Rogerson's on the Road

Yes, yes, I know that it is mid January and I am quite far behind, but at least I am trying!

We made that over night trip from KL to Butterworth on the sleeper train. What a great expereince that was - it made a nine hour journey really quite pleasant. A nice comfortable bed in a private cabin with a small sink and reading lights - what more can you want? The only problem with the public transport in SE Asia is that, if you are lucky enough to be able to afford the 1st class ticket, they come with air conditioning as standard and drivers seem to think that you are a perishable commodity and chill the carriages to near freezing! I started to regret sending my fleece, hat and gloves home!

Once we arrived in Butterworth we crossed over the train station platform to the ferry terminal and waited for the 6am ferry over the the island on Penang.

With no hotel accomodation booked we put our faith in a nice Chinese taxi driver who drove us up the coast to the beach area of Batu Ferrenghi. After about 15 attempts in different hotels up the coast we managed to get ourselves booked into the Bayview Beach and Spa Resort (and yes it was a nice as it sounds). It was the day before Christmas Eve and we wanted somewhere nice to stay for Christmas. We quickly made ourselves comfortable poolside for a few days of sunshine.

Christmas day came and went without too much of a fuss and we really did not feel it was like Christmas at all and by mid morning we thought that we would have to do something in order to remember Christmas Day 2005. After a wander on the beach Neil came up with the perfect plan:

"why don't we got parasailing", he says.

"Cool", I said

So off we went, adorned with a life jacket, a harness (which I was convinced would not have passed any kind of safety checks in the UK - I have done a harness appreciation course, dont you know) and attached to a parachute which was in turn attached to a speed boat. I was given some instructions, in pigeon english, which I roughly translated into run fast, let go, when we shout pull this cord. Simple I thought to myself.

OK, so you might be getting the picture now, this was parasailing as only Alison Rogerson and Bridget Jones could do. Firstly, I ran fast but the speed boast did not get going as quickly as it should have done and ended up being dunked into the water and the parachate get all twisted up. In my fear I managed to untwist myself but was now at full height and very very scared, I did not think that the harness would hold and was calculating the approximate time to impact! A trip around the bay, which Neil thought lasted about 2 and half minutes but I was convinced lasted closer to 3 days came to an end and now it was time to land. So as the group of Malaysian men shouted at me on the beach to pull the cord, I pulled the cord - guess what nothing happened, they started shouting louder, I pulled harder - you can picture the scene.....The landing was not graceful nor elegent but involved a face first landing into the sand followed by me being dragged on my front through the sand - embarrassing to say the least!

Neil's experience on the other hand was a much more graceful affair, when he tried to swap stories of what he has seen from his flight, the scenery, the boats, the jelly fish I had to wonder what I had been doing wrong. At last one of us enjoyed it!

We spent 5 days in Penang and had a great time. We left Malaysia bound for Thailand. On the train heading for the Thai boarder. Until the next time.......

We arrived in Kuala Lumpar (KL) and made contact with my Aunt's friend Karen who had booked a hotel for us in the city centre. We were ushered into our windowless box. We guessed this was backpacking! And for 7 pounds a night we could not complain, it was clean with a comfortable bed, toilet and AC (even if the room was a little damp).

After the cleaniless, efficiency and familiarity of Singapore, KL was a little more difficult but we managed to do a good bit of sightseeing, a visit to the Chinatown is an unforgetable experience. Del Boy Trotter had nothing on the guys that have stalls here. There is absolutly nothing genuine to be found here, everything is hooky and the market is home to the worst fakes in the world. Imagine a Burberry print shirt with a Gucci label on it, a Rolex style watch (with the bubble on the date) with a Tag emblem on it. Chav central! It is also home to the funniest reference to Neil's height. As you can imagine the big man is getting hourly comments about his height, he is being asked how tall he is by anybody he holds eye contact with for too long, women are handing him their babies with some strange idea that he can make them tall, old women are standing next too him and giggling like school girls, all of which Neil is hamdling with his usual good humour and kind manner. However, when walking through the China Town market, between the hollers of "t-shirt for you miss", "nice watch for you sir, Rolex real real" and "Levi's imported from China for you", we hear "sir, sir, some Dockers for you, yes you sir, I have King Kong size for you!" Well, priceless is all I can say! Neil had to give him a chance. Alas Neil is still Dockerless.

We did try for a trip up the Petronas towers but we were unaware that they have a daily quota for trips to the viewing deck and you have to start queuing at 8 in the morning. However, we do have some cracking shots from the base of the tower!

We spent only 2 days in KL as Christmas is approaching and we want to get up the caost for the festive period.

We leave KL on the night train to Butterworth, heading to Penang. A first class, private sleeper carriage for the grand price of 5 pounds - bargin.