Beautiful beaches and lots of fun

When we arrived in Langkawi we were, as usual, surrounded by touts. We banded together the six of us (Me and Alex plus Malia, Davide, Karl and William) and managed to negotiate a reasonable rate to the beach we wanted to go to. There is no public transport on the island so we did pretty well to have so many people. We landed at a reggae bar, had a beer and some food, then three of us went off to find accommodation while the other three stayed behind (and drank). There were five of us who needed accommodation as Davide sleeps in a hammock on the beach. We tried many options from fan bungalows to dorms to large rooms with air con and the latter turned out to the cheapest. So we got a room with two double beds, an extra mattress on the floor, our own bathroom, AC and we were a stone's throw from the beach. Somehow the days slipped away from us. The island is tax free so we could buy beers from the duty free shop for 35pence a can. I don't think anyone would have any trouble guessing we got very drunk there. There was an instant bonding with these guys, and sharing a room instantly made us close: all the barriers were shot down almost immediately. After five days in Langkawi doing mostly drinking we decided we should go see some of the island before we headed into Thailand. By this time Alesandro, the other Italian, had made it to Langkawi. We rented two bikes and a Jeep and drove off to see some of the sites. We went to the cable car. The cable car was undoubtedly built as a tourist attraction and it cost about 6 pounds to go up, which is expensive for Malaysia, but it was incredibly beautiful. It was very high and Alex had some difficulty going up, but I think he is glad he did it after all. We have some great pictures of Alex looking very worried, but in his charming smiling way. We went to a few waterfalls and it was nice just to see some of the island after spending so many days there. The highlight of the day however, was a beach that we went to see. I don't remember the name of it unfortunately, but it was on the west coast of the island. It was not built up at all but it was probably the most perfect beach I have ever seen. Crystal clear water just cool enough to cool us down from the heat outside and completely white sand. Mom, even you would have liked to swim here.

The next day we headed off towards Thailand. We arrived in Koh Lipe, which Alesandro had been to 3 years before and have loved it. We traveled there via the mainland to save some money and also to pick up some Baht as Koh Lipe is so small it doesn't have an ATM. Again it made financial sense to all stay in a room together. We got a beachfront room with a double bed and three single beds and our own bathroom. Unfortunately, there was no AC. It was a bit warm during the day when the sun heated up the little hut. We explored the island, ate some yummy Phad Thai and pancakes and of course, had lots of fun getting to know our new friends. In a pretty short amount of time we became pretty close with William and Karl. Obviously when you spend that much time together solidly it's pretty much a given that you either like each other or you're forced to do it. We are the former. After 4 days William and Karl headed up to Bangkok to pick up Karl's brother. We made plans to meet back up in Phuket. Alex and I left the following day and went up to Koh Lanta. Between us we managed to be ill for three days. Not sure if it was food poisoning, I doubt it, but it sure wasn't fun. We decided to cut our losses and head up to Phuket.

In Phuket we stayed in On On Hotel which is the hotel used in the movie The Beach as the mainland flop hotel. It was very basic, but it was clean and we got our own bathroom for a total of 2 pounds each a night. We shared a triple with Malia. Although, there wasn't a single powerpoint in the room, a little odd. We stayed there two nights. On the second day we rented a motorbike and a car and went to explore the island. Alex and Malia on the bike and the other four of us in the car. Thanks Will for driving! Alex is really enjoying his experience on the motorbike. The next day we moved to Kata beach. That is one of the quieter beaches near the infamous Patong beach. Patong is a raucous over touristed beach and town. That night we ventured out to the main road there to have a night out. It was an incredibly strange experience to watch. All along the street were women and Ladyboys. The women in all the bars were paid to make the men feel attractive, flirt with them and play bar games with them (the women are very very good at these games but they clearly let everyone else win) and generally make the men feel happy so they will spend more money. These women may also go home with the bar customers but I think that is a side business. The Ladyboys are a whole other ballgame, sorry for the pun. In Thailand, apparently it is quite accepted to raise boy children as girls. Ladyboys are transvestites that have extensive plastic surgery and often the only thing left identifying them as males are their knuckles (William says it's always the knuckles that give it away for him). Just in case you were wondering the toilets are marked that there is a women's toilet and a men/ladyboy's toilet. So I imagine everything is still intact there. It was quite a scene, it's difficult to explain all of it here. I was told it was a mini Patpong, which is in Bangkok. Over the next few days we did some exploring and beach hopping.

