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Published: April 15th 2008
That's the way!
Helena and Partha partying on LangkawiAfter 2 months of travelling around and always having to move along to the next new place we felt we wanted to go somewhere familiar, where we had been before and where we had some friends. No we didn't go back home to Finland... We went back to Malaysia, of course! We'd had enough of those crappy buses so we decided to catch a flight. Our first stop on the way was Singapore where we met up with Partha, the partyboy. After only one night we continued to KL and reunited with our friend Pika and his wonderful family, that we know consider to be our Malaysian family. Next stop on the way was Langkawi, our favourite island so far. This is the place where we met up with Hanna and Miro! It was so good to see them and we had so much fun together! And they brought us things from back home, among others salmiakki. It was great... Partha came over for the weekend as well so we had a big reunion going on.
After a few nights in Langkawi( and experiencing a tropical storm on a deserted island) we(Hanna and Miro included) continued to Thailand, to the
Indian food!
Here we are, reunited again, enjoying the best food ever! remote island of Ko Lipe. It turned out to be a very quiet small island with not too many tourists and paradiselike scenery. Perfect for relaxing after all that partying in Langkawi... Next stop was the small island Ko Bulon Leh, which was even more quiet and less developed than Ko Lipe. When we got there our ride to the harbour wasn't there so we jumped on to a random fisherman's boat and waited around for a few minutes (is OK). When our ride finally dropped us off ath the harbour(50 baht please) it was low tide and we had to walk in the water with our backpacks on to reach the beach. Next day we went on a fishing and snorkelling tour, sadly enough we didn't get to do any snorkelling (too windy) and we didn't catch any fish either... Oh, well. We still had fun! On the morning we we're about to leave the island we got out on the sea and waited in a longtail boat for our ride. It never showed up so we went back to the harbour just to find out that the ferry that was supposed to pick up had broken down (No
Hanna and Miro...
...on an island just off Langkawi. problem, replacement boat will be here in two hours). Somehow the locals managed to find a random boat from somewhere and set up their own business(200 baht please) and that's how we got to Hat Yai. One night there and then we flew over to Bangkok. As you might remember I didn't like it too much last time so I was expecting the worst... We'll it was better than expected but it still doesn't make it to my favourte places in the world. Afer a night of hectic shopping at the Night Bazaar it was time to say goodbye to Hanna and Miro.
We continued our journey to Bali. We didn't have the patience to stay there for too long though and flew over to Jakarta. We couchsurfed in Jakarta for one night at this crazy place where there were lots of people staying over all the time. Next day we had just enough time to go to the beauty salon and prepare ourselves for Saturday night and then it was time to leave for Bandung. Easier said than done, because the traffic jam was impossible when we were ready from the beauty salon. For those who don't know
Paradise beach
This was the view from our bungalow on Ko Lipe I can tell you that Java is the most densely populated island in the world. And it shows! Taxi was an impossible idea, so we took scooters. I experienced one of the most scary10 minutes in my life...
In the end we got to our bus on time, mostly because it was an hour late... And arrived to Bandung and met up with Pika. We hung around for two days and had a great time. Then it was time to go back to Bali and have one last surfing lesson...
It felt a bit sad to leave South East Asia after spending three months there. I had a lot of great experiences and a few bad ones too, but all in all I enjoyed our travels very much. I had gotten so used to the whole enviroment and how things worked, that it actually felt like a bit of a strange thought to go to a Western country again. What did I learn during these three months? It's hard to point a finger at it, but I guess I learned how to meet people from different cultures. It's a bit of an eye opener just to even try
to understand a culture that's so totally different. I definitely have to go back there and I think I will have to visit Malaysia very soon!
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