One Week in.

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So I started this new Adventure a little under a week ago. As I am sitting on a secluded beach in Langkawi. I look back to a week ago were I was having dinner at my Cousins house with about 20 people. It was the perfect end to my latest stint in Australia catching up with my awesome family, and the perfect start to my latest adventure. Since then I have been in 3 countries in 6 days. I flew out of Australia on Tuesdays, continuing my lasted string of luck with planes running late. I finally got into Bangkok at 2am after about 10 hours of flying. I must of still been sentimental about family time as I gave up my perfectly selected seat for one not so comfy so a family could sit together. It was still a good flight though.

I stayed in a hotel different to where my friend Dijana was staying hoping to get some good sleep before catching up with her, didn't quite work that way but it was fine. I headed over to the hostel we were staying at for the next fews day, a place called Bodaga Bangkok. It was a great little hostel with the loveliest hosts, they really made you feel at home. It was so great to see Dijana, after not seeing each other for 14 months and only spending 1 month together in Cusco it was a little crazy how we just slipped into the that easy feeling friendship. It was if we had only seen each other last week. Thus began our adventure. We headed off for some lunch, which was delicious we went on a little walk around Bangkok. We walked right through one of the Bangkok protests. The most peaceful fun protests that I've ever seen. They had bands, markets and very friendly people. Latter that night we decided to hit Khoisan road. We stopped off at a little restaurant, the food was amazing, it was a local hangout, I think we were the only white people there. From there we tried to get a taxi to Khoisan road, which proved more difficult than first thought. So in the end we just jumped on some moter taxis and had a thrilling ride. It was so much fun, and a little crazy.

Once we got to Khoisan road we were hit with way more crazyness. People everywhere and a real party scene. I ate a scorpion which almost came back up, it was a texture thing, and then hit a few pubs. After a couple of hours we were done, not so much my scene. We headed back to the hostel via tuk tuk and the metro, ending up on cowboy lane. So you hear all these stories about the sex trade in Thailand, this is were it is centred. It was not too far from our hostel. We weren't too keen to head there but I was busting to go to the loo. They coned us into an overpriced beer, so we checked it out. It was a little on the creapy side, so many old men wiht young Thai girls. On the way out saw a few of the lady boys. We ended up back at the hostel where we had a few drinks and headed to bed, nice early night 2:30am time flies when you are having fun.

Woke up early again the next morning. Why is it when I am working I can barely pull myself out of bed after 8 hours of sleep, yet when I am traveling I live on no sleep and feel refreshed and ready to jump out of bed each morning. After a leisurely morning we headed to the train station to buy tickets to Butterworth in Malaysia. This is were the real adventure begins. The plan was to get tickets to Butterworth the next day, then head to a nice quite Island in Malaysia and hang out a nice quite pristine beach for a few days. Instead the story as it happens follows.

