Time to say goodbye to Borneo. I had booked a flight to Kuala Lumpur on the Malaysian mainland the day before. Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s capital, and Kuala Lumpur airport is one of the main hubs is southeast Asia. Kuala Lumpur is polluted and Kuala Lumpur’s traffic is terrible. But I like Kuala Lumpur because I like the sound of “Kuala Lumpur”, so I might have used the name Kuala Lumpur in this paragraph more often than Kuala Lumpur deserves. Kuala Lumpur.
My destination for the day was Kuantacn on the Malaysian east coast. I had been to the west coast before but never here. The bus east was a huge double-decker rust bucket with a badly slipping clutch, but I got the big front panorama windows upstairs all to myself. The countryside is green and pleasant, but no rain forest. On the other hand, there is no rain, the sky was bright blue all day.
Kuantan is a big city, but it has a very pleasant waterfront promenade and park with fountains and art, and some open restaurant stalls with good Malaysian food. Cheratin, a little up the coast, is more laid back but it’s awkward to reach and I will see better beaches soon. 
