Arriving in Kuantan happened very slowly, first traffic slowed the bus to a crawl and then the first bus station was out of town so I had to take another bus straight back the same route until I got into town again. I didn’t know anything about Kuantan because I didn’t plan on staying there, I missed the last bus onward so my trip to Taman Negara national park was delayed. My first hour in Kuantan was odd. I had never seen so many prostitutes. The first hotel I tried was okay but over what I wanted to spend. The next was empty except for an old lady that I thought at first was dead, I couldn’t wake her the first time and when I came back ten minutes later she was almost awake but when I asked if she worked there she shrugged and went to sleep. The third hotel had a deal but they added a tax so it was just as expensive as anywhere else, I still checked the room but when I got to the second floor there weren’t any lights on. The atmosphere was like a horror movie, I almost turned around as soon as the elevator doors opened. Eventually I decided on the first hotel because it was normal seeming.

That night I made up for the expense of the hotel by eating street food, I spent a dollar and got four kinds of fried things, meat on a stick, shrimp bread balls, fried banana and friend yam fries.

Kuantan seemed nice……