Friday, 3rd March 2006. Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

20 minutes before our train left we were walking through customs at the station with no bother at all and getting settled into our very comfy seats. The train journey to KL takes about 6 1/2 hours and is very relaxing (although the air-con in the carriages is turned up to "arctic" - the regulars put on their jumpers and coats as soon as they got on, we just shivered...). There was another customs/immigration check-point just before we crossed the border but again there were no problems at all...although as we realised later they don't even stamp your passport which can cause problems when you try to leave. Anyway, the train rolled into KL Sentral station and we walked across the road to find our hotel - the "Hotel Florida" which again isn't in the centre of things but is cheap and close to the Monorail so getting around town is easy.

How we got to KL

Saturday, 4th March 2006. Kuala Lumpur

We went back to the KL sentral station to try to establish why our passports hadn't been stamped upon arrival in Malaysia, and apparently it's because they haven't issued any immigration stamps to the Malaysian Immigration officials at the Singapore train station - utterly ridiculous!  Anyway we spent they day in KL checking out all of the shopping malls, of which there are hundreds before heading off to the Malaysian Tourism Office.  At the MTO we got them to call immigration to check the situation about leaving Malaysia without a stamp - they said it should be OK (we shall see!)

We also managed to see the Petronas towers - very tall and very futuristic complete with shopping mall.

The Petronas Towers.

Sunday, 5th March 2006. Kuala Lumpur.

Another day looking around the shops.  We came across 'Times Square', which has an indoor theme park complete with roller coaster and candy floss.  We planned to visit Chinatown for dinner, but just as we got off of the train the Heavens opened, so it was back to the air-cooled malls for dinner instead. Mum - I've found a tent for whisper so you can take her camping!!!

Mark and the roller coaster         A tent for whisper!!!

Monday, 6th March 2006. Kuala Lumpur.

This morning we had to go and visit the shipping agents 'Jets express Services' in Port Klang.  We boarded the KTM Komuter train direct from KL to Port Klang.  We had the address, found a slightly torn map of P.Klang and walked there - only to discover that they have relocated without leaving a forwarding address or telephone number, great!  We tried calling them, but no luck, so we thought we would cut our losses and just use somebody else.  We called into another agent, but it soon became clear that as Jets was named on the bill of Lading it would be hard to have anybody else help with the clearing of Hector. Luckily they were really helpful and were able to get a telephone number and address for Jets at their new offices.  We caught a cab, got double charged but at least we had made it to the office.  Once inside things couldn't have been easier, Jets had already made up the file and were just waiting for the carnet and Marks passport.  With everything completed they gave us a lift back to the train station with the promise that Hector would be ready no later than Thursday morning.  Great stuff.  As we were back in KL for lunch time we again spent the day browsing the shops and getting caught in the thunder storms, before enjoying a fantastic, honey glazed pork and noodles dinner.

A great dinner.

Tuesday, 7th March 2006. Kuala Lumpur.

Today we caught the train out of KL to Mid Valley Megamall, another shopping mall, but we got bored so we got another train further out of KL to 'Mines' which has a cinema, bowling alley and snooker hall.  We really enjoying the 'Mines' as you get the river boat from the train station to right inside the 'Mines' arcade.  We spent an hour or so bowling which was immense fun and we also played pool for about an hour.  There was nothing on at the cinema so we went back to Mid Valley Megamall where we bought tickets to 'The chronicles of Narnia' for RM5 each (just less than £1 each), great fun, but didn't finish until midnight, so it was a taxi back to the hotel.

The canal through 'Mines' arcade.

Wednesday, 8th March 2006. Kuala Lumpur.

Today was yet another 'shopping' day.  In the evening Mark and I were packing up to be ready for an early start tomorrow when I (Amy) realised that the Carnet was missing.  We scoured the room and emptied the bags, we checked with reception and also visited the KL Sentral station to check with lost and found, but all to no avail.  Needless to say we had a very restless nights sleep, and to top it all off I've caught another cold.

Thursday, 9th March 2006. Kuala Lumpur to Port Klang.

