Langkawi!

One word to describe Langkawi: beeeeeaaaauuuuuutifulllll!

After a very hungover boat trip we arrived in Langkawi and got in a taxi to Penai Cenang to find our hostel. We were welcomed by the owner, Zul, a very nice Malaysian man. That evening he took us in his car to the night market with some others from the hostel.

The beach at Pentai Cenang is very nice with white sand and not too crowded. I managed to go swimming in the sea every day we were there. Another cool thing about Langkawi was that we by chance bumped in to most of our friends from Penang and Melaka so there was always lots of people to hang out with and drink beers with. We also got a car with Liam and Andy, a cool father-son travelling combo and we went to some cool waterfalls where you can bathe in the water. That day we had also planned to go on the Langkawi cable car, probably the island's most famous attraction. However when we arrived it was raining at the top and they had closed the tills. It's probably lucky that happened as we may not have had the best view. Sorry for that boring anecdote there...!

Another day we went island hopping. This involved being picked up from our hostel in a mini bus by Zul's friend, a very funny guy who laughs at everything. On the way we picked up more people then headed for the jetty to catch a speed boat. It took us to a number of islands. The first had a freshwater lake in the middle, another you could see eagles flying around happily at close range, amazing. After that we went to a final island where there was a nice beach and some cute monkeys.

On our final night in Langkawi we had one last reunion with all our friends on the beach, great fun.

Penang!

The journey to Penang was long and uneventful until we missed our stop on the coach. We had to go about 60km further north to the final destination, Alor Setar, and get a bus back. Eventually we arrived at our hostel at about midnight.

The next morning we got up and went downstairs. A funny old man called Charlie was there to tell us what to do in Penang. It was quite hard to understand what he was saying but he was one of those guys who everything they say is hilarious. On the first day we decided to wander around the town and see what we could find. Obviously we stumbled across the shopping mall where our Starbucks radar must have taken us. We had a coffee and continued into Chinatown. We stopped off at an Indian restaurant and had some amazing food... something involving chicken as we didn't understand the menu it was chef's suggestion, very tasty. On our wanderings we also stumbled across a fort, called Fort Cornwallis. It was 2 ringgit to get in so we went to have a look. It was quite interesting! Just outside the fort there was also a monument marking Queen Victoria's diamond Jubilee.

Fort Cornwallis

Eating some delicious Indian food!

A Buddhist temple opposite our hostel. There was a Chinese one next to it where Charlie went to get my fortune. Apparently I have people who will help me in North, South, East AND West. Good to know.

This is a nice litlle snap of all our friends we made at the hostel, including Lanee, a girl from the Philippines who works there. She is amazing, along with Jazz from Burma and Charlie, who has lived in Penang all his life. Top notch! They deffo made it worth staying at Reggae Hostel!

Melaka!

Melaka is a nice little place about two hours by coach from KL. We stayed in a nice hostel called Ringo's Foyer Guesthouse. When we arrived we were greeted by the owner, Howard, a very cool man
who owns lots of bikes. In the evening he took us and some other guests from the hostel out on the bikes. We cycled along the river where there were cool painted buildings and pretty lights and we ended up in a street where you could buy lots of different types of food. I tried a Chinese noodle soup. You have to pick the ingredients you want first, then they add the soup and noodles. It was very tasty.

On our first day we walked around the town a bit. We found a hill with an old church on top, some pirate ships and lots of cool shops and stuff in China town. There was a cool night market where you could buy souvinirs, lots of different types of food and clothes. We had a beer with the other English people from our hostel, two girls who had been teaching English in Thailand and a doctor carrying out malaria research, called Richard.

The next day we went up the Melaka tower with Richard where you could see all the sights from up high. We then went to have a drink by the riverside where we saw a cool monitor lizard or something, I'm not sure what it was because I wasn't aware that they could swim. Anyway, it was really cool!

On our final night in Melaka Howard took us for some nice Indian food. We then decided to have a Christmas party at the hostel so Howard called up his friend Charlie to get us some cheap beers and brandy. The Christmas party turned into about three games of ring of fire, after which point we decided to go out to the town. Unfortunately Melaka is not too rocking on a Monday night so we had some tequila then came back for more ring of fire on the roof! In the morning we had to get up early to take the coach to Penang.

Last Day At School

The last day of school was spent making paper snowflakes and decorating the school for a festival that was taking place that night called Sweet December.

We had the Christmas tunes blaring out and lots of fun was had by everyone. We took lots of pictures and said our goodbyes. The children were trying to persuade us to go to church later that day but we politely declined. After school we went home to pack our things. This took less time than expected but my massive rucksack was super heavy. Too many books! I had to leave my amazing birthday banner behind which was very sad. After that we went to Abe and Nu Cing's house to say our final goodbyes. We took some photos, exchanged addresses and headed over to Bruno's house. There, Simon was sent to buy beer and brandy and this was obviously mixed together into one surprisingly nice tasting drink, which seems to be the way here in Malaysia. Simon and Bibi gave both of us a beautiful Chin necklace for us to remember them by. We drank beer together, with King who was also there, and he persuaded us to go to the church to experience Sweet December.

When we got there it was already about 45 minutes into the ceremony. Esther and her sister Rebecca had just finished singing a song when we walked in. We were greeted by many shocked but happy faces due to the fact that no one really was expecting us to go. We listened to some more performances, all sung in Burmese! And then the pastor spoke for a while. After that we were all invited into Class E where some Burmese chicken porridge was being served. It was very delicious but we weren't that hungry as we'd already been fed at both our previous stops on the way to church. After that we took some final pictures with the children and were told things like "Don't go!" and "Teacher, we miss you already!" Very sweet but it made it even more sad to leave.

In the morning King took us to the bus stop and after a Super-King hug we said our final goodbyes and got on to the bus.