Babsi & Conrad

It's been less than two weeks since we wrote our last entry but we not only changed places a few times but also experienced a lot in the meantime. But first things first: unlike the English football team and - perhaps more frustrating - their supporters, we both are still doing well on our way to Austria.

Langkawi Island, where we spent our first couple of days in Malaysia, offered a great variety of beach, jungle and food - which proved to be typical for the country.

Pantai Cenang - Beach on Langkawi Island

One day we hired a car and our first stop was a tiny little village for breakfast where we spotted a busy roadside cafe. There was no menu and the food we saw on the tables around us was nothing but rice, curry and salty dried fish - so this is what we had. When it came to paying the bill, we've been told that 'our friend', a man who helped us ordering but has left since, will pay our breakfast when he comes back for lunch. Very nice, and we couldn't even thank him for that.

From Langkawi we took a boat down the west coast of Malaysia to Georgetown on Penang Island, our first mayor city since we left Bangkok. Georgetown is full of British Colonial Heritage mixed with the fascinating variety of Chinese, Indian and Malayan culture and food. We visited a few temples, a local museum and the Komtar tower overlooking the city.

Streets in Georgetown

On our way to the Cameron Highlands on mainland Malaysia, we stopped at Ipoh for a few hours. Ipoh is not only a regional hub and very wealthy city (which manifests in large peaceful puplic parks and squares) but also the hometown of our London-based friend Jeffrey. We visited his favourite restaurant in town ... where we - being the only Westerners - enjoyed the help of many locals around us who helped us ordering all the food Jeffrey put on his list of recommendations. Delicious experience!

Lunch at Chinese restaurant 'Kong Heng' in Ipoh's old town

Arriving in the Cameron Highlands we appreciated the mild temperatures of being at about 1500m above sea level. Besides being a mountain 'resort' with many interesting jungle walks, this area's main focus is on agriculture (vegetable, fruit and tea).

Lookout spot in the jungle close to Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands

We had a great hike through the rain forest and encountered monkeys (crossing our paths 20m above our heads in the tree tops) and almost stepped on a green snake, which looks and apparently is pretty poisonous.

Green snake

A few more impressions from our time in the Cameron Highlands:

English scones with cream (unfortunately not clotted) and strawberry jam

Indian dinner on banana leaf

Valued car - built 1975 with more than 4.000.000 kms on its first engine !(?)

Fresh Roti (sort of pancake) for breakfast everywhere and unresistable

Tea Plantation in the Cameron Highlands

Afternoon sun in the dense jungle

Beautiful butterfly on Babsi's back

Tea Plantation in the Cameron Highlands

Chinese-Malaysian dinner for four: 'Steamboat'

Our first day in Kuala Lumpur was all about the Petronas Twin Towers (452m). We had a cocktail in the open-air 'Skybar' of the Traders Hotel with a great view to the Towers, which are heavily illuminated at night, and visited the Skybridge linking the Petronas Twin Towers at about 170m.

View from the balcony of our hotel room in Kuala Lumpur

Petronas Twin Towers at night

On the Skybridge of the Twin Towers

Inside the National Mosque of Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur

Christmas trees and snow everywhere ...

Overnight train to Singapore

Being in Singapore now (22 - 24 Nov) we found a city extremely different to both Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. This is not only because it appears very clean and safe but also very rich with lots of public places, promenades, endless shopping malls and cultural events on offer. Although this is the eastern- and southernmost place (135km north of the equator) we both have ever been to so far, Singapore seems to be relatively close to home and other places we've been to in Europe and North America - only a bit richer than most of them.

View from the roof of our hostel in Singapore

'Littel India' in Singapore

Singapore's skyline just after sunset

We are excited about tonight as we will not only fly to Bali but also cross the equator. We can't wait to prove to ourselves that the water runs down the sink counterclockwise on the southern hemisphere. We just checked it again here in Singapore and it still goes clockwise - but arguable slower already ;-)

Stay tuned - and remember that if you are enjoying reading this, we may as well be interested in what you're up to!

[We have also updated the map of our trip. You can find it further down in our travel blog or following the link at the top of this entry. The map now reflects the locations we've been to so far on our way through South East Asia]

On Sunday, 4 Nov, we left busy Bangkok on a night train to Trang in southern Thailand. For 16 long and mostly dark hours we enjoyed the luxury of a small but comfortable 1st class cabin.

In Trang we were welcomed by numerous taxi drivers, so we teamed up with fellow travellers to 'defend' ourselves and get - well, we hope we did - a better deal for a 2 hour transfer to the west coast of Thailand, where just anopther struggle for the next deal began (ferry boat). Anyway, a few hours and a stormy speedboat cruise later we arrived at Ko Lipe island with heavy rainfall that did not stop for the rest of the day. We found a nice hut overlooking the sea with a beautiful terrace served by a great restaurant.

For the following week the weather remained changeable and thus enjoyable and there was not much to do ... which is exactly what we did. Ko Lipe extends only a couple of hundred metres each way, has about three beaches of white coral sand and dense jungle in between.

There are no cars, no roads, just a few paths. The local community of sea gypsies mingles with (and lives off) a few tourists who leave the beaten paths of Phuket and Ko Samui.

By the time we arrived most 'resorts' (agglomeration of basic bamboo huts with perhaps a central restaurant run by the local community) were not even open because the rain stops and tourist season starts by the end of November. However, the island changed day after day as more food stalls, little shops and snorkeling tour enterprises opened for business - often in huts that have not even been there the day before.
Our first sunny day 'ended' early with sun burns before lunchtime.

We hired a long tail boat for a snorkeling trip to even more remote islands of the Tarutao Marine National Park. The underwater world caught our fascination with corals and fish in colours and forms we only new from books.

After 6 relaxing days we headed towards Langkawi, our first point of interest in northern Malaysia.
A small boat took us across the boarder from Ko Lipe (Thailand) to Pulau Langkawi (Malaysia). On Sunday, 11 Nov, we arrived at Pantai Cenang, a beach on the south-western shore of Langkawi island.

We will stay here for a few days and explore the local museums (one on rice, the other one on sea life) and the rest of this large and relatively developed island.
Our next stops will be Penang/Georgetown, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and 'finally' Singapore.

Stay tuned

The last seconds with our flatmates Mira and Joe and our landlord Mike in front of what we called home for almost 3 years.

Our drive from London to Munich and back went so smoothly - we actually did a bit of sightseeing on the way back. Here, the English coast of Kent, near Dover/Folkestone.

Following a week of leaving drinks, packing up our house and driving about 1400 miles across Europe, we were exhausted and didn't really look forward to an 11 hour flight to Thailand.
However, this obviously was a good thing as we fell asleep even before finishing our first beer. We only got up in time for breakfast and touch-down Bangkok soon after.
Conrad was pleased to see the first ever project he worked on (as a student) in reality: the new International Bangkok Airport.

Arriving in central Bangkok we spent the first night and next day discovering this vibrant place - with all its noice, smell and fascination.
We decided to stay for another two days and will take an over-night train to Southern Thailand (Trang) on Sunday evening.

Stay tuned