Penang Island - Christmas Day

The boat from Langkawi island to Penang island could not have been any easier. For a change, we didn’t have to pay extra to get the bikes on board and we had comfortable air-conditioned seats. When we arrived in Georgetown, Penang, we found our hotel within 5 minutes! It was nice to know exactly where we were going and not have to cycle around trying to find somewhere suitable. As our time on Penang was over Christmas, we wanted to treat ourselves to somewhere nice and a bit more upmarket than a backpacker-type guesthouse, and wow did we!? We spent four nights in one of the most amazing hotels I have ever stayed in; the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, or the blue mansion as some call it. This mansion was built in the 1880s and was owned by a great Chinese entrepreneur and businessman who had a worldwide status; Cheong Fatt Tze himself. Left to his sons and daughter-in-law who neglected it for years, when conservationists, historians and architects eventually got their hands on it, it was in a bit of a state. It was soon renovated to its nearest original state and opened to the public and is today one of Penang’s major tourist attractions. 16 of the twenty-something rooms are now open for guests to stay, every room being different and featuring all sorts of art and sculptures. Naturally we attended one of the tours and learnt that the house was so deeply thought out architecturally that everything in its build had a reason. It is feng-shui perfect according to experts and passes many of the Chinese traditions and embraces luck, happiness, success, wealth and other common Chinese symbols in every corner. I will let my photos show you…

Front of the house

Old Chinese rickshaws

The courtyard

Close up of the roof murals

Original tiles preserved for years underneath inches of dirt and dust, imported from Stoke-on-Trent would you believe!

Many thanks to Poh and his team for the laughs and good, chilled service they provided, and thank you to Eric for entertaining us with your lordiness!

Georgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the same as Hoi An in Vietnam and I can see the similarities. The streets are full of narrow two storey houses, row after row, but beautifully built with petite front doors and windows with shutters. We spent most of our time here wondering the streets and taking it all in.

Famous Campbell Street

Christmas day was far away from the Christmas most Westerners know. There was no snow (or most likely rain), coldness, Christmas trees or decorations, or presents to open, certainly no roast turkey or potatoes! Instead we woke up to bright blue skies, burning hot sun and a yummy breakfast that the hotel provided; that was the morning taken up. In the afternoon we hired a scooter, something James was a little terrified about after a bad motorbike experience he had in the past. Nonetheless, we wanted to be on a beach and that is how we were going to get there. The man hiring out the bike to us got a shock when he went to explain the workings of the beasty 125cc to James who then told him I was driving! On, off, go, brake, sorted! Off we drove the 16km to the very north of Penang island to Batu Ferrenggi beach. We parked up right at the end away from all the hustle, dumped our stuff and went for a Christmas Day swim in the sea! Admittedly it was not as nice as Langkawi at all, but we didn’t care! We sat in a beach café and ordered our late lunch of chicken satay, chips and spring rolls, followed by ice-cream, of course. Back into Georgetown before the sun set to spruce up a bit and go out for our proper Christmas dinner; Indian! And wow what a meal it was. I had three humungous prawns, bigger than my hand in a delicious sauce with rice, naan, Chenna masala, tandoori chicken and vegetables. The most stunning Indian food we have ever had. We then spent the rest of the evening Skyping and calling various family back in England.

Boxing Day saw us both having our hair chopped, which amusingly took exactly the same amount of time and money… mmm. We wondered around the markets and bazaars that sell traditional Malay dress such as the Islamic skull caps for men and all sorts of head scarfs for women. Every single pattern and colour you could imagine with also lots of different styles, which I never realised, existed!

We wanted to explore a little more of Penang island so we left Georgetown and retraced the road to the beach and carried on going until we reached the furthest north west tip of the island where the world’s smallest National Park lies. We camped for two nights, this time for free! The camp site was popular with tourists and visitors due to the man-made swimming pools they have carved out in the waterfall, with pretty trees surrounding it and the village just down the road. We sampled the pools whilst there of course only to come out again five minutes later because the water was so cold!

The village down the road had many seafood restaurants, and we cycled around to get a feel for what was available. We came across one restaurant that was the only one with people in it, so decided to go there as all the others were empty and we have learnt by now to go where the locals go as this usually means it’s good. This restaurant was pretty shabby, with the usual plastic chair affair, with paint chipped off the walls, broken tiles and generally in need of a refurb. We sat down quite early but in the time we were there, it filled up very quickly and by the time we left, people were waiting for tables, and we could see why. We had the best calamari and sweet and sour chicken we have both ever had. It was so good that we went there the next night as well!

