And the adventure continues.

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February 21st 2014

Published: February 26th 2014

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Cable cars Langkawi

The view going up the cable cars in Langkawi

So another two weeks down and so many adventures had. We had landed in Malaysia and were staying at this little guesthouse in Langkawi, it was quite away from everywhere, but it was quite nice. The owners there were super lovely and arranged for us to. Hire a car for the day. There were these cable cars in the island that went on a 2.2km ride up a 700mt hill, it was amazing. The ride up was spectacular, if not a little scary. It is definitely not one for those with hight issues it starts off pretty fast, and climbs quite high as you head strait towards a very steep rock face which you launch up. You seem to be climbing at about a 70 degree angle, it is quite daunting and it pays not to think too hard about the mechanics of it all. After the somewhat tefferifing or excillirating ride up ( I found the whole quite exciting, others with me were more on the terrified scale of things.) we got out at these platforms that had exquisive views of the island, the sight wash breathtaking. You then got back in the cable car for the finale part of

Tree top walk

The tree top walk that I didn't get to do

the journey. This was only a short ride but a little worrying for some as there was a shear drop inbetween the two platforms. Once there there was a short climb to the next platforms were we where treated to a truly spectacular view. We were so high up you could pretty much see the whole island. It was like we were standing in the clouds, as you looked out to the horizon you couldn't even tell where the sky met the sea. It was one of those moments that makes you feel like such a small and insignificant part of the universe. We spent a bit of time up there taking in all the beauty of it. The was a tree top walk that I was dying to do, but it was closed for maintenance, which was a shame, but the trip up there was still worth it. When it was time towhead back D was a little wary, she had been quite nervous heading up, more a fear of falling than one of heights, so the decent was a thing she was not looking forward too. She got through it, I was really proud of her, and she

Top platform

Standing at the top platform overlooking the mountains

was so happy she did it after her initial hesitation.

After all that excitement it was off to Tengkork Beach a nice secluded beach. Where we spent the afternoon, sunbathing and swimming, and enjoying a heavenly lunch of black fin tuna in a turmeric curry sauce. Since we had the car for the night we decided to make use of it and head to the night markets. In Langkawi the have a revolving night market, it is a different location every night of the week. We were asking at our hostel how to get there when we got another great dose of the fabulous hospitality that had. The bar man, Adam's, dad was there and showed us the way by diriving ahead of us, it was so nice. When we got there, we found ourselves in foodie heaven again. There was so much selection, we hardly knew were to start, there were some great hits, BBQ chicken, satay sticks and roti, there were a few misses, chicken curry, prawns that weren't and a guva drink that almost put me in a sugar coma. While we were there we bumped into a lady that was doing a segment

Standing in the clouds

View from the very top of the platforms at the cable cars in Langkawi

for getaway, which we got interviewed for. Great moment for t.v I have this big chunk of BBQ chicken in my had and sweating profusely, I must of looked spectacular. As we were heading out of the market we came across a stall selling this fruit called druian, now this fruit is interesting, it is brown and ugly on the outside, and smells like, well I guess the best was to describe it is a week old bag of rubbish that you have left in 40 degree heat. There is a reason why this fruit is banned on airlines. We were keen to try some, not because the smell was enticing, or the desire to eat garbage, but to say we have tried it. Quite clearly the smell was a dead giveaway that this was not the best idea we have come up with, and we were somewhat unwilling to hand over cash for something that quite clearly was not apertising but we managed to get one of the stall holders to let us try it for free, I'm sure they got there money's worth by our reactions though. I gaged, they chuckled then goaded me into trying some more,

Tengkork Beach

Finally found our peaceful idilic beach

never one to turn down a challenge I had another go at, this is not something that gets better the more you try it. I really did taste like I was eating rubbish, rotten rubbish. We decided that it wasn't the fruit for us, and they got a good laugh out of it. Success I think the only problem was that it didn't matter how much red wine I. Went in to drink that night it was still repeating on me. We headed back to the hostel for one or two drinks as we wrote out postcards to have an early night as we were supposed to be heading back to Thailand the next day, the problem was there were a few cool people staying there, and our one to two drinks turned into many and heading to bed around 3am, we decided that we may as well stay one more day. I got the joy of getting up at 8am to return the car, then headed back to bed for a while. When we finally got up, we got more another taste of Charlottes great hospitality. We wanted to go somewhere different for lunch, so she drove us to

Sunset at

Sunset at Cenang beach

a nearby beach were we had lunch together, it was great girls lunch out. After that it was some serious beach time with great sunset. I did get an early night in that night already for our next adventure.! !

