Langkawi – tropical Malaysian Island near the bottom of Thailand

The beach by our hostel

We had originally planned to catch a bus straight to Thailand from Penang but we met so many people that told us we must visit Langkawi, so we decided to schedule it into our now, looser-than-ever, itinerary. We woke up early, around 6.45am and took a taxi to the port, where we caught a ferry to Langkawi. Also on the ferry, was a Chinese boy from our hostel in Penang and a girl we had met in KL. The 2 hour ferry ride went quite quickly because I was engrossed in a book about Cambodia called First they Killed my Father, which was recommended to me by one of Lid's friends, is absolutely harrowing and I highly recommend it. When we reached Langkawi, we were waiting to get off the ferry and a baby crawled onto my rucksack so I was playing with it and the parents wanted to take a picture of me with it. What a little cutie!

Malaysian baba

We then took a taxi to a hostel recommended in the Lonely Planet, and also by a girl in Penang. We got there and were greeted by the British owner, and had beans on toast from the bar. It was a really nice chilled out place, but when we went to check out the room, which was only £5 each for a private, I wasn’t very impressed. It was in a little hut and was really pokey and hot. It reminded me of one of the places we stayed in Fiji. I said to Jemma that I wasn't ready for Island life and that I wished I was back in a big city. Roughing it in a beach hut isn't what I came travelling for (although this is what many people want from travelling and I do like beaches to an extent, I just don't like wasting too much time on being a beach bum). So anyway, we told the woman we'd take it, and sat there having our beans on toast with daddy's sauce, and just out of interest I thought I'd google the hostel to see what came up. A host of horror stories appeared, about peoples huts being broken into and the owner and police not caring. I knew as soon as I read this I couldn't stay there. I left Jemma with the things and went off to look at the other hostels near bye. For just £3 more, I found an amazing hotel, with big beds, a TV, air con and a private bathroom. 

Our nice new hotel - better than a beach hut

There was nothing to deliberate over, we were moving. I went back to get Jemma and we sheepishly told the woman we had changed our minds. Luckily no cash had passed hands. We then checked into our new luxury room in the hotel next door and promptly fell asleep in air conditioned bliss. We woke up a couple of hours later just in time for sunset and went for a walk on the beach, where we bumped into the Chinese guy from our last hostel. He let us have a little go on his moped (we were thinking of renting one) but after both having a go, we decided it would not be such a good idea. We then went for dinner with him in one of the many restaurants along the beach and had an ice cream milkshake for desert. He was staying in a beach hut but saw an offer on a hostel that night for £2 for a bed so he decided to switch to that. We were happy in our hotel for £8 a night.

The next day, we decided to go jet skiing, as Jemma has wanted to do it the whole trip but it has always been too expensive. We found somewhere offering 30 mins for £20 so we went off to get cash and had lunch in a western place, before heading back to the beach to try the jet skiing. I really wasn’t too keen on going jet skiing and as we went over to the rental place, we saw a couple who had just come off theirs and all of their valuables had gotten wet and broken (why take an iphone on a jet ski??). They were a bit shaken because the waves had been quite big and the French guy who worked there said we should go a bit later because of the waves. We had to sign a form saying if we died it wasn’t their fault and it we damaged the equipment we'd have to pay. My gut was telling me at this point not to proceed, but Jemma was desperate to have a go, and didn't want to do it without me. So we got on, and Jemma drove first, and we sped along the waves, jumping up in the air at some points, my bum burning on the seat from the engine heat.

Jemma speeding away

 I had a little go too, but it really wasn't for me (I don't like speed), so after about 10 minutes, I got off and swam to the beach whilst Jemma continued, going faster than ever, jumping in the air and standing up. Luckily she made it back in one piece and told me afterwards that she had been a bit worried but didn’t say anything, because she had noticed the oil light flashing the whole time! No wonder my seat was hot! We were also lucky not to get ripped off, because I read on the internet when I got back, that it is very common in Thailand to get scammed for Jet skis: when you come back, they accuse you of damaging them and make you pay out thousands for the repairs. I was so happy we got it out of the way in Malaysia!

We needed to book tickets to get to Thailand in the afternoon, but we were so tired, we went back to the hotel for a little nap and woke up at 7pm to meet the Chinese guy for dinner again, still not having booked anything for Thailand. Neither of us could decide whether or not to stay in Langkawi another day or go to Thailand. In the end I decided we should just go to Thailand, because Langkawi was actually nothing special and the sea was quite dirty. So here I am now, sat on a ferry on the way to Satun in the South West of Thailand, where we will then catch a bus to our next destination, Krabi!

