Langkawi, Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur - Tea Cakes and Towers

---

We can't believe we've been in Malaysia for 2 weeks - we've done so much! We are actually in Borneo now so I thought I'd update the blog before we had too many adventures here.

The speedboat across to Pulau Langkawi from Thailand was great, we got an actual seat and it was on time. Langkawi is known for its beautiful beaches but as we were only staying for two nights we stayed in the town called Kuah which is near the jetty. We'd had a lot of the beaches so we decided to do something different and visit Underwater World. It was really fun!

It's Malaysia's largest aqaurium featuring 200 different species of marine and freshwater creatures. There was even a talking parrot! Our favourites were the turtles and the rockhopper penguins. We watched the penguins at feeding time and they actually do hop on the spot when they wanted some fish. It was really funny to watch. There was also the largest freshwater fish in the world there, they were in a massive tank with leopard print sting-rays and other smaller fish. They really are huge and we watched the diver go down to feed them all. There seemed to be a pecking order as to who got fed first - the huge ones first, followed by the sting rays and then the smaller fish. There were also some beautiful seahorses and a huge fish that looked like it was made out of thousands of stones - it was actually called 'stone fish'.

After the aqaurium we had a lovely dinner on the beach, our first proper Malayan meal - we are loving the chicken satay sticks! It was a bit of a surprise the differences we noticed in Malaysia to Thailand - they speak much better English and we are able to communicate so much better, we can finally ask them questions about their way of life. They also don't speak to me if they see Andy. Coming out of the hotel room, they said "How's your room sir?" We were looking around a mall and a man on a handbag stall tried to sell the handbag to Andy. It's quite strange and not something I particularly like. So being stubborn as I am I answer the questions. They also like to tell us their story of independence from Britain once we tell them we are from England. :-)

After Langkawi we hopped on a ferry to the island of Penang and stayed in the capital city of Georgetown. Georgetown is largely a chinese city with impressive colonial architecture and tumbledown old shophouses. It is the oldest British settlement in Malaysia so many of the grand colonial buildings are still in Penang. We decided the best way to see the city was to do a walking tour from the Lonely Planet book. Georgetown isn't very pedestrian friendly just like Thailand. You have to be careful for the surprise step, a steep slope and even huge gaping man holes leading to the sewers.

On the walking tour we saw the Victoria Memorial Clock Tower which was a gift to Queen Victoria when she celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. The tower is 60ft high - one foot for each year of her reign. We also went to Fort Cornwallis, one of Penangs oldest sights built between 1808 - 1810. It's now a big stone wall surrounding a green area with some old cannons pointing out to sea. We were really impressed with the Town and City Hall's - they were beautiful grand buildings.

The end of the tour was at the famous and grand Eastern and Oriental Hotel which is probably on par with London's The Ritz and Singapore's Raffles Hotel. The family who opened the hotel was the same family who opened Raffles. We decided to see if we could have a peek around - it was so posh inside! We stumbled across the '1885' restaurant that was serving afternoon tea. Andy asked the manager (dressed in a tux) if we could go in as we were only wearing t-shirts and shorts. After looking us up and down for a few minutes he said we could go in but we'd have to sit outside. I'm so glad we did as we had the whole outside seating area to ourselves and had a delicious afternoon tea! It was such a great treat - little sandwhiches, sausage rolls, scones, and 5 different bitesize cakes to try. We had a pot of tea each with as many free re-fills as you like. It was expensive but so worth it and we both waddled our way back to our hotel. Hehe.

Even though Penang is an island it is connected to the mainland by the largest bridge in SE Asia so we decided to coach it all the way to Kuala Lumpur. It was a 5 hour journey so not bad and we had the comfiest seats ever, they even had massage buttons to use! We couldn't believe how built up KL is, sky scrapers everywhere! The guesthouse we stayed in was in a brilliant location, right next to the Central Market which had some really amazing stalls in. It was really close to the monorail stop too, which we used a lot. Great not to have to rely on taxis to get around as the buses and monorails were brilliant. KL is not really pedestrian friendly either. The guesthouse owner was really nice and we probably would have stayed there again on our return to KL but the shared bathroom just wasn't clean enough and there were only 2 showers which were in with the 2 toilets in the whole building.

We decided to go and see the Pertronas Towers straight away as we could see the tips of them in the skyline. They were at one time the tallest buildings in the world and they are huuuuge! Opened in 1998, the 88 storey twin towers rise up 451.9m. The highest point you can go up as a tourist is the 41st floor, the skybridge, we are going to do that when we come back after Borneo. There is a massive 6 storey shopping mall underneath the towers that is amazing. All the shops are designer and there didn't seem to be too much difference if you bought back home. We also went to see Thor in the mall because it had a huge cinema, Andy had really wanted to see it and it only cost 2.50 pounds. Can't complain.

The next day we braved the local bus 13km north of the city centre to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves were discovered around 120 years and a short time later was made into a Hindu Shrine. Every year in January about 1,000,000 pilgrims come from all over Malaysia to climb the 272 steps to the cave to pray and worship. Thank goodness it wasn't January. It was hard enough climbing the steep steps on our own. We had to watch out for the monkeys that were scaling the rock face and climbing up and down the steps. They kept trying to snatch our water bottles from us. The view from the top was amazing! Inside the cave was pretty with a temple in there and then a huge opening at the top with the sunlight pouring through. There was just too much concrete in there for me to truly see the beauty of the caves. The adventure came that when we got there the bus just pulls over on the motorway and we all get off and then we had to run across it. Then run across two motorways to get the bus back. (Don't worry Mum we waited until it was clear!)

On the last couple of days we wondered around Chinatown and discovered the great Pentaling Street night market. I loved it! You do have to be careful around there though as its a pick pockets paradise. The guest house owner told us how he heard of a man being relieved of 3000USD!!! I felt sorry for the man but how totally daft to be carrying that much around. We went to the Lake Gardens and to the Planetarium - it was 50p each to get in and we watched this cool 3D show on the Sun with a load of school kids. It was really fun. Afterward they all wanted their picture taken with us. Strangely, this had happened before at the Pertronas Towers with a group of Indian men. It started off one person wanted his pic taken with Andy then about 20 more showed up. I was a bit freaked out so we asked the guesthouse owner and he said that Andy reminded him of somebody famous!! Haha! So he thinks it's a case of mistaken identity. Bit weird though. I'll keep you all posted if this happens again.

We have already found Malaysia to be quite different from Thailand. Food and accommadation is cheaper but transport is more expensive. They all speak really good English which helps when we have questions. The roads are in much better condition and it feels a lot more modern than Thailand did. I'm sure we'll notice more as time goes on.

Hope you are well. Next blog will be Borneo with hopefully lots of pictures of Orangs!!

Take care. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

---