Next stop was yet another beautiful and idyllic island called Koh Pha Ngan. In Thai Koh means island. We were on our way to the well known full moon party. It was everything it was supposed to be. Craziness. It too was also surreal as it was a huge group of Farang (the thai word for white foreigner) getting completely drunk and going crazy on drugs. It was mayhem everywhere, not in an obviously dangerous way, but people getting lost from each other, peeing in the ocean a few feet away from two people having sex, next to a sleeping person. I should mention we went with all six of us and we all made it home fine.

Then on to yet another totally georgeous island called Koh Tao. On April 12 Koh Tao celebrated New Year (New Years Celebrations can last up to a week). Thai, Cambodian and Lao New Year is a extremely fun experience. Everyone and I mean everyone gets wet. There are a lot of waterguns, people driving around in pick up trucks with huge plastic bins full of water and people around it throwing the water onto people as they pass them. It was an incredible experience to share that with Thais. During the day we were all part of the same party. Everyone was drunk and everyone was happy. We took the whole day to travel about 3 miles. We stopped along to way to fill up our water guns, eat a little and we drank the whole way. It was such a beautiful day.

After we recovered from that day we did what most people go to Koh Tao for: scuba diving. It is the cheapest place in the world to get certified and to go for fun dives. Alex, Malia, William and I were going to get certified together as Karl was already certified and Tim (Karl's brother) has a broken wrist in a cast). On our first day William came down with a nasty headcold and you don't want to dive with that! Alex, Malia and I are now certified to go diving to 18 metres. We were taught by a friend of Malia's from home that like many other westerners found himself drawn to the tiny lovely island and became a dive instructor. It was so much fun. I never thought I would say that as I am usually pretty much a big wimp about the ocean. But I was ok, I was actually really happy to get under the surface and see up close the pretty marine life. And surprise surprise they are more afraid of me than I am of them. Murphy I thought of you a bunch when I was diving. Not only the time you had to take me back to shore when we went snorkeling in Hawaii but also how much you would love to be down there surrounded by all the fishies. We were so enamored of the whole experience we decided to go for our advanced certification. Basically it would mean we could go down to 30 metres, but also we could do more diving! On the morning of starting the course Alex woke up with a mean pain in his ear. Malia went ahead to the first dive. I decided that although I could dive with out Alex I wouldn't want to in the future go without him so there was no need to be certified to a deeper depth. Alex is OK, just a minor ear infection which has now been treated. We were both so disappointed not to get to do the Advanced, which includes three dives of your choice and two dives that are required (Navigation and Deep Diving), that we are sure we will get to it one day. In fact we were so sad to leave Koh Tao (we'd been there for 10 days) that I'm sure we will get back there sooner rather than later. There were many people on the island who were on travels and just never left. It is one of those magical places that just calls you back.

That was the end of our beachy time in Thailand (which also means it is probably the end of our lack of communication, but I don't promise it). We are now in Bangkok getting our Laos visa sorted. We are going to travel up to Chaing Mai in a couple of days and then into Laos. We are in the hot season and have had to succomb to paying a little more for AC because it is just too brutal without it.

