From the Cameroon Highlands we head north. It is finally time for the beach. Or that’s what we thought. We book a bus to Penang. Penang is a peninsula in western Malaysia. We found a lovely cheap place in the north of the island. Once we arrive in Georgetown we have to take another local bus to get there. You often look at maps and underestimate the distance. It took us another two hours to get to the place. We noticed ,that there are almost no tourists at all. This shall make for an interesting place. Some abandoned ugly hotels seem to plaster the skyline. The abandoned hotels seem to come from a Sheikh, who went bankrupt. This explains the shops, that are closed and the empty hotels. I always found it fascinating to see former tourist hotspot that are past it’s glory. Nothing is eternal I guess. Especially on the tourism side. Especially with social media some spots around the world seem to blow up.

The local houses are quiet ugly and remind me of eastern Germany. This is not necessarily bad, it is good glance on how the locals live. Few street stalls are still open and sell some food. It also seems to be durian season. A few cars sell the stinky fruit on the street out of their trunk.

There is almost no wind, and the thermometer is showing above 40° C. You cannot do much in the heat, except sitting under a fan and sweating like a pig. This is what we did. It was the first time we took it a little slower than usual. We hang out at the accommodation a lot. A welcome change after the last few stressful weeks.

The first evening we look for a beach. We are strolling around with the broken, but free bikes of the accommodation. We didn’t find a beach. It was still to hot to ride a bike. In the end we were fine with a pier where boats are docked. The nature is stunning and few locals gathered at this spot as well to say goodbye to the sun for this day.

We hear, that there are natural pools from a river nearby. Excitedly we grab one of the broken bikes again and go there. Riding the bikes in the heat was still not the greatest idea… Drenched in sweat we already imagine the cold refreshing water on our skin. When we arrive at the pools we were a bit disappointed. The pools were quite small and man build. It was just river water flowing through them. We forgot, that most people are Muslims here. This means all the women had t-shirts and pants to cover their body to swim. We didn’t want to disrespect the people, so we left without that refreshing bath, that we were desperately craving.

We decide to look for a beach again. After some searching we finally found one. This meant another 20 minutes on the agonizing bikes in the painful heat. In the end it was worth it. We find a small beach with almost no one there. We lay down in the shade and enjoy a bath in the sea. We go in and notice, that the sea is even warmer than the air. Still better than no swimming, though! There is also a small shack, that offers food. Finally the thing we were looking for!

Soon enough we notice that this is not our place to be and we head onward to Langkawi. The bus and the ferry took forever. We arrived late after darkness. In the end it took us more then 12 hours to get there. The journey was very tiring. This is a thing you will encounter often, when you travel. The time to get somewhere is often longer, than what you expect. You can’t change this. You can only change your mindset on how you perceive it.

When we arrived at the accommodation the guy told us, that we booked bunk beds instead of a shared bed. Tired and pissed we asked if he could change that. Luckily we were the only people there, so he gave us a room with a view. Usually you would pay triple for that. We ordered some pizza via Grab and soon fell asleep. When we woke up we just realized how lucky we were. You look at the sea directly from your bed. We realized it would be too expensive to stay there, so we relocated ourselves to a cheaper accommodation. It was still a nice night to have there.

On Langkawi there are more tourists than on Penang. This means running around in a bikini is culturally acceptable. At least for Sally… We took advantage of this and went for a swim. Unfortunately we both stepped on something sharp in the water. Sally’s foot later got infected, but more to that on Thailand. We didn’t bother much and enjoyed the sunset. Everyday there are jet skis, boats and parasails you can rent. We didn’t rent it, but it makes the beach a fun scenery to watch the people. At the end of the day they all get taken in by these funny cars at the beach, while the sun is setting and giving you a colorful display of all the colors you can think of. Later in the night there’s a few fire shows on the beach you can go to. It is quite impressive and definitely something you should watch.

The weird part on Langkawi are the many duty free shops. You can get international candy for a cheap price. They also sell wine liqueur, cigars and everything else you can usually get at a duty free airport shop. Of course the prices are still expensive for chocolate. I was just happy to have some sweats from home again.

Another day we decide to head out to a waterfall. It is called the seven wells waterfall. We hop on a scooter and drive around half the island deep into a forest. Several monkeys sit on the road, and near the road as we pass by. In the end we only had to climb about a million stairs to get to the natural pools. When we come out of the forest our jaws drop. You can see the lush mountain and it’s forest and even the sea! It didn’t take long until we went into the cold water for a refreshment. The best part? We had it all to ourselves. So we didn’t have to worry about disrespecting anyone.

We finish our stay with a visit to the night market. We didn’t know what to expect. When we got there we were blown away by the craziness happening. Generators are screaming in the back, creating electricity for the lights, the mixers and the cooking gear.. Everyone is offering crazy foods and drinks. People shouting and advertising their foods all while a lot of locals and tourists walk through the stalls. Smells of barbeque, soups, curries, fruits and frying oil all mix together. Here you can try everything. From sushi to curly potatoes. Meat sticks, mango juice or just rice or pancakes. All your food wishes will be fulfilled here. As a food lover this was quite the experience!

Until next time as we cruise to Thailand with the funniest immigration I have ever seen. Cheers!