Koh Samui and Koh Phanguan!

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Hello all!

Firstly, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and are all looking forward to New Years!

It is very annoying because I had already written about 600 words of this blog about half an hur ago but the stupid computer I was on froze and I lost it all 😞 Not happy but I told the guy who owns the place that I wasn't paying for the last hour of internet time!! Anyway, drama over: Hope everyone is well!

Sophie and I are currently in Koh Phanguan staying in a place called Haad Rin. Koh Phanguan is the official biggest beach party on the whole planet, hosting 30'000 people + for a party that lasts all day all night for a week! The island is so busy that people are having to sleep on the beach because of the accomodation on the island being overbooked!! Im very glad now that Sophie and I booked our hotel 2 months ago as the people that we have met at our hotel are in a worse room than us (hard to imagine if you saw ours) and spent almost 3 times as much because they booked in only 3 weeks ago!

Other than that, there's not much to remember about Koh Phanguan except a weeks worth of hangovers, the new years party on the beach, the amazing fireworks and Sophie's hurt leg where she jumped into a pool and cut her leg on a hidden pool bar seat!! I have decided that Koh Phanguan is a must for New Years and am already planning going back again next year now that we know the places to stay and the best places for cheap alcohol!!!

The last 2 days we were in Koh Phanguan it rained non-stop and caused huge amounts of flooding on the island and in the surrounding areas. So much so, that our bus we had booked taking us to Haad Yai (south Thailand) so that we could cross into Penang, Malaysia had been canceled. The flooding in Haad Yai was so bad that it was covering bonnets of cars so there was no way out - or so we thought!

Luckily, we managed to get on a large vehicle carrying boat to take us to Langkawi, Malaysia and we were told we could then get another boat across to Penang from there. The boat was very rocky and it was sometimes a bit hairy but we got there safely away from the monsoons.

We spent two days in Langkawi and it was a beautiful island, if not a bit quiet. We arrived via fast ferry that had areoplane seats instead of boat seats and no life jackets. We saw the giant Langkawi eagle statue as you approach the port and checked into a hotel called the Citin. We rented a Proton (car) between 5 of us which cost 30 ringgits each and after breaking down 2 minutes out of the car rental place (no petrol), and getting the boys to push us 2 miles to a petrol station it drove quite well around the island. It's a good job we were with strong guys to push the car otherwise I'm not sure what we would have done!!

In langkawi we saw monkeys and cows wandering around the streets and went to a beautiful hidden beach as well as the black sand beaches which weren't as nice as I thought they were going to be (kind of looked like oil had been spilt on them). We also went on a cable cart which was terrifying but was worth it for the beautiful views at the top and on the floating bridge. As we were only there for 2 days that is pretty much all we did, however, the island was so small that we managed to drive around it and see most things there which was good!

Then we left for penang. The boat was lovely and even though I had a seat inside the airconditioned area, I chose to sit at the top at the back with my legs hanging over the edge listening to music and enjoying the fantastic views and sunshine for 3 hours!! When we arrived in Penang we had a lovely taxi man who not only spent the time to tell us about Penangs history he also halved our taxi fare just because he liked us which was really nice of him! He told us that most of the people that live in penang are either Chinese or Indian and he was 2nd generation Malay who's grandfather had been posted by the English to Penang in the war. After haggling on room prices (it's a must!), we checked into Reggae Mansion, Love Lane, Penang. The 3 canadians we met in Koh Phanguan decided to travel through Malaysia and Singapore with us so Kevin, Kristin and Vinny were with us as well at the hostel. The hostel itself was amazing and its definitely something that we need in England. It cost us 6 pounds (there is no pound sign on this computer) a night each and we got cute little beds with their own curtains, lights, mirrors and sockets which is all you need and even though we were in room of 16 people, you hardly ever knew anyone was there as everyone was so considerate and quiet when they came in late or left early. Included in this 6 pound stay was free internet, towels and breakfast so it really was a good bargain for such a nice hostel! However, the next night we decided to go even cheaper and moved into a 24 person dorm at a hostel called Civillians also on Love Lane and this only cost us 2 pounds 80 pence for a night also including towels, internet and 24 hours tea and coffee.

During the day in Penang we rented another car costing 30 pounds between 5 of us for 24 hours and this car was a very nice spacious new Proton and so spent a total of 15 hours (yet only 25 ringgit of petrol) driving around the island and seeing all of the tourist sights. Firstly we saw the Snake Temple after trying to find it for nearly 2 hours! There was quite a few snakes inside the temple as well as outside on the trees. These snakes were called (I think) Wragglers (sp?) Pit Vipes because apparently they have pits in their cheeks. I will look this up at some point! After the snake temple, some lovely person let us follow them in the car to get to the butterfly farm as we were wasting time getting so lost so managed to get there in a few minutes. It was beautiful and very interesing and I got lots of pictures (on facebook) however, it was a bit pricey being the first butterfly farm in the world so the boys decided they weren't interested and sat in the car whilst myself, Kristin and Sophie had a wander round for an hour!

We also saw the chocolate boutique, the reclining and standing buddah's and the floating mosque! The for dinner we went to the night market (very cheap local food - 1 pound for all you can eat) and found nando's, Topshop, Marks and Spencers in the giant 'Gurney' Shopping Mall.

That's it from these places. Sorry it has been so long and hopefully not too boring.

Lots of love, and be sure to read my next blog about Kuala Lumpur!!

Yours Travelling

Sarah xoxo

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