At “Love Beach”, Pulau Perhentian Besar:

Our cabin on the beach (to the right). On our second night here, we witnessed the wildest tropical storm. The sound was that of a waterfall right above us; and when it thundered our whole wooden room shook and trembled… A bit scary, but it only lasted for two hours, and the next day everything returned to its calm sunny beauty (like in this photo):

In front of our cabin on the South side of the island (Teluk Dalam):

To cross the island (and reach the beaches on the west or southwest sides), one has to either take a taxi boat or make peace with the heat and accept the sweat and use the jungle trails:

Taxi boat waiting for clients on our beach (Teluk Dalam):

Jungle crossing:

The island is fringed with beautiful beaches:

…and giant grasshoppers:

The most beautiful beach on the island, that in front of the Perhentian Island Resort:

On taxi-boat, at sunset:

Practical Advice:

It is hard to find decent accommodation for decent prices on the Perhentians. On Teluk Dalam where we stayed, Fauna was the only reasonable choice. Their chalets are quite new and clean in comparison with those of their neighbours Flora (which are very dirty, dark, humid and smelly).

If you need access to internet like us, be aware that at this time (May 2010) only the Flora restaurant (you can stay at Fauna and just use the internet at Flora) provides wifi for an acceptable price (for 3 days). There is Internet at Tuna Bay and Coral Beach but you must pay per hour and it is very expensive.

New large mall close to the center:

Trishaw – driver having a nap between rides:

The Central Market is the one “must-see” thing in Kota Bharu. It’s the oldest in the city, and it’s been continuously running, with almost no changes as to “how”. The interesting thing about it is that it is run almost exclusively by women. It goes up on a few floors, of which the ground floor is the most colourful, with vegetables, local fruit, spices, meet, fish and nuts:

“Kampung” (countryside) chickens; the problem with them is that they are being kept in excruciating heat for a few hours…

A LOT of dry fish, giving off a .. not so pleasant smell:

Little girl holding her dad’s hand up on the textiles floor of the market:

Istana Jahar (The Royal Customs Museum) is fascinating; different rooms reconstitute different traditional ceremonies practiced in the royal families. For example, one room shows the ceremony by which a baby is to first touch the ground. Before being 5 days old, babies are considered to be directly from Heaven and whence they are not be “dirtied” by touching the ground. The idea of babies being directly from Heaven seemed beautiful, so this ceremony stayed more vivid in my mind, but other rooms showed a lot of other interesting ones: the meeting of the groom and bride to be, their first night together, even an elaborate ceremony for haircuts and shaving.

At the entrance. Always a different price for “foreigners”:

The museum is hosted in a beautiful wood house, built in the 19th century by the local sultan:

Practical Advice:

Where to stay: If you are on a budget (and even if you aren’t) Denai Lodge is a clean, brand-new hostel. We don’t know how it will look in a few years from now but at the moment it is great. There are only a handful of rooms, so booking ahead is a must. The bathroom is on the hallway (it is clean however).

Where to eat: Well, the Night Market is the place everybody recommends. However, make sure you only eat what’s being cooked on the spot (usually only when there are a lot of people around). If hygiene is a problem, then Pizza Hut (outrageously expensive for what it is) and McDonalds are always around and safe (even if not too tasty).

Since you need a car to visit all these places, most tourists book half day or a day-long tours offered in Tanah Rata. This is what we did as well, although the pace of these tours is a bit too fast for us (please see http://watermelonnomads.com/articles/view/13 for our more in depth thoughts on the matter).

