Week 62 - Ko Lipe, Langkawi, Penang (Thailand, Malaysia)

We spent four nights in our room in a budget resort at the far end of Pattaya Beach on Ko Lipe, having already spent two nights on the island and a bamboo bungalow in the centre. We whiled away the days split between Pattaya Beach and the nicer Sunrise Beach on the other side of the island and at least once a day ventured out to the reef just offshore for some great snorkeling. Alongside the thousands of clown fish (Nemos) we saw moray eels and pipefish (that look like straightened out seahorses), a poisonous stone fish and a trumpet fish, brightly coloured giant clams and box fish. All up, the snorkeling was among the best we’ve done since we’ve been away and it was so close to shore that no boat trips were required. We did hope to rent a canoe to paddle across the thin strip of sea to the national park but towards the end of the week the weather turned a little unpredictable and a few hours of glorious sun would be followed by black clouds sweeping in and drenching the island, making the waves choppy and stirring up the seabed making the snorkeling visibility not quite so good.

View from our resort, sunset on Pattaya Beach, Ko Lipe.

Other than sitting on beaches, we played a great game of boules with coral, drank delightful cocktails at a little bar with a Swedish couple, ate an amazing fish BBQ on the beach by candlelight (we chose a grouper and a white snapper from that days catch and they prepared and cooked it to order), adopted a scraggy cat who needed a good feed and just generally enjoyed having down time to relax.

Fish feast, Daya Resort, Ko Lipe.

But the beach time had to end and our Thai visas were coming to the end of the 30 day period so we booked a speedboat to take us in to Malaysia. We handed in our passports at immigration and boarded the boat, an hour late at 11:30am. 30 minutes out at sea, when we were all drenched from the spray, our motor broke down and we spent another 30 minutes floating while they tried to fix it. It was pretty choppy and by the time a rescue boat came out to get us and take us back to Ko Lipe, everyone was feeling a bit seasick. No other boats were available and we ended up waiting around until 3pm for another boat. The second time the boat was much bigger and the sea much calmer. We arrived in Langkawi, bumped into a group of English guys (Swift, who has been working at the same hostel in Vietnam where me and Rhys met 5 years ago, and Ben and Ken who met Swift at the same hostel) who were staying at the same hostel as us in Langkawi and jumped in a taxi for the short drive to another ferry pier to get our passports returned and stamped. 

We’d been upgraded to an ensuite room at the hostel that night and were grateful for the warm shower. Sam, the guy who runs the hostel was extremely good at getting everyone together and talking, and before long we were all sitting around the table working our way through the beer in the hostel bar and watching the Wales rugby game until the early hours. 

The weather wasn’t great the next day and Rhys was under the weather so we didn’t venture far, only to have a quick look at the beach (a decent crescent of golden sand surrounded by lush green hills) and to the nearby duty free shop to stock up on ridiculously cheap vodka to take to Australia with us for Christmas. On the way back to the hostel we discovered a family of hornbills living in the trees on our street. We rounded off the night watching the Spurs game on TV before bed.

Another lay in and we headed out the following day to rent a scooter. We drove north and stopped at a bedraggled lighthouse before we reached the cable car. After queuing for 10 minutes we decided the hoards of tourists and theme park atmosphere weren’t really conducive to a pleasant afternoon and jumped back on the scooter for the short drive to a quiet, rather pretty waterfall in a little wooded area, home to a family of monkeys. After shooing away the monkey who was sitting on our scooter we decided to head along the north side of the island so we could loop back to the main town of Kuah. Just as we got on to the road, miles from anywhere, it started to rain. We ended up pulling into a little shelter to wait out the worst of it by the roadside. Once the rain lessened we carried on and mad it to a craft centre before the rain started again, even harder than before. We ended up staying there for lunch, which was incredibly cheap and pretty tasty. The rain finally stopped enough for us to leave and we carried on to Kuah where we stopped at a deserted duty free mall to look for a GoPro camera with no luck. 30 minutes and a stop at the petrol station (40p a litre anyone?!) and we were back at the hostel. For dinner that night we took the bike and had a huge plate of squid and claypot chicken before joining the fun in the bar back at the hostel. 

Waterfall on Langkawi.

Monkey making himself at home on our scooter, Langkawi.

Tuesday we had tickets booked for the ferry from Langkawi to Penang at 2:30pm along with the other 7 Brits we’d been hanging out with at the hostel. After returning the scooter, we had an early lunch of bake beans on toast and flagged taxis to take us to the ferry port, glad that we’d gone to bed at midnight when everyone else had gone out and rocked home at 6am (oh to be young again!). We had a while to wait at the ferry terminal and after a go on the massage chairs and the purchase of some snazzy hats we boarded and settled in for the 3 hour journey. We fed Rhys some seaksickness tablets before finding the instructions with the dosage and realising we’d given him a double dose and he was out for the count as soon as we sat down.

We checked in to our hostel, changed rooms to a quieter room, and headed out for dinner, the food scene in Penang is renowned and we weren’t disappointed with the little noodle cafe where we ate. Later, we popped out for a drink at a reggae bar with the Brits from Langkawi before turning in for a relatively early night.