"You want massage?"

It was sad to leave New Zealand, a country that we just clicked with. But seeing our funds plummet at such a frightening rate, we knew it was the right time to be leaving for South East Asia, hopefully the saviour if we intend to continue to eat and sleep under a roof for the remaining 3 months of our trip.

Malaysia has been a short and sweet experience for us both. We have only spent a week in the country but have seen and done some amazing things. Here’s what we did...

How big is Australia?!!

Our flight from Auckland stopped at Sydney on route. As you probably know we had planned on spending a month in Oz as part of our trip, but with funds currently standing at £10 per day each, we thought we’d give what would have been the most expensive country a miss (any donations are welcome!!).

From Sydney we flew to Adelaide and then on to Singapore. The flight was mammoth in itself but whenever we looked out of the window, all we saw was more Outback desert. That place is huge!!!

Anyway, we arrived in a hot and humid Singapore to a friendly greeting from Gem’s brother, Mark, who lives in Johor Bahru in Malaysia. We would be travelling around with him and one of his friends, Dan, for the next few days.

After our long flight from Oceania, all we needed was an early start the next day, but Mark had booked us a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bahru at 9.50am, and we were a 3 hour drive away from there. So we left at 5.30am, still on NZ time so we were OK!!

Diving on the Perhentian Islands

The flight was 45 minutes followed by a 30 minute speed boat ride to the island. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and when we arrived at Tuna Bay we were busting to get into the sea. A friend of Mark’s from Malaysia owns the resort on Pulau Perhentian Besar and he gave us cheap rates.

The 4 of us outside the shop ready for a dive

We popped into the dive centre to book us in for the next day, then grabbed our gear and went snorkelling on the house reef just 5 metres from the beachfront. For a house reef that is heavily swam on by amateurs who don’t understand the sensitivity of reef ecology (Ells saw one guy standing on some coral to steady himself for a photo), it was actually in fairly good condition and there were all sorts of butterfly fish, ‘nemos’ and barricuda on show.

Gem's favourite - a family of 'nemos'

Our time on Perhentian, however, was mostly spent under the sea. Our 2^nd day on the island we dived 3 times. Each dive got better and better and for Ells, the penny finally dropped on how to dive properly. A perpetual air guzzler at the start, he now understands how to control his buoyancy much better and for the 1^st time wasn’t coming up short on air. Gem, a relative veteran of 60+ dives, had no such issues and fell straight back into her beautiful diving style.

We saw many types of coral, and all sorts of fish, from boxfish to Moorish idols and stingrays to the fattest moray eel. We were buzzing after the 1^st day so booked in for another 2 dives the next day.

The 1^st was Gem’s 1^st wreck dive, an old freighter carrying bags and bags of sugar, hence the name “Sugar Wreck”. The initial descent was a little daunting as the current was extremely strong but as we got lower, the wreck protected us and we enjoyed the dive immensely. There was again an array of fish to see, the pick of the bunch being a pair of lionfish and some stonefish. It was however just fun to be totally in control when diving through the wreck itself.

A scary looking lionfish guarding the wreck!!

Our final dive was at Shark Point...Gem was nervous!!! We descended and the visibility was shocking, maybe 3 metres max. We followed the guide holding hands so as to not lose each other!! We were sure the dive would be aborted but we pressed on and the “vis” did get better.

The dive was nothing remarkable though until we got to Shark Point. In the warm waters around 3 metres deep we spotted 2 black tip reef sharks. It was a humbling experience being in the presence of sharks, even though they are not dangerous. Nevertheless Gem was safely tucked away behind Ells, just in case they got hungry!!

A beautiful batfish in front of Sugar Wreck

The next day we took the day off from diving as we had to fly that evening. We decided to take our diving qualifications to the next level and did our Emergency First Response course, then we chilled on the beach and got our boat back to the mainland that evening.

Sunset from the bar

Kuala Lumpur – nice digs!!

Our flight back to KL arrived around 10pm and Mark drove us to a hotel he’d booked for us. And what a place it was!! Traders Hotel was bang smack in the centre of KL and our room had a view of the Petronas Towers. It was mega posh and we must have looked well out of place trekking in with our backpacks and dirty flip flops!!

The next day we rose early and headed to the Petronas Towers to get tickets to the skybridge – the walkway that connects the two towers. We arrived at 8am in hope of beating the queues. But others clearly had the same idea and we were miles back. We queued for 1 and a half hours and were lucky to get tickets at 6.30pm, the last viewing time available. Had we queued all that time and missed out, we would have been mightily pissed off!!

We had a quick breakfast of roti cenai (basically a pancake type thing with curry sauce), then got on the tube and headed to China Town, which was a 3^rd world version of London’s Chinese quarter. We walked the market, which just sold tat, and saw many a restaurant that was guaranteed to give you the shits.

The lads at a tea shop in China Town - the only safe bet!!

We walked north to Little India and had a curry for lunch, then got a cab to a massage parlour (of the massage variety, not the brothel one!!) and ordered a full body massage each. We went into a vast darkened room with massage beds everywhere. The signs were ominous when Ells saw a guy getting walked over!!!

Our masseuses (masseur for Gem) came and began a systematic abuse of our bodies. More torture than an actual massage Ells had tears in his eyes as his woman literally jumped on his back and heard the vertebrae cracking. There were similar yells of pain coming from Gem and Mark.

We walked out after 45 minutes and all felt in a bit more pain than when we arrived, but it was certainly a funny experience!! We headed back to the hotel, then walked the short distance back to the Petronas Towers. After some more queuing we eventually got up to the skybridge and enjoyed the views over KL, a huge city!! Our time was quickly up though, and we then went out for tapas.

The service was typically atrocious so we ate quickly then went back for a drink in the Sky Bar at the top floor of the hotel. It was a cool place with the swimming pool in the middle. We managed to get a window seat with views of the beautifully lit up towers. We snapped away and had a few drinks then went back to our huge queen size bed!!

View of the Twin Towers from the Sky Bar

The next day we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, then took our time packing our bags again. We all went to the bus station and we just caught our bus to Tanah Rata. We said thanks to Mark and said our goodbyes. It was great to see him again after over 9 months since he was back in the UK and he was immensely generous, paying for everything for us (thanks Mark, see you again in Bangkok in a few weeks!!).

Tea for two!!

The bus ride took us out of the city and further and further into forest and jungle. We winded our way up the road to the Cameron Highlands in the centre of Malaysia. This is where they make all the tea.

Not so nice digs - our barracks-style dorm in the Cameron Highlands

After a restless night’s sleep in our 12 bed dorm, we headed out on a tour of the local area. We visited a honey farm, a flower farm, a strawberry farm, a butterfly farm, a Buddhist temple and most importantly the tea plantation. It was a good day, we tried lots of different things and saw a whole new culture that we hadn’t so far on our trip – a mixture of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian.

View of the Cameron Highlands

Here's my ears, here's my mouth, here's my eyes, here's my.....

The BOH tea plantation

"That guy's got a big nose!"

The next day we got on another bus to begin our long trip into Thailand and to the diving island of Ko Tao (can’t wait!!!). We’ll blog again soon.

Love Ells and Gem xx