Malaysia – A long way home to Leytonstone

23/08/202323/08/2023 Sam Thompson Malaysia, Thailand

The long way home

The final section of our trip has been up in the air until very recently. We couldn’t decide exactly how and where we wanted to spend our final few weeks.

Some of this was down to areas being out of season (Philippines, Malaysia) and not wanting to risk getting caught up in monsoon weather. Other options were either too expensive or too difficult to get to (Khao Sok National Park).

Finally, after considering lots of options, we landed on Hua Hin, which had been suggested as an option by a friend (thanks again Steve). This was fairly close (three hours) to our final destination, Bangkok. The problem was that it was a long way from Ipoh.

The journey was broken down into four phases:

Ipoh to Padang Basar – a three hour train to the border town in Malaysia.
Cross the border – the land border crossing from Malaysia to Thailand that is notoriously complicated.
Get to Hat Yai – an hour train or drive away from the border in Thailand, and then wait for our next train.
Train to Hua Hin – a 13-hour sleeper train from Hat Yai to Hua Hin.

Our train left Ipoh on time at 09:40, but was very busy with locals bound for the border as we were. We both got our earphones on to drown out the very loud mix of Mandarin and Malay all around us.

We seemed to be one of the only westerners making the journey. The ETS train, which runs along the entire West coast of Malaysia, cost us around £23, arrived on time around three hours later. Now, the fun part began.

We’d heard from others online that this border crossing could be complicated, and they weren’t wrong. We had come somewhat prepared in that we’d already changed up some currency, so we had some Thai Baht.

The shuttle train from Padang Basar to Hat Yai was ruled out as there was a three hour wait. So, our first priority was to find a taxi to the Malaysian border so we could stamp out our passports. There was no WiFi anywhere, and we had no local sim card. So we had to opt for an overpriced taxi (still only £12), which said it would help us navigate all of the border controls and take us to Hat Yai.

What we didn’t realise was that this would involve three separate journeys in two different cars. The other issue is they didn’t have any small change for our 1000 Baht (£22) notes, so we had to find somewhere that could change money for us.

The station was chaotic, with no clear signs or instructions. It turns out there were no money changers. Instead, we had to negotiate with a local cafe owner to break our large notes. Thankfully, they helped us.

After paying and filling in the required papers for the Thai border control, we were hearded into groups of four and told to wait. We weren’t too sure what we were waiting for, but it turned out it was a baking hot car to drive us ten minutes to the Malaysian border control.

After 20 minutes, we arrived at the border and got into a queue, which wasn’t too long. We weren’t sure if this was the Thai or Malasian border, as we’d been warned it’s common that people go direct to the Thai border. Thankfully, after some broken English conversations, we confirmed we were in the correct queue. It only took ten minutes or so to get stamped out of Malaysia.

Next, we were hearded into groups of eight and told to wait…again, we didn’t know what for. After about another 20 minutes, we got into a ‘party bus’ and made another ten minute trip across ‘nomansland’ to the Thai border control.

Into another queue to then be told to go to the supervisors office! After a moment of panic as to why, it turned out that the supervisor was the only person who could issue visas on arrival. Back into the party bus, and after another 20-minute wait for an unknown reason, we were on our way. After an hour and an uneventful drive (thankfully), we arrived at Hat Yai train station.

We thought we had about a three hour wait here, but what we’d not accounted for was the time difference, so it was actually four hours. It was a long four hours, and we were knackered at this point. We found a local minimarket where we could store our bags and headed into town. It was a cool 33°.

After filling our time in air-conditioned shops like Starbucks, we topped up on water and snacks and headed back to the station.

Our train actually arrived on time, and we got to our 1st Class private cabin, which cost around £90. It was very compact, a little dirty, but had good air-conditioning, and the bed was vaguely comfortable.

We left on time at 18:15, and got comfortable for a long night. We arrived over an hour late at around 08:15 the following morning. We’d both managed to get some sleep and weren’t feeling too bad, but we were both keen to get to our hotel.

A short cab journey later, we arrived at DusitD2 Resort, which cost around £40 per night. Almost 24 hours after we had left Ipoh, we’d arrived at our destination for the next eight days.

