So we left Singapore behind us and entered the world of Malaysia once again. On Sunday, close to midnight we reached island of Penang (or Pulau Pinang) and after having a bit of a hassle with taxis (we didn't have any ringgits with us and all the ATMs at the airport were closed) we finally reached our 6 euros night hostel which was exactly what you can expect to get with that price.
The next day we woke up and started to make plans for the rest of the week. The original plan was to stay in Penang for few days and take a quick trip to Langkawi by a ferry but after spending all the time in Singapore we were assured of the fact that we want to spend rest of our holiday in a beach resort.
Our hostel in Penang was located in quite ugly area to be honest so the first expression of Penang wasn't that great. As we were still quite tired from last night flight we spend the day in a shopping mall near our hostel, got our hair cut (it was like 8 euros,soooo cheap in here!), bought some souvenirs and in the evening wondered around the seaside. So after spending one day in Penang we decided to leave to Langkawi early Tuesday morning with the ferry, thats took us there in 3 hours.
When we arrived to Langkawi it was clear to us that we came to the right place: there was the 2km beach,all the backpackers, restaurants...From the ferry terminal in Kuah we took a taxi to Pantai Cenang, which is the busiest spot in Langkawi. As usual, it started raining the minute we got in the taxi and as we hadn't booked any accommodation beforehand we ended up wandering in the rain for a while before we found a nice place to crash for the first night.
The next day we moved our stuff to nearby hostel called Rainbow Lodge (also recommended by my good friend Lonely Planet) and we got a really good deal since we decided to stay until Sunday. The staff there was overwhelmingly friendly and we met the nicest people while staying there, including two Finnish girls, who we had the best night out on Saturday with. :)
The week went by way too fast as we grilled our skin in the beach, swam in the sea, ate the best food in our favorite spot, Tomato, which was open 24/7 so whenever we felt like having some cheese naan-bread or Roti we would go there. Another place that we loved was the chill beach bar Babylon, where all backpackers would gather around in the evening to listen to live reggae music, watch fire shows, drink beer and smoke some shisha. After chilling in Babylon people would normally continue the night to a night club, Sunba, a bit further away from the main beach.
In between of all the tanning,eating and drinking we also went to island hopping and to Langkawi Cable car. The island hopping took us to three different spots: Pregnant Maiden Lake in the Geoforest park which had food stealing monkeys and nice cool water. Then we went to see eagle feeding and to a really nice small beach in Beras Basah which had really clear water and some people doing snorkeling too.
The Cable car took us to the top of the mountain Gunung Machinchang all the way to 700 meters above the sea level. As it was our luck, Emmi left her camera to our hostel and me cameras' battery died the minute we stepped to the cable car. Luckily we have some pictures of the magnificent scenery in Emmi's phone.
When it was time to leave Langkawi behind us we swore that we will come back some day and I think Emmi cried a little bit. So we took the ferry back to Penang with very loud Canadian woman who told us many many stories about her travels.
We spend our last night in Penang in the nicest hostel (Fastbook hostel, I promised the owner to tell my friends to go there) and at 5pm Monday morning it was time to head to the airport. My flight was leaving couple hours earlier than Emmi's so I had to leave her to the airport and wish her safe flight(s) to Finland, as she had about 30 hours of travelling ahead of her.
Overall the holiday was success as we got burned, tanned, new friends and amazing experiences!
Holiday pictures will follow in the next post as I am too lazy to post them now...:D
Peace and love form the one and only Kuching
Tare
