Day 160 -- Phuket

Last night we just wandered around Bangla Rd/Patong Beach...fascinating how many ladyboy's there are here in Phuket. Mike and I were both still having trouble distinguishing them from their female counterparts, but by the end of the night we were back on track. Had a lobster dinner at Patong Seafood which was pretty tasty and then just did some walking around on the street...very similar feel to Khao San Road but a lot crazier...tomorrow night is dedicated for solid explorations.

This morning we woke up at about 10:30am....we were the first to sleep in the dorm room and I was surprised when I woke up that all the beds were taken but I never woke up during the night....they're better at keeping quiet than me for sure! Got some brunch and then hit Patong Beach for the entire day. We rented some beach chairs so Mike could have his shade and ended up sitting next to an American couple from Baltimore here on holiday for 10 days...they came a long way for such a short time, but they certainly picked the right place. Water temperature was amazing and close to turquoise in color but in such a tourist infested area its easy to see why its not clear. We plan to get a boat in the next day or so and do some diving/snorkeling...going to meet up with them for drinks tonight and we'll see what else is in store...feels great to be back at the beach!

Ended up headed to Club Lime to meet the crew from the beach...200 baht cover charge adn it looked empty so we sat outside in a park drinking 35baht large Chang beers (35 baht=1USD) to see if a crowd showed up....no crowds so we left. Funny thing about Chang beer is that they cant control the alcohol content so its restricted for export....bottle says 6.5%, but we've heard its anywhere from 5.5% to 9%....depends on which bottle you select so its like playing Russian Roulette. Anyways, headed back to Bangla road and wandered around into some of the bars/discos/shows to get an idea of what Phuket has to offer. Got to keep things PG-13 so all I will say is don't bring children on any vacation to Phuket....if you do, stay in the confines of your resort! Good night out, met some people on the street and hung out with them for a while....As they all say here, tomorrow will be a bad Changover....

Day 159 -- Langkawi to Phuket

Alarm buzzing at 8:15AM we got up and had some quick showers before heading off to the airport. Returned the rental car and checked in for our flight with Firefly airlines. 30 minute flight to Penang, Malaysia's food capital! Everything was on time and we actually arrived a little early...airlines here are strange in that they couldn't check our bags all the way to Phuket, but maybe thats b/c this next flight was international. Our plan was to check-in and take advantage of the 5 hour layover to hit the town for food but were disappointed when we were told we could not check in for 2 hours...killed our timetable so we ended up hanging out around the airport :(

Running low on ringits had to change some US dollars to eat lunch since no point hitting the ATM with only a few hours left in Malaysia. Cleared immigration and boarded our flight to Phuket, Thailand. This flight was not crowded at all, only 20 passengers and the flight itself maybe an hour or so...we realized that we haven't had a long bus journey in a while and these cheap Asian flights are really tempting. From KL to Langkawi it would have been a 12 hour night bus, followed by a 5-6 hour ferry whereas we took a 45 minute flight for 30USD...lets not even talk about how long the overland journey would take from Langkawi to Phuket, but we did it in an afternoon. I think I found my new mode of travel the rest of the time here :)

Got into Phuket about 4pm local time and took a taxi to our guesthouse about 300meters from the beach...really nice place, very clean and well-kept and one of the better places so far. No bed bugs here! It started pouring down shortly after check-in so we stayed inside getting caught up on some things that have been put off for a while. Feels good to be back in Thailand and the next 3 weeks should be all beaches...much deserved after so much traveling around! Had dinner at Patong Seafood and got to pick our our own lobsters and fish...very inexpensive compared to the States, but still more than what we'd like to spend on dinner but sometimes you just have to splurge. Plan to go back one more time before we take off and have a real seafood feast!

Taking it easy tonight so we can spend a lot of time on the beach tomorrow...plus the past few nights have been crazy! Getting all the pics uploaded now so check them out if you get a chance.

Day 158 -- Langkawi

So today was a real waste...woke up at noon and had a pretty nasty headache (wonder why?!?) and was starving. We jumped in the Sentra and went to the marina to get some food. After we brought the car back to the hotel with the intention of hitting the beach all day....didn't happen. I laid down to take a 10 minute nap and before I knew it was 5pm and Mike had just come back from an all day internet session. Not going to let the day be a complete waste we hit the beach to catch the sunset even though it was still a little cloudy. Back to Babylon again for the barbeque dinner...tonight we had steaks, kebabs, satay and more garlic bread...really good food and at a great price! Back to the hotel lobby where we had round 2 with the bottle of rum...this time I insisted on Mike pacing himself so I had someone to go out with! We finished the bottle and headed down the beach to Chill Out Bar for some live music. These Malaysians can really murder some songs...should be illegal to be that bad, but at least they were trying. These locals appeared on the beach after a while and gave us a fire show even letting us try to play with the fire...I gave it a shot but was nowhere near as good as those guys. Mike was passed out in the hammocks so I sent him back and hung out with some Scandanavian girls we met that now live in Langkawi. After the bar shut down we moved down to SunBar and Reggae Bar to close the night...on the way home stopped into Tomatoz, a late night Indian food spot and killed a huge plate of food so hopefully I won't feel as bad tomorrow...got to get up early for our flight to Phuket!

