This entry is going to be short and boring... You have been warned ! :-) 

Imagine you are on an island. Temperature is around 34 degrees in the shade. Water temperature is around 30. Beaches are awesome. There's not much to do and see : all trips are very expensive (how about 100 euros to go diving ???). There is a great reggae bar right on the other side of the road from my guest house, when King Kong sound system is playing every night... What do you do ? :-)

Well, I slept in my dorm, made friends, partied at night in Babylon, dancing on reggae music, worked hard on my suntan and laziness on the beach during the day, reading my book and magazines...

One day though, I was approached by three young people from Singapore (here for the weekend) who took me on a trip around the island.... Really cool of them ! That enabled me to discover a beautiful waterfall...

The next day I rented a motorbike and went back to the waterfall to show it to my other friends (Kev zi German, Rosemay zi Belgian). We ended up going around the island and stop at various beaches, just for the fun of it. The day was great... And it got better : in the evening, suddenly we all were at Babylon : the Singapore guys, also basically the whole of Gecko dorm, in a nice large group, right in front of the DJ who was playing loud and good good good reggae music. Wow. What a night. It felt so good to dance, laugh, be silly, make stupid photographs, sweat and drink juices ! I was dripping in no time, but had a big fat smile on your face.

So yes. I can now officially say since Ismail's death that I am HAPPY. And I am probably even happier than I was before I left for my trip. You'll see those big fat smiles on my pictures and let me know what you think...

Oh I nearly forgot : actually, Malaysia is not that expensive ! Silly me ! I trusted the bank manager... When he told me it was 2.5 Ringgits to 1 euro... Actually it's 4.2 :-)) I will never ever listen to a banker ever again !

I had also the pleasure to discover Malay food. Roti is basically bread and they do it either plain or with cheese, egg, banana, you name it ! Roti canai (pronounce chanaye) is the plain one. When you order any roti, they give you a sauce to dip it in, generally either chicken curry or dal (lentils). It's simply delicious. One roti canai costs... 1 ringgit, i.e. 0.25 euro... Have two and you're full. Welcome to cheap eating ! So you can imagine I had a lot of roti... But when I missed veggies, I went to another place for Greek salad :-)

Good news also : being in a Muslim country again kicked the Arabic language learning urge ! I started doing my daily lessons again. Let's hope it lasts !

I must say I really like Malaysian people I met so far. I was also in Penang 8 years ago and it's weird but there is not much of a cultural barrier between Malaysians and Europeans as there is with Thai, Lao, Viet or Khmer people. It is much easier to connect and bond with Malaysian people. I remember feeling the same thing last time I was here. I will definitely come back to Malaysia : multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic tropical country, beauty, cool people you can easily connect with... Very nice mix indeed. A job in KL maybe ? :-)

Now I am in a fast ferry going to Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. I will be reaching my destination at around 8pm. Kevin zi German joined me. Tomorrow I have a flight for Bangkok. And then a night train to Chiang Mai... where Celine will be joining me soon after and where i will also find my young Portuguese friend I made in Pakse. 

Feeling good, feeling good. Guys, life is good !! 

Life, love and laughs !

Nadege