We stayed in Melaka for 6 nights, longer than we had anticipated, but because our accommodation was so chilled and relaxed there was no rush to leave. We had made a plan for our onward journey over the following month. As many travellers will relate to, especially when travelling in an unknown country, you can always make disastrous decisions. The next part of our travels certainly was disastrous but, to be honest, we didn't do as much research as we probably should have.
We didn't want to travel up and stay in the interior of Malaysia so we had to choose between travelling up the East coast and over to the Perhentian Islands (consists of 2 islands) or up the West Coast and over to the Langkawi Archipelago (consists of 99 islands, some of them just large boulders in the sea, Langkawi being the largest inhabited island).
We decided to travel up to the East as we had read that the Perhentian Islands are not very developed. Also, the 13 hour train journey that takes you up this coast travels up through the jungle railway line which trundles slowly into the mountainous, jungle-clad interior, stopping at every ramshakle village on the way and terminates in Tumpat the North East of Malaysia (jungle railway). The views from the train were said to be really good, especially in the last few hours of the journey. Even though Colin claims he is not a train-spotter he does like to travel on any slow, obscure and different train journeys in any country he can. So, I indulged him in his pleasure!
Our plan was to get off the train at Wakaf Bharu, the station before Tumpat, head to a place called Kota Bharu, stay there for a few days and then catch a ferry to the Perhentian Islands. We had decided to stay in Kota Bahru for a few days rather than head staright to the Parhentian Islands, as our limited reading had told us that Kota Bharu is a supremely pleasant place and deserves more than just a pit stop.
So off we headed with our plan, which turned out to be a catalogue of disasters!
We didn't want to travel up and stay in the interior of Malaysia so we had to choose between travelling up the East coast and over to the Perhentian Islands (consists of 2 islands) or up the West Coast and over to the Langkawi Archipelago (consists of 99 islands, some of them just large boulders in the sea, Langkawi being the largest inhabited island).
We decided to travel up to the East as we had read that the Perhentian Islands are not very developed. Also, the 13 hour train journey that takes you up this coast travels up through the jungle railway line which trundles slowly into the mountainous, jungle-clad interior, stopping at every ramshakle village on the way and terminates in Tumpat the North East of Malaysia (jungle railway). The views from the train were said to be really good, especially in the last few hours of the journey. Even though Colin claims he is not a train-spotter he does like to travel on any slow, obscure and different train journeys in any country he can. So, I indulged him in his pleasure!
Our plan was to get off the train at Wakaf Bharu, the station before Tumpat, head to a place called Kota Bharu, stay there for a few days and then catch a ferry to the Perhentian Islands. We had decided to stay in Kota Bahru for a few days rather than head staright to the Parhentian Islands, as our limited reading had told us that Kota Bharu is a supremely pleasant place and deserves more than just a pit stop.
So off we headed with our plan, which turned out to be a catalogue of disasters!
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