Skycab ride in Langkawi

Days in Langkawi were pretty much the same. We spent there four nights 75 ringgits a night from both of us. The beach area was really nice, lots of water sports going on in there. Not that many beach cafes there tho.The whole place or the beach at least was basically empty, no tourists what so ever. Felt like there were no tourists there! The main street offered lots of different stalls of food, restaurants and shops. Most mornings we had breakfast at this local place with roti canai. :P

One day we were so bored with the beach and so desperate for swimming pool and found this niiiice resort with even nices pool. We offered to pay for using it but they said no. :(

On the last full day we took a taxi for 30 ringgits to Seven Well waterfall. We climbed up like a million stairs only to find nothing. We went down the stairs in half way and found the actually waterfall. It was nice to go to a refressing dip in the water. After managing all the steps down we went to this local place to eat and drink nice fresh coconuts! Then we walked a 10 min walk to Skycab area which was built for tourists. Shops, play rooms for kids, built in bridges, water fun games etc. We paid the Skycab 35 ringgits and prepared ourselves for the steepest skycab ride in the world! (42 degrees!)

It was only us two in the cab and the higher it went more scarier it got. We got off at midpoint to take pictures. Amazing. The top was a shorter ride away. We paid extra 5 each for the skybridge which was a 10 minute walk away in the woods. We got really lucky since it was just about to close and we were the last ones to get in. At the entrance we had to fill in this form that if anything happens it's on our responsibility.. Scary.

On the bridge I was really scared and surprisingly Steve was okey! It was really amazing!

We also went all the way to the top with skycab to admire the views. Breath taking.

Where the sky meets the ocean <3

Langkawi

The next morning we woke up dead. I was just tired and Steve was tired because he had wanted to stay up until very late to watch the ManU game.. Of course. The previous day we had searched for places that would be open in the morning to show this boxing fight on tv. This one sports place promised to show it. So in the morning we went there with our backpacks, and it wasnt even open yet.. There were maybe five other guys who had come there too in hopes of seeing it. Next we headed to this internet cafe to try to watch it online. I was soooo pissed off and annoyed. Could not give a shit. The stream and the internet were so poor so it was pointless anyway.

After it was over (finally) we rushed to the harbour to our boat to Langkawi. It was said to take around three hours. The tickets were 68.10 ringgits each.

A bit over three hours later we arrived to the harbour of Langkawi and were met with one of the biggest queue's we had ever seen! It was huge, it kept going and going and going.. It had been the holidays so locals had come to Langkawi to spend some family time and now everyone and his dog were leaving.. We eventually survived out from the terminal and were instantly greeted by lots of taxi drivers. Our driver was the kindest (very gay!) and by far the nicest taxi driver we had come across. All the way he told us about Langkawi and his counry, basically everything we needed to know. At the end we gladly handed over the 30 ringgit and went to try to find a hostel.

He dropped us of at this place were there where cheaper hotels, motels and hostels close by. We checked out couple of places and eventually settled on the Sweet Inn. It was a simple double room clean and tidy and set us back for 300 ringgit (75 ringgit a night), not bad considering some of the other options around. We dumped our stuff and went to try to find some food. Right next to the hostel was a nice little beach side style shack which did the basic asian foods and fruit juices. We both filled our bellies and drank for 22 ringgits! Really really good food!!!!

After eating we went to have a look at the beach and the high street. We were just in time to see one of the most beeaitful sunset either one of us had ever seen! We have both seen quite a few sunsets but this was like standing in some other world! The sky felt like it was so close you could touch it. The sky was all colours and the cloud formations didnt even look real. The darkness roaming in from one side met with the fading sunlight on the other. In all explosion of color. The beach was full of people taking pictures and selfies. Unbelievable sunset.

Penang

On 1st of May we voluntarily woke up at 6 am to get out from the hostel. The bus journey was said to take about 5 hours. We stopped a lot and there were a lot of traffic due to the holidays! We hadnt even looked at any hostel so we were just hoping to find one..

Eventually the bus journey took at least 6 hours. We ended up at this bus station from which we had to take a local bus to Georgetown. On the guide book that we had we spotted three hostels right next to each other so we headed that way. First one was full but the next one had one double room left for 45 ringgits. We were told that everywhere was full, so we took it. It wasnt really much better from the previous one but had to do.

