The journey to Malaysia was HORRIBLE !!!! And then when we finally arrived it was raining (and has rained every day since!!!)

I'll start from the beginning.

Checked out of our hotel at 11am in Koh Tao (waited until the last minute before we HAD to leave...get our moneys worth, eh)

So then we had 10 hours to wait to get on the Night Boat...

We killed a bit (or a lot) of time by walking, drinking beer and adding more music to our ipods...

hmm...what now? more beer....

So after a fun day we finally boarded the very classy ferry... hmm!!! It was a small rickity boat ... But we got told we had beds? Oh we did have beds, they were matresses on the floor, upstairs and down, literally touching each other.

I was laid inbetween Dom (which wasnt TOO bad hehe) and some Thai guy :-(

It felt like being on a slave ship (well.... you know what i mean) it was so cramped you couldnt even turn over without touching the person next to you . Oh and it smelled really sweaty and there were lots of little black bugs jumping around ... not our best travel experience!

To add insult to injury i started feeling sea sick as it was quite bad weather and the boat was swaying quite badly.

Argh!

Horrible journey ! And we were on that boat for EIGHT hours !!! Got woken up at 5am (thank you Lord)

Oh and in the meantime Dom got chatting a guy from Ellerington! Thought best to introduce yourself to the person your cuddling up against !

Then had another 2 hours to wait for our mini bus!

It was really strange when we were waiting for our mini bus to arrive because there were 3 guys next to us who were also going to Malaysia... Then a Thai man came out of the tourist office and asked them all to follow him! So Dom said 'were going to malaysia too....' and he said 'no no you stay ! everything ok'

So we watched them leave and strated feeling nervous as we weer left for ages.

The thing is, in Thailand they treat you like idiots... Nobody tells you whats going on or how long you will be waiting etc... and when you ask they shake there heads (very rude!!)

So after 20 minutes Dom went inside to ask what was happening and the woman told us that we needed at least 200pounds EACH to prove we have money when we enter Malaysia !!! We found this very odd... She told us wed have to go to a chash machine right away and then she would exchange it for us (with a HEFTY commision!)

We refused, as it just didnt seem right... (weve never been asked to prove how much money weve had before) then we read in the book BEWARE OF THAI BORDER CROSSING SCAM ! They are known for it, they ask you to change money with them so they can charge commision.

When we told her no she wasnt happy! And we were also rather peed off by now (not a good exit to thailand)

Finally we got on a mini bus , which pulled around the corner sand picked those other guys up who were also going to Malaysia (dont ask)

Then we got stuck next to a Southern guy (about 40) on the mini bus who was such a hot head !! He was stressing out so much and kept raising his voice at the taxi driver! It looked like were were with him too so we were quite embarssed hehe.

When we got to the border crossing a German woman wandered off (as again the instructions werent very clear... ) so we were sat waiting for her for 10minutes and then hot head man started raising his voice at the driver 'shes gone what do you expect? its your fault you wasnt clear about where we were meant to go!!' blah blah blah!

So the poor driver (looking a bit scared) drove up to the Malaysian immigration, and the German woman was nowhere to be seen ! 10 minutes later she joined the back of the queue looking rather stressed ! We still dont know where she went !!!

The Malaysian side was so slow we were waiting to be stamped in for 2 hours ! And while we were queueing the rain started again !!! But really raining and fork lightening and stuff!! Scary

So we got absoloutly drenched!!!

Another 2 hours journey and we finally arrived (at 6pm) in Malaysia as its an hour ahead of thailand here.

That first night we slept for hours after our LONG journey !!!

Plus we couldnt exactly go anywhere as the rain started again just after wed checked into our hotel !!!

Georgetown was once ruled by the British and in some ways it is like being back at home just warmer. They drive on the same side as we do, dial 999 for the police, road signs are the same and all in English as well.

Our first day we walked around an old fort (called Forte Cornwallis) inside there was hut after hut of information about Captain Francis Light (the guy who built it) and other stuff..... but it was far too hot to be walking around anywhere let alone a MUSEUM (or Muzium as they spell it) so we played about on the canons , took a few pics, walked to the clock tower and War Memorial then called it a day, and went to take shelter from the hot sunshine in a cafe called Stardust ! And had a nice Milo Choclate Milkshake ! ahh refreshing!

That evening we bumped into Mr Stress and he told us he was staying in a cheaper guesthouse than ours so that next day we moved to SD Guesthouse on 'Love Lane ' !! How romantic ! And especially because it was our anniversary(doesnt get much more corny than that eh!!)

Were glad we moved as we were only paying 2pounds each !!!

Bargain

We packed a picnic up (jam sandwhiches, scones and fruit muffins ) and headed to the Botanical Gardens !!

Oh but when we came to eat the muffins they had already been nibbled on by tiny ants...so we binned them !

The botanical gardens were gorgeous ! But as we were walking in we bought some water off an Indian guy who warned us 'be careful of your food and your camera'.....

We soon saw why !!! Above us in the trees were cheeky little monkeys swinging from branch to branch !!!

We were casually walking along and we heard what sounded like monkeys fighting !! When we turned the corner two bearded (yes like father christmas) monkeys stared at us.... Dom got the camera out to take a photograph and they seemed to like the flash as they strated walking towards us !!! We were a couple of babies and literally ran !!!! (well backed away quickly anyway!)

Later when Dom was trying ot take another photo a monkey hissed at him!!!! And started running at us !!! Eek!

Still cute though hehehe

That evening it rained (again) and we walked very quickly to little india and found a nice little indian restuarant which was so cheap and the food was delicious (if not a little bit spicy!)

Tomorrow we leave for Taiping.....