A month or so before the holiday Bella, Austin, Harry and I all gathered at Bella's apartment and hunched over our laptops spent a frantic hour or two trying to book cheap airline tickets and lock down some of the itinerary. We decided on spending 2 days in Kuala Lumpur to begin (including a day at the race!) before heading off to Langkawi for 2 nights, Penang for 2 nights and then a final 2-night stint back in KL. I had to procure myself a re-entry permit for Japan before departure (lest I be refused entry upon landing back at Kansai International) and sort some F1 tickets, but after that was taken care of the countdown begun!
We'd all spent a relatively quiet winter term at school and so by the time our holiday rolled around we could barely contain our excitement. We caught the bus from Tokushima City to Osaka Airport, then flew AirAsia direct to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived ridiculously early in the morning and made our way into the city centre to leave our bags at the Grand Seasons Hotel before rushing back to Sepang Circuit for the race.
The race in itself was fairly exciting despite the rain that halted competition for almost an hour. We had chosen covered hillstand seats and dealing with the water AND the all-too-plentiful bugs was rather humorous. The day was unbelievably hot and humid and by the time we made it back to the hotel at 10pm all we wanted to do was forego the partying and shower/crawl into bed instead.
Day Two passed in a bit of a shopping blur as we spent hours at the Central Markets bargaining on souvenir gifts for our friends and colleagues. I managed to snap up some "Prada" sunnies and wallet, a pair of shoes for a mate back home and some food stuffs/trinkets/scarves for my teachers at school. We went out for a night of cocktails, spending the ringgits (or Rueben Mindies as Austin dubbed them) thick and fast.
The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur
Footage of us walking through a wet market in the backstreets of KL looking for breakfast.
Langkawi was beautiful - a chillaxed island vibe featuring restaurants on the sand, cheap cocktails and beer, a pool bar at our hotel AND GO-KARTING! I have to admit that I came in third-place in a close race, mainly due to the last minute spin-out Bella had on the final lap. Not my finest racing hour! We spent the rest of our time in Langkawi mostly relaxing and sitting around slurping cocktails. Though we did make it up the side of a mountain to check out the Cable Car that overlooks pretty much the entire island - not one for the faint hearted, that ride!
Langkawi Cable Car Suspension Bridge
Next stop was Penang, where although I was expecting a similarly beachy atmosphere, we were greeted with the old city, multicultural feel of Georgetown. We ate a few meals at a crazy open-air food market that featured table drink service and live 'bands' performing onstage. We did some sightseeing, sussing out the old Protestant Cemetery, the oldest Catholic Church on the island, the ruined fort and a couple of temples. We also had dinner at the East and Oriental Hotel - splurging a little for a 5-star meal and some gourmet cocktails. Two days here flew by and before you knew it, we were making our way back to Kuala Lumpur for the last leg of the trip.
Old Presbyterian Cemetery in Penang
Chinese Temple in Penang
Indian flower stalls in Penang
For Harry and I, KL offered more of the same - shopping, drinking, getting massages and ordering pizza to the hotel (I don't recommend it, that was a mission!). Austin and Bella headed off on their own a couple of times to do some sightseeing just out of town, though I felt it was far too hot and humid to make such a trip myself. On the Saturday night we donned our finest going-out-gear and ventured out to a club. Not having such decent offerings in Japan we made the most of it before cabbing it back to the hotel and hitting the sack!
Flying home (to Japan) was bittersweet. I think in a way we were all craving the relative comforts of a super-clean and polite society at the tail end of winter. I know Harry and I are particularly fond of gritty-Asia though and so leaving for us was quite hollowing too. I was certainly a little culture-shocked again when I got back to Japan, though did rather enjoy the 5-minute breeze through immigration in our own personal queue... At Kansai International Airport there are three inbound immigration queues: one for residents of Japan, one for tourists to Japan and one for foreign residents of Japan (which is us!). Needless to say we copped many an evil glare from the people waiting in both other queues - not that it mattered much to us, we were in and out of there in under 10 minutes!
Overall, I had an amazing time in Malaysia. Granted I had been there before already (while for the others this holiday popped their cherries, so to speak) and so had seen and done a lot of Kuala Lumpur during my 2005 travels. I had also been to the Sepang Circuit before (for MotoGP last time though) but I thoroughly enjoyed the race on that first weekend. In retrospect we probably spent too much time travelling between places and could have cut our itinerary down to just KL and Langkawi, but live and learn. NEXT time I travel abroad on holidays it'll be strictly pool-side lounging over cocktails for me!
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