Kuala Lumpur

We said our good byes at Hanoi airport. LynNZ left Hanoi bound for the antipodes and we left 2 hours later from the same gate. Destination Malaysia and Kuala Lumpar. Three hours and fifteen minutes later we arrived. It is a huge airport and took an age to clear immigration. There are no visas required for uk citizens and once we got to the immigration desk we were through in minutes. The delay was the sheer amount of people. I had hoped to get to China town for around 6pm but by the time we had worked out what bus we needed and found the bus station it put us back a couple of hours.
It wasn’t an issue and after arriving in downtown KL  we found our digs in no time at all. A short walk from the Pudu Sentrali bus station to Jalan Petaling, Chinatown to the Rainforest hotel.
Bags dumped I went to reception and with the aid of the lovely young lady on reception managed to get bus tickets out of KL (Kuala Lumpur) in the morning for our next stop. Pangkor Island. The terminus for out of city buses is a long way from Chinatown so we arranged a grab car to get us there.
Out into China town and a meal with a few beers saw us settled and then off to bed. The temperature in Vietnam averaged around 23 to 27 degrees. We are a long way south here and today at 9am it is 35... like Singapore it is hot and humid. Crispy loves the heat so is in her element.
On time the grab arrived and whisked us off to the bus station. It’s a long way across town and as big as the airport but more busy. Within minutes we validated our tickets, passed security, found our “gate” and were awaiting our bus to the Island.  KL is enormous. A huge sprawling metropolis over miles and miles of prime real estate. It makes Manchester look like a village. There are things to see here but the time involved travelling to and fro across the city would eat into our time frame. The must see attractions are miles and miles apart. We are sure that we will be using KL as a hub in the future so reconciled ourselves with a view of the Petronas towers through the bus window.

A four hour bus tide on a very comfortable a/c bus through the Malay countryside saw us in Lumut. A small seaside town which is home to the ferry to Pangkor Island. Our home for the next 5 days.     

We had no idea how the ferry’s run or the time schedule but rocked up safe in the knowledge at some time the boat would go and transport us on our what we now know to be our 30 minute crossing to the opposite ferry port. This is the only journey we have taken that we have not been accompanied by any western travellers. A fact we found very reassuring. I got speaking, in very broken English, to a young student guy at oneof the bus “comfort breaks”. He informed me that only last week Pangkor was given duty free status like the other Malay Island Langkawi. We travelled through Langkawi a couple of years back and definitely noticed a price change from the mainland. This is an attempt by the government to tempt foreign tourists but as yet it is predominantly a Malay holiday destination.  I think we have let lucky and got here before the Tui lot catch on. As luck would have it the ferry was scheduled to leave a mere 20 minutes after we arrived at the ferry port. We are still not sure how often they run but will have to find out before we book an 

onward bus to Penang in 5 days time. The ferry docked into a little fishing port and we disembarked desperate for some liquid refreshment. To our dismay none of the small cafes sold beer or alcohol of any description . Our hearts sank and I immediately started to rearrange our travel plans in my mind.

It’s not surprising as Malaysia is a Muslim country and as we know our Muslim friends don’t drink alcohol. 5 days of fruit juice filled us with dread. Not perturbed I hailed a car and it drove us the short distance to our digs. The place was bouncing. Gorgeous beach, street food,  throngs of happy Muslim holidaymakers but zero alcohol.  We booked into our digs, Jo fisherman’s Inn, which is an amazing backpackers hotel. Predominantly built out of old pallets. It sounds basic but is incredibly comfortable. Big bed, private bathroom  and excellent a/c.  Showered and out to look around. A few questions to the local guys had us headed to a small cove close to the main beach and  Daddy’s cafe. 

Daddy’s cafe is our saviour. It is going to be our Nirvana for our time on the Island.

Great location, great food and above all a never ending source of cheap alcohol. Daddy we love you.

The time on the island is kick back and chill out time. It’s been busy the past couple of weeks and Crispy has done incredibly well. It’s down time for her now and tomorrow is a pure beach day.

Good old Crispy she deserves it.

Bare and Crispy signing off, Pangkor 

island in Malaysia