Georgetown was said to have lots of food stall and we looked for hours and barely found any. Afterwards we figured they must have been closed.. On the first night we just wandered around to see the street art and some sights bu the water. We didnt really like the place at all even tho all the reviews said it would be so nice. It was full of Asian tourists and nothing special to see or do.

On 2nd we decided to take a bus 204 from Komchar to Penang Hill. What a nightmare. First we didnt fit into the bus and ended up waiting the next one for 30 minutes. And then due to the traffic it took at least 90 minutes!! With our patience!!! When we eventually got of it started raining. A lot. Of course at the Bukit Bendera we saw this massive lines to the hill.. No way were we gonna wait.

We started walking back along the bus route and finally came to this temple sight Kek Lok Si which we had seen further away. It is the largest Buddhist temple complex in Malaysia.

Lots of Asian tourists and only a few of our looking :D Up to this main statue Kuan Yin we took return lift tickets for 6 ringgits each.. Really interesting place. The walk up to the temple was through this narrow narrow and low alley with shops in each side.

After seeing the temple we went to this local food market were people looked at us like we were a bit lost! Not that touristic place was that.. Eventually we took a bus back but before we went to this yard where we saw this old lady selling some local sweet things and Steve of course wanted to buy some. This old woman didnt speak a word in english and we paid him and tried to let her keep the rest of the money but she firmly refused and only let us pay what the locals pay also!

In general there you didnt really need to count how much money you got back. They were really honest!

The bus back took also ages. After showers we headed back to eat and wander around and eat again. While wandering around the streets we spotted lots of massssive rats running around! I also so one in our hostel when opening our room door to the hallway when going to the toilet. I freaaaked out!

That guy had a looot of dishes to do..

The kind of places were we mostly ate at.

Cameron Highlands

On 30th of April it was time to head to Cameron Highlands! We took the purple line around 8.30 and headed to Chinatown where the bus station was supposed to be. Well. It turned out to be much more difficult task to find than we had thought. After walking to wrong direction for ages and arguing about asking someone we eventually found it. We even made it to the 9.30 am bus that we had planned to. The tickets were 35 ringgit each. We both looked like we came straight from the shower, it was ridiculous.

The bus ride took around 4-4,5 hours. The last two hours were these small mountain roads. The center of Tanah Rata was small with plenty of hotels and hostels. We ended up to his hostel called Twin Pines. A. Shit. Hole.

The cheapest room that we wanted was in an attic, a mattress on the floor. That was still okey, nothing wrong in that except that it was super hot and we found bugs from the "bed". We left for the "center" (around 50 meter walk) to catch something to eat and find a tourist info.

We found out that there was only one bus daily to Penang because of the holidays (1st of May) so we bought tickets to 8 am bus (32 ringgit each). It was raining cats and dogs and the place was tiny so we didnt wanna get stuck in there. The woman at the info told us that we could take a taxi for an hour to drive is to places near by which we wanted to see.

Since it had just stopped raining we went to this tour. First he took us to this tea plantation which was awesome!

Then we went to this big chinese temple.

After an hour and ten minutes we paid him 35 ringgit (which is around 7,8 €...). Back at the hostel we asked to change the room and got a little better one and paid him 20 ringgit more for it. It was still a terrible and untidy. At night it was FULL of them flying ant things or some bugs!!

At night we sat outside on this little seating area and tried to plan our trip. We decided to leave out the whole Malesian Borneo and also Brunei cause there eventually wouldt have been that much sight that we wanted to see. It also would have required us to fly a lot more since the roads there are terrible. Now we could stay longer in places and be back in KL for our flight to Medan, Indonesia on 26th of May!

We also talked with this one man traveling around the world having his business somewhere and people to work for him. Through skype and emails etc. he runs his business while traveling around! He had been in Cameron Highlands for over 6 months?!??!

Our night was terrible! We dressed up so there wouldt be any room for the bugs to crawl! Barely slept at all. Horrible.

Notices:
- left side traffic
- Thank you = terima kasih
- Everyone is wearing a helmet when driving motorbikes.