Tour d'Langkawi!!!

Langkawi Island, part 2

Not a lot to write really since we've been lazing on the beautiful beaches during the day and partying at night, but today we went to a snake farm...only to have some slightly too close encounters with huge pythons!!

What was perhaps more disturbing was reading about how abundant these snakes are on this island!!!

Langkawi Island

The mother of all journeys landed us on Langkawi island, just off the Northwest coast of Malaysia, just a stones throw away from Thailand! The journey, which was a 20 hour, three taxi, two boat, one bus and one overnight train (see photo) cost in total a whopping 12 pounds!

After checking into our delightful 'motel' and renting another scooter for the 9 days we're here (hopefully no punctures this time) we decided it was time, once again, for the beach! Unfortunately the water isn't quite as clear as we'd like but since it's as hot as a bath, it kinda makes up for the cold-water showers! Maybe tomorrow I'll take a bar of soap down to the beach! Oh and in case you're wondering, our nice brown skin colour is in fact our suntan and not our lack of cleanliness!!

Our first night consisted of searching the local bars, which proved quite unsuccessful! Most of the accommodation was fully booked yet we couldn't find a single bar that had more than a couple of people in! Also, since Langkawi is a duty-free island even the alcohol is cheap, with a bottle of rum costing us just over 2 pounds! Luckily the internet revealed the location of the 'hidden' bars and nightclubs which, come midnight, turn into the local party venues!

Me with my beer and Louise having her bath!

Tomorrow we're off to take a tour of the island in search of more tropical beaches, monkeys and lizards! Hopefully we won't bump into any of the local cobras or pythons though!

Pangkor Island

After our four hour, 'Super-VIP', 2 pounds fifty bus journey from Kuala Lumpur we made it to the Island of Pangkor on the West coast of Malaysia. Within a few hours we decided that we weren't gonna stay too long since there really wasn't anything much to do, especially in the evenings!

Louise in the main town and me flaked out after a hard-days sunbathing (note our caravan-like beach bungalow...nice)!!










We hired a scooter for two days (although had to surrender it after only a day due to a tyre blow-out!) and toured the island....which took just half an hour! Louise loved it though since there were loads of monkeys randomly walking around the island! Also, one day we decided to go on a little hike over the rocks to a beach which looked pretty good from a distance, only to find out it's named Monkey Bay and full of monkeys! Coming back became a problem when a metre-long lizard sat on the rocks blocking our route!!!

Food here was extremely cheap, with a dinner for two costing just over 2 pounds! Unfortunately beer cost over two pounds, hence our decision to move on quite quickly!!

One day we decided to hire a kayak, taking a trip to the snorkelling sites! Being the fools we are we decided to take a loaf of bread to feed the fish...only to find out that they were enormous...and extremely hungry! Louise was feeding a shoal of several hundred fish and even after she'd run out of food they were trying to bite her elbows and feet to the extent that she had to run out of the water!! haha!!

Me being me and Louise having just escaped from the hungry Piranhas!!

Time for a kip on the rocks before posing for another snap!

Kuala Lumpur

Well after our overnight train journey from Singapore we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There's not really too much to say about this place as it's just another 'big city', although it's hugely cheaper than Singapore (not surprisingly!!). It's a kind of strange place as it's a kind of copy of Singapore, with all the same districts ...little India, Chinatown etc, but just nowhere near as clean!

Chinatown was a laugh - there's all the usual markets selling fake t-shirts, watches etc, but with Malaysian comedians trying their best to sell you things. One guy told us, as he was laughing, that we'd need to be quick if we wanted to buy anything as the police were on their way. Louise asked how he knew that, to which he replied that they phoned to tell him!!

D'oh!

We're not there yet, but will be towards the end of November 2006