Malaysia on a moped

I have been absolutely useless at updating my blog.  But I suppose it's a good sign I've been too busy living life to write about it. 

It's my third day in Cambodia so figured I'd best write about my time in Malaysia. 

After Penang I headed to a little island called Langkawi. After the bustle (and wild nights) of Penang it took a bit of adapting to the calm peaceful geoforests and empty beaches. Langkawi was like a little island paradise. Monkeys wandered down the streets of their own accord and there was beautiful waterfalls with no tourists around. On my first day on Langkawi I rented a scooter again and set off around the island. I went up the cable car onto the geoforest, then visited seven wells waterfall. On my way home I stumbled upon the most amazing night market! With clothes, gifts, satay chicken, coconut rice deserts, noodles, fried bananas and all manners of street food you can imagine!  It was my find on Langkawi and the sort of night market I'd hoped for when I planned my travels. 

 

On the following day I set off on my little moped again to the jetty and went on an island hopping tour. During our tour we went to 3 different islands. The pregnant mother island (see the shape of the mountains) where I swam in the lake, an island with a beautiful beaches and another island where we fed wild eagles over the sea! After that I set off on search of the hot springs and another waterfall where I watched local children swimming in the pools. At the hot springs I went to watch a show about the story of the hot springs and got dragged up as an extra dancer in the show! Anyone who has seen me dance can imagine how much they regretted that choice of participant!

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My final day in Langkawi was spent at a beautiful beach at the north of the island. I was the only one there! I swam in the sea and watched the fishing boats on the ocean. I had one of those moments where I just laid back and thought just how lucky I am! It feels a bit like emotions are all intensified over here! I was sad to leave Malaysia and when I first arrived in Siem Reap I was wondering why on earth I had. But after seeing the real Cambodia today with new friends I now love it here!

Penang

My first two days in Penang have been pretty amazing. Last night I went into a bar on my own for the first time in my life and it wasn't as terrifying as I first thought. I sat in a great little reggae bar with the generous owner (free drinks all night) an English guy called Justin, an American scuba instructor, a french boy and a Dutch couple and had a really fun (if random) night.

Today I took myself for breakfast to the special famous roti canai hawker stall at the recommendation of my taxi driver, and it was amazing!! Then I ended up wandering into a Chinese market. I've never seen anything like it! Live crabs and chickens in cages, people butchering meat and fish on the streets and street food, fruit, vegetables and gifts being sold on hundreds of stalls!


Late morning I had to change hotels and then rented a moped with my new friend from last night. We set off in search of Batu Ferringhi beach. We ended up driving straight past it!  It instead found this beautiful little cove beach where we swam. Then we drove into the mountains and came across an amazing waterfall which we climbed to the top of and were able to swim in the icy cold pools. It was paradise on a boiling hot day with the view over the island. After that we bought bananas from a local fruit market, fed their monkeys and set off in search of snake temple. Snake temple is an old temple with venomous snakes roaming free! They were even on the tops of picture frames. The day was polished off with an Indian feast for 12 ringits (about £2). The food here will never get old!!

First stop Melaka!

After a wonderful first two days/ nights with my Mum's friends Hansa and Sukhi it's time to move onto Penang today. Melaka has absolutely blown me away with how much new and old are combined and how readily available (and cheap) tasty food is. Safe to say I'm in my element! We've eaten Japanese, south Indian and Chinese and every single meal has been delicious. For a decent hawker street food meal it's 5 ringits (less than £1)- safe to say I won't be coming home thin!! 

Last night we did a river cruise through Melaka which was beautiful. I'm excited to move onto Penang today and see what lays in store there. 

A week of goodbyes

Writing my first post on my way home from a surreal couple of nights in London saying goodbye to friends. 5 nights out in a row and already I'm starting to question my ability to party like I'd planned to on my travels. Maybe a chilled few weeks of sightseeing and exploring may be better suited to me after all. I forget I'm 26 til I'm hungover on a train craving veggies and a night in watching apprentice with the family. I'm still just pretending I'm not going, I'll save all of the tears for Sunday.