We get to the train station and we can't get a train for the next day so have to stay in Bangkok for another day, but we can't get the train all the way to Butterworth we can get on to Kai Yai junction, from there we can get another train to Butterworth latter in the day, or so they told us. So another day in Bangkok, it gave me time to get a nice, if somewhat painful foot massage. And try a bit more of the local cuisine. The next day we headed over to the train station after saying goodbye to the guys at Bodaga, it was kind of like saying goodbye to dear friends. The train ride was great. Awesome views, comfy seats and we had the sleepers as well. Since I had top bunked it at the Hostel D had given me the bottom on the train, I am secretly thing this also had to do with my klutzieness and her not wanting to deal me falling off the top bunk on the train. We get to Kai yai and go to the ticket place to see when we can get the next train, a simple task on would seem, not an episode of the amazing race. We got to the counter and the guy was telling us that one, pointing to the train that we just got of, and it was about to leave. Thus enshed a frantic search for some cash and a mad run down the platform. There was no car no. on our ticket we just had people yelling and telling us down there, down there. We had no idea which car to get on, and I was having great difficulty running in my jandles. We finally got on the train to have people telling us all different places to go, we finally found an empty seat and hoped for the best, just as the train pulled away. It was a little frantic but we made it. After a short boarder crossing we get in Butterworth where we caught the ferry to Georgetown. We were expecting this nice quiet Island, it was not! The Island is huge and super busy, we hadn't booked a hostel so we were trying to find one online, we found on but couldn't book it as we lost reception. So with nothing more than a street name and a hostel name, with not much Malaysian the amazing race type adventure was on again. We managed to get on a free bus with not much idea on how to get there, or where it was. Some nice man gave us a map on the bus, to which we released that we had gone way past the stop. We ended up at a mall, but this was no mall, it was like a small town. It had about 6 levels and was huge. It was decided that it would be in out best interests to feed ourselves, as we hadn't really eaten that day and we were both in the crazy hungry zone. So after refuelling and hitting the ATM we decided that we could do it, so we figured out where this hostel was we made our way by foot, no need to waste money on a taxi. I would say amazingly, but now I am feeling D and I make an awesome unfrazzled team, we found where we were supposed to stay. The room that we wanted was unavailable and all they had was a shared four bedroom dorm, and this is where the bad luck/good luck comes in. Bad luck we couldn't get a private room, good luck that no one else was in there so we both scored bottom bunks, better luck no one else came in so we had the room to ourselves at half the price. After a much needed shower we hit the streets and did a bit of shopping. It was decided that we should hit the town. It was an interesting experience the Salsa and reggie bars were playing techno and the techno looking place was playing salsa, a good night, if not a little weird. We weren't able to get the ferry to Langkawi on the Sunday so we stayed and extra night, still no roommates, bonus! We spent a lazy sunday, that night we went to this food hall type place, it was amazing, there were over 20 different restaurants with all types of asian food. It was difficult to decide what to try but we managed, putting ourselves into a slight food coma. I tried some frog, it was quite nice. An early night was on the cards as we had an early trip to Langkawi.

The trip to Langkawi was interesting. Not so much for the trip itself, stock standard ferry trip, but in someones decision to play chucky at 9am in the morning. Thank goodness the gentle rocking of the boat put me to sleep. We get to Langkawi, again expecting a small island with nice beaches. Wrong again. The island is pretty big, thankfully we had booked a place to stay that was quite remote. It was a little disappointing when we got there that the beaches weren't nice and the one outside the hostel you can't swim in. But luckily we have struck more great hospitality with hosts that can't do enough for us. They showed us somewhere we can walk to go to a swimming beach, it wasn't the nicest, but it did the job. As the day went on we started to appreciate the location more and more. It is really friendly here, and nice and quiet. Tomorrow I am going to attach the sky walk amongst the tree tops and check out some waterfalls.

I can't believe it has only been a week but I am having such a great trip with such an amazing travel buddy. I can't wait to experience my new adventures but really taking the time to appreciate what I have already experienced. Every one so far has been so friendly and hospitable. It makes me really appreciate my life and my ability to do the things I do and the people in my life. Life is great.

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Photos

Beach
The little beach near our hostel, pretty much all to ourselves

Canal in Village we are staying at
The fishery boats that go out to get our awesome seafood

Coffee in a bag
Drinking like the locals. Who needs cups

Eating a Scorpian
What can I say, I love a challenge. BTW it tasted like bug!

enjoying food at foodhall
How does one eat mash with chop sticks. Great food though, great experience

Food hall in Gerogetown
This place was amazing a foodies dream so much choice. We even got entertainment

Frog
First time eating frog. I think I liked it, although I did think of Kermit the whole time

In a Tut Tut with Dijana
Two great friends reuniting, having great adventures.

Sunset from train
Lovely sunset from our train trip through souther Thailand

Train through Bangkok
The little house/stalls on the way out of Bangkok

Train to Butterworth
Our train to Malaysia. Awesome trip, can't wait to do another.

Comments

[Elizabeth and John Johnson]

Really enjoyed your first blog
Hi Catherine sound so different and very exciting, enjoy sharing your adventures look forward to you regular blog, hope we meet up with Dijana sometime. first day back at work today has been frantic as ususal. I had a great weekend up in Fletcher bay tramping have put some photos on face book from Aussie, did you get any on your camera? Much love keep safe.