For more pictures: Penang & Langkawi

Penang – food central, Malaysia

Wanton mee

We spent 3 days in Penang, an island in the North West of Malaysia, known mainly for its food. We stayed in a little hostel called Roommates, which was nice, because it was so small you got to know everyone there, but it was also bloody hot because they were tight with the aircon. They took us on a food crawl on the first night, where we tried local dishes, some of which are pictured below. For dessert we had rice balls with peanuts in the middle, in a ginger soup (which actually wasn't that bad).

The next day, we had to get our visas for Thailand sorted, because you only get 15 days if you enter Thailand by road or sea, so we gave our passports to an office down the road, pad them a small fee, and they took them off for us and brought them back with 60 day Thai visas. We also did some laundry at a local laundrette, which was run by a little man in his house down a back alley. I was amazed to get all of our clothes back the next day, neatly pressed, none missing. After this, we went for a walk to find food, but it was so hot, we ended up having to find the mall and cool down in there. We had a burger from McDonald's and then I did something that the guidebook recommends you do whilst travelling the world: have your hair cut by a local hairdresser. I was a little alarmed at first when she showed me a picture of an Asian mullet and asked 'you want layers??' and then tried to sell me various 'special treatments', but I rebutted her requests and ended up with a very nice, freshly cut hairdoo that felt so much cooler than the 5 month mop I have been carrying around. After the mall, we went to an old Perhentian mansion to look around that has been built in perfect Feng-shui style.

Old Perhentian house

 It wasn’t very interesting. We then went back to the hostel, where they took us out for food again (street food), which was really cheap (less than £1 each) and it was really nice to get to know everyone. They also took us out for a typical pudding called chendol and ABC which are pictured below. Basically ABC is sweetcorn, crushed ice, red beans, grass jelly (black noodles) and some shiny green things that no one could identify. I didn't eat all of it obviously. Instead I tried my first Milo – a popular chocolate malt milk drink over here in Asia. We went back to the hostel and got chatting to a boy from Singapore, who studies music and has bought instruments in every country he has visited. He got them all out and played them for us.

ABC dessert

The next day, we had hoped to go to the national park and even got up relatively early (it was too hot to sleep in the hostel anyway, with the air con going off at 6am). We had the breakfast provided by the hostel – boiled egg and toast, and then we went out to catch the bus and a massive downpour started. With no coat, there was no way we could stay outside in the monsoon, so we went back to the hostel and went online for a bit. When it eventually stopped about an hour later, we caught a bus to the other side of Penang island to visit the National Park and go to the monkey beach. The bus ride there took about an hour and the other side of Penang was much more touristy (with a Hard Rock cafe etc). We set off on the trail, not realising how long or difficult it would be. I was dressed in my walking sandals and shirt and was sweating before we even set off. It turned out to be a jungle trek and I really didn’t enjoy it. It was too hot, there were too many mossies, and without my walking shoes on, I found it difficult to navigate the obstacles of branches, slippery mud and winding terrain. We saw lots of animals, including a massive monitor lizard – the biggest I have ever seen in the wild (about 1.5m in length). I moaned the whole way along because of all the mozzies and because we didn't bring enough water (neither of us had expected such a long jungle trail). When we were almost at the end, we bumped into the first and only other person we saw on the trail – a Dutch man who told us there was only another 1k to go until the monkey beach, where there were boats to take you back to the mainland. I was so happy.

Monitor lizard behind the leaves

It felt like more than 1k, but when we eventually got to the monkey beach, we saw lots of monkeys (one of which lunged at Jemma for making eye contact and sent her running into the sea screaming – highlight of the trek) and we also were relieved to see a little hut selling cold drinks and boat rides back. We each had a cold coke and then chartered out own private boat back for the bargain fee of £4 each! It was a really nice boat ride, with the wind in our hair, cooling us down and sipping ice cold cokes.

Sailing away from monkey beach

The boat took us all the way back to the entrance of the National park, where we could catch a bus back to Georgetown (where our hostel was). We got on the bus, I took out my money belt to pay and then we realised we had spent our last few ringits on the cokes and boat ride! We only had half the fare we needed! We had thought our tickets were return tickets, but the driver wouldn’t accept this and told us to get off the bus! We wondered how the hell we were going to get back to the hostel. Luckily, there was another, nicer driver outside who told us that we could use our change to buy a cheaper ticket to the town down the road and there was a cash machine there. And so that’s what we did, and we ended up in the touristy town, eating a McDonald's to break into the 50s that the cash machine gave us (my first Mcdonald's with chips in over a week, I can't believe I lasted so long without chips. Mcdonald's are so tempting here, what with them only costing £1.50 for a large meal).We eventually got back to the hostel and relaxed there for a while, before going out for one last bit of street food.  

