Malaysia *Aug-Sep 2010* by ...vale vale...

Let's start by saying that the travel purposes are:

• visit the country
• visit the cities
• scuba diving

in a budget way.

The intention is not looking for high level locations (hotel, restaurant, club, ...).
That said, if you are interested in the article please move on :-)...!!!

We had a 3 weeks vacations, 100% advanced organized from home.
All internal flights were bought, all the itinerary was set, we just needed to follow it!

Total cost (souvenirs included +/- 1900€)

We did:

KL (Batu caves, etc)
George Town
Kota Kinabalu
Sandakan <--> Kinabatangan [Rainforest + River Cruise]
Miri (Teman Negala National Park)
Kuching (Bako National Park)
Johr Bahru
Mersing
Tioman (Scuba Diving)
Mersing
Melaka
KL
Kuala Selangor
KL
DXB


Flights operated by:

Emirates- Excellent (we probably found an offer ;-))
Air Asia

Tips:

- buy a chip for your cell phone: calls and texts are extremely cheap;

- do not stay more than 1/2 day in the cities [Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Kuching, Johr Bahru, Penang/Geroge Town];

- do not stay more than 3-4 days in Kuala Lumpur [KL];

- George Town: not a lot to see --> while the Kek Lok Si Temple worths a visit! You can easily take a public bus to get there and then you have to walk "a little bit" in order to get to the main entrance gate;

- in order to get to Kinabatangan, do not follow the Lonely Planet recommendations; get to the tourist office, they will suggest you to go to a hostel in which there is a travel agent organazing the Kinabatangan tour...it really worthed and we didn't pay too much; [we had everything arranged, but we could get to Kinabatangan, so we call the guide and we cancelled the tour with him];

- Teman Negala National Park: we had problem at the airport and with baggage claim people: my friend's backpack didn't arrive...
The lodge we stayed at wasn't as it was described: very bad hospitality and people;

- Teman Negala National Park: you need to pay all the transport from and to the park in order to reach your lodge!!!;

- Bako National Park: we did sleep at the park lodge; pay attention at the macacos; and the accomodation are really really really basic;

- Tioman: SAND FLIESSSSSSSSSSSSSS --> Johnson's baby oil
            - it is pleanty of cats;
            - we stayed @ Swiss Cottage:http://samudra-swiss-cottage.com/chalet.html
            - we dived @ Tioman Diving Centre and we met a great British Dive Master (Nina Davies)
            - we unfortunately had bad visibility and we didn't see what we expected: we were supposed to dive in Sarawak;

- Melaka: amazing;

- do not waste your time to get to Kuala Selangor to admire the fireflies...wasted time and money;

- in KL you would better have a fish massage :D;

- Dubai: loving it :D and it was needed after this kind of adventure!

As soon as I remember something more...I will be more than happy to share it with you all!!!

V.



Picture Available on Flickr