We got there eventually, but KK airport is no fun when your flight is delayed. I was also suffering from the after effects of a "Cantonese Mee" that I ate at Tawau airport.
Why is it, when you really need to take a crap, the only toilets available are the nasty squat ones?!
Thankfully I clenched my teeth (and bowels) and resisted the urge....
When a cubicle with a normal toilet became free, I hiked up my shorts to keep them off the wet floor, and did my explosive business. Luxury indeed.
On arrival in KL we turned on the laptop to post to the blog and look up the hotel details. 5 minutes later the battery went flat. Not sure whether the battery is fucked, or whether I forgot to charge it. Let's hope it's the latter.
The Hotel Grand Continental (not Chancellor - which doesn't exist, despite us thinking it did) is neither grand, nor continental (unless continental is a packet of peanuts a'la Malaysia Airlines). It is however, apparently a favorite hangout for fundamentalist Islamic tourists, and cheap-ass Indians who are staying in KL.
The mattress hadn't been changed since 1980, the air conditioning didn't work, and someone had left a milky drink in the fridge. Ahh well, apparently that's what you get for MYR170.
Keeping with the jihad theme we found an internet cafe run by an Arabic bloke, who was very nice and gave us MYR1 off our internet and printing bill. I've never seen a keyboard with Arabic script before, nor have I ever tried to log into the jihad version of Google mail.
Time passes, and the next thing it's 05:30 and we're getting up to travel to Redang.
A small taxi fare comparison:
- Coupon from Sentral to Hotel: MYR11
- Fare agreed on the next morning from Hotel to Sentral: MYR15
- Fare the meter showed: MYR6
Hmm.
MAS were doing the usual airline trick of having 2 staff manning the check-in counters, and 2 staff manning the counters for people who were still in the queue but the flights were closing. Never mind, at least they weren't running late today.
We arrive at Terengganu, get a transfer, ride a boat for a couple of hours and arrive at Pulau Redang.
It is here that everything starts to go very very wrong.
1. Even though it was the hotel transfer, the room isn't ready. Seems like 90% of the other rooms are, but there are an unlucky few condemned to wait in the lobby for several hours. Including us.
2. Despite booking a room with a king bed, ours allegedly has two single beds.
3. I present to you the text from the Berjaya Beach Resort website:
"Rates inclusive of daily breakfasts, 3 boat dives with tanks & weight for certified divers only or a choice of 1 spa treatment (60 minutes massage/ Body scrub/ Reflexology/ Facial) for non-diver and welcome drink for the number of paying persons booked for each room."
I had foolishly thought that "3 boat dives" meant "3 boat dives per day". NOT SO MY FRIEND! It means 3 boats dives each IN TOTAL. I had also not paid close enough to the meal allowance, as nothing but breakfast was included, and there is only resort restaurants to go to.
Faced with spending several hundred dollars more on diving and eating, we decided to check out the next day. A very disappointing experience, as the hotel staff weren't willing to come to the party with.. well... anything.
We slipped in a cheeky dive, which was quite nice. Had a huge buffet dinner (at the tiny price of MYR110), and quickly left without signing for the bill.
Neither were charged to us. WE WIN!! HAHAHA DIE!!
Anyway. We're off somewhere else tomorrow. Back to Pulau Redang. Older, and wiser.
Now... some pictures. First some embedded ones.
Here is a photo of James (red shirt, on the left) and Yong (red shirt on the right) from Seaventures. If you look closely you will notice that our time was not misspent, as they have rightly learned how to salute the Slayer way.
Next is just a picture of Seaventures as we leave. *sniff*
Our palatial residence on Mataking Island:
The view from the beach (well not always, unless Kat is on the beach every night while I am not paying attention. Possible, but unlikely):
Phew. Second last is my second gallery of images from Sipadan & Mabul:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rogue303/SipadanPhase2
Last, but not least, images from Mataking:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rogue303/Mataking
** Photos done. Captions done. Goodnight **
Until next essay,
Us.
1 comment:
Loving the pics, it's almost alien.
Customer service - when a customer decides to service themselves (this is taken from the Concise Asia Oxford Dictionary)
HK has been washed and awaits your presences.
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