Pulau Lankawi, Malaysia

Langkawi, aka the Jewel of Kedah is a beautiful group of islands off the West coast of Malaysia. This was a welcome splash of beach isolation after the hustle and bustle of KL. It's a tad (x 5) more expensive than it's Thai island cousins in the North but has a very different / more affluent/private vibe. 

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Tags: .Pulau Lankawi Malaysia..

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Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

KL is a food lovers paradise with a fusion of multiple Asian cuisines, Indian, Chinese, Thai to name a few but Malaysia has stamped it's own twist on these classics. The Petronas towers are the most infamous landmarks and the city has an average temperature of 30C/90F year round. Shopping is a serious past time for those seeking to escape the heat with 60 large malls. The food courts in the malls are excellent in terms of quality and value and a far cry from the deep fried crap served up in Western malls .

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Tags: ..Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur..

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Malaysia to Thailand

Kuala Lumpur

Flights are cheap down here so from Bali we bought tickets at the airport to Kuala Lumpur where we spent a fairly uneventful few days before buying another cheap plane ticket to the poular island gem of Langkawi just off the north east coast of Malaysia. It's a duty free zone where you can get the cheapest liquor I've ever bought e.g. u$d8 for a decent brand of rum and u$d10 for whiskey. Needless to say I sampled a few and since we were leaving by boat my backpack doubled in weight as I ditched some clothes to make room for a bottle or two.

Langkawi

We left Langkawai from the port of Kuah (without time to get Thai money - Baht) and went by boat to Satun in the south of Thailand. On arrival we jumped in the back of a sawngthaew (pick up truck) and had a hell of a time getting the driver to accepy Malay money. No ATM or FX at the bus station compounded problems but we eventually persuaded the ticket agent to convert some USD into Thai Baht.

Bus journeys seem to be one extreme or the other as we first had a microwave oven rust bucket for 3 hours to Trang (where I exchanged more USD to Thai Baht from some helpful Irish lasses. It seems like half of Irelands student population is in Thailand as it's cheaper to live here for the summer than back home. In Trang we connected with 3 hour frisdge freezer rust bucket to Krabi. The following morning after topping up funds (3 attempts at the ATM - Phew!) we went by boat to the much lauded island of Ko Phi Phi.



Sadly this jewel is being choked by it's own success and a good chunk of the beaches are polluted necessitating litter removal (plastic bags, bottles cans) three times a day. You need to hire a boat (be preapred to haggle hard) to reach the some incredibly beautiful and unspoilt islands and lagoons just off the main island. These truly are spectacular and right up there on the WOW factor - think of the movie 'The Beach' and you'll get the idea.

Tags: ..Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Ko Phi Phi Thailand..

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Paddy in Kuala Lumpur

I'm on route to Singapore on that quest for a....damn what is it again? - rhymes with 'mob' or 'sob' or 'gob' or 'rob'? .... well I forget now but I'm making a stopover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to give me time to remember. This is a vastly different part of Asia from what I've seen before. It's primarily a Muslim population in KL complete with women covered in traditional dress (body covered completely including a veil except for that slit to let them peep thru. There are huge multi storey shopping malls in the center with all the big designer gear (Gucci, Armani etc) and an equal amount of great restaurants (far removed from your foodcourts of USA or Europe)

We visited the impressive Batu Caves which has a Hindu temple built into a cave and is overrun with monkeys. One of the highlights todate was fish head soup which comes in a red curry style broth and is a local specialty. They say travel makes you grow but the only growing I've done so far is around the waist. My exercise regime has been shot to pieces. I've even managed to avoid Delhi belly (aka squirt alert) which although uncomfortable usually allows you to lose a few kgs.


We had two interesting encounters on Friday night. First a lady-boy (she-male) approached and then chased my friend up the street. We had a similar encounter in Vietnam where the only decipherible English was "Hey you - Special price - You - Me - 1 hour - Boom Boom - yes?" Second incident was witnessing a drunk driver plough into and completely wreck a taxi on a busy central street corner and drive off despite the fact there was a police kiosk on the same corner. Never a dull moment in this part of the world.

Tags: .Batu Caves Kuala Lumpur..

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