Malaysia

Where East Meets West

Our first taste of the orient was in 2001 when we stayed in Kuala Lumpur for 2 night before flying on to the east coast to the town of Kuantan with its very muslim feel. During our brief stay in "KL" we visited the world famous Petronas Twin Towers the highest building in the world, inside you can take a lift to the connecting bridge walkway and view the surrounding city . Also there are 4 flours of shops with a restaurent serving a wide variety of food both western and eastern on the top 4th floor well worth using and very cheap, out the back of the building there is a large park with fountains and many water features frequented by the city folk in the evenings and weekend. In the evening we caught the underground express link to the old part of "KL" with its old colonial cricket square and huge ministerial buildings all light up at night, for those wanting to taste trully ethnic food you are spoilt for choice with  "little india ", china town or malayian restraunts serving great food at unbelievable prices all prepared from fresh ingredients in minuets. For those who love to shop there are 5 seperate shopping districts each one needing a full day to see everything with one specialising in electronics and computers with software available at a fraction of the uk price. With only a short tome here we promised we would return to spend more time in this truly remarkable city (which we did in 2004 for 5 days shopping and siteseeing till we droped).

On the third day we caught another short flight to the east coast town of Kuantan were  we stayed at the exquist 5 star hotel of the Hyatt Regency group right on the beach about 10 mins drive from the main town. Hear we stayed in luxurious accomodation and spent the day being pampered by the pool side and eating in the local ethnic food hall's and main hotel restaurent at night, during our stay we had 2 trips out one to lake chini where the  ethnic indigenous people of malaysia the "Orang Asli" still live and enjoyed a tour on the lake in a dug out canoe. The other trip was up the south china sea coast to visit old style malasian villages built on stilts were they caught and processed fish for a living, the sea is very cloudy here and very salty making it hard to dive when snorkling better to visit the island off the east coast or Lankawi on the west coast.

To sum our first trip up we loved "KL" but the east coast town of Kuantan was a disapointment still the experience was worth the 12 hour flight, next time we plan to visit the west coast and have another look at "KL"

Kuala Lumpur

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batu caves

On our second trip out too Malaysia we started in Penang the old island with its rich Chinese / Malaysian culture just off the west coast. Here we stayed at the tourist resort area of "Batu Ferrenghi" about 30mins by bus from the capital island town of George town with its old temples and colonial quarters this town was built by chinese imigrants some of which still live in the old style homes buy the jetty's and the chinese clan houses.

The best temple by far is the huge Kek Lok Si buddhist structure at Air Itam supposedly the largest in Malaysia which was 20 years in the building , here you can see turtels and followers of the lord buddha with its 20,000 buddha statues in a pagoda. In downtown georgetown there are other small temples worth seeing especially the chinese "lucky" temple and the various Indian temples , allow 2-3 days to explore this area using the frequent and cheap bus service with small restaurants everywhere just drink plenty water due to the hot humidity.

From Batu Ferrenghi you can take a short bus journey to visit the excellent Butterfly farm were they breed rare and exotic butterflies which are sent all over the world, not forgetting the small insects and snakes allow a good half day to see all this small attraction has to offer. A short walk up the road is the Pantai Acheh Forest Reserve with excellent virgin forest trails waiting to be explored including some forest lodges, but don't forget the insect repellent and water to drink as it's hard going through thick rain forest in hot humid conditions the views from the top are worth the trouble.

At night the best place to be is the Ferrenghi beach area with its night market on the road side selling everything a tousit could want and some more. The Hawkers will try to sell you fake Rolex watches and conterfit DVD's at great prices while keeping a eye out for the police at the same time , or you could try one of the many hawker stands selling excellent quick cheep hot food in front of your very eyes. You could always try one of the restaurants along this stretch of road all offering different style foods from the orient with the best being the large chinese fish restaurant were you pick your fish from the large aquarium's then sit down and watch the evening entertainment great night out.

 

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Batu ferrenghi

 

To sum Malaysia up its a great place to visit with something for everyone and you could return every year for 6 years and still not see it all we rate it as one of the countries you must see before you die. We have yet to explore Langkawi in the north west and the the Perhentian islands in the north east not forgetting the wild Sarawak and Borneo area's with the head hunters and Orang-utan's and the huge caves capable of fitting in huge  747 planes or for those who like to dive the truly excellent dive site off "sepadan" .