Now, for some sleep and time to recover.

Sam

20/08/202324/08/2023 Sam Thompson Malaysia, Thailand

Getting hot in Ipoh

To get to Ipoh, we had booked our first train journey of the trip. What we didn’t realise was that Melaka train station was an hour taxi ride out of town. After some quite aggressive driving, we made it with 10 minutes to spare.

The station itself had nothing there at all, other than a large group of noisy kids on a school day trip. Of course, it was written in the stars that they joined the same carriage as us. Any hope of a relaxed journey was pretty much gone. It was a fairly uncomfortable five hour trip, but it was clean and arrived in time.

Katy had found a nice hotel as a bit of a treat, and after a quick cab into town, we checked into the Bedrock Hotel at a cost of around £55 per night.

After a quick shower, we headed out to get our bearings and find somewhere for lunch. Immediately, we were struck with the heat, which made walking too far a bit of a struggle.

Both Melaka and Ipoh are known for their street art, and we didn’t have to walk far before finding some. There is a street dedicated to it (Mural Arts Lane), but you can find it on most streets around the city.

The old town in Ipoh is where you’ll find most tourists, along with lots of shops selling tat, and cafes and restaurants aimed at the western pallete. It’s a nice area to walk around and take it all in, but not really the sort of area we wanted to eat.

Ipoh is famous for its food, which rivals better known areas such as Penang. There is so much choice of varying cuisines that it can be difficult to choose what to have next. Shops sell huge pomelos (Tambun Pomelo) from their storefront, typically alongside their famous peanut brittle.

It therefore comes as no suprise that we had some great food during our stay at Ipoh. On our first night, we found a North Indian restaurant called Humaira Mughal Kitchen. They seemed quite excited at us being there and even asked for a picture. The food was great, and good value at around £15.

Another night, we found a great Sichuan restaurant (Sichuan Spicy Boy) and tried our first ever hotpot. We had to pick our own ingredients from the fridges and place on a tray. These included loads of different types of vegetables and herbs, raw meat and seafood. The meat choices looked a bit suspect, but this is fairly normal. Luckily, Katy likes Spam.

After choosing the ingredients, they are weighed so they can confirm the cost. You then choose your broth. We opted for the spice Mala option.

They then went off and cooked it in the background and came back with a huge bowl of spicy soup. And when I say spicy, it was spicy. I loved it, Katy struggled a little with the spice levels. But it tasted great, and a bargain at around £10.

One thing we tried and didn’t like so much was Tau Fu Fah. It’s a very soft soy bean pudding, typically in a ginger syrup. It’s served warm and has a similar taste to rice pudding. But the texture was not for us.

One of the things to see in the area are the temples surrounded by limestone cliffs. We got up early one day and headed to the Sam Poh Tong Temple, which is built into the cliffs and quite stunning.

We’d heard that you can also walk to a nearby lake, so headed of in the searing heat along the route advised by Google Maps. What this actually meant was that we were walking along a very busy dual carriageway.

We found another temple on the way (Perak Guanyin Cave), so we took refuge there, mainly to cool down. After a horrible 20-minute walk through traffic, we arrived at Tasik Cermin, the mirror Lake.

It was beautiful, and thankfully, we timed it perfectly. When we arrived, it was quiet, so we got some time to take it in and get some pictures. As we left a raft of locals and tourists alike arrived by the bus load. This time, we got a cab back to town to cool off.

That night, we headed to the East of the city as we’d found a decent tandoori restaurant to try. Being a predominantly Muslim country, it’s difficult to find decent pubs or bars. We had already visited ‘bar street’ here, and it’s a collection of soulless rooms charging London prices for drinks.

However, we found a decent place near the restaurant for a few late afternoon drinks, Healy Mac’s Irish Bar. It was also next to a park that was hosting a free music festival. A few bands played a very strange blend of death metal with Peruvian panpipes. It was quite amusing.

To get to the restaurant (Tandoor Grill Ipoh) meant another walk down a busy road. But, when we got there we were very happy. It felt like a proper treat, and we even opted for a bottle of red wine… the first we’ve had since being away.

