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Published: January 4th 2010
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21st-23rd December
We arrived in Langkawe at around 5pm and took a taxi to a hostel which was full. We spent the following hour and a half looking for somewhere; James on foot, me on bags with the laptop attracting many an interested stare. It was pitch black by the time James returned with the good news that he had found somewhere affordable. After checking in and pitching the mosquito net we went out in search of food. I mistook ‘taufu’ (a method of cooking) with ‘tofu’ (a meat substitute) and ended up with a chicken hot plate. I ate the rice and the sauce. James’ food was slightly better but nothing special. This was washed down with mediocre Thai beer with dirt in it.
The following morning we were up and ready to leave at 6am to catch the ferry to the mainland from where we expected to struggle to find a bus to Kuala Lumpur. Of course at 6am it is impossible to find a taxi and thus we waited until 7am when we were given a lift to the port by the guest house owner. The boat ride went smoothly and we made our way to
the bus station easily enough. At the bus station we were surprised to find a choice of busses and booked ourselves on one in 45 minutes time so that we could have breakfast. Breakfast was one of the best we had had on the entire trip, banana roti with daal. Divine. The bus took nine hours rather than the usual six but it was remarkably comfortable so we didn’t mind overly. The hostel I had booked exceeded expectations and it was with considerable excitement that we went out for our second to last dinner on the trip from our last hostel. We went to a vegetarian restaurant and I had ‘mutton curry’ while James ate a shezuan noodle dish. Both were delicious.
Our final full day was spent shopping. We began in one of the big electrical malls where James looked for camera accessories and a projector and I tried to pretend not to be as bored as I was. We then walked in the direction of another electrical mall when my flip flop came to my rescue and broke diverting us into a closer mall where I bought a pair of shoes and James decided it was time
for lunch. We both had curries and they were absolutely delicious and absolutely enormous. So much for going out for a final dinner that night! After lunch we decided against the other electrical mall and instead hit an amazingly well laid out market where we bought the remaining Christmas presents. Celebrating with a beer we sat in the middle of the great yet calm Malaysian metropolis and planned our evening.
The evening consisted of buying newspaper and buttons (wrapping paper and teddy bear eyes) and a couple of beers. We spent the ensuing hours wrapping presents and sewing up a teddy bear. At around 10pm James went out to get us a takeaway and then we got back to work. It was about 1.30am by the time we had finished.
We slowly got our stuff together the following morning and left just after checkout (midday). We walked to the bus station, taking in the sights, sounds, smells and heat for the final time and then boarded our bus to the airport. After about twenty minutes on the bus we all had to get off and board another. Unconcernedly we did so as we were still a good deal
ahead of schedule. Remarkably it wasn’t until an hour and a half before our flight was to take off that we started to panic. The bus took a lot longer than we had expected. At the first terminal (not ours), I made the bus driver beep his horn in an attempt to hurry up the relaxed passengers who had wandered off to use the toilet. We had one hour until our flight took off at this point. By the time we arrived at the terminal (and before the bus had a chance to park) I ran in and begged the lady to hold the desk open while James waited for the bus to park and retrieved our bags. Luckily she was nowhere near as frantic as I was (it was about 50 minutes before the flight was due to take off) and calmly waited for James and the other two guys who were on our bus. She checked us in and we were on our way home.
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Darrell
non-member comment
Welcome home
Glad you both had fun and are safe. Really enjoyed reading your blog.