The Last Stop In Our Malaysian Adventure

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With almost a month now gone while we have been in Asia, it was time yet again to move on from Penang......and we decided to head to Malaysias most northern islands on the Andaman Coast, on the border with Thailand, The Langkawi Islands.

Before heading over to Langkwai, we had been told that these islands were tax free......which meant cheap bear at last!!.....i think Jade was just excited about the prospect of being able to do as much shopping as she could, we had also heard that this is the place that most people come to go on holiday aswel, so had expected there to be resorts everywhere and for the whole place to be pretty much like a tourist trap......but we decided to check them out anyway seeing how we were so close, and it would then mean we were only a short ferry ride away from Thailand when the time came to crossing borders.

The journey over from Penang was pretty much uneventful, and were soon settleing in to our £4 a night room at our new hostel......it actually wasnt too bad, it was basic and we had our own bathroom but we didn't really need anything too fancy as we never spend much time in the room anyway.....until the rains arrived anyway! So far on our travels through Asia, we have been really lucky with the weather as we thought with it being low season, there would be lots of rain but to be honest if it does rain it only lasts around an hour and thats it, we did end up with a few days rained in while we were at our latest destination, but with time on our side and not having to worry about how much time we were spending in each place it doesn't matter too much.

While on the Langkawi islands there wasn't a massive amount to do so decided one of the days that we would go on one of the island hopping tours, an afternoon being taken by boat to 3 different islands, it was ok......i wouldn't really recommend it too much, it could have just been the time that we had decided to go, as it was at the end of Ramadan so all the locals were on holliday and when we turned up to our first stop it seemed that every tourist and local had descended onto this one tiny island where you could swim in a lake. Needless to say we didn't end up swimming as there were just way too many people, plus we learned a valuble lesson that trip......before we left we had been told by the lady we had booked with we would not be able to do any swimming as there would not be the time, so took no swimming gear with us......we then ended up staying at each place for around an hour while everyone else went swimming haha......not that we would have gone anyway i don't think. Aswel has the hordes of people came the piles and piles of rubbish along the beaches which kind of spoiled them.....especially then seeing monkeys sifting through it all looking for food. The only highlight of that trip was we stopped of beside one island with what seemed like hundreds of eagles flying above our heads, and it was something we hadn't expected to see so that turned out to be pretty cool.

The evenings were spent walking along the beach which was only a 5 minute walk away and turned out to be quite nice once the temperature had got a bit cooler and there were plenty of bars along the way so this quickly became our new activitie for the evening on the few days that we were here.

Within a few days it was time again for us to pack up our bags (after we had managed to get all of our clothes back anyway, on the last day we had made the mistake of putting all of our washing into the local landrette, which they promised us would be done by the end of the day. That afternoon we went back and they had forgotten to do it so were once again sent away and told to come back at 9 that evening......so come 8:30 we arrived back at the laundrette to find it all locked up and no one in sight.......well with us leaving at 7 the next morning and having the prospect of us having no clothes but what we were wearing we soon took to knocking on doors....and it turned out the whole family lived there on this one street so were soon sent on a wiled goose chase knacking on everyones door trying to get someone to give us our clothes back!

We got them back eventually and were soon packed and ready yet again for what would turn out to be the longest overland journey yet......and the lack of trouble we've had in the past would soon catch up with us on our next journey to Koh Lanta.

We decided in our last days in Malaysia that we would stick with the theme of island hoping for as long as we could once in Thailand, so decided to stay on the Andaman Coast where there are some well known islands for backpackers.........our first stop would be Koh Lanta which jade had visited a few years before while backpacking with her friend, and as this was the closest to us we would stay for a few days and chill out yet some more! We had to get there first though........

We had been told we would be picked up from our hostel at around 7:30 to take us to the other end of the island where we would then get our next ferry.....and to our suprise our taxi was actually early and we were soon piled into a little van and speading towards the port.......once there i felt like we were kids being chaperoned to our next destination, our driver jumped out and stuck stickers on me and Jade, informing anyone who cared, where we would eventually end up, and then off he went, coming back 5 minutes later having collected all of our tickets for us and pointing us in the right direction.

From there it was pretty straight forward, we got the ferry to Satun, which is where we then crossed the border into Thailand and were met by some people who then took us by pick up truck to the local bus station where we would wait for another 2 hours until our coach arrived to take us to Khlong Phon, where we then got yet another mini bus wich took us via some small drive on ferrys to eventually end up in Lanta. Soon our coach arrived and as soon as it did, some French guys straight away started arguing with the coach driver about there ticket (they had been at the port with us and i had first noticed them when they were also arguing with a local there and i knew straight away we would be spending the whole day travelling with them, as our luck is, and we did) and so while we were there trying to get on the bus the Thais obviously thought we were with the two guys in front (who were actually the most stuck up. arrogant French i've ever met........sorry for any French reading this) and so straight away me and Jade tryed to make some distance between us and the others, but that didn't help and the driver was determined not to let us on his coach and tryed to put us on another, which i reckon looked like it didn't even start.........but eventually we got on the said coach (sitting in the luggage compartment) for the next 3 hours.......i felt like we were being smuggled into the country! It turned out when we bought our tickets we had got the cheapest ones going but hadn't been informed that if we actually wanted a seat we had to pay extra.....i don't think i've ever been on a coach with the driver thinking i wanted to sit in the luggage compartment before but there you go....we wern't alone however, we did have the French guys with us!

The 3 hours actually passed by pretty quickly and we soon arrived at our next stop, a small bus station in Khlong Phon, but were soon told to wait for a mini bus, which was already full and was leaving by the time we got there and so were told once again to wait until they would return. Five minutes later though a guy turned up in his brand new looking pick up truck and walked through the crowds...obviously looking for our stickers! as soon as he saw them he took us to his car and told us to get in, it turned out he worked for the company we were travelling with and had decided to take us to the tour office himself so we could get the next mini bus in time.......somehow the French had managed to get in with us.......after another argument with the driver, i was starting to think we were never going to get rid of them! Eventually we were on what would turn out to be our last minibus however and 3 hours later we finally got to Koh Lanta and were taken to our new hostel by tuk tuk, and so began our time on Lanta..........

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Photos

Lake of the pregnant maiden
Four islands tour