British leftovers

We left Langkawi on the 13th of January, with the shortest flight ever. A 20 min flight to George Town, Penang. It was so short the stewardess could only stretch her legs before she had to 'Prepare for landing'. George Town is a truly fantastic, it's full with cafes and little places to eat. It has a cozy, welcoming vibe and we really enjoyed staying there. We did not do that much, walking around the city and enjoying the vibe, food and drinks. 

Someone recommended us the Cameron Highlands, totally unprepared we went there. As we hopped out of the bus we noticed that is really cold, it must be like 5° or so, we thought. Hurried to our hostel we met the owner, a really friendly guy from Bangladesh, who gave us a fleece jacket and cooked 10 l tea for us. Warmed up by the tea and able the move again we checked the outside thermometer: 19 degrees. Wow,!After having temperatures over 30 for 4 months, 19 feels like winter.

We stayed for 3 days and every day we did a hike through the jungle. We saw a lot of wildlife, like squirrels, every kind of birds and insects. In this region also grow wild orchids but unfortunately they were not flowering at the moment. One of the hikes was really tough, it was more climbing then hiking. Mud till your ankles, a steep path where you had to climb over roots and rocks. As we were at the peak we were sitting in a cloud so the view was a bit disappointing.

In the evenings we sat with the other guests in the living room of our hostel and enjoyed home cooked dinners, a cup of tea and movies on television. The things you do in winter.

Langkawi

We arrived at Langkawi by ferry and we were amazed how modern Malaysia is. Lots of flats, malls and modern office buildings.

The next day we started our second workaway experience for the next 2 weeks. We should help building and rebuilding a house for a dutch couple in return we get food and accommodation. We arrived at their house, which was on a hill in the middle of the jungle. We had a nice view over the valley and the mountains. Their house was a palace and it's only the guesthouse. They were busy building the real house next to it.

Overall we have to say that we did not feel comfortable with the people and we could not get along very well. After 4 days it was clear that they too and told us to move out. Although we shared the feelings it still felt like being dumped. Which is of course never a nice feeling. We left and moved to a little guesthouse next to the sea.

Our rental scooter made it easy to explore the island on our own. We were driving up one of the higher mountains of the island, when we spotted monkeys walking on the power lines. The next half an hour we just enjoyed watching the monkeys playing and relaxing on the power lines and hopping into the trees.

One of the 'must do' at Langkawi is the rope-way up the highest mountain. It was really windy when we went up, the gondola was swinging and  looking down scared us a bit. But our trust in Austrian designed and built rope-way is big so we relaxed. The view from the mountain was stunning. We could see the whole island and the little islands next to it. We haven't count if we saw all of the 99 islands but we definitely saw a lot of them. In the harbor you could see the big and expensive yachts. Big and fancy resorts on one side of the island, we were tempted to spent there a night.

For Caros birthday we spent a day on a catamaran, cruising between the islands, drinking wine and enjoying the comfort and rest. The biggest surprise was a shoal of dolphins, they were playing just a few meters away from the boot, we could watch them for 15 minutes. We have never seen wild dolphins, this was truly a good birthday present for Caro.

Holiday from travel

We just realized that its over a month ago that we posted something on our blog. But we have a good excuse, we had holiday from our travel.

Our first stop in Thailand was Bangkok, where 2 friends from Austria were already waiting for us. Janet and Johannes. We were so excited to see them again and spend a bit more then 2 weeks together. They also brought our new camera with them, our own X-mas gift this year.

Our Hotel was a bit outside of the city center, even Tuktuks and Taxi drivers had problems to find it. The lady from the reception told us that it is easier and cheaper to take the water taxi. Waiting for the boot at the boot stop, hop on it and 15 min later you hop of and you are in the middle of the city. We have to admit, a great way of travelling.

Of course we did all the touristic stuff in Bangkok, visiting the Wat Pho with a huge golden Buddha, checking Koh San Road, which offers over priced drinks and food, the malls, which are huge, night markets, street food and visiting a sky bar.

