Hotel Helang Langkawi

... just a guest house in mind if we could find it. This was the start of a minor string of little mishaps that could have been avoided with more planning but probably in retrospect will make the journey a bit more interesting! Our first mistake was expecting lots of ferries between the Islands, there is only two very early and we had no chance of getting from our resort to George town for 8 am, unless we got a taxi and I didn't fancy that option! So we took the more ...

... that she can not entice another man either. Darrell told me how there are new measures pressuring women to cover up one eye as well! They are saying 2 eyes is too seductive. Also, there are studies showing that these women that wear the abayas are losing their hair from lack of vitamin D (from the sun) and that they are getting terrible rashes and skin conditions because their bodies cannot breathe under their clothing. But it is ...

Day 1- Today we flew with Air Asia from Siem Reap (Cambodia) to Langkawi (an Island off the coast of Malaysia next to Thailand) via Kuala Lumpur. Looks like a Tropical paradise so far, a world away from where we woke up, complete with footpaths, road markings and gutters. Its 4pm, so we have time to walk Pantai Cenang and find a scabby hotel (and a new memory card after our camera crashed for a second time, loosing more photo's). We found a ...

... en thailande, mais presque alors ca va faire l affaire pour relaxer un peu. 17/02/09 Apres 4 jours ici, je ne m'ennui pas du tout, l'ambiance est bonne et l'hotel est toujours plein, ca fait qu'il y a plein de personne qui arrivent et partent. J'ai pas fait grand chose a date, il fait toujours 35-36 celcius alors il faut pas s'enerver! De toute facon l'ile se fait en un jour, demain je vais louer une moto et je vais fair le tour. 20/02 ...

Our morning didnt go at all to plan! We checked out of the Malibest really early, so that we had enough time to get our boat to Ko Lipe. I'd brought the boat ticket from Tigerline on the net, however the paper work didnt state which harbour it left from- nor did the website. We assumed it must be the main harbour, so asked the reception to order us a taxi. She informed us that there were taxi's outside. We couldn't find a ...

... the next day and head for the Historical town of Mellaca (Yes i know this means a rude word in Greek!) The town is a world heritage site on the South-west coast of Malaysia and has a few intersting things to see. Its certainly had its moments of strife in history. As it has a fairly tactical positioning, It was first overthrown by the Dutch and then in true British style, they let the Dutch establish everything and like a bully boy kid, moves in, growls ...

... if you've read one of his books or seen a movie, you know what I'm talking about... I'll go swap my Grisham for another book tomorrow... Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (by Jonathan Sefran Foer) - great book! Superbly written. About a boy and his family who lost his Father in WTC tower (9/11) who was not working there, just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

... this hill, we did think we might have to push the bike up), all to arrive at the top and then kicked off by some workers building something there. We were not impressed as we were looking forward to getting off the bike. We then went and swam at the 'best beach' (as voted by our taxi driver) on the island - Tanjung Rhu. There is something magical about sitting on a beach and watching eagles flying above you... The rest of the days, were spent ...

... was very hot and sunny or slightly overcast (a relief from the heat for me and my irish-inherited pastey skin!). Most nights there was a thunderstorm, which you could watch breaking across the horizon from the beach and then seek shelter in a bar until it passed over your heads. We stayed in a place called the Palms Inn apartments, just off the main road near the gecko hostel. We absolutley loved it there, it was cheap (45RN ...

... grotty (and dirty and expensive) and so it went. In the end I spotted a brashly lit hotel called The Sky Eagle Inn, which, whilst also grotty it was less grotty than those previously seen and was 60% of the cost of the last grotty place. The Sky Eagle was on the edge of the business area, rather than the tourist area, so we settled on this one. With hindsight, we thought the previous hotel prices ...