Dear Malaysian efficiency. I love you.

I know I loved Bali, but Malaysia is a welcome civilized change. I didn't have to pay a sneaky tax on arrival, the roads are big, they adhere to traffic lights, no one is shouting 'bracelet bracelet' at me and the plug sockets are British so I can charge everything at once!

Throwing money at a situation really can help.

I booked my flight over to Tioman thinking I'd hang out in the airport overnight, then realised that they were very different airports. I got cold feet, hopped online and booked a hotel close to the second airport and thank you booking.com!
At about £40 for the night it was a lot more than my previous residences have been setting me back. i disnt want another hole-tel experience when arriving at 2am) but as I pulled up to the swanky foyer I could see why. As it turns out the star rating on the website isn't customer feedback, it is in fact a star rating. Hello 5* hotel (for 6 hours)! Little things like being able to have a bath mean that my feet finally feel clean. It didn't magically heal my ear so I have another hour of plane pain ahead of me, fingers crossed it doesn't pop (or if it does then the tramadol I've just popped helps). I also managed to leave the terminal, hop in my taxi and then remember that I had failed to retrieve my backpack (backpack) from baggage reclaim. Oops! Luckily the customs man saw the funny side and let me back in. My bag was on a solitary journey round and round the belt. Hopefully that's a once bitten, twice shy kind of event.