We headed off into town to catch a ferry to Saturn In Thailand, thankfully this ferry didn't have Chucky playing, after heading through customs and sorting a bus to Krabi we had just enough time to grab some breakfast. Noodles and fish anyone? We go on the bus to Krabi. It was decided that upon arriving into Krabi that busses were to be avoided if at all possible. Definitely a mode of transport made for short people. Upon arriving in Krabi we got a taxi, well sort off, it was more like a tuk tuk but with the passengers sitting on a bench on the side of the motorbike. So this poor guy that took us, had the both of us, and we are neither little people, and all our luggage, I really felts for the poor bike, especially as we approached hills. We got to our hostel, which was nice, but didn't have the homeliness that

Seaview Guesthouse

This place felt so homely great spot with terrific hosts

we had at sea view, I really hope we find another place like that. After settling in we went for a walk to get dinner, the guys at the hostel told us to try the night markets, after our previous experiences we didn't have to be told twice. Again in foodie heaven so much choice, and only so much room in our tummies. Again we picked winning dishes. I was starting to get a little nervious we had had so much luck with great food, no disasters yet, were we really that lucky or were we going to get a string of bad luck at some stage to even it out? We wondered around a little went to a sky bar then headed in for an early night. It was off to Railay tomorrow.

We got going not too late and made our way over to Railay on a long boat, the boat ride was nice but almost ended up as an episode of idiots abroad with one of the passengers. It had started a little at the start of the journey with this guy and girl wanting to sit at the bow of the boat. The

Temple at Railay beach

A place were sailers placed offerings for protection and prosperity, yes they are gigantic dildos

driver had to repeatedly tell them they had to sit on the seats for the balance, finally they relented realising there wanting to sit in a certain place wasn't going to happen. When we got to the island they demanded to be taken to the other side of the Island and almost started a fight. Too put it in perspective, it took under 5 minutes to walk across, but would off taken the guy about 20 min to boat around. We decided to depart and left the crazy behind. We then started an amazing race style mission to find some accommodation. We finally found some, it was a bit pricier than what we hoped for, but managed to get something cheeper for the next two nights.

After the hike around the island we went to grab some food, and wouldn't you know it we struck food gold again. It was probably one of the cheapest places on the island but the food was amazing with a perfect balance of flavours. Gold. After a swim and clean up it was decidedto see what this island had to offer. We found a bar, with great hosts and had a

Caves at Railay

drink promising to come back later, before heading down to the beach with a beer to see people set of fire lanterns. The beach was beautiful at night. After a while we headed back and came across a Reggie bar called the drop in bar we ended up stoping in for a drink there where we met this couple from the states who lives in Mexico, there were lovely and gave us some great pointers on Cambodia, after a while we decided to head off, we came across another Reggie bar, the guy that owned it was called Bang Bang, who was an interesting guy, he had previously earlier in the night expressed some interest in me, nice guy but not my type we hung out there for a few beers and some good Thai hospitality, it was turning into an interesting night, we spent the rest of the night hanging out with the locals, it was a great night.

The rest of the time on the island we visited a few different beaches, went kayaking and had a nice relaxing time. After three days it was time to move on to our next adventure. We headed

Rock face at Railay

This kind of looks spooky

back to Krabi, to get the bus and night ferry to Koh Phangan. The ferry was pretty cool, they had two rows of matrices for you to sleep, obviously the matrices were made for tiny people, thankfully the boat was only half full, so we had plenty of room. We got to Koh Phangan at 6 am, thankfully they let us check in early, time for a quick not before exploring. D was feeling really sick, we weren't sure if it was food poising, or heat stroke, so the poor thing spent the day in bed while I went off on solo mission. It was guide nice, I had a good look around then got a massage. That night while I was down on the beach I saw the moon rise from the ocean. This was only a couple days after the famous full moon party, where 60000 people cram onto this Tiny part if the island, getting shit faced on buckets ( that is a bucket that is full of nasty spirits and mixers) So when the moon rose it was still amazing, bright orange and pretty much still full, with out the crowds of drunk 18 year olds.

Monkeys up a tree

There were loads of monkeys roaming around Railay, they were always a good source of entertainment

It was pretty cool.

We didn't really plan too much while at Koh Phangan , so there was a lot of time for relaxing. We did met up with these two guys, an Aussie and a Kiwi called Chad and Kane who were great fun. They told us about this bar called the Amsterdam bar where the sunset is spectacular. We caught up with them one night and had an awesome time watching the sunset and just chilling out. The view of the sky at night was great with all the boats off in the horrizon, And the glowing green light from all the squid boats lighting up the ocean, It was a great night loads of good laughs and great food. Chad had decided earlier that day that he was going to go home early so Kane decided to join us on the rest of our journey to Kao Tao in a couple of days then take the train with us to Bangkok. We ended our stay in Koh Phangan with a chilled out day and an early night ready to start of a Harry potter Marathon. We decided that it would be a good idea to have

Kayaking around the bay

We hired a Kayac for a few hours, good fun

a quiet night or two. Unfortunalty we didn't get a chance to make arrangeents with Kane about Koh Tao. Hopefully we will bump into him along the way. Our food luck had run out on Koh Phangan as well which was a bit of a shame, a lot of the Thai food is dulled down alot for the Tourists. I have a feeling it may be the same again on Koh Tao, I really hope not. I was getting used to having great Thai food all the time. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

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