A bit of R and R

I was quite excited. One of my friends was visiting Asia and we were planning to have a month together. As the resident I had put a bit of an agenda together for the first couple of weeks.
On the 4th Feb I headed to Miri airport to get the 10am flight to KL. Matt arrived at KLIA at around 3.00pm and I arrived at The LCCT airport at around 12.30.

The two airports are on the same site, in fact, they use the same runway and as you land with Air Asia at the LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) you actually see the KLIA terminal and could probably walk to it in 15 minutes. Yet, a taxi will charge you nearly £8 to take you from one to another, why? Because it's over 20km. The link road goes right round the airport...

Today I found a cheap way of doing it. For just one English Pound you can catch a bus from outside the LCCT and it will deposit you outside the KLIA terminal in just 25 minutes. Bingo.

I had quite some time before Matt's flight came in so, on arrival at the international airport I got myself a seat, a Burger King and a supersize fries and coke... Very healthy. As an aside, if you could have a burger king burger and macdonalds fries I would be happiest...

Moosters flight was on time, it was however a good hour before he came through the arrivals gate. I know that the sky train was out of commission from the satellite terminal to the main terminal so expected sone delay and KL is not the quickest airport to get your luggage!

Just before 4.15 a jaded Mooster came through the arrivals hall laden down with his back pack. As expected, given the long flight from Dooby, the first stop was a fag break.

It was Chinese New Year. I was meeting Matt on the Friday and the celebrations had been going on since Thursday (and planned to go on another few days till Sunday)
Given the CNY I had booked a room in China Town. Right in the thick of it. A couple of nights to get over the jet lag.

The first night we had a couple of drinks and an early night. The plan was to do the hop on hop off bus and see some of the main sights of KL. I did get to see quite a few more things than the last time I did this option which was the celebration to mark the end of Ramadam.

The second night was also spent in China town. As we were sat in a roadside cafe
enjoying out dinner and a few beers I noticed a couple of guys who had sat behind us in the cafe. To be fair the did look a little worse for wear with drink. As the wandered into the road one of them held his had over his mouth and started to gag. My first thoughts were that he was about to throw up due to the copious amounts of alcohol he had consumed (the raison d'être is to leave all your consumed bottles on the table and there we're quite a few).

My initial thoughts were soon dispelled as, almost in slow motion people doubled over choking and coughing. It appears that someone had let off a gas bomb and it was slowly being blown into Chinatown by the slight breeze... It was quite debilitating, first a choking sensation, the runny eyes followed by uncontrollable sneezing. Once over the worse we paid the bill and made our way from the area.

In order to give Matt a view on some of Asia we would be leave KL early the following morning. I had already bought the train tickers. First to Georgetown with an overnight stay and the. The overnight train from Butterworth to Bangkok.

The first part of the journey was fine although we did arrive in Butterworth quite late due to the train. Being delayed by a couple of hours in KL.

We made our way from Butterworth to Penang via the Penang ferry. A taxi was flagged down and we arrived at the Sunway hotel around midnight. The train was leaving for Bangkok at around 2.30pm. We actually never left the hotel till it was time to leave for the ferry station.

I really like the train journey. This was a new experience for Matt, especially trying to sleep in the small bed that was made up at around 11.00. The journey takes around 15 hours. Once through the border we jumped off the train to grab some beers and food from one of the hawkers on the station. I quite enjoy the train although the last three hours was a little tedious as we slowly moved through the suburbs of the capital.

We had two nights in Bangkok, then off for a 'real' holiday in Ao Nang.
I'm not a particular fan of BKK. It's hot, dirty and everything is spread out. I have to say though that it is growing on me. In had booked a little hotel off Silom, not far from the place I had stayed in when I was here in October. It was cheap and close to the commercial area of the capital.

We actually did no sightseeing at all, instead enjoying shopping around Silom and drinking ourselves silly in Patpong. The night before we left was particularly messy. At one stage I followed Matt into a bar to be faced with around 20 young men with their cocks out. Needless to say we didn't stay ling, just for a couple of beers !!!

After our two nights of excess we headed off to Suvarnabhumi airport and the short flight to Krabi on the Andeman coast. I had not booked any accommodation. We were planning to head to Ao Nang which is a seaside town not far from Krabi. Once at the airport I arranged a hotel for one night and we jumped on a bus to town. It was around 30km from the airport and the bus actually dropped us right outside the hotel. The plan was to sound it out and look for something better if required. We ended up staying there for the full 8 days. We had a lovely time. Not too much serious drinking, the weather was glorious. We were on the beach every morning. The sea was warm and I seemed to spend most of my time neck deep in the ocean. Everyday without exception we had something pampered, from feet, face, head and shoulders and full body. Matt did venture into the Thai massage but I avoided it. It looked too painful to me!!!

At the end of the week we were well and truly relaxed. I had booked flights back to KL with Air Asia . The onward flights to Borneo cost the vast sum of RM43, less than a tenner. The only disadvantage was they were at 7.20 in the morning. I did get a cheap hotel near the airport, that said the taxi cost more that the hotel.....

Wasnt bad, Matt tried Nasi Goring that evening, it was horrible. I had to persuade him that this wasn't typical....

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Location:Various places in mainland South East Asia.