Kota Bharu

Our journey to KB was reminiscent of our overland trip from London to Adelaide – it was by bus. Well, 3 busses actually! We were early to the pick up point, so the lady behind the counter told us to go away and get some breakfast while she stored our luggage, but when we returned we were still too early, so she gave us a couple of stools to sit on, clearly one look at David made this decision for her. When the bus did arrive, we were told by the driver this was just our transit bus, which was a shame, as it was a small, but luxury liner with just 3 seats in a row in a two-one formation. When we got to the express bus station, there was some conflicting information as to which bus we were to get on, which was a shame as it was the standard 4 in a row two-two formation. When the bus left the station we had a few more pick ups and then we turned into a garage where the bus was promptly washed.

It was 9.37am, we weren't on the luxury coach we thought we would be, but it was certainly one of the cleanest. About another hour into the journey and we pulled into another bus station. Here the driver and co-driver promptly got off and appeared to assist with fixing another coach. Lots of banging with a very long screwdriver, emptying several bottles of water into the engine, many laughs and then what appeared to be a fuse box was ripped open, a fuse replaced and that bus was up and running. The drivers then returned to our bus and and said something in Malay to the passengers, possibly along the lines of 'that's our new coach – so get your arses on it now'. So, like sheep, we transferred our luggage to our third bus of the day and it was the 3 seats in a rower that we'd been expecting from the start.

The food in KB was Malay standard – excellent with a choice of vegetarian restaurants for us to sample. However, it is a 'dry' state, so you need to look in the right places to get an after dinner drink. We managed to find such a place and enjoyed several 'illegal' beers. We were told by one of several ex-pat regulars that as the owner didn't have a licence, he was busted about once a year and had to pay a 'fine' to the local constabulary. The 'fine' however was apparently tolerable as buying a licence was so expensive as to be practically prohibitive. When we talked to the owner he voluntarily confirmed this to be the case, but seemed to accept that this was one of his business costs. The beers were served cold and with an added taste of satisfaction. Whilst sitting outside in the evenings we were also entertained by an owl flying from one tree to another looking for prey - believe us this was a better option than going inside, down the corridor, through the purple door and to the (also illegal) karaoke.
We managed to catch a local bus and sample the nearby beach a couple of times, one on the hottest of hot sunny days, another on what was a very mixed but ultimately stormy day. Sadly for us, on the way back from the beach we managed to get the school bus – we only had to survive for about thirty minutes of the journey, that poor bus driver has to suffer on an almost daily basis no doubt.

We also managed to hire the tiniest of cars. We felt like Mr and Mrs Magoo whilst driving it around. Driving around though was a challenge, not because of the roads, but the 3 crap maps that Helen had to navigate with. Helen quite rightly said that 'three crap maps don't necessarily make one good one' but we did manage to find a number of temples in and around Kelantan. Having said that, some of the BRIDGES connecting the roads were a tad suspect.

The temples have a definite Thai feel to them, being so close to the border, the most impressive of which was the Dragon Boat Temple – very aptly named. All the temples we visited though appeared to be guarded by the most scabby of dogs – and however hungry you are – you would NOT want to eat one of those fellas, although most of them appeared to be female.

The museums around KB were a mixed bag, including the Royal Palace – a place unsurprisingly previously habited by the Royal Family. The Malay English made some of the exhibits more amusing than perhaps they should have been, but the treasure contained within the building seemed to be largely 'gifts' that had been dumped, er we mean presented to the Royal Couple either on overseas trips or from other visiting heads of state. We did notice three individual signed photographs in frames by Anne, Philip and HRH Betty amongst the bric a brac.
We also visited the War Museum that gave a very comprehensive review of events in the twentieth century. Kelantan certainly had a turbulent period of history over the last one hundred years being occupied by Thailand, Japan and Britain before it's independence.

Whilst we were in KB the MOST disappointing moment was standing in a local department store and seeing segregated tills for women and men.

