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Lankawi
Our last night-trainWe go the taxi to drop us off at a guesthouse that had been recommended by Mick and Karen who we met in Nah Trang. They had spent a lot of time in Lankawai and couldn’t speak highly enough of this guesthouse, unfortunately they didn’t have rooms until tomorrow so it was back to the drawing board. Kate waited next door in the Gecho guesthouse, which was indefinitely full, while I walked around for nearly 2 hours looking for somewhere else. After traipsing up and down the road we ended up in the guesthouse next to Gecho, OBVIOUSLY!!!! I think the lady in Gecho felt sorry for me as she said that they may have a room the next day.
So as the heat had well and truly sapped my energy we rested for a few hours with the fan turned up to super fast. We woke up in the early evening and spent a few hours walking round whilst gaining our bearings. We were recommended a restaurant called red tomato which had a buffet-style set-up with a range of South-East Asian meals. It was the cheapest restaurant on the strip and would be my restaurant of choice for the
Lankawi
Our last night-train remainder of my stay in Lankawi.
There were three things we instantly noticed about Malaysia. The first was the heat, it was definitely hotter and more humid than Thailand. Secondly the cost, we were so use to everything being so cheap in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia it was a shock to see the price of everything in Malaysia. Thirdly was the lack of alcohol!!! Yes that right in Malaysia due to its population being predominantely Muslim they have heavy restrictions on the serving of alcohol. It has a heavy duty added to it, none of the restaurants serve it and there are only a handful of bars. This was not good. We had just come from a full moon party and had spent the last 3 months supping on cheap beverages the last we thing we needed was prohibition.
The only positive thing to come out of this alcohol fiasco was that it would prepare us for what to expect in Australia. With the pound performing poorly against the $AUD we knew that things would eventually get more expensive. We had heard from people that we met in Asia that beer was really expensive and expect to
Lankawi
The chang is cooling my lollipop sunburn down. I was quite impressed how I got sunburnt with three different colours pay 25GBP for a slab of beer!!!! Malaysia was not quite at that level yet but it was still uncomfortably close!!! That evening we went to the cheapest curry house on the Lankawi strip (recommended by Mick and Karen) and had a few drinks. Well I only had three but Kate didnt have anything as there menu was limited and there was nothing she liked.
The following morning there were rooms at the Gecho so we checked our bags in and hit the beach. Remember the first thing we said we'd noticed about Malaysia? Well when went to the beach and the only thing I can say about the heat was that it was savage!!! Now I will openly admit that my poor white Gaelic skin will go red and burnt at the mention of sun but Kate (the Sun Queen) admitted that it was the hottest place she had ever been too. That afternoon we managed to persecute ourselves by spending an hour in the sun. We were honestly watching the clock and were determined to make a full hour but it was that uncomfortable it quickly became an arduous task. The sand scolded your feet and the
Lankawi
Our final view of Thailand only saviour was the trees on the edge of the beach.
The worse thing about the day was not the tourture by sunbathing it was the patchy tan I found that evening. Kate had been responsible for the (obviously very difficult) task of applying suncream but that evening I found a very ropey sunburn on my back where Kate had missed. Ive had dodgy/uneven suntans a long the way where ive not rotated in time or spent too much time on one body part but this took the biscuit. As it was so hot the burn was more prevalent and the lack of effort on the application of suncream front was blatantly obvious. Lesson learnt!!!
That evening we decided that we were going to fight against the alcohol oppression by buying a litre of vodka. Sounds like an extravagent buy (for backpackers) but what I didnt say about Lankawi was that they have Duty Free shops. This is probably due to it being an Island (??) but down the road from Gecho was a big duty free shop that sold everything. Compared to the prices for alcohol in the bar's this vodka was a bargain so we throughly
Lankawi
Our first view of Malaysia enjoyed our cheap night in the room getting drunk on Smirnoff vodka whilst attempting to play cards.
The following day we decided to give the beach a second go but this time we were prepared. We had plenty of water, sun lotion and a position next to the tree to allow for stints in the shade. As the afternoon wore on we introduced ourselves to an English couple, Jamie & Leagh, who had sat on the sunloungers in front of us with an eski full of vodka and beer and an ipod playing house music. It was Leaghs birthday so they were celebrating by spending the day on the beach getting drunk. Being the nice couple that we are we felt it would be rude not to join them so the rest of that afternoon and the early part of the evening was spent enjoying a litre of Absolut vodka with lemonade and ice!! After the second bottle of Absolut Jamie was a bit worse for wear which is when the night ended. We went our separate ways and all had an early night.
Where we were staying in Pentai Cenang there wasnt that much to do, apart
from the Underwaterworld, plus with the beach being a bit more difficult to speand half the day lazing on we decided to hire a moped and tour the island. In Malaysia, as well as alcohol restrictions that verged on rationing, they have heavy restrictions on moped hire. In the rest of South-East Asia you could hire a moped with just a name and a local address (although some of the mopeds we had hired were that bad they would struggle to be classed as mopeds). Some of the stricter ones would ask for your D.O.B but that was few and far between. In Malaysia you actually have your English driving licence. I mean how dare they!!! As Kate and I didnt bring our licenses we had to go undercover and try and rent one on the BLACKMARKET!!!! We'll it wasnt so much the blackmarket it was more like the moped/convienience shop across from Gecho that had a more relaxed view of identification. We just came to a Gentlemen's agreement that if the law were to pull us over we would a.) try and do a runner or b.) when we are caught and finally come round from being tasered we
Lankawi
Everything was so much bigger in the Duty Free would tell them that we showed the shop our driving licenses. So I digress slightly but the long and short of it is that we got a moped for the day to travel round the island, DONE!!
The island of Lankawai isnt that big but the roads are well constructed and the lanes are big enough to ensure I dont forgo my deposit my pranging the moped. We visited Kuah town, Black Sand beach, Tunja waterfalls and even got lost at the five seasons looking for Bura beach. It was still fairly hot but we avoided the torture of laying still on sand by driving at 100km/h which presented significant wind force to keep us cool. Whilst at Bura beach we even managed to watch a Bollywood film/music video being filmed. Im not sure which one it was but there was dancing (of sort) and music being played so actually it could of been either. The beach was beautiful but we were getting restless and wanted to finish our circuit of the island before it got dark.
Our last two days in Lankawi became pretty uneventful. Kate was not very well and we generally just didnt do anything.
Lankawi
What large watermelons you have!!! We were starting to get restless in Lankawi and the mood had definitely dropped. In hindsight I think we both just missed being in Thailand and felt we had left Ko Tao too soon. Lankawi was just totally different to any other country we'd been too, it was too hot, there wasnt much to do, the alcohol was expensive and there wasnt a lot of the food that we liked. Every night we ate in the same place because it had the best selection but even that became tiresome. If the beach wasnt such hard work it probably would of been easier to enjoy our days but the last two days were that hot we didnt move that far from our room. With our energy sapped and not enough motivation to enjoy Lankawi we decided to move on. Our next destination was Penang. This would see us take in another taxi, ferr, bus, taxi journey over 10 hours before our heads could hit the pillow.
When we met Mick and Karen in Nan Trang they couldnt speak highly enough of Lankawi, i think they had spent a few months there, but I have to say we just didnt share
Lankawi
Our local bar also named after my Mum their enthusiasm. The island is ok and the beach is nice but I can say it wasnt the best places we've visited which was a shame as we were really excited about our first visit to Malaysia.
K&K
xxxx
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