Oooooh.... aaaaaaah... (Malaysia)

Ahhhh... Langkawi!

Wow, I'm now in Langkawi, an island on the Northwest Corner of Malaysia, just below Thailand. It's so lovely out here. I came by ferry yesterday with Marlene and we ran into this Englishman Dominic who'd we'd met previously in Melaka. We rode along the Indian Ocean, its such a neat feeling to be riding on the ocean for 2 hours.

All the travellers I've met in the last couple weeks in Malaysia have all said that the west coast islands aren't that nice and not even worth going to. Most of them skip out on Langkawi and head straight up to Thailand. Well, I obviously haven't been to Thailand yet (arrive tomorrow morning), but Langkawi is so gorgeous I think that all those travellers are missing out. They must all have the Lonely Planet or something (I met someone yesterday who called it her 'bible'.

You'd be amazed at how little tourists there here actually, most of them are just people on a short vacation. Lots of resort type hotels here. Anyway, yesterday on the beach which spanned about 1.5km there were literally about 30 people. In the water, even less, like 7-9. Today, on another beach on the northern tip of the island, there was like 10 people spanning about 2km. I'd like to see that little amount of people on a beach in Thailand, doubtful! I think that fact alone, makes Langkawi superior to Thai beaches.

Okay, I'll admit the sand wasn't perfect, like there were a few shells to walk on, and in the water there was some pebbles along the bottom, but so what. The water was clean and clear, a nice color. You can't go wrong, I'm glad I didn't skip this place.


Oooouch! My aching bones!

So yesterday, while on the beach, I saw a few people jogging on the sand, along the shore line. I haven't been jogging since about early September or so and I was totally motivated by the others. No problem, I decided to give it a go... with no shoes. Not the best idea. Like I said there's pebbles and seashells on the sand. It was a nice run though, I actually wasn't even struggling at all, it must be all the hiking from the Cameron Highlands that got me back into shape, not to mention I walk around every city for hours at a time. However afterwards, my feet were pretty soar and my calves were aching! I did stretch before and after, but I think that its the fact of no shoes that did me in. It was so 'Baywatch' like to do it with no shoes though!

Not only are my calves and shoes soar, my skin is starting hurt. Today and yesterday I bathed in the sun and was able to read my book. (African Safari Papers by Sedlack... good book!) I put some sun screen on, but I don't think it was 100% full proof. My skin's a little tight right now and kinda hot. I'm sure I'll be fine though. You should see how dark my arms are, I look like a regular Malaysian!

My ass is a little soar too, but that's another story....

Yeeeeee-ha.... riding again!

Marlene and I rented a motorbike today for only RM20, which converts to like $6.50 Cdn for 24hours. Pretty inpressive price. Too bad the breaks didn't work so well, and the second we were about to leave the lot, the merchant yelled "wait, wait!" so he could run over and pump a little air into the front tire. He also gave us a 90 second riding lesson, good thing Marlene rode a scooter for 4 years when she was younger.

Anyway, Langkawi is pretty big, can't just walk from on end of the island to the other. (Just a quick note that there's about 80 tiny little islands all around Langkawi). So anyway, we took turns today riding from one place to another. I'd say I'm a pretty good driver for it being my first time, not to mention that Malay's drive on the left side of the road. There's hardly any traffic, the roads are really straight and there's like 5 traffic lights on the whole island.

Seven Wells

Since we were able to explore the island we found this cool place, Seven Falls. Basically you walk up something like 550 steps and at the top there's this small waterfall where you can go swimming in. Pretty cool stuff, there's even a part where the rocks form like a slide to go down. I went down twice!

12 Monkeys

Okay, there wasn't really twelve of them, but its a better title. Marlene was wondering a little on her own, while I was getting ready to jump into the Seven Falls water, but then I heard her scream. I looked up and she was about to get attacked by a few monkeys. She was ready to use her camera to swing at them as she slowly backed away. It was actually quite funny, after the fact, but I don't know what I would've done it they actually attacked. Would I save her from the monkey? You or I will never know, but I'd like to think yes, being the gentleman that I am.

Ewwwww.... critters.

So, if I'm man enough to fight a monkey, then I should have no problems living with cochroaches. Yeah, that's right, cockroaches. In our room last night, we discovered about 3 or 4 different cockroaches hanging off the wall. I tried not to freak out, but Marlene is there jumping and stuff, of course I'm gonna freak out with her. I slept with my feet facing the wall as opposed to my head, the way it normally should be, because I know that the cockroaches are found on the wall. It took me like 10 minutes to get the guts to go into the washroom and brush my teeth. One scream later and a lot of courage, I had some clean teeth.

I think I'm okay now, you just have to get to know them, be friendly with them. They won't hurt or bite you, they just want to be roomates... yeah, that's it. In fact, just about 45 minutes ago, I had a shower with one! I didn't even freak, honest. I just quietly chanted to myself, 'please go away, please go away, please go away'. You can't really do much while you're standing there naked! But I watched it and saw how it moves, and they actually pretty neat little critters. Nevertheless, I left the lights on when I left the room, hopefully they won't be there when I get back.

I almost ran over a pretty big lizard today, but I swerved just in time. Then a few minutes down the road, there was a dead one splattered on the pavement. Poor fella.

I saw a rat a couple days ago too, but this was in Penang. First time seeing a rat. I'll have to get used to these aswell for when I get to India.


Ummmm.... a few tidbits.

I drank a Crysanthimum drink today. Inside it were all the flowers, but they look like dandelions. It was way too sweet, I tried to add some water to it, but still gross. I fed it to a tree.

I bought the drink from this big outdoor Ramadahn market. Ramadahn is a month long fast for Muslims, from 6am-7pm. We got there around 6pm and it was swamped with starving people, buying food to eat right at the strike of 7pm.

Speaking of the Islam religion, right now I'm at this internet cafe with no shoes on.

If you haven't read my "Everything happens for a reason" story, do so before reading this paragraph (should be the next one). Anyway, right after I wrote that entry, literally 2 mintues later, I bumped into Melissa and Emilie at the cafe that located at the base of my hostel! They're the 2 Canadians coming to India with me. Later that night, they bumped into a friend of a friend they know from Montreal. He then told us he knows of a travel agent in Bangkok who might be able to help us out with our plane tickets. I swear, this is no coincidence.