Oh my god!! I am now an official bus expert!!!!

We came to leave Last Beach on Saturday and start the long journey to Kuala Lumpar. When we got into town we were informed that the road was blocked by flooding and we would have to spend the night in Crabi, but they assured us we would definitely get in to KL at four the next day..... So they put us up in a bungalow which was fine and as they had a tele and DVD player (!), myself and Gemma settled into watching 13 going on 30, with a litre and a half of vodka in front of us. Needless to say, a fun night ensued, ending up in this dodgy 'Irish' pub, owned by a German and his Thai bride, playing pool with an Aussie known only as Bruce (he informed us the next morning that he actually preferred to be called Dean!).

The bus came to collect us at 7 and drove us to a depot where we had to wait until 12. They now informed us that we would be getting into KL at 11, which was still fine but meant we couldn't meet Gemma's friend Lou at the train station and, having come straight from London, she would have to spend her first few hours alone. Having taken three hours to get through the border, we then made our way to Buttersworth, a dusty, disgusting town, south of the border. We arrived there and was dropped off by the mini bus to transfer to a larger bus, which we were informed would depart at 11.........meaning we wouldn't reach KL til 5 the next morning, having spent 22 hours on the road!!!! At that point we kicked off, shouting at the man, who needs some SERIOUS customer service training and suddenly declared that, despite the fact we had already had numerous conversations with him, he didn't speak english!! As any good women knows, when in a crisis throw money at the problem! So we relented, paid for an earlier bus and got into KL at midnight.

We went straight to our hotel which was absolutely beautiful, and I enjoyed a hot shower, free toiletries, tea and TV!! The next morning we had a quick look round KL, before hopping a bus to Cameron Highlands. We intended today to do a trip round the tea plants, and head to Tamen Negara over night, but were quickly informed that the only bus to TN left at 10.30 am, so for the fourth day in a row I am going on a bus, clocking up a total of 30 hours total of travel, joy!!