Phuket - Kuala Lumpur - Kota Kinabalu - Singapore (21 - 31 Jan)

Phuket - Kuala Lumpur - Kota Kinabalu - Singapore (21 - 31 Jan)

Its an early start to the airport in Bangkok, but we make the Air Asia baggage allowance with room to spare, so stuff in as much as possible. We're really happy to get back to the beach, and our hotel, CC Blooms is a little gem. Tucked up in the hills behind Karon beach, we're away from the sea front and all the tourists. Scandinavians seem to have the Phuket market sown up, but we do also come across a couple of seedy British men who are out here with one thing on their minds. Anyway, up in the hills we lounge away the afternoon by the pool, and then pop down to the beach side for supper at one of the restaurants recommended by our hotel. The next couple of days pass by in a similar vein — beach and dinner at either Kata and Karon. The beaches are possibly the nicest we have seen, but most of the world seems to share that view and a lot of them are currently on holiday getting in our way.

All too soon we are on our way again, flying down to Kuala Lumpur. It's ridiculously hot and humid and we pop into shops on the basis that they have severe sir con blasting onto the street. It's a very modern city with plenty of skyscrapers and chain stores (even Nandos) but also retains some sort of exotic. Malaysia is a Muslim country, and a majority of women dress accordingly covering their heads. There is also a major Indian population, and we head first for a wander around Little India. We're thrilled to be back amongst Indians, with the Bollywood soundtrack blaring out, Indian snack sellers on the streets (mmmmmmm banana chips) and the head waggling. So we go and have an enormous curry. Its authentic enough, but we forget in our air conditioned bubble that its 36 degrees and 80% humidity outside. Not good conditions for stuffing your face.

The next day we are down at the twin Petronas Towers early to pick up tickets to go up to the sky bridge that joins them. There is a limited supply and you have to get there early. We're assigned a time to go up (all way to efficient to what we are used to in Asia) and have time to pop over to the other KL Tower, which isn't as tall, but as you are allowed to go right to the top, and its built on a hill, you end up looking down on the Petronas. Still following? Anyway, it's a great view from the top all around the city, which is surprisingly small. We also get a look in at a little zoo on the way down and it's feeding time for the snakes as a mouse is put into the tank with them. Its barbaric, but hugely addictive watching snakey toy with little Mickey. I guess in the wild they just finish them off there and then, but in the tank, they have nothing better to do...

We fall in line at Petronas, at the assigned time, watch some info film that is basically an ad for Petronas (they're an oil company like BP) file into the lift up to the sky-bridge, wander around for our allotted 8 mins, and are then summoned back to the lift back down. Its all a bit odd really, and the view is not a patch on the KL Tower - at least it was free, and the buildings themselves are pretty amazing. Floors 1-5 are a huge shopping mall, with good air-con, so we potter around, and decide to kill a couple of hours in the cinema. Probably under normal circumstances I'd not enjoy Yes Man, and cant stand Jim Carey but having not seen a movie for so long, it's a bloody hoot. We spend the rest of the day wandering around Chinatown, but its Chinese New Year, so everything is closed. After a spot of dinner at a local hawker stall — about £1 for chicken noodles or fried rice its time for bed.

3rd Air Asia flight and still no problems, and we're nudging 17 kg each now. Our place in Kota Kinabalu on Borneo is 5 mins walk from the airport. That's probably its best point too — that and the wifi. Its more humid here than in KL, but at least it isn't raining, according to bbc.co.uk we'd be soaked in those 5 mins. We see a bit of dragon dancing for Chinese New Year in the town, but are stumped when trying to get to see orang-utans. All the tours are booked up — probably as its Chinese New Year, and there are lots more tourists here. Seeing orang-utans was the main reason for coming to Borneo, so we are a bit disappointed at our wasted journey, but at least it gives us a chance to do nothing and save some of our budget back — which we duly do — and get ahead with planning for the arrival in Oz, which is fast approaching!

Last stop before Oz is Singapore. It feels like we've really missioned around this part of SE Asia, and probably tried to fit in too much. It feels like we zipped through Cambodia, and didn't really get a feel for it, and maybe another day on the beach in Phuket would have been nice, but we're here now, at our last stop.

"A very sensible place" is how Luce describes SIngapore - its clean and tidy, littering and spitting are forbidden - there are no tramps or beggars, and everything seems to work smoothly. It also means that there isn't a great deal to see or do, but we enjoy pottering around the city, and are happy to have checked into Little India once more. In fact, first stop is for a masala dosa (we've learned from KL not to have enormous curry for lunch.)

Luce manages to swan into Raffles hotel with no problems but they have quite a strict policy of no shorts/flip flops for men only it seems. No singapore slings in sight sadly. Our time in Singapore continues to revolve around food as I want to go for chilli crabs, and have a recommendation from 2 separate sources for the best crustaceans in town. Frustratingly though the Lonely Planet suggests that the East Coast Seafood Centre is a lot easier to find than it actually is. SHortly before we kill each other we admit defeat and head back to the centre to try and find option 2. This Chilli crab hut is equally as difficult to find, so tired and exhausted and not a little cross, we stop and have some delicious supper (still chilli crab, but at a non lonely planet restaurant) and a well deserved beer.

Next day is the Chingay Parade - Asia's biggest street parade, and as camp as row of tents. We do really enjoy it though as its full of dancers and performers from all over the region so we have dancers from India, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Japan and local dragon dancers - its almost like the curtain drawing on our time in South East Asia. FInal stop is for a burger in Raffles, just to remind us where we are from, and where we are headed next...