Langkawi and Thailand

We reluctantly said farewell to George Town and took the 08:15hrs ferry to Langkawi located on Malaysia’s west coast. We arrived to dark grey thunderous skies and it wasn’t long before the heavens opened. This was the start of what was to be pretty much 9 days of solid rain.

Langkawi is a heavily developed beach resort aimed at the international holiday maker. The footpaths are filled with numerous western style restaurants and the prices are higher here than any other place we visited in Malaysia.

The beach was long and offered all kinds of water sports. The rain held off for a couple of hours and we managed to sneak in some sand time. But before long the rain returned and we spent the remainder of our time in Langkawi playing pool on the shabbiest of tables at our hostel.

Sunset on Langkawi beach.

We arrived in Phuket Town tired and hungry after a ten hour ferry and bus journey. We dumped our bags at the hostel and went in search of food, stumbling upon a great little restaurant right next to a night market. It was here that we had the best Pad Thai (fried noodle dish with chicken, pork and shrimps) and Tom Yum Goong (Hot and Sour shrimp soup) which made our eyes water and our throats burn from the chilli!

Tom Yum Goong.

Pad Thai.

The staff and I at the best restaurant in Phuket Town.

Phuket Town is the main port to get to the island of Koh Phi Phi and the coastal towns of Pa-Tong and Kata Beach. After a couple of days exploring Phuket Town we caught a morning ferry to Koh Phi Phi where we had booked a bungalow on the quieter side of the island at Ao Toh Ko beach resort.

After a rough Long Boat ride we arrived at Ao Toh Ko to howling winds and rain. Our bungalow had sea views which were beautiful but all in all we weren’t too happy with the cleanliness of the facilities, as with the whole of Koh Phi Phi. It was quite shocking to see the amount of rubbish all over the island and in the ocean. During our stay we had hoped to go to Koh Phi Phi Lee where ‘The Beach’ was filmed but the bad weather made the seas too rough.

Long Boat captain 'Cry' on route to Ao Toh Ko beach resort .

We headed back to Ton Sai where Stephie had found a great hostel right in the heart of town. The nightlife here was pretty big, and we were soon drinking with the other backpackers, watching England stuff Wales, and finally enjoying Koh Phi Phi.

The next day we caught the ferry back to Phuket Town quickly followed by a local bus to the coastal town of Patong which was completely different to anything we’d experienced so far in Southeast Asia.

Patong is a lively beachside resort, full of bars with table top dancers, neon signs, counterfeit merchandise, exotic looking ladies positioned every few hundred yards offering to massage you for just a few hundred baht, with a ‘happy ending’ available for a few hundred more, and a few lady boys thrown in for good measure.

Well at least they're honest!

Stephie enjoyed the fish a little too much for my liking.

The rain in Patong was relentless. Our plan had been to travel to the islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao but due to the bad weather neither ferries nor planes were operating. We later found out that the floods in southern Thailand had resulted in the death of at least 15 people and caused thousands of tourists to be stranded, around 13,000 on Koh Samui alone.

We reluctantly re-arranged our plans and booked a budget flight to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. This will be our last stop in Thailand before crossing the border into Laos.