Cameron Highlands to Penang

View over 'aboriginal village'

We had one more day in the Cameron Highlands and we used it to go on a jungle trek. The trek was 4 hours, and you're meant to set off in the morning, but by the time we'd gotten ready, got out the hostel, and had yet another all you can eat Indian for brunch, it was 2pm. We set off on the trail and it was blazing hot - I had to put sun cream on and was drenched in sweat. We trekked through a very roughly cut path in dense jungle (just the two of us, no guides) and it was quite scary at times as we were scared we would see snakes. We saw lizards, monkeys and at one point a leech attached its self to Jemma. The trek was hard and mostly uphill, winding through the forest, and we had to steady ourselves on branches a lot of the time. About 2 hours into the trek, we got to the top of the mountain and had a glorious view over the rain forest, and then it started to rain very heavily, with thunder and lightening.

One of the many creatures we saw

Knowing we were not even half way, we set off back into the forest to try to complete the trek before the paths became impassible. We got absolutely drenched. There were times when I was quite scared that we would get trapped in the forest and not be able to get out, especially when Jemma started complaining of chest pains. I had visions of her having a heart attack and me having to run for help, 2 hours out of the forest. We took a wrong turn at one point and had to climb over a fallen tree to get back. The rain was gushing down into the forest and the paths up the mountain were becoming very muddy and slippery. I was so relieved when we eventually saw rooftops in the distance: we had arrived at the 'aboriginal village', which is a vary basic village of wooden houses on stilts with tin rooves. I stood at the top of the hill for a few moments in the pouring rain, taking in the view of the misty village below me. It was a real round the world moment. From there, we were able to make our way back down out of the forest and towards the resort where we were staying. It took us about another hour to get back to the hostel, and we stopped on the way at a cafe for Jemma to have strawberry and chocolate waffles (strawberries picked fresh from the local area). It is nice to be able to allow ourselves these luxuries, we really feel like kings here after scrimping and saving in other parts of the world.

Drenched at the end of the trek

We got back to the hostel, had a shower, and then went back out to our favourite Indian, where you can have so much food (Indian, Chinese, Malay), you can eat until you're really stuffed, have 2 fruit juices, and it never comes to more than £2. It's heaven. That was our last day in the Cameron highlands. We relaxed that night in our cosy hostel and the next day we took a bus to Penang, which should have taken 3 hours but took 6. We are now in Penang, where it is unbearably hot (Cameron highlands were such a nice cool relief from the hot Malaysian weather). It is unbearably hot here and our hostel only switches the aircon on between 9pm and 6am so I am lying here at 5pm, having just had a cold shower, lying on my bed under the fan. Penang is known for its food and yesterday we went on a 'food crawl' with the hostel, where they took us around all the good food places. The food really is amazing here.

Pics of Cameron Highlands & trek: Cameron Highlands

The Cameron Highlands

View over the tea plantation

Well, what a difference a day and a few hundred kilometres make! We are now in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and it is a world apart from what we have seen elsewhere in Malaysia. First of all, the climate is a lot cooler and it is so much more relaxed here (less traffic, less people). We are staying in a really lovely hostel run by a very friendly couple who came and picked us up from the bus stop. We have our own private room, for less than what we were paying in KL and its really modern. As soon as we arrived, they told us about a tour we could go on for £10 of the tea plantations and rainforest, so before we even had time to unpack our bags, we went straight off on this tour. It was excellent. The guide took us around the stunning tea plantations up at altitudes of over 2000metres and then we went for a trek in the rainforest where we had to climb up muddy embankments and swing around trees. He showed us lots of different types of plants in the rainforest and told us what they are used for, including ones that are used for medicinal purposes (like TCP), carnivorous plants, lipstick plants and orchids.

We climbed above the clouds

We had three lovely Malaysian girls with us on the tour and we stopped at a tea factory for a cup of tea with a very impressive view over the tea plantations.

The girls who were on the tour with us

It was a really great afternoon. When we got back to the hostel, we relaxed for a bit in the lounge and then walked into the town, where we had a massive Indian meal for £2 each and got talking to a Dutch couple who have just got back from Borneo and were raving about it. Its somewhere that wasn't in our original plan but now I really want to go! The town its self here in the Cameron highlands is known for how British it looks & feels. It is like a little England - maybe that's why I like it so much ;)

Pictures: Cameron Highlands

Malaysia

The Petronas towers - one of the most famous landmarks in the world

Malaysia so far...We've only been in Malaysia a couple of days but so far, I've not had the greatest impression of the country. We started off crossing the border from Singapore by bus to Johor Bahru. We met a girl in South America who told us that she remembered crossing the border and being taken aback by the difference between the two countries as the bus drove over the bridge. You literally drive from everything being all squeaky clean, shiny and modern, to, well, more of a neglected developing city. 