The sky bar was one of the best things in Bangkok we experienced. As we arrived, we were a bit confused about what to do and where to go. No signs nor direction anywhere, just a serious looking security guard behind a counter. We tried the first elevator we saw, 8 floor, mhh ok this can not be it. Went down again, ran around like chickens, till we saw a young girl standing alone next to typical access office gates. We didn't notice her at first. She stamped our wrists with a stamp, just like they do in clubs and discos! When the elevator doors opened on the 47th floor we had a bit of a surprise, the size of this rooftop was really massive and presents an impressive 180˙ panoramic view of downtown Bangkok.

The views are spectacular in all directions. It is just amazing to stand next to the edge and look down, the whole city looks like a Christmas tree. Live music and beer did the rest. Janet and Johannes had a little Walz and we all enjoyed very much the stunning view.

We wanted to show Johannes an Janet how we travel so we booked a ticked for a night bus to Chiang Mai. Because we had one day over in Bangkok and we had a bit enough of the city (it was full with police, because there were some demonstrations going on), we decided to go to Ayutthaya, the city of temples. We booked a tour at the same travel agency where we bought the bus tickets to make sure we come back in time to catch the night bus.

it was a hop off hop on bus tour, checking more then 6 ancient temples. It is pretty impressive but sorry Ayutthaya, nothing can compete with Angkor Wat.

Nightbuses are awesome. You get on sleep a bit and wake up at your destination. Well in theory it should work like that, but not the one we had. The bus stopped every 1,5 hour which is okay but our driver felt the need to turn the lights on on every stop, which is NOT ok. Not if falling asleep in a bus takes you a bit more than an hour. Doing the math gives you a full 2,5 hours of sleep for the whole night. At least it's cheap and Chang Mai made it all worth it.

Chang Mai, is one of those cities that has nothing really special but just a good vibe. In the few days of our stay we fed, washed and rode elephants, flew like dare devils through the jungle hanging on zip lines and bet are money on Muay Thai matches (Thai boxing).

After having enough action for our travel break we took the fast way, the airplane, to one of Thailand's nicer islands, Koh Samui, for total relaxing. Staying in a beach resort is a good start to relax. But hopping onto the neighboring island, Koh Pangan, made us really find our inner rest. Bungalows on a cliff with the sea almost under you. Laying in a hammock, with a drink, to see the sun disappear in the water at the horizon. While the only sound you hear is the surf.

This is paradise on earth and we had to stay as long as possible. After our friends needed to go back home we stayed another week before the high season started and the place was fully booked. Forced to leave we headed north to the next island, Koh Tao.

Koh Tao's economy is build on diving schools so diving is THE thing to do. We went for our open water license. From the first scary breaths (well at least for Jeff) in the pool to the beautiful underwater world in the open sea. After finishing the course we were hooked and went straight on for our advanced license. Where we extended ours skills diving down till 30 m and even did a night dive. Being weightless in total darkness accept the light of your torch is so cool. Covering the torch and seeing plankton lighten up by the movement of your hands is even cooler.

In between the courses it was Christmas eve. With a sushi dinner and a beach party it was good but it doesn't really gave us the cozy feeling like being home with our family. Next year it will be Europe again!

For new years eve we traveled to the other side of Thailand to an island called Koh Lanta. For a “fully” booked island it was remarkable easy to find accommodation. Being loaded with western tourists new years eve was rather tame but still really nice.

Because we had an appointment in Malaysia on the 4th January we left Koh Lanta, we booked a bus ticked to avoid the 6 hours ferry trip (Jeff and ferries are no friends :)). But unfortunately the bus driver was insane. He drove like a maniac through the traffic. A little girl at the front seat vomited non stop, after 3 hours of being worried about our lives he stopped at the gas station. Everyone wanted to get out of the bus for just a few minutes, but the maniac locked the doors. After an older lady yelled at him he unlocked it and let us go to the toilet. 2 more hours in the bus of hell and we arrived a city near the ferry port. After waiting for 2 hours, a crappy little bus appeared and took us to the port, the guy was driving so slow that we missed the ferry, only 5 min before we arrived at the port the ferry left. You could see the anger in the peoples face and the questions, why the fuck did the first driver almost kill us, why did we wait 2 hours, why was the other driver to stoned and why do we have to wait 3 hours for the next ferry? Lots of questions and we will never get an answer. This is one of the things we learned on our travel, don't have expectations in transports, it's always worse than you think ;).