Flying into Singapore on Chinese New Year's may sound like madness, and really, it is. By nightfall we're riding the rapid rails and in with the throngs meandering amongst lanterns and rats. Not real rats, that's to come in Kuala Lampur.
The whole of Malaysia is in transit on New Year's Day and we're in the thick of it, wrestling for a seat on a bus, which after six hours at the station we secure. Dropped off at midnight in Chinatown in Kuala Lampur on Chinese New Year's where we find a layer of litter on the streets from all the partying...and NO ROOMS...whoops! And piles of garbage seething with rats on the first day of the Year of the Rat seems apropo! KL is a likeable city though with beautiful modern architecture and expansive parks to wander through.
Wonderful train ride through the countryside to the historic island of Penang, where the city of Georgetown lies along the harbourfront. Again, dropped off at night on the Saturday of the four day New Year's party! Gheesh, note to all, don't travel on Chinese New Year's in Asia. Narrow cobblestone streets of old Chinatown and Little India are lined with time worn "old shops" and eateries and we settle into one for a midnight snack of butter chicken.....mmmmmmmmm :)
We've had our fill of cities and the call of Thailand's beaches draw us like a powerful magnet, so after a sleep in the border town of Kuala Perlis, we hop a longtail fisherman's boat with a 1/2 dozen locals for a 30 minute trip along the coast into Thailand. I feel like a refugee hiding amongst boxes under tarps, sneaking into a better world. And by day's end, after boat, bus, bus, bus, boat, we're in Turatao National Park, sitting on an island beach with the sound of waves and the dazzling moon above us.
