Alison: After another enjoyable speed boat ride and a shortish local bus ride, we arrived in Kota Bharu which is a market town in the far north of Malaysia. We were very hot and bothered when we arrived but a much needed KFC soon recharged our batteries and we found a place to stay in a nice hostel recommended in our guide book. The hostel was not the most modern or comfortable we had been in but it's appeal is that the rooms are within a traditional Malaysian house and you are welcomed in by the family that run it. Kota Bharu didn't have a lot to offer. We tried to see some of the museums and usual tourist attractions but the heat was unbearable to walk in. We managed to look around it's main attraction which is it's markets and we sampled some of the food at the night market but after this was done, we were ready to leave.

Nigel: The other reason why we went up to Kota Bharu was to catch the train which is commonly known as the jungle train. Its a track that runs from the north of Malaysia all the way down to Singapore. The section where we were travelling through is were the jungle is at its most densest and if your very lucky you will see some wildlife along the way. We had read on other travel blogs that the train was very uncomfortable to ride due to there being no AC and the fans were not adequate to keep the heat down. This plus the fact we had to get up for 3:30am to catch the 4:15am train we were not expecting the best of journeys. We had dressed in anticipation of being very hot but in fact they have now got AC in the carriages and I was having to put on extra clothes on to keep warm. We didn't see any wildlife along the way and I think this was a combination of it being dark when we started, falling a sleep due to being so tired and the fact there probably isn't any wildlife to see. After 8 hours we arrived in a place called Jerantut which we would spend one night there, but there is nothing worth writing about.