Hey everyone hope everyone is having a great start to 2009, and you all had a wicked xmas and new years eve!!! We are currently in Singapore but have still not caught up with the diary as we only just entered Malaysia!!!!

So First stop on our Malaysian journey was Langkawi. Before arriving however we had to make it across the border by boat from Lipe. Now to demonstate Thailands organisational skills would be a mission, their logic is always to go all the way around the houses even if there goal is at the end of a straight road! So being more than used to this by now, we book a boat. The only instructions from the crew was to hand over our passports on the middle of the beach in Lipe. They then proceeded to say that they would take them in a seperate boat to the border to organise visas and allow our entry into malaysia. They then of course reassured us that we would get them back one we arrived in Langkawi! All of this non surprisingly was in broken english......but what the heck we needed to get to Malaysia and this appeared to be the only way how so we went for it! Live life on the edge!!!!haha should they not have been waiting for us we would have had to go back to Lipe and wait for a few weeks or more to arrange new ones (oh nooooo that would be a terrible shame!!!!!) :). So anyway we arrive at the border in Langkawi and drama free we recieve our passports. Never have we entered a contry in such a wierd way! No customs noone checking your passport against you.....strange, but anyway it worked so our visit to Langkawi began.

From the moment we arrived it was clear that although they are only a stones throw apart, Malaysia ad Thialand were completely different. For a start the Thai ports are full of rusty old banger boats or small longtail boats strung up in no particular order. This port was impressive! so pretty and was something that we both described we thought would see in Sydney! It was wierd to think that Langkawi was also an island. Most of the Thai islands are centred around one thing.....the beach and beach huts!! This was completely different from arrival you could see no beach as everything is dominated by high rise buildings and hotels! We also straight away got the impression that the people in malaysia were in no way as friendly as the Thais. Its not that they werent very nice its just that no one will stop you to have a friendly chat and if you smile at someone there is only a 50 percent chance that they would smile back. As you can guess, in Thialand everyone wants to be your friend regardless of colour or creed, they will happy chat for hours!!!

So anyway Langkawi although you had to walk through the many hotel gardens to get to the beach, it was lovely. Still not as nice as the Thai ones but what can we say, we think we are going to be forever bias now! Although a little touristy the island was really nice. We managed to find shelter in one of the cheapest, non tourist guesthouse's and got cozy in their twenty bed dorm. Directly across the road from the dorm there was even a field filled with water buffalo and those white birds that follow them around and have piggy backs all day (no idea what they are called!). The place was really nice and the owner was as laid back as the inhabitants of Lipe which is always refreshing, (this was almost tested by reece when 10 minutes after arriving he went for a shower and somehow managed to snap the shower head completely off the wall!!!!! We managed to naughtily keep it quite tho and luckily escaped a huge, unaffordable bill!). So upon arrival we met a couple and their friend from reading who gave us a few tips on malaysia in exchange for tips on thailand as we were on the move in opposite directions. We then made our way to the beach for a few beers under the stars. This came with alot of joy as we had heard that Malaysia is very expensive for alcohol, however the whole island of Langkawi is duty free and so the beer really was a cheap as chips!!!. (Note......these blogs are not making us sounds like alcoholics are they?!!). The only initial bad thing we found about the island was that they had a lovely type of flying kamikaze cockroach, which we learnt about when one nearly took reeces head off! NICE!

So by day we simply enjoyed the beach and the gorgeous array of chinese and malay food. On one of our last days however we decided to visit one of the local attractions, a cable car which take you up the side 705 metres high mountain. Getting into the car was however nerving, the thing goes so high at such a strong incline kay was unsurprisingly scared and had to be reassured and somewhat pushed by reece. Once aboard though it was so good. The views were absolutely amazing and it the whole thing was a fantastic experience (once we got to the top however it was very funny to see that it was actually reece who had really sweaty palm and a raised heart rate!!!) haha. Getting to the top was unbelievable. You could see the surrounding mountains, a dozen or more other islands out at sea and the clouds were right at your side! So pretty! We wanted a picture at the top of both of us so we asked a malay couple to take it for us. Just as they had taken the picture a group swarmed around us before the camerman had even said anything his whole family had jumped in as they wanted a family picture for themselves with us in it!!!!! (this has no happened so many times it seems normal!!!)

After getting backfrom a great day out we walked into the guesthouse to find a band playing. They played bob marley and an arrangement of there own music for around an hour. They were so talented that we even considered buying the cd! Upon the tables while they played were some intriguing looking balls of dough. Once they finished we asked them what they were and they said "they are a popular dessert from japan, you pick it up, roll it in the mixture of syrup and brown sugar and eat it all in one". So we give it ago. It was the worst tasting thing either of us has ever tried!!!!! The dough was like the texture of sqiud and almost unchewable and the inside was filled with mushy peas and god knows what else!!!!! so horrid, funny though as they stood over us and watched us till the whole thing had gone asking us if it was good!!!

For our last few days we moved into a guesthouse alonng the road. It was owned b a funny little malay women who had at least 20 cats or more! They were everywhere and brought us so much entertainment when we realisewd that they loved popcorn!!! We fed them for hours!!!

Langkawi is a lovely place, but was too touristy. A good place for a holiday but not the most backpacker friendly. We really enjoyed our time there though and it was a good taster of what was to come from the rest of Malaysia.

x x x x