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Published: February 8th 2010
Night Train
Me making breakfast...crackers and peanut butter, yum!The night train was a big bit of excitement for us all, especially Phoebe who struggled to contain herself. We had booked a sleeper carriage, leaving KL Sentral at 9.30pm and arriving in Arau at 8.30am the next morning. Our beds were converted seats complete with privacy curtain and actually kind of comfy! No one slept particularly well though, once you get over the train noise there's still other people talking/snoring, the train sounding it's horn every now and then, and the worst thing for me....coping with the cold as it was air conditioned to a chill! I ended up getting my thermals out from my pack at 3am, and slept better after that....didn't think I'd be needing them in Malaysia!
We decided to hire a car while in Langkawi, as it's a decent sized place and a car would give us some flexibility (and a break from pesky 'teksi' drivers). For RM60/day we got a sporty red three door locally made Proton, which I named 'Roxy' to Nick's dismay, but a suitable name for a girly, red car. Roxy had terrible suspension and was about 15 cm off the ground, so every time we took a corner a little
Before the ferry to Langkawi
Phoebe holding court, getting full attention of the locals with her many tales. She's a big hit! too enthusiastically we'd hear 'SCRAAAAPE'. Neither of us thought we'd drive cars in Asia (after a hair raising motorbike experience in Laos two years ago), but the local traffic was fine; it was just the other tourists on hired scooters we had to look out for!
Our guide book said that the Malaysian government decided that Langkawi should be a tourist spot a while ago so went about pretty much creating 'areas of cultural/historical significance' to attract tourists. Perhaps I'm a cynic, but I have to say I'd agree. But still, it is your typical tropical island paradise type location, with windswept palm beaches, white sand and wildlife aplenty.
We stayed in a recommended place 'AB Motel' (CD Motel was just down the road and this cracked me up....was wondering if it's the poorer brother?), but only for a night as they were fully booked for the weekend. We then went down the road and found a guesthouse for the next two nights which was fantastic. Not flash, but clean, comfortable and right by the beach with a common kitchen and free breakfast to boot! Just next door was an eatery run by a Kiwi expat Leslie who
Roxy
Our awesome rental car! we got talking to for a bit. Actually we parked in his parking area and I think he was wanting to tell us off, until he detected Nick's kiwi accent and immediately asked “where are you from?” to which Nick said Auckland, saw his frown, and added “but I lived in Invercargill for two years”. Turns out he's from Christchurch, so our South Island connections worked well, phew.
Unfortunately the paradise island mirage dropped pretty quickly when I got stung by a jellyfish....it really hurt! I was happily lolling about in the water, chatting away to Nick and BAM, nasty thing got me 😞 A few expletives left my mouth and I ran quickly out of the water. Thankfully Phoebe was already playing on the beach and oblivious to the whole thing. Anyway, turned out to be relatively harmless, and as I'm still here we can all assume it's ok. Leslie said it is stinger season at the moment, and gave us a few pointers for how to avoid them in future.
Now we're off to Penang on the ferry and looking forward to some delicious, yummy food!
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