Bye Bye Malaysia - Hello Thailand

Another day, another adventure could be an alternative title to this one.

After 2 nights in Langkawi, I had made my choice to leave Malaysia and head to Thailand. It was a hard decision as the place is a little paradise with plenty of entertainment around and a very laid back feel in general. This is an island after all. I should be back here, maybe... I will be in Malaysia again in February anyway, on my way back to Europe. Future will tell. For now I was set for another long journey towards Krabi.

Bye Langkawi.

A taxi picked me up at 7:20am at the hotel. One last stop en route to the ferry terminal as we were picking up another person. And I would be travelling all day with Lee. He is travelling solo just as I am and heading to Phuket (that would add at least 3 hours compare to my already long journey... can't even imagine how happy he was to finally get there).

Anyway, we got to the ferry terminal by 8am, had a coffee, waited a little at Malaysian immigration, embarked at 8:45, left at 9, arrived in Tammalang at 10:30, passed through Thai immigration, took a songthaew to the local bus station, arrived right on time for our bus at 11am and left...

Because we would travel during the day and it was hot and sunny outside we did not suffer so much from extreme cold that is usually ruling Thai buses... The drivers in South East Asia are hardcore fan of air conditioning, and it is common to have polar temperature in these rolling things.

I arrived in Krabi bus station in the middle of the afternoon and said goodbye to Lee - one advise he gave me could impact tremendously my travels in the next weeks... more on this soon :) - Where was I exactly, I had no clue. Where would I spend the night, I had no clue. One sure thing, we were NOT in Krabi town... I went for the easy was and took a taxi to the center where I would have much more chance to find an accommodation for the night. Finding a place took me very little time... After 15 minutes walking around, I had a winner. The place looked clean, very close to the markets - the fresh food market and the night market - and cheap.

Perfect combination.

I was finally ready for what I had patiently waited since February: a Pad Thai in Thailand!

And the best place to find one was at the night market.

Going through the shacks on my quest, something I did not expect at all happened at 6pm sharp. A loud Thai music was blasting in every direction and EVERYBODY stopped whatever activity they where doing. At first I wanted to laugh out loud then I realised it was probably the national anthem and stayed quiet. Google confirmed that it was indeed the national anthem and that it was played twice a day at 8am and 6pm. Not being aware of this at first, I thought a second I was taking part in the world largest Mannequin Challenge... It was that intense!

Night Market Krabi seconds before National anthem being played.

And around the corner it was... The Pad Thai Shack! A special one as the recipe was upgraded to a egg wrapped pad thai. It was absolutely delicious.

This is how it's done. That simple.

As I like to say in Thailand: one pad thai a day keeps the grumpy face away. 

Pad Thai egg wrapped.

Langkawi - Life is a Beach

2 buses, 1 ferry, 1 taxi... 10 hours...

We - 2 german girls making the same trip and I - left Cameron Highlands at 8am, and for to Cenang Beach at 6pm. The first bus took us to Butterworth in Penang, the second to Kuala Perlis where the ferry was making the short trip to the island of Langkawi.

10 hours... this is what it takes to reach this paradisiac place. The first island on the trip :)

First things first on arrival: find an accommodation for the night. On the way there, I received good word for couple of options: the Cottage and the Gecko. I went first to the Cottage but it was fully booked. Gecko it was! 100m away from the beach. Very close to the main street with all the restaurants and souvenirs shops. Very nice place it turned out to be. Full of cats, roosters, chicken and guess what... geckos. Very happy as well to be able to buy fresh fruits from the nearby night market... Maaaaaan these mangos and bananas :)

I started the day after a nice sleep the same way I did in the previous stops: going out for a sunrise run. That 3rd run of the trip was so different from the ones in Kuala Lumpur (big city) and Cameron Highlands (mountains) not only because of the nearby beach but specifically for the wild life...

I got uber-scared seeing 3 buffalos peacefully drinking from a ditch right next to the road and a family of a dozen monkeys looking for food in the garbage of one of the hotels. My last encounter with a monkey had been epic some months ago in Cambodia and I didn't want to have the same experience again. The weather was punishing. 27 degrees and 85% humidity at 7am. Standing still in the shade is enough to start sweating... Running was hell of challenge. I am starting to hope for rain in the races of Bangkok and Cebu... 

End of the road for my morning run.

I went for a typical breakfast - food here has a big Chinese and Indian influence - and eventually headed to the beach for a swim and in order to finish the book I had started in the bus the day before.

It was only a few minutes... an hour max... but enough to get sunburn. Unfortunately there were not so much shade on the beach so I went walking around instead. It seems like there are quite some things to do on the island, however none of it will be for me for now.

I want to get to Thailand fast as I must be in Bangkok on the 24th. So tomorrow morning, I will get a ferry to Thailand and a bus to Krabi. I will be in for another long day of transportation.

That also means there will be more island in the coming days and more pieces of paradise :)

Selfie in Cenang Beach.