We caught the KTM Komuter train back to Port Klang, where Miss Lun's superior from Jets picked us up.  We went directly to the Warehouse where we were able to open the container and see Hector for the first time in over 2 weeks.  Hector was unlashed and then Mark reversed him out until the back of the roof tent was almost at the back of the container, at this point I got the 4 chaps who were stood around to get into the back of Hector to lower him down, this worked a treat and Mark was able to glide Hector out with no problems.  Then to our great relief the Superior produced our Carnet which had already been stamped by customs.  We were then able to leave - it was as easy as that! Jets may not have been the cheapest option around but they were very, very efficient!  We followed the guy from Jets to a petrol station to fill up, and then we drove to the 'Talents motor park' motel (thanks to expeditionoverland.com) in Port Klang where we're going to stay for the night sorting Hector out again for life on the road.  We are planning to camp in Malaysia so drove to the local supermarket - Tesco's - to stock up on supplies.

Opening the container at the warehouse     Amy packing the shopping away.

Friday, 10th March 2006. Port Klang to Kuala Selangor National Park.

Not a very long drive today at all, and the roads in Malaysia are superb so we made great time. We arrived at the National Park and asked if we could camp there and they said yes, of course. So we found ourselves a nice secluded spot and made ourselves at home before going for a walk around the reserve which was excellent as it was almost totally deserted. As night fell the noise from the jungle increased and we saw lots of fireflies flashing in the undergrowth...however we didn't see the insects that made us their dinner! It was really, really great to be camping again - although we had a shock when we were putting the rail back on the roof tent and saw that there was a hole in the fibre-glass! It must have happened when we had him washed in Chennai and the guy was climbing all over him - rats! We patched up the crack with gaffer tape and hope that it'll be enough to stand up to the tropical storms!

Saturday, 11th March 2006. Kuala Selangor to Tanah Rata/Cameron Highlands.

We took the back roads up to the Cameron Highlands today and the scenery was excellent - the palm-trees of the plains giving way to the thickly jungle covered slopes of the highlands, where it is much, much cooler than down at sea-level. The road winds its way up to 1,500m and the town of Tanah Rata where most visitors stay. Just as we arrived the heavens opened and it chucked it down, so we found a little guesthouse (the "Twin Pines" ) and took a room for 2 nights. When the rain eventually stopped we went for a walk into the jungle to a nearby waterfall and viewing platform, then returned for a Cameron Highlands traditional cream tea - cup of locally produced tea and home-made scones with butter, cream and strawberry jam - delicious!

Mark by the waterfall in the jungle.

Sunday, 12th March 2006. Tanah Rata

As the Cameron Highlands is famous as a tea-plantation area, this morning we headed off to the "Boh Tea-plantation" for a look around. The drive there was great as we wound our way through the plantation and we stopped for breakfast overlooking the well tended hills. Typically as soon as we stopped we were joined by 4 car loads of Malaysian family on their day out. They were lovely people and we took the obligatory photos of each other before we parted. Eventually we arrived at the plantation and had a good look around the factory which still uses some of the original machinery from the 1930's, and then had a very good cup of freshly picked tea overlooking the tea-fields. On the way we drove past "The Old Smoke House" - an amazing sight in the middle of the jungle as it looks like its been plucked straight from the middle of Devon!

The breakfast gang...                  Boh tea plantation                             The Old Smoke House.

Monday, 13th March 2006. Tanah Rata to Butterworth

We'd arranged to put Hector into the Land Rover garage in Butterworth today, so we left pretty early and made our way past the hundreds of working Land-rovers in the plantations, onto the excellent National Expressway and bombed our way up to Butterworth where we found the garage with no bother. Unfortunately there are in the process of moving to Penang (something they didn't mention on the telephone...) and said that they may not be able to do anything major for a couple of days. This was OK with us as we don't think that anything major needs doing, just a routine service and check up - we hope!

Tuesday, 14th March 2006. Butterworth to Penang Island.

