Penang

Making our way back over to Kuala Lumpur we passed through the city of Georgetown on the island of Penang. There’s not much to see or do in Georgetown itself, but it does repute to have the best food in Malaysia… and it didn’t disappoint in that regard. The food here is a mixture of Indian and Chinese flavors with a bit of local Malay style thrown in. One of the things to try and get here is roti, which is kind of a thinly fried naan bread. The stuff is absolutely delicious, usually accompanied by a light coconut curry sauce for dipping. If any of you have eaten at Banana Leaf in San Jose, you know what I’m talking about. Unfortunately, ordering roti at a restaurant was maddeningly difficult. Apparently roti is only a breakfast dish here, and every place we went to only served it in the morning. Dude… As you can imagine, this presented a bit of a dilemma for us as we were now forced to choose between sleeping in late and eating roti. Not a easy choice to make! Lucky for me, Ana went all “outside the box” on me and made it her personal mission to find a place that served roti after breakfast: a Malaysian Dennys (or iHop) if you will. It took her a couple of days, but she eventually found a place called Jaya which was a kind of 24 hour cafe for Indian food. We ordered two kinds of roti: a thin desert-like roti which was a bit too sweet, and a savory roti that had slices of onions cooked in… super duper delicious. In my opinion, the Malaysians are selling themselves short by only eating the stuff for breakfast.

What else? We had a bunch of good Chinese and Indian food… mostly of the street stall variety. Rooms here are cheap but still have lots of character, as most guest houses are converted colonial houses. Our time here was (successfully) non-eventful as we’re trying to store up some energy for our upcoming rendezvous with Ward Miller in Laos. I haven’t seen my childhood friend from Hawaii in almost 3 years, so I await the coming storm which is the drinking blitz sure to follow :o) Wish my liver luck!

Pictures, pictures…

http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Penang

http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/KualaLumpur

Tags: Malaysia,Georgetown,roti

Koh Lipe

Following the lead of our new friends Sarah and Ruben, we decided to shake up our planned itinerary and head north into Thailand. Our destination? Koh Lipe: a small island about 50km away from Langkawi. The Dutchmen had a friend who had previously been to the island on holiday, and had spoken glowingly of its riches: nicer beaches, cooler temperatures, and no mosquitoes! Sounded like a winner to us. So the four of us caught an early morning cab to the ferry terminal for our trip en route to Thailand. As usual, we had chosen the absolute cheapest route to get there: a ferry ride + speed boat combination that took us 6 hours to arrive at our destination. Ughh. We should have ponied up the extra $10 bucks for the non-stop speed boat (50 minutes). Next time I guess. But even with all the extra delays, we were still able to arrive early enough with lots of time left in the day. After finding a nice spot to stay (Mountain Resort), we immediately headed down to the beach to soak up some rays and perhaps get a swim in or three. The first thing I can say about Koh Lipe is, “Wow”. What in the world were we doing in Langkawi? This place was waaay better… Just as advertised. The temperature was cooler, with a gentle sea breeze blowing on-shore. The water was noticeably cleaner, with no questionable items flowing in from rivers or streams. There were no jellyfish (Sweet!) in the water, which meant that I could swim to my heart’s content. And really, there weren’t many mosquitoes to speak of…. Probably a result of the aforementioned on-shore breeze. This place was absolutely perfect. At one point during the day, Ana and I looked at each other and said (pretty much simultaneously), “This is just like Belize, but with a nice beach!” Pretty high praise from us considering Belize was one of our favorite stops on this trip!

We contemplated doing a lot of things while staying out here: scuba diving, island hopping, snorkeling trips… but ended up doing a whole lot of nothing. Which was great. Just sitting on the beach, going for a few swims, taking a few naps: I felt right at home. We played cards a bunch, and learned a new game, 7 of diamonds, which is great because you can play it with 3 or 4 players (etc.). We even taught Sarah and Ruben to play Euchre, which was a hoot. My favorite quote (as heard in Ruben’s Dutch accent), “It’s called Euchre, but it’s played without any yokers (jokers)!” Good Times… :o) Ana even learned some Dutch, though for some reason she could only remember the word for clothespin: Kniper! I think maybe she’s watched too many Dora the Explora episodes… 

Some photos of Koh Lipe: http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/KohLipe

And here is where it is on a map.

Tags: Koh Lipe,Thailand,Ferry,beach

Pulau Langkawi

Man, we had some really great things scheduled for Malaysia: world class scuba diving in Sipadan, visiting orangutans in Borneo, hiking to the top of Mt. Kinabalu… We were all fired up to start. Unfortunately, some terrorists/pirates/hooligans/whatever from a nearby Philippine island decided to get all rowdy and shit, so the US state department issued a travel warning for the exact island and port that we had already booked our flights and dives for. Normally we would see this as an opportunity to follow the Rod Shultz school of travel planning and negotiate a better rate. But this particular warning was pretty specific for exactly what we had planned on doing, by an Al-Qaida separatist movement (Abu-Sayyaf) who’s home state was recently under martial law, and who had already kidnapped some foreign tourist a few years ago… It was probably a good idea to make some other plans. We decided to eat the cost of our non-refundable plane tickets and visit a more “relaxed” corner of Malaysia: The island of Langkawi.

We arrived at the Kuala Lumpur airport and were immediately greeted by the easiest immigration line ever. No hassle… No lines… No fuss. They say that Malaysia has some of the nicest people in Southeast Asia, and so far they were making a great impression! Our connecting flight on to Langkawi (Click for Map) was equally trouble-free and before exiting the baggage claim the tourist info booth gave us maps, advice, and exact prices that should be paid for taxis to our hotel. Nice! I couldn’t help but think to myself, “This Malaysia place is all-right!” While waiting for a cab to the airport we met a Dutch couple named Ruben and Sarah, who ironically had just arrived from Sipadan. We agreed to split the cab and save some cash. Neither of us had a room booked yet, so we conducted our search together eventually settling on a place called Tropical Resort. This place was run by a very strange German woman… the kind of person who every now and then is terribly rude to people, but has not the slightest notion that she is rude. Very odd, and quite unlike the local Malays in town. At least the rooms were clean.

We spent a day hanging out on the beach, and it was ok… The water was not that clear and there were many small jellyfish ready and willing to lay a stinger on you. The temperature outside was brutally hot. You basically had to hide away the afternoon in the comfort of some air conditioning until the sun went down. The sunsets were particularly spectacular however, and our west facing beach bungalow was the perfect venue to enjoy viewing the sky aflame.

While out here we rented car, driving around the island to check out its sights. One particularly memorable spot was a place called seven wells, which was the base for some troops of monkeys and a smallish (by our standards anyway) waterfall. The real action was at the top of the waterfall, where a gently descending series of pools were connected by shallow rapids rolling over moss slicked rock. Sweet! Natural water slides! The water was so cool and refreshing (with the heat surpassing triple digits F) that Ana and I spent hours going up and down the same hill with stupid grins on our faces. I went feet first, head first, belly first… yea. I sessioned it. Gasp in awe at my sliding prowess.

You can check out our pictures by heading over to picasaweb: http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/PulauLangkawi

Tags: Langkawi,Malaysia,Borneo,Beach