Langkawi Island

Penang to Pulau Langkawi – 19 / 20 February 2009

We got up late on our second day at Penang and decided to go check out the beach area of Batu Ferringhi. There are a lot of backpacker joints in that area and the beach was supposed to be nice.

The public transport system has so far been quite easy to navigate, comfortable and reliable here in Malaysia. We jumped bus No.101 from the 7/11 on the corner of Love Lane and Lebuh Chulia which took us there in about half an hour. We wandered down to the beach which was quite pretty and parked ourselves under a tree.

Paul got hassled by a tout trying to get him to go horseriding, parasailing or any number of other activities bound to send us WAY over our daily budget. If there is a tout around you can guarantee that they will make a beeline for Paul. I think the reason is that instead of ignoring them he asks them questions – it only makes it worse when he turns them down, which he always does. Having said that, the level of hassling in Malaysia is nowhere near as bad as I have experienced before. Usually if you indicate that you're not interested they'll leave you alone.

I decided that I was quite tired enough for the spot under the tree to be my bed for the day and all we did for the rest of the afternoon was rest, swim and eat icecreams. Around 7.00pm it was just on dusk so we decided to grab something to eat and wandered around trying to find the famous Batu Ferrhengi night market which we had read about in a tourist brochure.
We weren't able to find it and eventually we decided to catch the 101 back to Georgetown. We later asked a taxi driver about the night market and he said it was a very famous night market but it didn't start till 8.00pm – doh!! We were annoyed that we missed it.

On the way back in the 101 we went past the Eastern and Oriental Hotel which is a 6 star resort with a famous history here in Penang (it was established by the brothers who established Raffles in Singapore). The E&O looked gorgeous from the outside. We had considered going there for lunch but we didn't have the appropriate attire (no shorts, no sandals). Obviously, we were too scruffy so we had to miss that too.

Oh well, the hostel that we stayed at in Georgetown (the Old Penang Guesthouse) was really nice anyway (and right within our budget so we didn't feel guilty about staying there). It was an old colonial style house and the owners had retained a lot of the original features, such as the tiled floors and decorative ceilings. Our room was really nice with window shutters that opened right out to a verandah at street level, a red feature wall, air conditioning and clean sheets and towels. There was a common area which,although it was indoors, was set out like a courtyard (which I guess it may have been at some point), a sofa, a flatscreen television with tonnes of DVDs and a bookshelf with a bunch of books to borrow. Breakfast of tea and toast was served every morning until 12 noon. Best of all, the bathrooms were really clean and there was plenty of hot water. And the total price for such luxury? It set us back a mere RM50 (about AU$23) a night which we thought was a bargain.

While we were in Penang I tried my best to sample some of the local foods that the area is famous for. Of course we ate more than our fair share of char kway teow but my favourite new things to try were actually drinks. I really loved the “stretched” tea that you can get (really strong and sweet) and the iced coffee. Yes, I have succumbed already to the heat and decided some days ago that I could not possible survive a day longer in the heat if I didn't have a really, really cold drink. The refrigerators here never seem to make the drinks very cold. The only way to get a really, really cold drink is, you guessed it – ice. Once I did it once I just couldn't stop. I just saw so many other tourists with ice in their drinks and I kept thinking “if they are drinking it then so am I!” Now every day I tell myself that I won't be having any ice but as soon as I start to move I get so hot I just can't help from having ice. At least I am still doing most other things right...

The one other thing that I would have liked to do in Penang that we didn't get the chance to do was to take a ride in a trishaw. There are still quite a lot of trishaw drivers around and it seems like it would be a wonderful, old fashioned way to see Georgetown but we ended up being too cheap to hire one and walking everywhere instead.

We decided that our day at Batu Ferringhi would be our last day in Penang. We still had some time before our flight to Borneo from KL on the 24th so we decided to head to Pulau Langkawi for our remaining time. Langkawi is a resort island that you can reach via ferry from Penang. Obviously, our day at Batu Ferringhi only whetted our appetite for more lounging on the beach.
Having given in to our slothful instincts and telling ourselves that we really needed a rest before attempting to climb Mt Kinabalu in a few weeks, we booked tickets on the 8.15 ferry to Langkawi. I decided to set the alarm for 6.00 because I figured it would take Paul about 45 minutes to wake up and about the same to pack and we intended to walk to the ferry from our hostel (about 15 – 20 minutes). By the time we went to sleep it was well after midnight as we were using the internet to try to find accommodation in Langkawi.

