Yes I know it has been a while but we have been busy bees and now have a few days of nothingness so I thought I would update y'all on our Malaysian part of the journey. So we arrived safely over the border onto an island called Langkawi where for the first night we stayed in the worst accommodation to date - it was dingy, dirty and smelly (couldn't think of another d word!) and the door didn't lock properly. Having already paid a deposit we couldn't leave but did insist on changing to a room which we could actually lock!
After our first night terror (I had weird dreams about girls screaming...) we moved on to a nicer guesthouse. Though this was only a little step up as we had some cockroaches visit us. I tried to be all brave and capture on that was squirming around on its back, but when I looked up I saw a massive one on the wall. Screaming I informed Lou that actually I couldn't make the bathroom cockroach free! Our solution was to leave the door open so we could run out if one tried to attack us (yeah I know a tad dramatic!)
So the next couple of days we appreciated the white sand beaches and cooling off in the clear(ish) water, unaware of the jellyfish bobbing alongside us. We found this chilled out reggae bar called Babylon on the beach that played live music and spent many a night sipping a chang and chatting to other backpackers. We met two guys who told us about this amazing Indian restaurant that was open 24hours, so after one particular night out partying to the wee hours we tried some of the food and fell in love with the place, visiting it for cheap curries at 4 in the morning!
One of the days we decided to do an island tour, we saw the hill(mountain?) that looked like a pregnant lady had fallen over, went to a national park that was over run with monkeys which tried to attack us! We also stopped at a fresh water lake which we could swim in, which was pretty amazing. On the way back to Langkawi we stopped at an island called Beras Basah - a postcard beach! We had an amazing time in Langkawi with the locals and other backpackers being really friendly and welcoming but decided to head back to Thailand for a few days to an island recommended by Emma's boyfriend.
Hopping back over to Thailand to Koh Lipe was an adventure in itself - we managed to get the front seats of the open top ferry and could not believe our eyes as the water and sky looked the same colour, it was kinda magical! To say we were a tad excited when we 'landed' in Koh Lipe is an understatment, the water was so clear and the white sand beach was littered with wooded beach huts. That night we watched a lighting and thunderstorm from our balcony which I loved (lou was a little bit scared!) We spent the next couple of days soaking up the sun and generally chilling out in paradise.
On the third day we decided to go another beach on the island called Sunset beach, surprisingly named as you could watch the sunset there. So after a 30min walk around the unmarked dirt tracks we stumbled onto our new beach, which only had 4 other people on! Laying in the sun for about 10mins I spotted some rocks in the middle of the sea/lagoon thingy and decided to go for a swim out to them. Leaving lou on the beach and her warning of 'be safe' ringing in my ears I started to swim out. Having just read the book the beach the thought of sharks did cross my mind, but I soon relaxed and enjoyed the swim. I climbed up onto the rocks and waved to Lou wondering if she could see me and more importantly of course take a photo - not seeing if she had I stood there for a while. I decided to get down and swim back and that is when my foot slipped in between two rocks. I felt a sharp pain in my foot and fell forward into the water, looking at my foot I had loads of spikes sticking out of it! I started to panic as I was unsure of what I had stepped on and started to swim back to the beach. My foot felt numb, but now I think I was just in shock a little, and found it quite hard to swim back. Yet again I'm grateful for all those years swimming!! When I got nearer the beach I started to shout at Lou, which of course panicked her - I shouted to get help but she didn't want to leave me alone swimming back.
Eventually I got back onto the beach where a local boat man was, he quickly told me I had stepped on a sea urchin and that it wasn't poisonous phewww. Lou went on a hunt for some tweezers to try and get them out but couldn't find any. A very kind German couple tried to get some of the spikes out with a pen knife (at this point we didn't know not to do this!) but eventually we decided to go to the medical center which was on another part of the island, so a boat trip was in order. Once at the medical center and I had calmed down a little the doctor cleaned my foot and said I had protein in my foot and they have to work their own way out. We were instructed to keep the foot clean and wait it out. Now I don't want to be too girly and gushy here but part of the reason why I wanted to do this part of the blog was to say how much I appreciated Lou's help. She held my hand, sat on the floor of a wooden motorbike thingy, cleaned my foot for me as I was too much of a woss and looked after me when I wanted my mum the most! Yes looking back it is not that bad and loads of people get urchin spikes stuck in them, but at the time it was scary and painful and she really looked after me - so thank you!
We spent another couple of days in Koh Lipe before getting the ferry back to Langkawi where we met up with Emma and Lorna again. We had a few days with them on the beach and partying at Babylon and Samba, where one particular night we managed to stay out till sunrise! From Langkawi we then travelled over to another island called Penang. We went with a guy called Kristopher who we met at our hostel. We spent the first night in a hostel called Love Lane Inn and shared a 3 bed room with him, this was our first time sharing with someone else and did feel a little odd - but it was something we had to get use to. Up till now we have been kinda spoilt as it has been just as cheap for us to have our own room rather than a dorm! We moved the next night to a nicer hostel with a larger dorm.
During the day we were a little stuck on what to do as we didn't really want to walk around Georgetown, so we ended up shopping a little and going to the cinema twice (saw Unstoppable and HP7!) We went to Red Garden for food as Penang is meant to have the most amazing food, both me and Lou couldn't really see the major fuss but I suppose we all have a different definition of 'amazing food.' Again we met up with Lorna and Emma and bid a farewell to Kristopher who was heading to Thailand. From Georgetown we decided to go the beach at Batu Feringgi by this time we were both feeling a little sorry for ourselves as Penang wasn't really what we thought it was - so we ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe that night! We did feel a little guilty spending 10 pound on food rather than only 1, but we needed something to smile about!! We spent the next couple of days avoiding the horses on the beach and generally just lazying around. Our next stop was inland to Cameron Highlands... we both hoped that we would enjoy it more than Penang!
Well that is part one of the two parter...stay tuned for Malaysia the sequel, coming very soon to a computer near you.
Love to you all
Steph and Lou x x x
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