Travelling at the speed of light by scooter through Malaysia

The following is written for 2 days ago:

Woke up at the Gecko hostel on Langkawi in the middle of the night to find a cat sitting on me. The cats here are semi-wild so probably have flees (but hopefully not rabbies!) I threw the cat back onto the floor.Apparently one of them is pregnant though, so hope it wasn’t that one, not that they need any more cats! According to the hostel owner there are 12 cats here, this is quite common though. The cats have claimed the hostel room as their own so if you dont like cats don’t stay here. Walking out of my room I found someone had caught a scorpion in a bowl, so we had fun terrifying a Norwegian girl with it.

Ty, the Aussie guy I met yesterday took me round Langkawi by scooter. This is definitely the best way to travel as the island is too big to walk around. We visited a cable car where we met yet more Aussies, and saw a Czech girl with the worlds shortest shorts. Strange thing was her Dad was there and yet he didnt seem to mind. The shorts didnt even cover her whole arse! So there we were with the most beautiful view on the island and yet everybody was just starring at this girls bum. Insane!

Taking the cable car back down to sea level was relaxing, but in our cable car the Aussie girl was terrified of heights. I informed her how today was the anniversary of a big accident. That went down well….

Next Ty and  I visited a huge waterfall. Swimming in fresh water was a welcome change compared to swimming in the sea as when you come out the sea salt crystallises on your body. The waterfall we visited was called the 7 wells water fall and is the supply of drinking water to the island. The atmosphere was very relaxing and the cool water was  a great relief from the high temperatures and humidity. While we were there we witnessed a girl slipping out of control down some really steep rocks. Looked really fun until I saw at the bottom there was a giant rock. Looked incredibly painful….

7 wells Waterfall

I was co-driving on the back of the scooter and map reading. A high level of trust existed on our scooter. He trusted my map reading and I trusted his driving. I think i might have been making the bigger gamble however. Travelling down roads at 85km an hour with no helmet though is not something I’d like to repeat again in a hurry. In Malaysia,anything goes, we passed families of 4 on a scooter and guy texting while driving his scooter. Complete maniac.

The amazing scooter

That night was spent visiting local bars and having a few drinks. Asked for a Muay Thai and the guy tried to fight me.. I won though so we got the drinks and chilled out on the beach.

The last few nights have been having dinner with mosquitoes. However, they are the ones eating, not me…Looked in the mirror this morning and am covered in bites. I feel like one giant mosquito bite. I wonder how much blood I’ve lost. Recently, Iwas informed that the mosquitos find you by detecting the carbon dioxide from your breath. If I hold my breath all night maybe they won’t be able to find me?

Yesterday, I went for one last trip round the island once again with Ty, and visited some more local beaches.

A beach on Langkawi island

Enjoyed having a cocunut with a straw to drink on the back of the scooter. Really funny to watch peoples reactions. Then, unfortuantely, I had to leave. The ferry boat took me to Kuah Kedah where I traevelled with a Dutch guy called Harmin, the most serious Dutch guy I’ve ever met. However, it was great to travel with him as he was very organised, a tremendous help. From Kuah Kedah some locals offered us a lift in a souped up car with a  blue metalic steering wheel. We were a bit unsure on accepting the lift, but sometimes you must take risks. Dropped off 20 minutes later outside the bus station saving us lots of time. In fact, we would have missed the bus we needed and had to wait over an hour for the next. They didnt seem to want to talk in the car so I guess they just wanted to help us out. Again, I was very grateful.

The bus took about an hour and a half and dropped us off in Butterworth. Doesn’t sound very Malayisan does it? Thats because the British on their quest for world domination colonised the whole area. And then another ferry across the water to George Town on Penang island, where I met Norman and his girlfriend.I felt very glad to see them. In total, the whole journey took 4 and a half hours.

Norman, then showed me some of Penang before returning to their house. He lives in a building thats like a palace! The closest I can describe arriving here was like for me was like when the hobbits reached Rivendale in Lord of the Rings (excuse the geaky reference) but honestly thats what it was like!