I’m not sure what made me book a nine night holiday in Malaysia but I’m so glad that I did; just the small area of Malaysia that G and I visited, we were blown away with it’s beauty, the kindness of it’s people and the rather great shopping (hello favourable exchange rate!).
I’ve done all the hotel reviews of where we stayed while in Malaysia (apologies if you hate hotel reviews!). After a rather dodgy start to our holiday, all thanks to a car hire firm…honestly I don’t like care hire companies…I gave the firm that we originally booked with the short shove and G went and found us a new car with sat nav, a map and petrol…it wasn’t that difficult…here’s our little bat mobile…and all our luggage…we had a bag full of gluten free food with us!
Our first stop was the Pangkor Laut Resort on the coast; it was a rather long drive…over 4.5 hours from KL airport…but we got to paradise and had a rather relaxing three nights on a private island…we are so going to be doing this again…
…and of course this!
I think it was safe to say we left Pangkor Laut Resort pretty relaxed and blissed out after numerous spa treatments and just enjoying the sunsets and crashing waves at Emerald Bay. It’s definitely worthy of a visit if you’re in Malaysia and it was G’s favourite hotel from our trip.
We jumped back into the Bat Mobile with all our luggage…it felt like we had actually accumulated more luggage even though we hadn’t bought anything…the joys of a private island…you can’t go shopping! We were staying at The Banjaran Hot Springs Retreat in Ipoh; it was another retreat where the emphasis is on pure relaxation; we left in a gooey relaxed mess…albeit G had managed to get bitten by every mosquito in Ipoh…hmmm rainy season!
Once again we didn’t actually leave the retreat…I promise we did see a bit of Malaysia during our visit. Yoga classes are a must at The Banjaran…just don’t smother yourself in mosquito repellant prior to attending a yoga class…you end up all a little slippery and falling out of yoga poses…p.s. giggling when someone farts in a yoga class is frowned upon…just putting that out there!
After two nights in Ipoh, the Bat Mobile was loaded up again and we were off up to the Cameron Highlands on some very twisty roads…it kept G entertained…while I checked out the road side shops….I needed a shopping fix…
As it was the end of Ramadan, every man and his dog were descending on the Cameron Highlands (apparently it’s always rather busy during the weekends anyway but add a public holiday…eek!) so it was pretty packed…and there were traffic jams. We bought some strawberries and chocolate sauce to take back to the hotel so we could devour them while reading our books…G ended up falling asleep and woke up to only one strawberry left in the container…you snooze you loose.
We managed to get ourselves on a private sunrise tour while staying in the Cameron Highlands which I highly recommend doing as it’s just a beautiful way to really appreciate the beauty of the area…waiting for the sun…
…hello Little Miss Sunshine…
…the reason for our visit…the tea leaves!
^^You think being on holiday I would have given myself a manicure!
Our tour included a wander through the Mossy Forest…it was a bit cloudy unfortunately.
We headed out to visit the BOH Tea Plantation but due to the public holidays there was no display so we visited the gift shop and loaded up on a lot of tea…and I mean a lot!
On the way back to the hotel we left the car on the side of the road like everyone else seemed to be doing…and did a spot of strawberry shopping…I talked myself out of the strawberry jandals…then G talked me into buying them…and then I talked myself out of them again! I should have bought myself a giant strawberry cushion though…souvenir buyers remorse right there folks!
Mum, please tell me you’ve bought these self plucking strawberries for the garden….if not, you need to buy these plants from Malaysia.
We left the Cameron Highlands in a rather refreshed state of mind…it was so much cooler…no humidity for two nights was heaven!
Our drive back to Kuala Lumpur Airport to drop off the rental car was easy peasy…and we jumped on the train into the city centre. I may have picked up some chocolate bars for the journey and got a tad excited to find a golden ticket inside my Diary Milk…then G got one…I almost cried….I thought I was special.
The lovely concierge at The Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur advised us that most of the big tourist attractions were closed…drats drats drats…including the viewing area at The Towers…I wasn’t disappointed about this…thank goodness….G was almost in tears..it just means another holiday to Malaysia.
We wandered around the beautiful old colonial railway station…
…and the mosque, I looked for pretty doors…G doesn’t understand my fascination with photographing doors!
We did a spot of shopping at Pavilion…a seriously good shopping mall…we spent hours inside…and I needed macarons to keep up my energy…it was macarons or a new Gucci bag…I went for the cheaper option!
Of course we visited The Towers at night time; aren’t they beautiful all lit up!
And then ventured into the night market…I loved the flower shop….
…and all the pretty lanterns….
…and then my camera lost charge…bollocks!
Too soon we were boarding our Malaysia Airlines flight back to Hong Kong…
…but as you can see; we were super relaxed after our holiday in Malaysia and get a touch better at taking selfies.
I know we only visited a tiny section of Malaysia so please feel free to give me your recommendations on places to visit in future as I will definitely be back at some point.
I was rather surprised on how much I enjoyed Malaysia as I’ve always seen Asia as a dodgy backpacker destination (and yes I did backpack through the Middle East, Africa and Europe many years ago) however that’s not the case…there are glorious luxury hotels just waiting to be discovered along with great food, culture and natural beauty.
xx
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