View from our hostel balcony in Melaka

The good thing was, as sanitation standards went down, so did prices, and for a few pounds, we managed to navigate our way on and off several different buses, before finally ending up in Melaka, the place we had booked a hostel for the night. Queue bad experience number one. When we booked the hostel, they had asked us for an estimated time of arrival and I had just put down 10pm as a guess as I had no idea when we would arrive. Most hostels have someone on the reception 24/7 so it doesn't actually matter when you arrive. Not this one. We got out of the taxi at 7pm and knocked on the door and it seemed no one was in. There was a sign saying 'out to lunch'. Then, two German girls came to the door and said that the owner was out and they weren't allowed to let us in. However, after a bit of persuasion, they let us in to put our bags down and then told us to get straight back out and wait for the owner to come back. The German girls were leaving to go our for dinner and they did not want to leave us in the hostel alone. So, Jemma and I went out to a little Chinese place for dinner, came back an hour later, and still nobody was there, not even the German girls. After a while of knocking, a coy Chinese girl appeared at the door and told us to go away and that she was not allowed to let us in. A this point, Jemma was bursting for the toilet and pleaded with the girl just to let her in for one minute to use the bathroom. She even said the girl could keep her bag as an assurance. No can do – the girl shook her head and insisted that she could not let us in. It was 9.30pm at night by this point, and we just sat on the step outside the hostel and waited. In the end, we had to go to a cafe down the road and wait there. The cafe owner knew the hostel owner's number, so we used skype to call him. A few minutes later, he came and let us in, but not before demanding to know where our rucksacks were. We told him they were in the hall and we had put them there earlier. 'WHO LET YOU IN??' he said. Jemma just said that people had been going out as we arrived and had let us leave our big rucksacks in the lounge. He did not look happy and was actually a really scary man. We finally got to our room at about 10.30pm, and although it was nice enough, it had bed bugs. 

My poor leg covered in bedbug bites

I got terribly bitten all over my legs, arms and back and I really have nothing good to say about Melaka. We went on a boat cruise at night along the river, which was nice, but other than that, there was not much to the city. Its supposed to be a World Heritage sight, and maybe its just because we've been travelling so long that we've become blasé about these amazing sights (I hope not) but, Malaysia really isn't much to write home about.

After 2 days in Melaka, we took a bus to the capital city Kuala Lumpur (4 hours away) and checked into our hostel, which was quite nice. KL however, is not. I am actually really disappointed with KL. I was expecting a slightly downscaled version of Singapore, maybe a little rougher around the edges, but I was really expecting too much. There is not much to do here. Its quite dirty and its really not an impressive city. The most impressive thing is the famous Petronas towers, which are nice to photograph and there is a nice modern mall near bye where you can escape the unbearable humidity, but that's about it. One thing we did do in Melaka, was go to a chicken satay restaurant called Capital satay, where you buy a load of raw meat on skewers for about 20p per skewer and then dip it in the boiling hot satay sauce on the table to cook it. That was an interesting experience!

Cooking our own chicken in the satay pot

 Maybe I am not in a position to be impartial – during my time in KL, I have been covered in bedbug bites, suffered from a bad cold and had a migraine. Also, nowhere was ever going to compare to Singapore, was it? I had a down moment the other day thinking about it all, and realised that maybe Japan is to blame, perhaps Japan has spoiled me for life and no other countries will ever compare (except Singapore). I hope not. I am hopeful that Thailand will be infinitely better and now I am over my cold, I am trying to see the positives in Malaysia.

You can get a mega mac meal for £1.80!!

One positive is the cheap food. Although it could be seen as a negative too: Because its so cheap, we are buying double thus spending the same amount as in an expensive country and becoming fat in the process.

We have met a few nice people here though, including Amanda from Baltimore, who quit her job to go travelling and is writing a blog called 'Amanda abroad'. I have also met 3 other people who are digital nomads (they take their work with them as they travel the world). One is a journalist for a national newspaper in Norway, one edits paparazzi photos and the other does online marketing.

I have just realised I have not actually written much about what we have done here in KL. Mainly because we haven't done much. 

We have eaten a lot of Indian food, and today we went to some caves (Batu caves) where there is a Hindu shrine inside and lots of stray monkeys about pinching people's food. Tomorrow we are leaving for the Cameron highlands. Hopefully I will have something more positive to report about Malaysia from there.

For a few more photos of Malaysia, click here