What a crappy journey! I left the hostel at 4am and headed to the airport through an eerie mist. The streets of the old quarter were empty - they look very strange when there are no motorbikes and hawkers clogging up the streets! The only place that was busy was the flower market near the house I lived in for the past month - I don't know if this was jsut because of Tet or if its like that every morning at 4am. To be honest, I doubt I'm ever going to find out as I'm really not a morning person!

When I checked in I discovered I had two hours in transit in HCMC - no-one bothered to tell me this when I booked the ticket! I got some Pho as that was the only thing available and then got on my first flight of the day. Vietnam airways provided a meal - more noodles - and on the next flight I got yet more noodles. Noodle overload! HCMC airport seems far more modern than Hanoi and had a bunch of duty free stores with international brands. The most exciting thing I found there was some Cadbury's chocolate! It was kinda pricey but I gave in and bought it.

When I got to KL I had 3 or 4 hours there - the only way I could get some time int he city would be to take the speedy but incredibly expensaive train. All teh otehr cheaper options took so long so I gave up and killed time at the airport. There were chains like Starbucks and Burger King that I haven't seen since getting to Vietnam - I guess I jsut took it for granted that they were all over the place back home. I feasted on BK - it tasted sooooo good!! - then made my way round to the scrum at the Air Asia terminal. It's basically Asias answer to Easyjet and check-in was jsut as mental. The flight over wasn't too bad - the palne was half empty so I had a row to myself, plus I got some rice and chicken thing. I eat rice and chicken quite often back in Hanoi but it tastes quite bland compared to the Malaysian version. I remember it from last time and I think I'm going to be eating it a lot while I'm here as it's so good!

Kota Kinabalu is very strange after Hanoi - there are no motorbikes, people obey the rules of the road and give way where necessary, plus poverty is less obvious. They also drive on teh same side of teh road as back home and drive cars that are popular back home. That combiled with the neon and the amount of signs in English make it seem like a tropical cross between an American and a British city. There are no funny symbols in their alphabe either so signs in the local language don't look so odd and it's just generally far more Western than Hanoi. I didn't realise hiow used to Hanoi I got until I left! I just hope I don't have go through all the adjustment again when I get back.