The camp site ablutions were an experience; a good one though! Squat toilets we were used to by now, but SE Asia style showers we weren’t. A tiled bath like area would be filled with clean water, and then you were provided with a plastic saucepan to pour the water over you to wash with. I have never had a full shower like this but it was actually very enjoyable and must save a lot of water.

We wanted to explore the National Park so we were up early to cycle down to the main entrance, lock up our bikes and off we went for the day with backpacks full of water and food, Craghoppers and trek sandals donned. And wow did we need them, the path we followed through part forest, part jungle was steep, uneven, craggy and root filled, but it was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed our day long trek, especially with no leeches!

After our fabulous trek, we cycled back along the hilly coast line to Georgetown to then start our New Year’s Eve adventure – with a difference! Stay tuned to find out what we did next! :)

Langkawi Island

We strolled through Malay immigration on Langkawi Island with such ease that we didn’t actually get looked at, scanned, stamped or given a visa. Once ‘through’ I though it didn’t feel right to not have anything official to say we have actually entered the country so we went back to ‘Immigration’ and it took a while to explain that we have just come from Thailand, (and not we want to go to Thailand) and that we need a stamp. We were then presented with the most pathetic of stamps in our passports. We were amused by the sheer laxidasical attitude everyone seemed to have. Anyway, Langkawi is the most north island on the west coast of peninsula Malaysia. We decided to take this route into Malaysia mainly because we wanted to rest on a beach for a while, but also to avoid the troubles in the most northern states of Malaysia that borders the troubled southern states of Thailand. Although nothing serious has happened for a year or so, we would have rather not risked it.

From Langkawi onwards we needed to plan day by day because the Christmas and New Year period is so busy and accommodation was booking up fast. It was the first time on this trip we thought further than the next night and it took two full afternoons and evenings pouring over Lonely Planet guides, maps and the internet to get from the 18 December 2010 to 13 January 2011 planned and accommodation booked with contingency plans as well just in case! Planning this much took a lot of patience and effort; another reason why we were so looking forward to just chilling by the beach!

So for 4 days that is exactly what we did. We stayed in a cute little guesthouse just up from the beach and the main tourist strip so it was quiet and had everything we needed. The most exercise we did was walk 10 minutes to the beach, find a bed, lye on it, read, swim and eat. It was fabulous to get back into my book and just relax and not have to think about where we’re going next. The beach was beautiful. It is 2km long, very white and very shallow which meant you could swim out for miles and still touch the seabed. During the day, the beach was super quiet with only Western tourists scattered along it. Come 5/6pm when the sun was much weaker and starting to set, local and Muslim people would come out and the beach was suddenly rammed full of people swimming and picnicking. I can only guess that it is because they don’t want to get tanned by the sun and ruin all the hard work they have put in to whitening their skin with all sorts of nasty products that should just be banned.

Considering we were staying near the main tourist strip with all the tacky souvenir shops, there was a surprisingly broad selection of restaurants. We ate very well while we were there and we have had some of the best food of the trip so far. Arabic style wraps, chicken satay, coconut crusted calamari, mango chicken, mango duck and curry – yum. Langkawi hasn’t quite gotten so developed yet, which meant no highrise chain hotels or annoying touts - bliss. The highest building for miles was four floors and even that was surrounded by trees so it didn’t look blindingly obvious, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it gets to be more developed in 10 years’ time because it’s the most beautiful beach I have seen in South East Asia so far.

We could have happily spent 2 weeks there but we needed to move on so after cycling back across the island to the ferry port, we took a boat to another Malay island, the biggest of them all, called Penang, where we would spent Christmas.

The left view from my sunbed



The right view from my sunbed



Khao Sok NP to Malaysia - a new country!

Off we set out of the national park having packed up the sopping wet tent and our damp stuff, hoping to find somewhere the next night to try it all. Luckily we found another 'shag station' hotel to stay in with the drive way and the curtain - identitical to the one outside Bangkok. This was brilliant for us as we put the tent up in the drive and rigged up a big line to dry out sleeping bags and various other things.

A town called Satun in the very southern part of the West coast of Thailand was essentially where we were aiming for. It took us five straight days of cycling to get there from Khao Sok. All throughout Thailand, James and I got into a routine of getting up a 05.30am to be out on the road by 7/7.30am. We would have cracked out the majority of the miles by lunch time which would normally be between midday and 1. During these five cycling days, I really felt the early mornings and the long days on the saddle. Every night I crashed to my pillow and didn't wake up until the horrible alarm went off at this God-awful hour of 5.30am. I don't think I've ever gotten up so early in my life and now here I was doing it every morning, as well as cycling 100km during the day.

There isn't really much to report on these five days. It was just heads down and let's get to Malaysia where we knew beaches were waiting for us to rest on! From Satun we cycled down to the ferry port, had our passports stamped out of Thailand and off we sailed through No-Mans-Sea until we reached the Malay island of Langkawi where we were casually stamped in. We then had to cycle across the island for about 15 miles to the best beaches; Cenang.

I didn't warm to Thailand like I did Cambodia. Although we had wonderful encounters with Thai people in the north around Bangkok, it seemed that southerners kept themselves to themselves. Thai people are obsessed with their cars, blinging them up to the max, so they probably couldn't relate to a pair of white cyclists and in some ways, couldn't really care. No one ever walks anywhere here and we rarely saw anyone on a bicycle. I guess they have the opinion of 'why would you want to when you can easily jump in your 4x4?', especially as petrol is so cheap. They also seem obsessed with their mobile phones, many having 2 and they had their noses stuck to their screens most of the time. Therefore it seemed that many Thais have been completely consumed in the latest technology and have forgotton how to communicate without any form of electronic device!

Khao Sok National Park

Khao Sok National Park; think the film Jurrasic Park and you got it. Mountanous and craggy, the park has jungle, rainforest, rivers and a lake. All of which was unbelivably stunning. We were very excited about Khao Sok NP as it was our first opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of the roads and cities and experience nature, as well as it being our first opportunity to camp. The camp site of the park was actually situated in the rainforest, not just any though, this is one of the oldest rainforests in the world. And when I say rainforest, boy do I mean rainforest; we were in a forest and yes it rained - a lot!!

Luckily for us the park also has a touristy strip, so we able to get our laundry done, emails answered and eat some pretty good meals, although we did cook our own dinner on one of the nights, which is a must when one is camping of course!

Our first day in the park, we were up and had breakfasted and were down by the river for 9am. James, myself and our tour guide boarded an inflatable bright blue canoe. Our guide paddled us down the river for 2 hours, taking the small rapids very well; we could tell he was an experienced canoeist! It was great to sit and enjoy the ride. We didn't see another sole in sight for the whole time and all we could hear was the rapids. We saw wild monkeys running along the trees above us, kingfishers, herons, and a snake asleep in the trees.

Much to our delight we stopped on a 4 metre long beach for a rest, well at least our guide rested. J and I however saw it fit to climb up the bamboo ladder with rope in one hand and swing out into the river - brilliant fun!!

The great thing about the canoe trip was we didn't then have to come back to same way, but we scrambled up the banks and on to the main road to then be picked up in a 4x4 pick up truck (naturally) with the canoe in the back!

The second day, we were up early and into another pick up where we were driven out for about 20 minutes to an elephant park. Both incredibly excited as James has never ridden on such a beast before and it has been a long time since I have and I just generally love elephants. I was delighted that our elephant was controlled only by his masters voice and not by whips or metals rods with sharp edges as I have seen previously. He also looked healthy. James was a little terrified, it was quite funny! We were taken up on the elephants back up the most beautiful track and I would not have looked at it and thought it to be an elephant track but guided by his master he walked us up a craggy and narrow opening in the forest. It had rained heavily the night before so the track was almost a mini waterfall from the high mountains above - and very muddy! We got off at the top to let the elephant rest and have a play and a splash in the muddy water. To my utter delight, one the way back down, the master let me sit bareback behind the elephants head with my legs dangling round his ears and neck. I have to say I was a little nervous as I had nothing to hold on to and going down hill along an uneven path there were a few times when I thought I could have easily toppled off! We asked the elephant master to take a photo of us and he got the nelly to lift his very muddy trunk up to me leaving me filthy, but the muddy hand prints I left on the top of his head was very cute! I then enjoyed feeding him bananas at the end, which he grabbed off me with his trunk and gobbled them two at a time - magical!

After our elephant trek we decided to go for a mini jungle trek. We set off down a track to a waterfall marked on the trail. It was incredibly muddy though and we were slipping and sliding all over the place, it was hilarious watching James scoot around as though he were on ice! We didn't make it to the waterfall as our trek sandals weren't quite up to the terrain - we needed full boots and gaiters! Leeches were also a problem. Having had a leech on me before (out in India) I know not to pull them as they suck harder, but to either pour salt on them or burn them. Burning them with a lighter was our only option (as one doesn't normally carry salt with them), but they were so diddy that I ended up burning my toes instead. Luckily because they were small, James managed to pick most of them off. Checking our feet every now and then, I think between us we had about 9 leeches on our toes. Once back to the tent I discovered that somehow, three of the little blighters had crawled inside my clothes and had a right good old suck. One of my elbow, one on my heel and one on the back of my calf!

From Khoa Sok we then headed south, eventually to the last town of Thailand called Satun. From there we will take the ferry over to Malaysia.