Because we have both been religiously wearing our earplugs at night to avoid the noise in the hostels, of course neither of us heard the alarm!!!! Thankfully the hostel proprietors banged on our door at 7.30 this morning yelling at us that we had to be at the ferry stop in half an hour! We totally freaked out and started throwing stuff in our bags. I ended up leaving without having a shower or even washing my face or brushing my hair (thankfully I managed to squeeze in brushing my teeth), let alone taking advantage of the free breakfast. We got the proprietors to call us a cab and only just made it to the ferry on time. We were very grateful that they take such interest in their guests – otherwise we would definitely have missed the ferry and both been RM60 out of pocket for the ticket!! Unfortunately in the rush we left our food bag behind somewhere. Although it didn't have much food in it because we ate it all, it did have our potato/fruit peelers in there which we were very sad to lose (you would not believe how hard it is to find a good potato peeler here!).

The ferry ride took about 2 ½ hours and by the time we finally reached Langkawi Paul had managed to ring a hostel and make a booking. However, he wasn't that happy with it because the room he had booked (which was all they had left) only had a fan and no air conditioning. Of course when we arrived at the dock Paul engaged one of the touts in conversation about accommodation and ended up going off with him somewhere while I got some money out of the ATM.

Eventually Paul came back and said that he had booked a room in a motel throught the tout and had already paid a deposit! Although I wasn't too thrilled at booking something that we hadn't read a review on somewhere at least, I wasn't too worried until the taxi actually turned into the driveway of this “motel”. The driveway was a dirt road with mounds of rubbish on either side and a dingy looking sign. We followed the proprietor to our room (not before parting with RM120 being the cost of two nights accommodation) only for things to get worse.

Let me describe this room. It has brown lino on the floor over which there is a constant stream of ants emanating from who knows where. There are no screens or even glass on the windows so we are constantly covered in DEET and I am writing this from within my silk sleeping bag liner trying to avoid the mosquitos. For the same reason the whole room smells like the two mosquito coils that we have burning constantly. There is air conditioning but it is quite ineffectual because there is no window pane to keep in the cool air. There are no blankets or sheets on the bed. We do have our own bathroom in which there is a toilet and a shower head with no sink and no hot water. When I got in to take a shower before a millipede came out of the drain. Hmmmm and this place is costing more than the Old Penang Guesthouse? Truly horrific. Plus there is no internet so this won't even get posted on the blog for some days to come. I have of course decided that from now on Paul will no longer be allowed to communicate independently with any touts.

After I had a bit of a sulk about the room I decided to get over it and just treat it like camping! After all, at least the toilet flushes, which is more than I can say for some of the hostels we've stayed in so far. I also decided it would make a good story for the blog (I use this idea to cheer me up when strange or horrible things happen on the trip, such as when we were “tourist-napped” by Vrea and Vicki). Plus, since Paul had already foolishly parted with our money there was nothing we could really do about it. In truth, I think I had read so much about the fabulous 5 start resorts and pristine beaches here that I had forgotton what AU$25 a night actually buys.

In the afternoon we went down to the beach (which is just 20 metres from our front door) and another afternoon of doing practically nothing helped cheer us up no end. We also decided that the horror of our room meant that we could totally blow our budget on an actual restaurant meal. In one meal we successfully spent enough money to see both of us through another whole day of our trip (including accommodation). I am currently feeling quite guilty about this gross overspend – it's back to the RM3 hawker meals for us tomorrow. At least the food was good though.

We're currently planning what we will do with our remaining days in Langkawi. It's a hard choice – we can't decide between going on a cruise of the nearby islands, going snorkelling or hiring a car to see some of the natural rainforest and deserted beaches elsewhere around the island. Whatever we choose, it must be something that will keep us out of this room as much as possible!

PS By the way, Michelle I have decided that you could definitely handle Langkawi (as long as you stayed in a proper resort). The beaches are nice, it is hot all the time (which has meant that having no hot water has not really been that big of a problem) and on our way down the street this evening we saw an Irish pub – the first we've seen in Malaysia!! - N