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Published: March 1st 2009
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I decided to write an extra segment just about Palau Langkawi and Penang and to seperate that part of Malaysia from Sabah and Borneo which will come later. I think i left us on Ko Lipe in Thailand back on Friday.
We were collected first thing that Saturday morning on a typical Thai time schedule - 40 mins late. I'm no expert on maritime matters nor am a Thai boatman but the longtail seemed to be rather overloaded to me. It was one of the dodgy sort with no roof and a raised bottom - i was sure we would end up in the water... we eventually cleared the Thai customs on Lipe. This was no more than a shack on the beach. Everyone had to wear a life jacket - an Aussie girl told us the reason for this was a speedboat rather like the one we were on had sank outside Langkawi about a month ago. Great stuff. We got there in the end though with sore arses as the speedboat bounced along the water at a speed not far off the Thai record. We chatted to a nice German couple about their holiday and they told us
of a place they had stopped at on Langkawi called 'The Palms'. Its a small outfit run by an English couple called Sue and Dave. It sounded good so we decided to give that a go.
We arrived into Telaga harbour despite the Lonely Planet informing us that all the boats arrive at Kuah on the other side of the island. We had hoped that the Malaysia Lonely planet would be a better researched piece than the Thai one. Alas I think its been written by the same person. We stayed on Pentai Cenang - the main touristy beach. The place we stayed was as good as had been recommended and more - its a great little spot and is right beside the Gecko, where a lot of backpackers stay. It was only 65RM a night which is a good price. Plus it had a hot shower - our first since we left Bangkok.
The food was great - we had Indian and Malay food. We ate in a posh restaurant and in a pizzeria. I even had beans on toast for lunch when i was feeling a little iffy with traveller issues. We went on a tour
one morning where we visited 2 islands - Tasik Dayang Bunting where we shared the large freshwater lagoon there with a lot of monkeys who seemed to be up to mischief much of the time. One monkey attached himself to Mel's bags and got a bit techy when she tried to get rid, showing his teeth and all. We also saw some of the native Sea Eagles and Brahimy Kites being fed.
On another day we hired a car - 660cc and a make i had never heard of. This cost the princely sum of 60RM a day and petrol is at 1.80 RM a litre (about 30p). We went to a remote almost deserted beach at the north end of the Island. A fine way top spend a Monday morning. We then went to the Cable car over at Gunung Machinachang which was brilliant. They've built a bridge at the top over a gorge which is a marvellous piece of engineering.
We went to Seven Wells waterfalls where I had my first near death experience of the trip. Its a series of pools over smooth rocks that flow into each other. At the end the whole lot
cascades over a huge waterfall. Theres a murderous 1km uphill walk to get there. The place was deserted. There were signs everywhere to look out for Tarantulas and Scorpions. It was a dangerous spot... So we had a great laugh sliding down the natural slides. It turned ugly though when i got myself stuck in a pool. it was only up to my knees but i literally couldn't get out it was that slippy. I tried to get out for maybe 10 mins with Mel laughing in the background and me sliding back into the pool on my knees after each failed and increasingly desperate attempt at escape. I thought i would be the only adult in history to drown in 1ft of water. It was like a bad version of that movie 'Adrift'. I could see me being on the evening news - in that section "...and finally on a lighter note." Melissa helped me out in the end...
We really liked Langkawi - its on the western australia timezone of +8 hrs which is much more agreeable than the SE asian one. You get much more daylight in the evenings and its more pleasant in the AM.
Bridge over Gorge
I was very impressed with the engineering here All the people were really friendly and spoke a good level of English. People were smiling all the time. We were getting a nice breeze which took the edge of the 34C heat.
After a few days we got on the 3 hour odd ferry to Penang - another Island on the Andaman Sea. We got talking to a some brothers from Saudi who were most interested in British culture - Ali, Sami and Abdulla.
Penang is an old british trading post. Its about a tenth the size of Langkawi but is home to 1.5m people, most of whom live in the capital, Georgetown. The island boasts a healthy array of Hindu's from india, Muslim's from malaya and the Chinese who all came here to trade over a hundred years ago. Its rich and cultural diversity leads to an amazing array of temples, mosques and great food. While we were there, we ate indian and thai food, saw all round Georgetown (named after George III). There are a lot of Victorian style buildings here. Its actually a very pleasant city. People had told us there were loads of mozzies and it was very dirty. We found this to
Pool of death
the top right handside is where Gareth had his adrift moment be somewhat true but thats more than offset by the expolosion of culture that we experienced.
We stayed at the Cathay hotel on Leith street, which is an old chinese mansion almost across the road from Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheong_Fatt_Tze_Mansion which we also saw. We actually had a tour of of the mansion which is a beautiful example of mid 19th century chinese design. We discovered a lot about chinese culture and traditions on the tour but were permitted from taking pictures. We also saw a variety of mosques, temples and clan houses which are like the spiritual home of chinese famlies. This was explained by two local guys we met in a pub - Andy and Francis who explained that Andy would have a Yeoh clan house where all the Yeoh's in the world could come back to and be sure of a warm welcome.
We went up Penang Hill where the British used to come to escape the heat of the city. They used to get taken up the 800m to the top on sedan chairs the lazy buggers. We waited for a sedan but none arrived so took the furnicular railway instead. That evening
we went to a Japanese night market & Melissa had a go at line dancing with middle aged Japanese folks. Very amusing!! I have a good video and will try to upload it on the next blog.
Can't wait for Borneo - 1000 miles away but still part of Malaysia strangely enough??
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Andy Yeoh
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Bollywood Bar?
Is that a bar in Penang or Langkawi?? Looks pretty nice for a set/ backdrop.