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Malaysia was the start of my solo travels after saying goodbye to Liam and the main thing for me going there was to detox after several weeks of excessive alcohol abuse on the various Thailand Islands, so the plan was. Travelling down from Krabbe I booked a cheap minibus to take me to Penang and like everywhere else I have been to, I did no research on the Island. I sat next to another Brit who got on the bus who had been partying the night before and still had face paint all over the place. Ashley was heading to Penang as well and didn't really have an idea where he was going to stay, so a quick search on hostelworld.com came up trumps with a decent place and on arrival headed for there. However thats when I realised that my wallet had fallen out my pocket in the minibus, which I realised as it drove off. It felt like the end of the travelling as the wallet had credit card and money which without I couldn't continue. The local bar owner of the Reggae bar for some reason decided to help out and spent 2 hours of driving around on his scooter to find the bus but with no luck. The Frame hostel was helpful in that they would wait until I had some money before and Ashley was good enough to lend me cash until I was sorted. It was the next day that I decided to google any travel company in Krabbe and ask if they could help so sent an email to the first one on the list to see if they could help me out. The company replied immediately and the girl at the other end asked me so many questions on where and when I was dropped off and within 3 hours she had replied saying that the driver had been located and had found my wallet! It would be sent down to me the next day and dropped off at a local travel agents. This is what I would call luck and a big smile was on the face.
Anyways as detox was to start, Ashley had other plans and a couple of nights with him went wrong! Cheap beer in the hostel was a bad idea but was still fun which was the cheaper option then going out to the various bars round town, plus with no wallet for 2 days, we didn't really go out much until day 3 when we decided that sightseeing was needed to be done. Georgetown the city where we were in was an old British Colony town and it still had a lot of the original buildings and to be honest as a first introduction to Indonesia it impressed me. Clean, tidy and polite people. I think that because I had planned in my head of doing nothing for 2 weeks while 'detoxing' I wasn't really in the mood for the usual walking round and taking lots of snaps and it was nice to chill out in the hostel and actually do nothing and talk to other travellers. Ashley had planned on only staying for a couple of days and heading onto Langkawi, another island which boasted lots of beaches so decided on following him across there on a ferry and arriving there it was the first time that I had to find a hostel without the internet. Bad idea as the hostel we found was probably one of the worst I've stayed at. Langkawi is actually a tax free island and one of the most popular holiday destination for Indonesians so of course the price of accommodation is not cheap but the hostel we found was a bit too cheap as all it was a small room/building with 2 doors, 5 bunk beds and 2 fans. It wasn't the cleanest or comfortable hostel but it was roughly about £3 a night with a free breakfast thrown in, can't complain with that! One thing I never realised about Indonesia is that it's an Islam country and on Langkawi it was a bank Holiday weekend with every type of muslim that you can think of. From moderate types of muslim dress to the full burkas however the blokes all seemed to wear shorts and t-shirts. I'm not a religious bloke but I think that equality should be in religion, but what can I do!
The first night in Langkawi once settled in involved finding a beach bar and drinking the sunset in with Ashley, obviously it was only meant to be a couple of beers but ended up with a lot more and moving onto to one of the most expensive bars in the area which severely dented my budget for the entire week but thank god that Ashley was leaving the next day. After he went I went through a few days of resting which in this case meant waking up, having breakfast, walking around for a bit, going to the beach for getting the tan worked on, going to a local restaurant getting some food, going back to the hostel and watching a film on the laptop..... all without talking to anyone for the whole period of about 4 days. This was totally boring so that is when I started talking to a Kiwi and Aussie who without fail talked me into going for a beer. I failed in my detox but again they left the next day so hangover intact I started my no speaking to anyone phase again and detox carried on for another few days.... so many films were watched! It was when I was on day 13 on the island that my feet decided it was time to move on to the next stage of Malaysia so booked a cheap ferry/bus trip and on the last night thought I'd celebrate with 2 swedish guys with a beer. On speaking to them for the first time, they were shocked to discover I was English as they had been there for a while and assumed that because I hadn't spoken to anyone and was in my own bubble I was French, My time in Langkawi was what I needed after a few months of partying, I was refreshed, detoxed and ready for the next place!
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Tom
non-member comment
Not Indonesia
Stuart you must be hung over, Penang and Langkawi are in Malaysia not Indonesia,:)