Day 157 -- Langkawi

Got up early this morning since we wanted to move out of our bug-infested bungalow even though it was bigger than my apt. at home. Moved down the street, just opposite the beach and got a place that was cleaner, cheaper and even had AC. Decided to explore the island so hopped in the car and hit up the Oriental Village and Cable Car for a ride up to the top of the island...view was amazing but after a while a storm rolled in so visibility turned bad. We were so high though that we were right in the midsts of the clouds/storm so that was a first for me...check the pics when I get them up, crazy! We took off to the other side of the island for lunch and followed it by a visit to a local waterfall. Tough trek up the steps in the heat but once at the top it was well worth...looking down over Langkawi. After that we took a tour of the beaches, Tanjun Rhu and Black Sands. Tanjun Rhu was one of the biggest beaches I've ever seen with white sand and in the distance you could see lots of the neighboring islands. Black Sands beach was exactly as the name sounds...a little smaller but lots of black sandy area from the erosion of nearby granite I think....nice nonetheless. It was getting late and we wanted to get back to our hotel and hit our beach which we still hadn't done. Got out there about 5pm and was able to hang around at Babylon Cafe for a couple of hours. Scored some free beach chairs from a group of girls staying at our hotel. For dinner we went back to Babylon for a beach barbeque...kebabs, satay, garlic bread...all very tasty and cheaper than the Mexican food.



Back to the hotel, we opened the bottle of rum we got from duty free and played Chinese Big 2 taking shots at each loss. Mike drank too much too quickly so he passed out and I hit the town on my own. Stopped back into Babylon b/c some people from the hotel said they would be hanging out there....didn't find them but met an American living in the area as well as two Turkish girls in Langkawi on holiday. After Babylon closed shortly after midnight we moved to Sunbar for some live music. Good crowd and was talking with a group of Iranians who kept saying we were enemies...they seeemed to take the political stuff pretty seriously but by the end of the night I think I changed their views of Americans! Made it back to the guesthouse pretty late and was real tired so crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow!

Day 156 -- KL to Langkawi

Got up this morning and dazed inadvertently turned off my alarm clock...luckily I woke up a few minutes later and realized I had a flight so got up immediately. Scrambled to get my bag packed and met up with Mike at his hostel @8AM...We made our way on the train to Sentral station, caught the 1 hour bus to the airport and checked in for our flight. McDonald's at the airport and had my first American breakfast in a long time...nice to know what you're getting sometimes....pancakes, real syrup...great! Boarded our Air Asia flight and it was a bumpy ride to Langkawi. When we arrived it started pouring down rain. Since we had done no research prior to arrival we realized that the only way for us to get around here would be to rent a car. Got a Nissan Sentra for 3 days, set us back $50USD...not bad! Made our way into town and got checked into this shady bungalow since almost everything was booked and we didn't want to wander in the rain anymore! Tired from a long night, took a nap and ended up waking up at about 8pm...most of the day wasted :( Walked to nearby Gecko hostel for dinner, empty so we went down the road to the Mexican place...Didn't quite cure my Mexican craving, but its a start. After that spent some time on the internet before calling it a night.

Day 155 -- Kuala Lumpur

Planned to meet up with Mike at 8AM but that got messed up since I ended up having a late night and he did as well. After he took off back to his hostel I stuck around hanging out with the people at mine and then when it closed we went for food and before you knew it was 3AM...similar thing happened to him...haha! Anyways, we met at 10:30 and I was still half-asleep...he took off to get some tickets for the Skybridge since he hadn't seen it and then we planned to meet up to go to the caves. He got back at noon with tickets for 6:15pm and also had met up with some girls from his hostel who were going to the caves...we all met at Central Market where the bus leaves from to head that way. The girls ended up being from NC and one Sarah, actually will be living in Durham when she gets back from her travels...small world! Made it to the caves which were pretty impressive...293 steps to the top and a massive Hindhu statue at the entryway. Inside the caves were various shrines devoted to Hindhu gods and the colors were fascinating. Wandered around for a little while and then made our way out...as we did it looked like it was going to pour and luckily we jumped on the bus back to Chinatown just as the rain started. Got off the bus and took shelter in Central Market...I showed the girls the foot fish treatment and they gave it a try...I went for Round 2 and surprisingly there was still more dead skin to be eaten...the fish were all over me! I felt pretty embarassed but I guess after more than 5 months of backpacking wearing sandals all the time my feet have a lot of dead skin. Feeling refreshed we got some food and then separated as they had a 5pm Skybridge time. Mike and I headed to the Petronas mall and spent some time in the AC admiring the beauty of this place...Never seen a mall quite this nice! We got up to the Skybridge and it was a smaller group than when I went with Cameron but it had rained so the views weren't as good. Headed back to Chinatown for dinner and then met up at Mike's hostel for a few drinks before heading to a nearby rooftop bar...lots of rooftop bars, but no cheap beers unfortunately! At the end of the night we made it back to Reggae Bar until close to closing....not a good idea since we have a morning flight to Langkawi, Malaysia beach near the Thai border...

Day 154 -- Kuala Lumpur

Slept in this morning and definitely needed the rest from the last two nights. Spent most of the morning wandering around the Central Market with Lea, one of the Swiss girls who played Uno with us last night. At the market we indulged in a fish spa treatment for 10 minutes where these small teethless fish, nibbled at our feet and ate away at our dead skin cells. Felt really strange but feet were refreshed when we got done...@5RMB or $1.33USD for 10 minutes who can complain. After that had some dim sum for lunch and she was off to the bus station headed to Singapore. KL is extremely hot so spent a lot of the day in the hostel common room reading my book, Gangs, which I picked up in Hanoi...fascinating since it talks about 7 of the world's most deadly gangs. Headed to the Reggae Bar to meet up with Mike at 3pm since he got in today...he got settled into his hostel and then a few of us including the Norweigan (still don't know his name...) headed to Little India. Cool neighborhood with sari and jewelry shops everywhere and tons of Indian people wandering around. Had some authentic Indian food and then headed back towards the Chinatown area where we were staying. Had some curry at a nearby restaurant followed by chicken satay at a street stall thats been around for almost 30 years...really cheap at a quarter a stick and amazingly good! Took it easy that night and just hung out around the hostel's rooftop patio since we were planning an early start the next morning.