Malaysia!!

The road and the view
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Arrived in Langkawi this evening at 6pm. For those interested, there's a time change, an hour ahead of Thailand(even though it's connected to and directly south of Thailand). So, we're 13 hours off home time again. Day started early with a songthaew(pickup truck with benches and a topper) ride into town, a minivan ride, a local bus ride, ferry and taxi before we parked our stuff. 11 hours worth. I'm going to be a sitting-still pro by the end of this trip. Already am, I think. We took the minivan (200baht=~$6) from Ko Lanta to Trang, then got to the "travel agency" in Trang. She thought we should book through her and pay 620 baht(almost $20) for the van/boat that we still had to do. I thought we could find cheaper. Door to door around the area(there's always a few "travel agencies" where the bus stops), and the best suggestion was a local bus(70 baht=$2) then ferry (250baht). Sold. Total? 320baht(=~$10), almost half what the other girl wanted. Worked out okay. The bus took a little longer than the van would have(it stopped a few times to pick up people on the side of the road), and didn't have air con (which didn't matter, 'cause it had open windows and the air in my face makes me WAY happier), but we still got in in lots of time for the ferry, which was only an hour. After nearly 11 hours of van, bus, ferry and cigarette fumes(the taxi driver in Langkawi was smoking, and that was almost the straw to break my queasy stomach back--after the wavy boat ride, and trying to read up on the place along the way), I was ready for a bit of fresh air. Just had supper on the beach, which fit the bill perfectly. Tomorrow will be more scooters(hey, I'm a pro now!), some sightseeing, and some beach in the afternoon...

Move view
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Funny thing: I tried to exchange my book yesterday at the hotel(you can usually exchange book for book), and I had the hardest time--all the books were in German, or Swedish(?). I only had 2 to choose from... At the place we're at tonight, there was a Reader's Digest on the table... got really excited!! Until I saw that whatever the language was it wasn't one I could read!! Lots of Europeans over here.

Vroom, vroom: Day 2. That's the sound my (standard) motorcycle made yesterday when we were bombing around... Yup, graduated to a standard motorcycle. No more automatic for this girl!! A little bit of getting used to--I could start it by myself after the 3rd time!!(As in 3rd time I turned the engine off--the guy at the desk, then the lady at the gas station started it for the the first two times)... haha. Figured out the whole gear and shifting thing too. And I figured I'm a pretty advanced driver now, as long at the road is wide, the shoulders are wider and there are no other vehicles/animals!!(we saw cats/dogs/cows and MONKEYS!! while driving). Got a bit more comfortable with corners, and other cars as the day wore on, the start/stop thing came a lot more naturally, and by the end of the day you could maybe even say I was enjoying myself!! Might have to look into buying one when I get home(whaddya think, mom?) haha. We had an action packed day--headed out early, and headed straight for the highest point on the island. 13km of winding, hilly road... amazing views from the top. Then to a waterfall where we stopped for lunch, then to the cable car, which I have to say delivered a much better view than I expected... I have NEVER been so high up in a cable car before! Really impressive, and it actually turned a corner! I didn't know cable cars could do that. Sean and I walked down the the suspension bridge at the top(check out the pick if you want to see what a bridge at the top of a mountain looks like!), and amused ourselves listening to the screams coming from the cable car where it left the top. Sounded more like an amusement park! Guess our years on the slopes have helped us with the cable car heights thing--don't think there are too many ski hills around here!

Our lunch waterfall... When we were there a Malaysian guy caught a little yellow snake which he carried back down. Not poisonous, apparently, but everyone was keeping their distance!!
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Back to the hotel by dark, and a laidback supper at an Irish Pub. Great place... the servers were so much fun, and everyone was so nice!!

So far we're really impressed with Malaysia. Everyone here is SO friendly with a genuine smile. Everybody who asks is very excited that we're from Canada. I think they're a lot more used to Europeans than North Americans...

Gotta run to catch the boat to Georgetown!!