Rather than fly back from Phuket to Singapore, we had decided to go by public transport - partly as a dress rehearsal for a future trip in the region taken entirely by that method.

We therefore took an ordinary public bus from Phuket town to Hat Yai, close to the Malaysian border. The trip took about seven hours and was efficient but rather boring with nothing of great interest to look at on the way. Having got used to Bulgarian buses which stop frequently, we were surprised there was only a single halt of 15 minutes. We were glad that we had taken our own snacks - and also that we didn't drink too much.

The bus station is for some unknown reason right on the edge of Hat Yai so we had to catch a tuk tuk into the centre. As it only cost 60 baht (£1.20) between us we couldn't really complain.

We hadn't booked any accommodation but had noted a couple of possibilities including the King's hotel, which is where we ended up. Our room was a little on the tatty side but the hotel had three big positives: it was close to the train station, it only cost 450 baht (£9) and had free and very fast wifi in the bedrooms.

Hat Yai seemed like a pretty ordinary sort of place with lots of small shops lining the town centre streets. We had our usual struggle finding something which Katy would consider eating - she is convinced that every cook in southeast Asia is involved in a conspiracy to add traces of fish or meat to otherwise vegetarian dishes. We therefore ended up eating not some delicious local speciality, but at Pizza Hut in the evening and at Sizzler's for brunch the following day.

The next leg of our journey was by overnight train to Kuala Lumpur and was our first experience of travelling on a proper sleeper train. (When I was about 15 I travelled overnight from Barcelona to Bilbao, but in an ordinary carriage. I couldn't get to sleep there, so I spent the night asleep on the toilet floor. Nice!)

We were travelling second class partly because there is no first class coach on the Hat Yai-KL service, which is run by Malaysian railways. We had researched the procedure on the excellent Seat 61 site (www.seat61.com) and booked two parallel lower berths rather than one above the other because the upper bunks are narrower. We also selected positions in the middle of the carriage rather than near the ends because of the noise and draughts when the doors open. Both these decisions turned out to be very wise.

Our berths turned out to be very comfortable, with the beds already made up when we arrived. There was nowhere to store our luggage so we did what everyone else did and put our large backpacks on the floor of the central corridor between our bunks. The train, which then consisted of only two carriages, set off exactly at the scheduled time of 14.20 (ignore what it says on most public websites) and we spent a pleasant hour sitting on our beds watching the last of the Thai countryside go by.

We then pulled in at the border stop of Padang Besar where we had to clear Thai customs and Malaysian immigration. This unfortunately meant hauling our luggage off the train, through the official procedures and then back down the very long platform again. The whole episode took about an hour, by which time our two carriages had been hooked up to a much larger train for the run to KL. We set off again at around 17.30 Malaysian time - again, ignore most published schedules.

As we travelled through Malaysia we were surprised at how different the countryside looked compared to Thailand. The woods and near-jungle of the latter - punctuated only by occasional shacks and more frequent cows - were replaced by large areas of cultivated land. The Malaysian towns also seemed more ordered and tidy than their Thai counterparts.

It wasn't long, however, before dark started to settle in and we pulled the curtains around our bunks and went to sleep. Well, Katy did quite easily, aided by the rocking motion of the train. I had more trouble dropping off even though my bed was very comfortable. I kept drifting in and out of sleep, not helped by the frequent stops along the route.

We had asked one of the train staff what time we were due in Kuala Lumpur and were told it would be before 05.00. Although I was far from convinced, we felt obliged to set the alarm - which turned out to be a bit of a waste of sleep time given that we didn't get in till after 06.00.

We hadn't anticipated any problems when we arrived given that we had chosen the Hotel Sentral mainly because of its proximity to the Sentral KL station. Unfortunately, it took about 30 minutes to find our way out of the station and onto the road - mainly because there were no signs saying something as simple as 'exit'. Given that we were carrying our heavy packs, we weren't happy and our tempers were as frayed as Cheryl and Ashley Cole's marriage.

Even when we finally broke through the cordon of surrounding building work we couldn't see the hotel initially. It was only when an aged Malaysian woman took pity on our obvious plight and jovially pointed us in the right direction that we found our target. After the initial aggravation we were pleased to get a free upgrade to a better room and to discover that the hotel was extremely well appointed considering its 3-star status.

The location was fortunate because it was in Little India and that meant we could eat curry. It turned out to be even better when we discovered a vegetarian restaurant just across the road. It looked a bit rough to say the least, but we took the gamble and were glad we did - the food turned out to be excellent and our total bill was less than £7.

We went back for a second night and recognising us, the staff asked if we wanted our food a bit spicier and we said yes. That seemed like a good idea at the time, but less so the next day. After three trips to the toilet, I felt like I'd been sodomised by a very large chilli pepper.

Kuala Lumpur itself is a bit of an odd city. Skyscrapers abound, as do huge modern shopping malls filled with hundreds of outlets. In contrast, there are the ever-present mosques and areas which are only just removed from shanty town status. We found it difficult to walk around because of the road system, but the trains turned out to be efficient and cheap with the journeys we took costing only around 25p. Some of the lines are monorails which come along every 4-5 minutes - we wondered whether they would help solve London's public transport problems.

One of our journeys took us to the Central Market. Long ago this was a proper market selling fish, meat, fruit and vegetables. Now it's essentially there to sell souvenirs to tourists with the many stalls stocking brightly coloured scarves, shirts and dresses, plus Malaysian arts and crafts. It made for a pleasant wander, but we weren't interested in buying anything - not least because our backpacks are full to bursting already.

One of the main tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur is the Petronas Towers, which we had seen in a film called Entrapment with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. All the advice we had read said it was best to get into the queue early but we slept in a bit and didn't arrive until 08.50. We were greeted by a long queue snaking round and round, with order being kept by uniformed security guards. We thought we wouldn't get in until the afternoon, but the queue turned out to be shorter than we had expected and we were given tickets for 11.15.

There are two towers - once the tallest in the world - linked by what is called a skybridge on their 41st floors. This is the only place that tourists are allowed to go and then only for about 15 minutes per visit. While waiting for our turn we saw some information boards about the building of the towers, but they weren't particularly interesting. It was a bit of a lost opportunity because a good video and some models would have enhanced the trip significantly.

We were whisked upstairs in a high-speed lift which made our ears pop. Once there, we wandered onto the bridge to look out upon Kuala Lumpur and take some photos. Unfortunately the weather was a bit hazy and the view therefore not as good as it might have been. Interesting, yes; spectacular, no.

Richard