Malaysia - Langkawi Island

Penang, Malaysia 24.12.2014

We decided to spend in Langkawi ten days. At first it was really nice but after a couple of days the tourist stuff started to be annoying. Also the weather was challenging because it was raining every day.

Langkawi is a quite big island but it has not so many things to do and see. It's promoted as a heaven of 99 islands but it's so expensive to visit even the closest one that if you are not sailing by your own yacht (that we unfortunately left home) you stay only on the main island. We rented a moped for two days and drove all around the island to see main attraction; The Black Sand Beach, 7 Wells, waterfalls, Underwater World, Craft Complex, Hot springs, Kuah city, Kok Beach, Cable car. The distances are long and the majority of places are hard to find. The Black Sand beach did not have black sand but only a huge cement factory next to it. We walked past the 7 Wells because we didn't understand that it was it and ended up on a jungle trail that after 45min of hiking informed us that it was some Extreme Challenge route. Monica did it in flip flops. The waterfall next to the wells was nice. 

The hot springs were unbelievable. There was not any heat from land but only some terrible ponds where water got warm by standing still. They were full of dirt and it would have cost 200RM/50e per hour! We skipped. The craft complex was closed on both days even it's high season. Kuah city was mainly hotels, shopping malls and construction work. We skipped also the Cable car because of the bad weather and actually we hiked up the mountain already earlier so we saw the view..hah. Kok Beach was nice but the security signs of the luxury hotel next to it was a little scary.

In the end we droved almost 100km per day. The underwater world was the biggest disappointment. It costed RM40/10e and included unhappy pinguins and nobody seemed to care about the animals. Tourist took photos of the animals with flash even the signs clearly forbid that. Many also knocked and hit the glasses of fished etc and nobody seemed to care. It was just sad. The exhibitions was build so that after every sections there was some shop. Or popcorn selling point. And everything was so dirty.

The best thing we saw on our drive was a shark on sale in a little fish shop in the middle of the island. And many monkeys.

A good thing in Langkawi were the little malay cafees that are delicious. Also the beach was nice but the waters are full of jellyfish. It's difficult to swim without getting burn. Langkawi is also promoted for it's tax free prices but they compensate with taking tourist prices. Now that we are in Georgetown in Penang the prices are almost the same. Actually textiles are cheaper.

We took advantage of the fact that we can't do anything and relaxed reading, running every morning and eating well. We got a nice routine. We also had time to book this nice hotel for Christmas in Penang.

Merry Christmas everybody! Here Christmas is seen mainly commercially and as our taxi driver said on the first day: "You can go to a shopping mall at Christmas and shop all day!". Not.

Happily we are here together :)

Thailand - Koh Mook Island

Langkawi, Malaysia 14.12.2014

The train journey from Bangkok started almost in a two hour delay. Still we were on the train ready which meant that instead of 15 hours it would be a 17 hours trip. We were in the third class of the train and happily it didn't get too packed. You have in third class only a sitting place on a hard bench. There was no air conditioning but all the windows were open and on the roof of each vagon were three fans. At first it was really hot but in the night a bit cold. Lot of insects flew inside from the open windows. We were prepared with our own snacks but also on the train there were granmas and others selling lot of food and drinks. We managed to get a few hours of sleep and arrived to Trang in the morning. After breakfast we headed to the travel agency of the brother of our nice waitress and decided to leave right away to an island called Koh Mook.

The first impression was amazing and continued to be after the ten days we stayed there. We spent the first four nights in a bungalow we booked from the travel agency and the other five in a cheaper place we booked on the island. Both were really nice and close to the beach. The island is quite small but it has the touristic beach side and a fisherman village on the other. The village was really traditional and most people are muslims. But it was a lot cheaper than the other side so some morning we ran there to get fruits for breakfast. Mainly we spent our days on the beach and snorkeling and reading in our hammocks. The island is really quite and relaxed - not really a party place. Still, it is popular for island hopping and visitors for a day.

The main attraction is the Emerald cave. It's a cave that is almost 90 meters long and opens to a secret beach inside. Pirates used to use the beach to hide their treasures. We went there by kayak that we rent for one day. We kayaked the whole island around which was about 10km.

The island is full of nice restaurants but our favorite was a family who had one called Hilltop. The mother was so funny and cooked herself everything. Portions were huge and delicious.

We left on the 10th of Dec for Trang and our intention was to go straight to Langkawi. We probably pronounced the name of the pier wrong and ended up in a bus which took us to the opposide side of Thailand almost on the east coast! Once arrived we took a new bus to Satun and headed to back to the west coast. We lost a few hours and so missed the last ferry. Thankfully we had one day extra on our visas so we just stayed one night in Satun. Our hotel was extremely cheap and extremely ugly. But no insects or animals inside so we stayed there. We had a few rhum and cokes so that we could sleep easier :D We left early in the morning and took the first ferry to Langkawi. There was almost no border control for Finnish passport holders.

We hadn't booked anything beforehand so we just took a taxi to Penang Cenang where most of accomodations are situated. The taxi driver was so nice and worked for us as a tour guide through the island. He dropped us in a good spot and we found a place to stay nearby. It is high season and public holiday in Malaysia so prices are much higher than other times. It was so weird arriving in a total turistic and western style island with shopping malls, mc'donalds, starbucks etc. We ain't going to visit these but the proximity comforts after jungle life.

During the first evening we bumped to some people we met on the Trans Siberian route! A family that travelled and had partys with us for five days during Moscow-Ulan Bator. It was unbelievable and we had once again a really nice evening :)