We had a great Christmas-time, on the Southern, Thai islands of Phi Phi and Lanta. We went on a snorkeling trip on Christmas day! One of the elements of the snorkel trip was that we were given bread to throw into the fish, and then we swam among hundreds of them while they went on a bread-feeding-frenzy. It was pretty intense! But amazing. Our first night on Phi Phi was a bit of a disaster, as we were staying in the terrible "tourist village" of Ton Sai, the largest (and only) town on the island. It was filled with young partiers, the buildings and businesses were tacky and tourist-oriented and there was no beach close by!
Luckily, Joe trekked all over the island to find a better place for us to set up shop for the next few days, including Christmas. He found the Relax Beach Resort, which was the only thing on an isolated beach, accessible by boat or a very rough and tough trail from Ton Sai. This place was amazing! Simple, wooden bungalows, a great open air beach restaurant and bar, a very international clientele, beach chairs and hammocks spread out along the beach and kayaks and snorkel gear for rent...The ultimate highlight of this place was the staff, however. They were amazing: palpably happy folks, who were so helpful, chatty, kind and smiley. They called Janie "Mama." They prepared a Christmas banquet and party for all of us Western guests, and it was really amazing. We drank Mai Tais out of pineapples on the beach with Christmas dinner.
The day after Christmas, we went by boat to Ko Lanta. At first, it just didn't seem to compare to the Relax Beach Resort but then the sun came out, and it set over the water (the beach was west-facing, while on Phi Phi it was east-facing, so no sunset), the hotel staff grew on us (Thais are awesome!) and we just chilled on the beach, read books, went swimming and walked on the beach to neighboring restaurants and bars at night.
Joe and I said goodbye to Janie (who had more than 48 hours of travel ahead of her to get back to Sanibel- ouch!) and set out for Malaysia. We left Thailand (so sad! we love it there!) in Satun, boarded a boat, and an hour later landed on the island of Langkawi in Malaysia (we are in a land of islands, here!). Langkawi was a complete disaster! We got in a cab with 3 other tourists and asked the cab driver to bring us to the beach where there a lot of hotels. When we got there, we found tourists, wandering around with their luggage, none of them finding a place to stay. All of the hotels from the five-star places to the hostels were booked solid. It is Malaysian school holidays and every single family it seems, went to Langkawi and took all the hotel rooms! Us five tourists finally ended up in the worst room in Southeast Asia, a dirty, flea bag-ridden, dorm room that we shared and Joe and I got up the next morning determined to get the hell out of Langkawi. Which we did- yay!
We are now on the island of Penang, in the city of Georgetown, where we will spend the next few nights, including New Year's, before going to Indonesia for a few days to an orangutan conservation park. Penang (and all of Malaysia, really) is amazingly diverse. The government's tourist slogan is Malaysia: Truly Asia. And Malaysia does embody much of Asia, with a significant population of Chinese and Indians, who have lived here for generations. So, there is great food here! And architectural and religious and cultural diversity. The British were also here for hundreds of years, so there is a lot of English spoken and many other remnants of its colonial history. We are staying in an old Chinese hotel, with big rooms, tile floor, wooden slatted window (no screens) and a wonderful, aging, Chinese staff. Last night, we went to a strange traveler hotel around the corner from ours, where there was a live band made up of both Westerners and Malays, and a really diverse group of people, both travelers and locals, drinking and dancing outside. Joe said he thought it reminded of him of "old-school traveling." An eclectic, random scene: the travelers were not very young or cute or cool, they were not traveling in big groups and there were lots of characters among them...We were two of this crew!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment