Travels along the west coast!

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Leaving the Highlands behind for the small island Pangkor felt a little strange, (I was yet to realize I had lost my phone and would be returning,) however I was traveling from one location to the next with people for the first time since I started which felt great after several bus rides on my own! Jamie and Charlotte were both great company and the collection of buses and ferry rides to get to Pangkor would not have been half as much fun without them.

From the Highlands we got a bus to Ipoh another to Lumut (Oh almost forgot to mention this the wonderful MUFC burger! (see facebook photo) was seen in Lumut!) and then a Ferry to Pangkor, when we touched down on Pangkor we had a futher taxi ride to the main accommodation and beach area. We found a nice little hotel to rent a room for the next few nights and proceeded to chill out. Jamie and I quickly checked that we were going to be able to watch the Grand Prix in Abi Dubai as we did not want to miss the first ever one and the final Grand Prix of the season. We were able to watch this in our room which was great news so off we went in search of food!

While looking at the little road side cafes, we noticed many would BBQ fresh fish so we decided to sit down and order some, turns out this was a mistake as we later found out you had to order this before you sat down so we decided to save it for another night! We got talking to a couple of British guys who were sat next to us, who invited us to watch the football and have a couple of beers with them. This ended up as a big night on the beach, drinking and swimming till the early hours! Met a nice local who joined us for a drink or two and spoke very good English. The next day was spent monged out on the beach due to our hungover state with a little swimming although the island was truly beautiful and it felt great not to be rushing around a city or trekking through the forest. And of course we watched the Grand Prix in the evening what can I say expect what a track and pure disappointment that Barrichello did not finish 2 in the championship. Our final day and night in Pangkor was spent in much the same fashion as the 2nd chilling out on the beach during the day and in the evening we found a cafe to order some fresh fish, this tasted amazing only wish the food tasted that good every day. Leaving Pankgor was like leaving home behind again as the beach and the chilled out atmosphere had reminded me so much of life in Cornwall. Jamie had returned to KL and Charlotte and myself we moving onto Penang.

Once we had arrived in Penang we followed the guide books advice and we to the blue diamond hostel what a mistake this was, and it was not long before we had decided to change our plans and make a move to Langkawi in the morning the only problem being the ferry left at 8am and we decided to go about 12pm also the live band directly below us knew about 10 songs and played them on a continuous loop until about 3am! Lets just say I was happy to get out and away to Langkawi the next morning.

Langkawi summed up in a night of drunken chaos 1 litre Absolut Vodka about 7 pounds and well the night went from there 6 people 4 person taxi for 2 pounds driver went about 150km an hour absolute nutter! club was interesting although beers were more expensive here! Then the 4 people one scooter hunt for the girls who had crossed the road that was again an interesting experience shall we say! well that pretty much sums up the Langkawi action! Left the next morning to return to Penang with both Charlotte and myself feeling a little worse for wear!

One night in Penang to recover then a day of chilling out after Charlottes departure, until Jamie and Ricky woke up met them around 4 and proceeded to visit the shopping centre with its lovely air-con! After that caught the bus and watched the sun set from the top of Penang hill what a lovely view over the city of Georgetown we had! Back down into Georgetown and off to find some dinner, had some lovely black pepper chicken and found a bar selling strongbow had to put this in even though we didn't drink any of this crap as Charlotte had not shut up about it for days.

In the morning I left to begin my Jungle railway adventure!

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