here than any other island we’ve been on so far and with the sun out the sea was brighter than ever, starting on the horizon a deep royal blue and slowly working its way to vivid by the time it breaks to waves against the white sand.

We sauntered along the beach for some breakfast, stopping to have toast, and good actually toasted toast at that, at one of the beach side restaurants where we met our friends from the boat and got chatting.

As I’m sure you can imagine we spent the best part of the day just laying on the beach reading, swimming and Georgie playing poi, a slight amount of disrespect for the sunshine had left us both feeling a little crispy by the early afternoon so we retired to our balcony and I found us some wicked fried rice made by one of the ladies at a nearby shop.

I know that general beach bummery doesn’t really give me much in the way of interesting things to write about but I think that’s the whole point?

Anyway, the evening drew in and while the sun was setting I played frisbee with a local shop owner and actually managed to hold my own, although he could have knocked an apple off my head if he’d wanted he humored me enough until I got the hang of it, the old chap (I’m guessing close to 60) was pulling trick out of the air like jumping up and catching it with his knees… At one point Georgie swore she heard his hip break. I obviously didn’t want to be outdone and attempted to match each trick he did with varying degrees of success but oodles of flair! The game soon ended after the old chap managed to land one right on Georgie’s head, but by tha point I was already dripping with sweat and puffing like and old dog.

We sat on a rock down our quiet end of the beach and watched the sun sink behind the palms and the sky slowly turn a gentle pink, it was beautiful in every way.

The night had fallen and the gentle pink gave way to a crystal clear sky with the stars as bright as I’ve ever seen, we got dressed for dinner and again met up with our friends from the boat for some top sea food, Georgie had a blue marlin steak and I again opted for squid… Cheap and tasty, just how we like it.

With dinner gone down we headed off to the Safety Stop bar again for a few drinks and so Georgie could spin some more fire. Finally some serious appreciation for all that time she spent on the beach practicing, the owner instantly got two frosty beers out of the chiller and handed them over free… Now that I could get used to!

The beach last night was buzzing with people, because it had not pissed down with rain there were loads more people milling about from bar to bar and as Georgie began spinning more and more people came and sat down and more and more free beer found it’s way to us… Sweet!

It’s not even like I have to sit alone while she is up spinning, admiring strangers keen to know more about the cool girl playing with fire invite me to sit with them and between shows Georgie does too, ever modest she tries to play it down saying she is still learning but the truth is by around 10:30 the safety stop bar was the only bar left with people at it.

Towards the end of the night she was getting tired bless her so I stepped in to trow a few through the air for her, met with claps and cheers and camera flashes it went down a treat but in the process I’d managed to singe my sunburnt arms and that was enough for me… Feeling slightly obliged by the free beers she soldiered on for a little longer before collapsing down in the sand next to me knackered and slightly singed here and there.

We said our goodbye’s and promised to return the next night then set off to a quiet dark part of the beach to finish out booty of free beer under the stars, just her and me.

Yesterday morning was our last in the cool climbs of the Cameron highlands, we had our 10:30 am bus booked and were up with plenty of time to get some grub for the journey. As usual the early Cameron morning was chilly if not a bit cold, but a good pint of coffee later and we were all set.

The mini bus took us from Tanah Rata, a busy town which almost seems out of place in the Cameron highlands, to Gua Musang another small looking town but a busy hub for tourists to swap between buses depending on their destinations. We sat with a lovely German girl who also stayed at Daniel’s lodge and had some ice coffee, but on returning to the mini bus we saw a moth struggling about on the floor… But no ordinary moth! This thing was a 3 inches long its wings were the size of a small birds and it just bears the question… What kind of spider does it take to eat insects that big!!!???

Although the bus took longer than the advertised 6 hours we didn’t mind, the scenery was beautiful and the bus was comfortable. Lush green jungle passed us by and huge distant hills were epic and although shadowed by a very big, very black cloud they were still beautiful.

It turned out that the distant hills were in fact our destination and the black clouds of course were eager to lighten their load with a very heavy downpour.

Having driven through an almost black sky a vicious rain storm we arrived at the port town of Kuala Besut, sorted out our boat tickets and hopped aboard our speedboat with four other travelers. The black clouds were looming and before we had a chance to hit the high seas the rain swept across the town and our boat, leaving us frantically trying to get bags covered and out of the rain… After 45 minutes of waiting for it to stop the “captain” of the ship decided it would be to dangerous to go until the rain calmed so we should wait in the dry… I couldn’t have been wetter had I swam out to sea, regardless we all hopped off for a coffee while the worst of it passed then were quickly herded back aboard before the next storm hit.

We sped out of the bay full throttle, bouncing violently off one wave and into the next, Georgie screaming every time as if we were at a theme park on a ride, and as is usually the case when faced with a bit of a testing time, everyone on the boat soon became friends in the face of adversity or crashing waves, rain like bullets, thunder claps and lightning strikes to be more precise.

About half way between the mainland and the islands everything calmed for a while and sandwiched between two giant storms there was a clear and strangely calm sky and sea, the water almost glowing it was that clear and blue… This was short lived and in no time we were back to bumping off waves and stinging face fulls of rain, but at least it wasn’t boring!

As we neared the small island called Pulau Perhentian Kecil, where we intended to stay, another smaller taxi boat pulled alongside and we all had to hustle across, even drenched to the bone, the imminent treat of being punished by the same storm for a second time all I could do was shout about how crystal clear and warm the water was… Even with nearly no light left in the sky it seemed to glow.

We settled on a “charming” but rustic hut with a descent sea view on the far east side of long beach, the owners were really nice and sensing we had had a rough time of it welcomed us warmly.

Lemongrass huts is the name of the pace we are staying and after a spot of confusion with one of our new friends luggage we all went off for dinner on the beach, and seeing as all Georgie and I had eaten all day was some soggy banana balls we were ravenous!!!

Seafood… Naturally!

And oh it was good!

After dinner our new friends turned in early and Georgie and I went off in search of a bar where she could spin some fire… This didn’t take long and with free beers coming our way for bringing in new customers, Georgie put on a wicked awesome fire show and I sat on the sand watching her, the stars and getting slowly but surely pissed…