Malaysia- Penang

After Raja Ampat, we decided to fly over Malaysia on our way to Thailand. We ended up for a couple of days in Penang where we knew food was delicious and arranging a 2-month-visa for Thailand was easy to get... after Indonesia, food appeared even better that we had imagined... The Christmas stuff was weird though... ;-)

Kuala Lumpur- every end has a new beginning

Everything has to end- eventually! So did our fabulous 3 weeks together with our Luxembourgish friends. After a last breakfast around the best roti in KL and some last minute shopping we had to say goodbye. ...Again one of these sad moments of our trip....
Actually we said "goodbye" to some and "hi" to others; reinforcement from Luxembourg had indeed already arrived the day before.

Malaysia- Perhentian

Two islands were not enough... so we decided to spend our last days on Perhentian to relax on the beach and do some diving, at least those who could ;-) Laure even tried a DSD (discovery scuba dive)... brave!! All together we did some snorkelling and saw some reef sharks and even Bumphead Parrotfishes!! Wonderful...

Malaysia- Langkawi

We went to Langkawi by boat and looked forward to our fancy flat we had booked in advance... three bedrooms with three bathrooms, one including a jacuzzi... Amazing... Cheun was happy to spend some time in the kitchen... to our delight... Exploring the island with motorbikes (again!) was easy and fun... a really beautiful island...

Malaysia-Penang

A bus ride brought us to Penang, an island on the east coast of Malaysia. The idea was leaving the city behind us; we had not been aware that Georgetown counts a population of the size of Luxembourg. Our first impression was terrible, but after driving around the city and the island on our motorbikes for a couple of days, we liked it more and more... the most important: having amazing food with our friends!!!!

Malaysia -Kuala Lumpur

We left Banda Aceh to fly back to KL where we spent another few days at Lam Lis place. We enjoyed chilling and eating a lot.

Finally it was time to go to the city to meet up with our friends from Luxembourg. We were so pleased to see them again after almost a year. As some luggage was missing we had to spent a day more in KL than initially planned...After the traditional sightseeing (Petronas Towers, Batu Cave, etc.) we also enjoyed a nice evening with our friends from Antwerp.

Malaysia- Penhentian island

Perhentian Kecil (the smaller of the two islands) has a nice sandy beach and some bungalows (some of them overlooking the sea). We dove with Turtle Bay Divers and were happy to meet the “Twin Triplets”  (Beinn and Crian) and Joo again. We had already dived with them in Sipadan (Malaysia) and were happy to do it again. We stayed on the island for a week and had fun diving and chilling on the beach. 

Thailand- A long trainride to the Malaysian border

After a quick stay in Bangkok to pick up Ron’s passport we headed south. We took the 20 hours night train to Sungai Kolok to reach the Malaysian border. Our goal was the Perhentian Island. We stayed overnight in Kota Bharu and took the boat to the island on the following morning

Kota Kinabalu and Brunei

After our fantastic diving around Tubbataha Reef, we had to leave the Philippines as our visa was running out, again. But it was also time to move on. A cheap option was to fly to Kota Kinabalu (KK), located in the malaysian part of Borneo.

Unexpected, we did a day of diving there as well. Of course it was not as amazing as our liveaboard, but the overall experience was quite good. We spent a couple of days in KK and then decided to take a ferry to Brunei, a (rich) independent sultanate.

What we found in and around Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital) made us think of (and feel like) home. A small and rich country, very clean, where a lot of foreigners come to work as the minumum salary is quite high compared to the rest of the region. Most roads and houses are new (except for the water village) as well as the cars you see here and there. Almost no pedestrians can be encountered on the nice and neat sidewalks. Public transport is poor, taxis (if available) cost a fortune. Sounds like home, no? ;-)

The Regalia Museum was a nice passtime. We did not go to the floating villages- as we already did something similar in Myanmar nor did we trek through the rainforest as it was way overpriced. 2 of the museums we wanted to visit were beeing renovated wich was a pity.

One thing though has to be pointed out at this place: even though Brunei / BSB was quite boring, the people we met were more than friendly. Indeed, as our Hotel was 2 km out of the city center. we had to waved on the sidewalk for a ride. Every sinle time-  after 2 or 3 minutes- a car stopped and took us to where we wanted to go! FOR FREE- and some times a free coffee was in it as well, which we excepted with pleasure. 

Unfortunately Brunei has recently (April 2014) introduced the Sharia which penalises those involved in homosexual relationships with death by stoning. At a time where gay marriage is finally going to be introduced in Luxembourg, this shocks especially. 

Brunei: