Hotel Grand Continental Kedah Alor Setar

After departing our bus we wrangled with taxi drivers to take us to the border at Bukit Kayu Hitam. We settled on a very reasonable 40 Ringetts and it turned out to be a good decision. The border station is serviced by bus, but only to the Malaysian town. The Thai town and entry to Thailand is another kilometer beyond the Malay border checkpoint. Busses can't go through, but Taxi's can. So we were saved a confusing and ...

... Katy before she left "are the beaches in Langkawi nice and are there waves"? Hahaha, she told us "yeah there's waves". So we had a laugh about that, and told Katy that when she's in Australia, "those aren't waves, they're ripples!". After 2 days of lying on the beach we got bored and Catty talked me in to hiring a motorbike which she has suggested numerous times but I refuse to get on. Now its been 3 months throughout South East Asia and I've ...

... rented a motorbike and drove around most of the island. We went to the Chinese Village (which is actually just more duty free shops, albeit in a nice village like setting) and tried to take the lift up Mount Machinchang (the second highest peak on the island), but it was closed. So we ended up riding our bike up Mount Raya (the highest peak, 881 m) and getting some good views of ...

... we reached the tower itself which housed a grubby and somewhat disappointing shopping mall.  Luckily there was a bigger, newer mall across the road, so we stopped for some lunch and a look around.  By now the temperature had risen to an unbearable level and every step outside of the shade or an air conditioned building was torture.  We decided to head back to the hotel to sit it out and only emerged again that evening.  Across the road for our hotel was a huge, new hawker centre called ...

... in a typically British, Michael Palin sort of way and looked above me at the stairs. Another woman, occupying the first 2 steps, smiled and pointed up the stairs. I swept myself up those steps double quick and breathed a sigh of relief that none of them followed. I never found room 20, but by now i didnt want to. After a seconds thought, it was clear to me exactly what kind of place this was. Eyes firmly down, i left ...

... seems as no one is sure when the rains are to abate I needed to find something to fill my time. Since watching the rain from my bungalow on Ton Sai seemed just too depressing I decided to get a bamboo tattoo in Ao Nang. Having researched available options Monika and I decided to get one at Mr. Tattoo a small tattoo shop along a stretch of Indian Ocean beach. This guys work was amazing and with twenty years of experience as a tattoo artist we felt that he would ...

... it's where the movie The Beach was filmed. But its harder to get to and from during the monsoon season, and i would rather not be stranded on a tropical island, as tempting as that sounds. And, it's way expensive.) I think it might be time for an early dinner. Lately I've been living on Nasi Goreng and samosa, and I think (gasp) I might want something different. My guesthouse has a restaurant and they serve burgers. I think i might succumb to temptation and just do it.

... me. Damn me and my stubborness (sp?)! This is much more like a city and, if I'm completely honest, I'm sick of polluted cities that all look the same so I'm probably not enjoying it as much as I should be! It's pretty easy to get around though and the amount of food on offer is unbelieveable so I'm not complaining too much. It's just VERY hot and humid and the dorm I'm sharing with 9 men is a little smelly and unbearable at night. Was gonna splash out on the air ...

Just left the cameron highlands a few days ago which makes me quite sad. The highlands had nice, cool weather and our guesthouse was amazing! Our guesthouse had the best little cafe with the tastiest yellow curry. Oh and the scrambled eggs with shredded cheese on toast was just divine. Chandler and I even got to go on a tour of a tea plantation with some neat british people from our guesthouse. We took a tour of a mossy forest and ...