Penang Delights

On March 11 we flew from Denpasar to Kuala Lumpur.  We arranged a bus from the airport to the train station and hopped onto an overnight train to Penang.  Actually the train took us into Butterworth on the mainland, just opposite Georgetown in Penang.  The whole trip was so incredibly easy.  The train was spotless with AC all for the equivalent of 16 pounds.  We arrived at 5.30am and walked to the ferry.  We then took a bus from the ferry port all the way to Batu Ferringhi to meet Malia.  For anyone who doesn't know Malia, I moved in with Malia when I was 13 and lived with her for four years. Malia was in Penang with her family for her cousin's wedding.  It was the end of their trip after the wedding so we got to hang out with them for a couple of days.  Malia's Aunt is from Penang so she knew the good spots for food and could tell us the traditional foods and give us tips of where to go and what to do.  One of the amazing (and weird) dishes we consumed was something called ice kachung. I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong, but that's how it sounds.  The dish is a mixture of sweetcorn, red bean paste, fresh coconut strips and a sweet sauce all over shaved ice.  It sounds weird, and it was, but it was also an interesting mix that I can't imagine you would find many other places.  We frequented the many hawker centres and enjoyed being amongst people we knew, some by association, but enjoyed their company all the same.  We visited the butterfly farm on Penang which was totally unexpectedly amazing.  We spent about three hours wandering around the enclosed (hot!) main area with butterflies walking all around us.  There were so many different kinds of butterflies, scorpions, centipedes, koi, beetles, grasshoppers, snakes, and many other types of bugs that I can't even remember.  We did some good old shopping in the brand new shopping mall that like many others in the world reminds me of home.  It's kind of sad that that happens, but it's true. Catie and Lindsay, our Australian friends whom we met in Malaysia, gave us inspiration to buy some travel speakers.  Now we have music wherever we go, which is really nice. After Malia's family left she moved into the same guesthouse as us, and then there were three.  Again. We heard there was a new Thai immigration rule that if you arrived in Thailand by land you only got 14 days so we decided to get a Thai visa in Penang which allowed us two months instead.  We took the bus into Georgetown  and after a long walk we arrived at the Thai embassy.  We met two Italian travellers on the bus who we tried to tell them about the new law and to come with us.  They decided after we got off the bus that it was a good idea and we saw them there after about a half hour.  We dropped off our passports and walked into the center of Georgetown to await the return of our passports, which was going to be about 4 hours. We didn't manage to walk all the way, it was a little farther than we thought and it was very very hot, as usual. We had a delicious meal at an Indian place.  It was the first time that I really looked forward to (we have discussed this the night before) and then enjoyed eating Indian food (it was really good Indian food) since we left India.  I knew that this feeling would return, but I didn't know how long it would take for it to come back.  Now every time I eat Indian food I can look back to our trip there. We walked around little India and then Chinatown a little bit. While we were in town Alex decided he wanted to have a sheesha (hookah) to travel around with.  So we searched high and low for a little travel sheesha.  We would've been far more successful in India! At least more so than in Malaysia. We ran out of time and had to go back to get our visa filled passports.  The Thai embassy decided to take an hour break just when the half hour window to pick up passports began. The two Italians we had met that morning had to leave to pick up their stuff from a travel agent who would be closing. I should mention that these two Italians prefer not to pay for accommodation. They travel with hammocks, which they string up on beaches or in parks and leave their stuff with other travelers or with travel agents or their preference is 7 Elevens which stay open 24/7. So We got the passports (ours and the Italians, I guess we look trustworthy) then returned to town to resume our search, as we got a tip just before we ran out of time.  Although the tip turned out to be misinformed, we did run into three different guys that we saw at the embassy.  We ended up sitting down with the two Kiwi guys traveling together and an Englishman who's 61st Birthday it was that day. Alex went to pick up a sheesha, which was slightly overpriced because it was the only one in Penang for sale. We had some drinks with William, Karl and Sam, (the two Kiwis and the Englishman, respectively) then went back to Batu Ferrenghi to reunite with the Italians. The next morning we took the boat direct to Langkawi. We left one of the Italians, Alessandro, behind to take a language test for his Australia Immigration, he met back up with us later. Davide came along with us, and we also saw William and Karl on the boat. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, although we weren't aware of it yet.