Went to pick Hector up today and he was sparkling clean and serviced again - no problems at all thankfully! We had to wait around for a little bit, so the servicing manager invited us out to lunch with him - his treat. Lunch was very good, and we were able to pick Hector up when we returned. We drove straight on to the massive 13km bridge which spans the Straits of Mallaca and were soon on Penang. We took the long way round the island until eventually winding up on the Northern coast where we found somewhere to camp by the beach. In the same place were Lucas and Jeanne from Belgium in their Toyota hybrid - they had been there for about a week waiting to hear whether or not it is possible to take their car to Indonesia. We had a great time chatting to them, and then we all sat on the beach at night-time having a few drinks and watching the absolutely staggering tropical storm at sea before it moved in-land and soaked us!

Lunch with the Land Rover boys                                        Ahhh....home sweet home.....

Wednesday, 15th March 2006. Penang Island

After not the greatest nights sleep in the world (the sea was very loud...) we were up with the sunrise. It was fantastic being able to climb down from the roof-tent, walk the 2 meters to the beach and be able to go for a swim before breakfast! After we'd dried off we packed the tent back down and drove off into Georgetown, the capital of the island and a very pretty place with lots of old Chinese and colonial style buildings. We found our way around with no bother and ended up parking right in front of the City Hall. We had a very nice walk around town, soaking up the atmosphere before heading to an Internet cafe where I'm writing this update!

Hector in front of City Hall, Georgetown     Old building in Chinatown. Lucas, Mark, Jeanne and Amy after dinner

This evening we went out for a Steamboat dinner with Lucas and Jeanne at a nearby hotel - a steamboat is the Chinese equivalent of a Swiss Fondue - the raw ingredients are laid out next to a steaming hot tureen of Fish and herb stock. The food - fish, prawns, egg-plant, eggs, noodles, tofu, cabbage etc is then boiled in the stock before being fished out with little brass fishing nets. After everything has been eaten you drink the remaining stock like a soup - delicious!

Thursday, 16th March 2006. Penang Island

Lucas and Jeanne left this morning, but not before they told us that they had found out that the Roll On, Roll Off ferry from Malaysia to Indonesia is no longer in operation - which was bad news for them as they were hoping to drive across Indonesia next. It also rather impacts on our plans as well, as Indonesia was going to be the last stage of our trip before Australia, but the cost of arranging another container shipping to Jakarta, and then trying to get all the way to East Timor to arrange another boat to Darwin makes this seem a bit out of reach - we're now thinking that we'll ship straight to Darwin from Malaysia, then get a cheap flight (Tiger Airways) from Singapore to Darwin...unless we discover some more information en-route!

Lucas, Jeanne and their really nice Toyota/mobile-home hybrid

Anyway, it was washing day today as sleeping in the roof tent the last week we've noticed that it smells a little ripe up there, so we stripped everything out and took it to a launderette. With nothing to sleep on we booked ourselves into a very basic motel for the night before driving into the nearest town to have a walk around the night market where you can get a genuine fake rolex for peanuts and stopping off for a lovely Indian meal. We've certainly noticed that India has left its mark on us in that we now both really like Indian food!

Friday, 17th March 2006. Penang Island

We had another drive into George Town today and did some more sightseeing around the old part of the town. We walked around the lovely old streets and admired the very well preserved buildings before we entered the Koh Kong Si Clan compound, where there is the most amazing Chinese temple. The Kong Si clan arranged this compound when they first came over to Penang, and it served as a social and administrative centre for the clan and well as a meeting place and the repository of the clan history and genealogy. The temple itself really takes your breath away when you first see it - the intricacy of the design and the vibrancy of the colours are amazing.

Tri-shaw and old Chinatown    Koh Kong Si Temple                               Golden Dragon in the roof of the temple

In the afternoon we had a bit of a cinema fest as the tickets are so cheap here - less that £1 per movie. So we watched "V for Vendetta" (Mark liked, Amy disliked) and "Underworld 2" (Amy liked, Mark almost fell asleep). It was dark when we finally emerged from the Cinema, but driving around in the dark is absolutely no problem at all here. We had a fairly early night tonight as we plan to cross the Malaysia/Thailand border fairly early tomorrow before heading up to near Krabi. We're hoping that the fact that our passports don't contain an entry stamp or visa for Malaysia won't cause us any problems...We've really enjoyed Malaysia - it's an easy place to get around, the people are very friendly, diesel is wonderfully cheap and it has some really amazing scenery. We're already looking forwards to our return visit on our way back down!