27/12/09
Well off we go again! It's sad having to leave such a beautiful place but as we get on the speedboat to take us to Pak Barra I'm excited about what's ahead of us! Once we got to Pak Barra we were bundled into a minivan and headed off to Hat Yai. This took a couple of hours and when we got there we had to wait till we could get on the VIP coach to Malaysia. We wandered around the town, it's really busy, cars and people EVERYWHERE, bring back Koh Lipe ha ha! We had a quick look around and then it was time to get the coach for a 10 hour trip to Kuala Lumpur. You could tell it was a VIP coach, proper reclining seats, blankets, A/C and no loud Thai music pumping through the speakers, bliss! We arrived at the border about an hour and a half into the journey and we all had to get off the coach and queue up to get our passports stamped. We stood in line and when it was our turn we handed him our passports open on the page where our pre-paid Thai visa was and he told us we had overrun our visa by one day and we would have to go to the office to pay the fine! We tried to explain that we'd paid for a 6month visa in the UK but he was having none of it so off we went to the office. By this time everyone else was getting back on the coach and I'm getting worried! The b**** at the desk wouldn't listen to us when we tried to explain, she told us we had to pay 500B each for the day we overstayed and basically told us that the visa we had bought meant nothing! I was getting really pissed off by now and I was sure the coach was just gonna drive off with our bags. She was basically treating us like criminals or like we'd tried to decieve them on purpose (if we were trying to do that we would've overstayed longer!) We paid the fine and waited for her to do the paperwork then we had to queue up again at the first desk then run to the coach where the driver was not happy. What's the point in trying to do things right and pay for the visa in the UK when it means nothing in Thailand/Malaysia! Makes no sense.
We were on the coach again for literally 5 mins when we all had to get off again, get our bags and go through passport control, this time it went o.k but what a stupid system! Once we were back on the coach (again!) we were on our way. First impressions of Malaysia was that we didn't like it.
28/12/09
It was a long journey and we arrived in Kuala Lumpur around 06:00.We got off the bus and didn't really know what to do, there were people everywhere, it was like the middle of the day! Simon was feeling rough at this point so we needed to find somewhere to stay pronto. Some bloke gave us a flyer for his hotel so we thought we'd give it a go, it was off Petaling Street which is in Chinatown but it was close so we went to find it. We found the 'Oasis hotel' and got a room and that was it, once we'd closed the door Simon was puking everywhere, it was like the exorcist! By this time it was about 07:00 but all we wanted to do was sleep, which I did (Simon did on and off inbetween puking!) till about 15:30 when I decided I'd brave it and go out by myself to get supplies. I stepped outside and I have never seen chaos like it! Traffic and people everywhere and Petaling Street was now rammed with market stlls selling everything you could ever imagine, it was so busy you had to literally fight your way through all the peopleshopping and the stalls till you got out the other side, it was bloody madness! I managed to get what we needed and then I fought my way back to the hotel where Simon was no better. We just chilled in the room until we decided to try and eat something. Off we went into the hustle and bustle again, we found a place that did chicken fried rice so we had that and retreated back into the hotel again. KL is absolutely mental!
29/12/09
Simon's still not well but feeling a lot better than he was. We went for a walk about and got something to eat, then we got a taxi to the train station to buy our tickets to Singapore for tomorrow. Haven't really done much else, Simon's not well enough to fight his way through all the people. From our hotel roof we can see the KL Tower and the Petronus Towers which are very impressive, they light up at night and look very pretty and sparkly! Feel better that we've seen the sights of KL, even if it is from the hotel roof!