Kuching

Hotels have been a bit of a theme in Borneo. At our first hotel we had 3 rooms within 2 days. The first wouldn't let us work the electrics with our key card for the room. We then woke up to a flooded bathroom and went down to reception to complain. Our remark '3rd time lucky' certainly fell on deaf ears at the desk and a lesson or several in customer service for them would be a wise move. That hotel was in a good location on the waterfront however.
We then checked out what we believed to be our second hotel in Kuching prior to leaving the first. However, when we turned up, they either clearly weren't ready for us, had forgotten our booking, or were completely trashed because of CNY celebrations – we could certainly forgave them for the last factor! However, when it came to paying, the fun and games really began. The 'lady' behind the counter said that as we were paying for the hotel on credit card there would be 'no refunds' if we decided to change our minds. Strange, why would we change our minds – we'd already checked the room out previously? However there were a lot of people hanging around now in the lobby and another 'lady' or 'boy' putting his, or her make up on whilst we were standing there. Anyroadup, as Kenny Everitt used to say, the credit card machine didn't work. So, we offered to pay cash – and we came to an agreement that we would pay on a per night basis. We then went out for a walk and pretty much instantly decided that we would look for further accommodation for our remaining nights in Kuching. How strange – we'd already checked out the accommodation, were happy with it, but then the owner sowed a seed of doubt in our minds by saying that 'some other guests changed their minds'. We wouldn't have thought to, once we'd paid that would have been it, but as we'd only paid for one night we were now thinking there must be better places to stay – surely?
Our third hotel was a real find – lovely. It was a 'boutique hostel', probably. The same price as our second hotel, but instantly felt more secure, friendly and actually delivered free breakfast – yet another story!
Back to what we did. We took a lovely little water taxi to the other side of the river to Fort Kuching, or Fort Margherita in fact – set up by James Brookes from his occupation, but during WW2 occupied by the Japanese. It was used as a 'proper' fort during that time, with POW's kept inside and further kept in small, open to the elements, bamboo cages. People had also been hanged from within the confines of the fort previously, but for the majority of the time it had been a pretty peaceful place. Built on an apex in the river for great views, guards in the watchtower would call out on the hour throughout the night 'All's Well'. Apparently, this was then repeated back from several places, including across the water in the main City and David couldn't help himself but to also make the chant – albeit in the comfort of daylight.
The food in Kuching is as good as we've come to expect in Malaysia. There are a few dedicated veggie restaurants, but the latest they appear to stay open until is 8pm – we tried to visit one a couple of times around 6pm, but it had already closed on both occasions, but this meant we did manage to eat in a nice semi open air place named after James Brookes that looked a little like a bandstand. Other food options were mainly open kitchen communal dining areas with a heavy emphasis on fish.
We did get up shortly after 6am one morning to walk to the bus station to catch the7am bus to the Orang utan sanctuary some 20km's out of the city centre. We were lucky enough (apparently for the time of year) to see 5 adults with 2 of their babies come to the morning feeding session. As we wandered through to the site David only managed to see one leech – which was more than enough thank you very much!
We also decided it had to be worthwhile to visit the Cat Museum whilst in Kuching (the city of the cat!). This involved another bus ride, thankfully not at stupid o'clock, but when we got there it was soooooo sad. Any reference AT ALL to cats is listed in that museum, well up until about 20 years ago, when it last seemed to have been updated. Lesley Ash was a feature because she'd stared in a programme called C.A.T.S Eyes and even Northampton got a mention via the Derngate theatre because of hosting a Curiosity Killed The Cat gig that David reluctantly agreed to the fact that he'd actually attended it. On that bombshell, it's probably enough to report from this particular update, so until the next time blog fans....
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Gong Xi Fa Cai - Kota Kinabalu

Happy Chinese New Year from Borneo.
We've found so far that Malaysia loves it's abbreviations, which is quite handy when visiting Kota Kinabalu to be able to shorten it to KK. However, upon arrival at KK we couldn't find TBH, that is the bleedin' hotel. We'd used a previously reliable source to book our accommodation but, it has to be said that on their site there was no outside 'view' of the hotel. It all became a bit concerning when we got into the taxi at the airport and the driver said 'that must be a new one – I've never heard of it'. As we'd had a check on Google Maps beforehand so we were able to tell him some landmarks nearby and where it was SUPPOSED TO BE. Anyway, we arrived and he was saying 'I can't see it', but we were still confident (at that point). We got him to drop us off and then between us spent around 2 hours looking, trying to phone and asking locals for the flippin Yomi hotel. After several calls, the phone was eventually answered and when asked if that was the Yomi hotel, the person at the other end of the line said 'Yes'. When asked where they were because we were in KK looking for them, the line suddenly went dead and the phone wasn't answered again after that. That's a short summary of a frustrating and anxious couple of hours before we finally gave up and checked into the hotel where we had been dropped by the taxi driver.
The new hotel was good, and the staff exceedingly helpful – in fact they had tried to look up the 'virtual' Yomi hotel when we unloaded our cases from the taxi. During the night however, the air con unit must have realised that we were mug punters and also started (to coin an Aussie phrase) p1ss1ng all over us as the water started to reverse back into the room, so much so that they could now advertise it as having it's own pool. Thankfully, we'd already decided to check on other hotels in the area for the remainder of our stay and the rest of our time in KK was spent in an alternative, but real hotel. We explored the surrounding area and visited a complex that housed the local museum, art gallery and cultural village. Sadly, most of it was closed for renovations (and had probably been so for many years). We did wander around the dilapidated exhibitions though and whilst looking at some information about the carnival queen, we read a small newspaper article on the same page from 1961 about a couple of guys who were charged and fined for public spitting. What a shame that sort of legislation seems to have been given up on. If people were still fined for spitting it could help to end the current downturn in the economy – particularly with high-profile sports stars contributing back some of their earnings into the pot. Alternatively, how about a spitting tax instead of 20% VAT? Anyway, time to move on.
Our whole time in KK was really relaxing, in fact many a morning it was really difficult to drag ourselves out of the hotel after nights of very strange dreams no doubt courtesy of the renewed intake of malaria tablets.
One morning we did manage to get up early enough to make a wander to Jesselton Pier to catch a boat over to Manukan National Park and make a day of it. Whilst there we witnessed large monitor lizzards and mud skipper jumping fish and jumping crabs.
Back on the main land we hired a little red moped for a couple of days, which saw us travel out to a Wildlife Park (when did such places stop being called zoos?). Much like the museum, some of the park seemed to be closed off when we got there too. However we did manage to stay for a good part of the day and that meant we witnessed some of the feeding times. We were very surprised that the most 'entertaining' and noisy was the otters - boy those blighters can screech. Having the bike meant that we got around to different areas in KK, we tried to see a couple of sunsets on the west facing coast, but only one was really impressive and included a couple in some traditional dress on the shore-line as an added bonus.
Our final day with the bike took us off to find a bit of beach and what better than a private beach taken up by one of the Shangri-La hotels. As we arrived on our rented scooter, we waved at the security guards on the entry point and said hi to all the staff as we blagged our way to the beach front, where one of us ended up as red as the moped itself.