The food was amazing, with the chicken vindaloo and the chicken bhuna the highlights. All of this came at a cost. This was our most expensive meal of the trip, at around £55. But it was worth it.

In all honesty, four days in Ipoh was probably one too many. Today was our last day, and we did very little but relax and get ready for our next leg of the journey.

In the evening, we headed back out to watch the Women’s World Cup Final, where England played Spain. It turns out that not a single channel in Malaysia was showing the game, so I had to step in. We ended up streaming the game from a mobile phone and casting it it on a screen.

To be fair, Spain deserved to win, and we were quite frustrated with the England tactics. But we enjoyed the night with some fellow English supporters before an early night.

Tomorrow, we have a 23-hour journey ahead of us to cross the border to Thailand and get to Hua Hin. A mammoth journey back to Thailand, which hopefully will go as planned.

Sam

18/08/202318/08/2023 Katy Thompson Malaysia

Coast to coast – Mersing to Malaka

After an easy ferry crossing, we arrived in Mersing and checked straight into our hotel for the night, the Mersing Hotel. It was pretty basic, but thankfully much better than the last Mersing hotel and only £11.

Due to bus schedules, our only option was to stay here for the night and get the first bus out in the morning. Having spotted a Domino’s Pizza on our first flying visit through, we were excited to treat ourselves to a bit of normal food after 10 days on the island.

We stuffed our faces before heading to a bar (History 19 48 Cafe), which Sam had found earlier to watch the Arsenal v Nottingham Forest game. It was a pretty nervy end to the game, but an Arsenal win (hurrah) and even a Bolton win too!

The next day was an early start as we were booked on a 7.15am bus. 5 hours later, we arrived in Malaka, on the West coast of Malaysia. After a breakfast of crisps and canned coffee and our apartment not available for a few hours, we dumped our bags and headed out for some sushi at Ichi Zen Melaka.

It was Sunday, and we knew that the famous Jonker Street Market was the place to go (only open on weekends). So after a quick shower, we grabbed a Grab taxi into town.

It was pretty hectic, but good fun seeing all the street stalls and people milling about. We indulged in a fair bit of food as we wondered around; curry buns, curry laksa, pani puri, spicy sausages, and coconut milkshakes. Feeling full and knackered, we headed back to our apartment for an early night.

The next few days mainly involved walking around Malaka and eating good food. We discovered Roti Jala at the Dutch Harbour Cafe, which is very similar to roti canai, but the roti is a rolled crepe ready for dunking into a delicious curry sauce.

We enjoyed our first proper Nyonya food at The Kam Cheng, and it was amazing. We ordered far too much as usual. We had a stewed chicken dish with black nuts, pork belly rendang, which was out of this world, prawn curry laksa, gai lan with garlic and pork lard and their famous blue rice.

Nyonya cooking originates from Peranakan people, Singapore’s population of immigrants from China who settled in an area that was then a British colony called the Straits Settlements. This area was comprised of two areas now designated as Singapore: Penang and Malaka. It’s basically a heavenly mix of Chinese, Indian and Malay cooking.

We took a boat ride down the river, much to Sam’s delight. It was full of tourists taking selfies and shouting at each other. I had fun watching Sam hate every moment! We found a nice spot on the river for some (expensive) beers afterwards.

On our last night, we headed to a local bar, The Beer Factory. We realised that the Lionesses were playing but couldn’t find a Malaysian channel screening it. In walks a random Aussie (Andrew) looking for the game, so we end up chatting and live streaming it from our phones. The bar soon fills up with another Aussie family, and we somehow manage to get the second half streamed onto the bars large screen. What a result for England!

After a few beers, curry is always a good option. Turned out that Andrew was a regular visitor to Malaka as he had business there so he took us to a local tandoori restaurant, Pak Putra which we’d had on our list to visit but hadn’t quite managed to fit in.

I’m so glad we went as it was amazing. With huge tandoor ovens out the front and freshly made naan, it was all delicious. We were also surprised that as we went to leave, Andrew had paid for our meal. Although a cheap meal £20 for 3 of us, it is still very generous and unexpected.