Langwawi

Hello readers,

Before I start with any travel talk, I just want to discuss feet, or toes to be more specific. Following on from a conversation Kelly and I had, I put a poll on here. And the votes have been counted and verified, and it's official. 90% of men have hairy toes. Ha! In your face Whiddett!! :-)

We are now in Langkawi, a small island off the west coast of Malaysia. This is our beach holiday starting. More on that later, first I want to tell you about our last night in Penang.

We met a Scottish couple who are also traveling and we went out for a few drinks and dinner with them. We went to a Hawker (think food court) and all ordered different things to eat. What Kelly didn't realise though was that her soup came with an added extra...................a Chickens foot!! It looked like there was a baby's hand floating in the soup. Gross!


So after a few beers I thought it would be a good idea to give it a try. It's not something I would recommend, it's very soft (like a baby's hand - note: I have never eaten a baby's hand), and really isn't very pleasant. Kelly was also a bit of a spoil sport in that a. she didn't try it, and b. she refused to pick up the other one in the other meal and give me a high five!! :-)

Also on our last day in Penang we went to see Fort Cornwallis, which is a pretty basic fort on the water which has never actually been engaged in any battle. Here are a couple of pictures of Kelly and I, obviously full dressed in combat gear!!


So, we're in Langkawi now, and it's a great little place. We are in a hostel which only had 6 rooms and it's owned by a really cool guy called Di (pronounced Dee). He lives in a big house with his boyfriend and he's the most laid back guy ever, especially for a hostel owner. He's not taken any money from us so far, so it's all on trust, he has given us loads of beers and vodka etc. He doesn't take any money for these thing, it's just like staying with friends, which is the atmosphere he is trying to create. It's in the middle of a forest, which means loads of bugs!! We are covered in mozzie bites at the moment. There are 4 dogs here, and also a cat which Kelly has befriended.



And here is a picture of Di with a couple of the dogs which guard our little retreat from the world.......



We are about a 15 - 20 minute walk from the beach, which is a bit of a pain (for two lazy people!!), so we've hired a scooter. It's the first time I've ridden a scooter and it's a bit scary to be honest! We only use it to go back and forward to the beach, or the supermarket. It's quite good fun and the roads are fairly empty so it's safe enough.

Here's a picture of the beast............

And here's a picture of Kelly preparing to take to it.............



So we're going out for a night out tonight. The guy that owns this place has his step son and 3 of his friends staying at the moment. We're going to have a few drinks here (already had a few actually, so a few more to be accurate), and then head into town for a night out. Then it's back to the beach tomorrow for some more lounging around and swimming in the sea. In case you were wondering what I looked at for most of today, here you go......................

Best thing about Langkawi so far is the fact that it's not a big city and we can just chill out for a week and do whatever we want. Also, the fact that it's a duty free island is also pretty cool, take note Andy Bowling for next time you're in Malaysia! We went out today at for the grand total of £9 got a litre of Smirnoff and 12 cans of Tiger beer!! :-) (update: 12 is now 7 and the vodka has been hit hard too from what I can tell.........).

Hope you've enjoyed the update.

Alan


P.S. For those of you at NU, hope what's going on isn't too stressful. For what it's worth, as much as I enjoyed my time there, I'm not missing it and every cloud and all that. :-)