Malaysia

Hello ladies and gentlemen

So where have we been since our queueing expedition? Well not far it has to be said, but the heat here will kind of do that to you! We took a few days in KL to check out some of the sites which were just fantastic. Less humid then Singapore, but no less hot, KL is a city covered in greenary that helps break the place up. We were staying just off the chinese market; a place which is a hub of activity from 9 in the morning till midnight. We just loved the fact that when the guys at the food stalls had enough they simply folded down their blinds, kick started their bikes, and rode down the street

We caught an overnight train up Malaysia aiming for the Perhenthian Islands on the east coast. Satisfied in the knowledge that we'd combined our travel with accommodation we settled in for the night and awoke the next day shortly before being kicked off the train where we'd grab a taxi to Kuala Besut; the port town where we'd get our boat. A 2 hour taxi ride cost Sue and I about 5 pounds, and the guy kept running commentary of where we were

I have to say that the Malaysians are so laid back. Nothing really runs to any kind of time other then when people can actually be bothered to do it. A little frustrating at first but you get used to it. What I struggled to get used to is that beer is limited due to it being a Muslim country! Oh well, a few days break never harmed anyone

We got a boat to the little island of Kecil and stayed on a place called Coral Bay. The island was so good, with limited people due to the low season, clear water, and plenty of places to eat and drink. The first night we spent chilling out after the travelling (hard life you know!), and the following day we went a sun worshipping. Being the typical Brit that I am am (drilled home further by my recently shaved head...I fought the mullet and the mullet won!) I got nicely burnt and have spent the remaining days dazzling people with my bright red torso The final day we went snorkeling which was amazing! We saw so many fish (so good were we at the identifying that we chose to ignore their actual names and instead were shouting things like "Did you see the one with the flappy tail and orange head" at each other ).

Sadly it was our time to go and we headed back to the mainland and then to the Thai border. We managed to get ourselves a taxi for out 80 ringetts (about 12 pound) for a 200 km journey, and found a man that had 101 uses for his tissue (wiping his head, his nose, his windscreen, his wing mirrors, passers by...etc). Crossing the border was nice and easy and we headed to the train station to continue to a little place called Trang where we would set up camp. We managed to get most of the way but had to swap to minivan in Hat Yai. Luckily we met a Canadian guy that comes to Thailand every year and he helped us get a good deal (he couldn't however get us out of the 20 baht round-the-block-trip we experienced from the station!). Minivans are a new thing to us, but not that bad if you know what to expect and how to deal with the people that run them. On the way to Trang train station they tried to convince us that a cafe was the train station, then that a bus station was the train station, then (my personal favourite) that a Tuk-Tuk was the train station

After Trang we headed for a little island called Ko Lanta on the east coast and haven't been dissapointed at all! I'll let Sue carry it on from here as I feel like I've been waffling!

Hope all is well back home.
Sharm

Growing up in the UK, you quickly get used to the fact that when England had an Empire they did a jolly good job of introducing all our sports to the various countries we'd stuck flags in and then sat back and watched them get better than us. Not so with the Malays. Although they do have a rather beautiful cricket pavillion in the middle of KL I don't see them pushing us any further down the world rankings in our major sportsjust yet. That said, if one of our other pass times were to become an Olympic sport we may have competition....

The activity in question is not so much a pass time as an institution. An art, if you will. It is the mighty art of queueing. Let me explain. Having seen Entrapment, we thought we should probably visit the skybridge at the Petronas Towers in KL (If you don't know what I mean - Petronas Towers = huge twin towers in KL, formerly world's tallest building, currently world's tallest twin towers. Two towers, connected half way up by a bridge...not one for those with issues being up high!). We went along one day to pick up our free tickets and were told to return the next morning at 8.30 as they had an allocation and they ran out pretty quickly. We were advised to turn up around 8 for an 8.30 opening so landed at about ten to and were greeted with what looked at first glance like a complete melee of people. But no...this was not chaos, this was an area about the size of a badminton court with a queue of people snaking up and down in a neat, organised mannor. Those at the front looked like they'd been there for some time - picture the footage you see of queues at Wimbledon, or for major launches of computer hardware. This was all impressive enough but the icing on the cake came when we noticed the guards. Yes, they had about 10 people marshelling the queue, and when the office opened at 8.30 they barracaded the entrance to the queue to prevent people jumping in, and from that point on would only let one representative of each group join the queue and they were escorted by a guard to the back to ensure no pushing in type shennanigans! Marvellous. A wonder to behold! Especially as the rest of queueing in Asia consists of people standing at the front ignoring any gathering of people who may have been waiting for the same service. In fact just yesterday Sharm was hassled away from a train ticket counter by a chap who came up beside him and actually stuck his head between Sharm's and the plexiglass in order to usurp him in the queue

I thought I'd share that with you all, and Sharm will return soon with an actual update of our activities!
To all in the UK - you'll be delighted to hear that it rained yesterday here and is cloudy today. It's still about 30 degrees, but at least we're not geting tans

Love to all!
Sue xx