Sticker That Farang And Ship Him To Malaysia!

End of March, 2006

So, off I went on another trip from one place to the next. Traveling in Thailand is really easy in general, but the act of literally traveling is ridiculously simple. Very often a travel agent here will sell a "combination ticket" from A to B, which involves virtually door-to-door transport using a combination of methods and stages... sawnthang, taxi, motorbike, minibus, bus, van, ferry, pick-up truck, whatever! They don't really need to tell you how many legs your journey will have and what modes of transport will be used, and very often they don't bother. Usually they put coloured stickers on the farang (foreigner) cargo, so that they can direct the flow of their human traffic such that none of it gets lost in the system!

This results in a very efficient travel system, and they are very good at transporting people smoothly all over the mainland and islands. This is a good thing too, as tourism is one of the mainstays of the Thai economy. However, it does mean that travelers are almost encouraged NOT to think for themselves, as it is perfectly possible to buy a ticket from, say, an island in the Gulf of Thailand to another in the Andaman Sea, and not know the route, the ports used or even how many changes of land transport you have to make and where! Present yourself at one end of the system and you will be funneled through, processed and deposited out the other end! Although it's convenient in some ways, I sometimes wish it was a bit more transparent. Personally I like to know what sort of journey I'm in for, what I'm going in, roughly what the route is, how long it's going to take, etc. etc!

Anyway, I entered the tourist travel system in Koh Lanta, fully stickered-up so that I was spat out correctly in Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia! On the way I met Andrea, a freshly-graduated Seattle-ite traveling in southeast Asia before turning herself over to a life of business, (or whatever it is that people with degrees in Business Studies actually do). She was going to meet friends in Langkawi that she had just met on Koh Tao at the same time that I had been there. They came to meet her off the boat, and I ended up going to where they were all staying at the beach of Pantai Cenang.

Her friends, Tom, Haji, Zoe and Lara were two English couples from Chichester, all in their early/mid 20s and out here for a few months of travel. I ended up hanging out with them for the next week or so that I was in Malaysia.

The weather was still not what you'd hope for to go to the beach so we filled the time with other pursuits, renting motor scooters to drive around the island to visit a waterfall, Underwater World (a large aquarium), and a shopping centre. That really summed up Langkawi, as far as I could see. There seemed just to be lots of beach resorts, populated by couples on package holidays grumpily waiting out the spell of gloomy weather in order to return to their resort's stretch of beach. In the meantime, hey - it's not all bad - they could visit the waterfall, Underwater World, or go shopping!

I hadn't really ridden scooter before, but having taken one around the car park of the bungalows without major incident and quickly mastered the basics, I felt ready to take to Langkawi's smooth, empty, well-paved roads. They even drive on the left; how considerate! Riding a scooter is not unlike riding a bike but not having to peddle, (OK, I know there's more to it than that, but my mum reads this and I don't want her to worry).

I was however mindful of all the tourists I had seen with obvious scooter injuries, one of which is so common in Thailand amongst young backpackers that I had given it a name - Thailand Island Injury, (T.I.I.). Evidence of T.I.I. is a bandage on the inside of the right leg, about halfway down the calf. This is where the inexperienced biker hires a machine, rides it in shorts or a skirt and at some point puts their leg on the hot exhaust! Ouch, (not to mention the smell of singed flesh)! There was no danger of that with me though. Unlike on a proper bike, the exhausts of our safe little scooters were totally enclosed in bodywork.

The waterfall on Langkawi was more of a waterdribble, it being dry season, but the short hike up through the mountain woods to get to it was pleasant enough. You wouldn't have thought it was dry season though, from the drizzle and the low cloud we found ourselves in. The cablecar ride to the very top that we had been considering would clearly be pointless.

I quite enjoyed Underwater World. There were some pretty engaging exhibits, including sharks and turtles, although disappointingly the penguins were "under refurbishment", (I'm not quite sure how you do that). To make up for not having my dive course photos yet, I was able to take a pic of a moray eel that I had seen so often on my dives. They just sit there with their mouths open like this, either looking scary or gormless depending on your point of view.

The 3-D cinema at Underwater World was disappointing, however. They showed an underwater wildlife film in which, despite dutifully wearing the glasses, I could see no 3-D content at all except for maybe a little bit, a couple of times. Also , the banging techno that they played just before and just after the film was, perhaps, the most inappropriate choice of "background music" I think I have ever encountered! We thought we'd wandered into the aquarium club. Has anyone got any salmon? Cheers, sorted...

Having exhausted the possibilities of Pulau Langkawi, the six of us set off for the next Malaysian Island of Pulau Penang, a bit further south. I had begun to realise what a pain the logistics of six people traveling together is. Trying to get everyone to agree where to go, what to do when you're all there, getting cabs for six people, getting several rooms all at the same guesthouse, etc. etc. In some ways traveling on your own, with only your own opinion to take into consideration and only yourself to get from A to B, is so much easier.

On Pulau Penang we arrived in Georgetown which, (as you can probably tell from the name), was established by the British in the 18th century. It is an interesting town, mainly Chinese in population, and often felt like it was one big Chinatown. We stayed at a guesthouse run by a fantastic old Chinese man called Mr. Lo, who remembers every guest's name, dispenses maps and advice with inexhaustible enthusiasm and sings along, word-perfect, with the Deep Purple that he has playing in the foyer.

Our time was taken up with wandering town around town during the day, perhaps going to a nearby beach or sitting around a swimming pool at one of the bigger hotels, (the weather had cleared up by then). The evenings consisted pretty much of drinking, often spurred on by American college drinking games introduced by Andrea which were new to all the Brits...

Andrea herself was learning new things as well. When I commented on how the Malaysian flag resembles the stars and stripes, she said "oh" and then clearly had a small private revelation. It turns out that she thought the Malaysian flag, which we had been seeing hanging limply on flagpoles, car aerials and so on, actually was the stars and stripes! I didn't ask her why she thought she'd be seeing "Old Glory" fluttering over public buildings in Malaysia. Has Bush decided the USA needs to re-invade southeast Asia since I've been out here?!? Maybe Andrea knows something I don't...

As much as I was enjoying the new company, the best day I had in Malaysia was spent on my own, visiting Fort Cornwallis and the mansion of Cheong Fatt Tze, (The "Rockerfeller of the East"), meeting up with the others in the evening. The fort is full of old British statues, cannons, flags and so on, and gives an interesting account of its own history and that of the town. Of course, Mr. Dasje enjoyed the visit too...


So after six days I decided that my time in Malaysia was up. I had considered going further south to see Kuala Lumpar or the Cameron Highlands, but realised that I still had so much more that I wanted to see up north in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The world is very big, and in fact a year is not very long! So I said goodbye to the British/American party, who were heading south, while I got a train back up into Thailand.