Anyway, this is a beautiful place and we will let the pictures speak for themselves:

Up at the “rose farm”, the first stop on a “half day tour”:

The butterfly and other insects farm:

These big butterflies were everywhere (including the ground) but they seemed drowsy and not doing too well; the guys at the farm picked them up from time to time and put them on people, which is not good for them (even if the guys said they knew how to pick them up):

Cocoon of a huge butterfly:

What comes out of the cocoon is this – it is actually a moth (pay attention at the design of the wings – they look like two snakes):

They also had some big turtles:

The strawberry farm (they had delicious strawberries, cultivated Japanese-style):

The beautiful, green, undulating tea plantations:

These birds were everywhere in the plantations, singing very loudly and beautifully:

In the past, tea leaves used to be picked by hand to ensure best quality, but this is no longer possible; since workers are paid per kilo of leaves, they need to pick as much as possible – so quantity took over quality. Even like this, they only end up making up to 30 ringgit a day (about $10 US), from what we were told.
They usually come here with a 3 year contract, and even with $10 a day, they are satisfied, as they usually send this whole sum back to their families (and it’s more than they would ever make in their own countries). They don’t need money to sustain themselves here, since they are given free food and accommodation as part of their contract.

This is the way things usually work. However, at the time we were there, local newspapers were writing about the case of a farm that hadn’t paid its workers anything for three months and the government was to take action.

Also, since the Cameron Highlands have been experiencing an economic boom, extensive illegal deforestation for farming (possible of course, with corruption) became a real issue, leading to environmental degradation and poor water quality.

This is how they pick tea leaves nowadays:

Untitled from Greg Bugyis on Vimeo.

The tea making process:

First stage is the picking of the leaves. For the fifth stage, the leftover powder after the whole process is completed is put in tea bags. Tea bags are always worse in quality than leaves.

The local Buddhist temple:

A full day tour: Jungle trekking. We went, like everyone else who comes to the Cameron Highlands, in search of the Rafflesia, the largest “flower” in the world, that can reach up to 1 m in diameter. For more about our jungle-trecking experience, read our article at http://watermelonnomads.com/articles/view/13

This jeep took us on a muddy “road” to the start of our jungle trail:

Large millipede in the jungle. It has tingly little feet that feel funny on the skin and make little waves as it walks. It must be the cutest insect in the world (ok, you are allowed to question my “insect tastes”):

No longer cute, but interesting:

Finally, the Rafflesia. These “flowers” (they are actually a type of fungus) take five years to bloom and only last for about six days. Ours was already beginning to decompose (see the edges):

At the orang asli (original people) village. These people have lived in the jungle for hundreds and hundreds of years, until recently when the Malaysian Government set up villages like this one for them at the edge of the jungle, with access to water. They live in improvised wood or dirt huts, in extreme poverty and typically have a lot of children; however, even if their population is growing, the villages are slowly disappearing as most youngsters move to the city in search of something else.

On the “porch”:

Even if nowadays they even have motorbikes, the orang asli still hunt in the jungle, using their traditional blow darts. In the past, they used poison from the most venomous snakes and frogs for the tip of their darts to kill the game. Now, the government only lets them use a weak natural “tranquilizer” made from the bark of a tree. When strong poisons were used, orang asli usually died by the age of 30 -40, as the poison that killed their food slowly got into their system and killed them.

Back in Tanah Rata, this is a bag of tea in a souvenir shop. Read the description on the label:

People from all over Malaysia and Singapore (and Asian food lovers from all over the world) come here to enjoy Penang’s famous street food, which is said to be amongst the best in the world. I cannot say that we enjoyed Penang’s food that much; this is partly because we are not Chinese or Malay food fanatics and partly because since I admittedly am a bit of a hygiene freak, I didn’t dare try a lot of the street food, so we probably missed out on some tasty dishes.

The Nyonya dishes are unique in the world, combining Chinese, Malay and Indian cuisines. The Baba Nyonya people are descendants of Hokkien Chinese who have lived here since the beginning and have developed their own culture within Malaysia.

Georgetown is a crowded, dusty, humid hot, and rather large city, where the historical centre is full of attractions like Buddhist and Hindu temples and old traditional mansions built in the spirit of Feng Shui. Away from the historical part, modern malls and all kind of concrete structures are popping out everywhere.

It is easier to walk in the street, since the sidewalk are usually taken over by parked motorbikes… or other things:

Backstreet:

Construction work:

Blue window and plenty of sunshine:

The sewage system (often causes unpleasant “odor”):

Buddhist temple entry gate. This is one of the most beautiful temples we saw in Penang. It was renovated with great care and in great detail (not too long ago it was almost in ruins):

Another Buddhist temple (the usual offerings of fruit, rice and flowers):

One issue…

Superficially, one sees Malay, Chinese and Indian living in complete harmony in Penang. Things are not that pink though. While eating at a Nyonya restaurant, the (Chinese) lady working there complained to us a lot about the treatment of minorities by the Malaysian government. She said her brother had to leave Malaysia to study in the US, when in Malaysia he was refused admission to University. According to her (and we don’t have any other source of information on this issue) – the Malaysian government has set a limited number of University seats for minorities – the rest being reserved to Malay students. She was outraged with this system, saying that Chinese are usually more competitive in school than Malay students and that, if fair competition was unhindered, they would take over most University spots.
She may be right about that, but we also understand the Malaysian government trying to protect its own people by reserving some seats for them. It is a delicate issue.

Kek Lok Si Temple (“Temple of Supreme Bliss”)

This is the biggest working Buddhist temple in SE Asia. It is about 1 h by bus away from Georgetown, next to a rather unpleasant small town. The bus drops you off in this town and to get up to the temple (which is on a hill) you have to go through a dark, musty and claustrophobic staircase full of cheap souvenirs. When you finally get out of this “cave” of souvenirs, the first thing you see is this turtle pond, which must host some hundreds of turtles all squashed together and on top of each other (I wonder if they were all alive):

Finally, once you pass the turtle pond, you can feel that you are approaching a place of worship. The noise and craziness (it seems that even the heat) fade off, monks are walking around doing their chores… the only thing that disturbs the quiet are tourists. We wondered why no one does anything about the way up to the temple, but I guess… that is not the monks’ business.

We were really curious what this next thing represents, but couldn’t find out. We thought it is a portrayal of the defeat of some demons (look under his feet), but we were not sure. If anyone reading the blog knows, please leave a comment and explain to us:

Langkawi was, like the resorts on the west coast of Thailand, just out of season. This means fewer (although still enough) tourists on its main stretch of beach. Or maybe people were elsewhere on the island, same as we ended up going. The thing is – the beautiful part of Langkawi is not its main beach; once beautiful, it is now overdeveloped and the street constantly smells like sewage from an overtaxed sewage system (at least at the time we were there). A few over-priced restaurants and souvenir shops line it up, but nothing special – a concrete furnace by day and a neon light hotspot by night.

Langkawi is mainly known for its tropical views of the sea from the top of lush green mountains and for a feel of countryside in Malaysia. Even by the place we stayed at, next to all the development, there were chickens roaming around in the street and a couple of cows lived right behind our room. It feels very refreshing to be woken up by roosters in the morning instead of alarm clocks.

We had to rent a car to get around in Langkawi, since there are no reliable public means of transportation around the island.

The following three photos are taken at Sunset Beach (very good name!) on the North side of the island:

The cliche-ed “in the air on the beach” photo:

Monkeys on the side of the road. We saw them, pulled by them, and they all came curious by the car. We must have all been studying each other (the monkeys and us I mean) for a while when a dog barking in the distance made them run away.

The mom and dad:

Picking flees (we people who like to be scratched and picked are not so different!):

A son (or maybe daughter?): “is this a flee I found?”

Pantai (Beach) Kok, on the North side:

A motorbike left with keys in – probably not a high theft zone…or maybe people just worry less:

Oxen just off the road:

Langkawi cable car. View from the top:

Footbridge at the top:

Mango seller off the road. We went in to see his mango orchard:

His wife and children carefully wrap each fruit in paper and only spray chemicals on the paper, not on the fruit:

On the last day, we snuck into a luxury resort with a private beach… just to see what’s there. We have a more insightful article about this (written by Greg) at http://watermelonnomads.com/articles/view/12

We have a more insightful and opinionated article related to this post at http://watermelonnomads.com/articles/view/12

The food we got by the bus station in Satun: noodle soup to go, served in 2 plastic bags: one containing the liquid, the other the noodles. It got mixed and eaten on the bus: no major soup stains!

Local bus from Trang to Satun:

On the tuk-tuk in Trang – local taxi in a sort of 3 wheeled vehicle, like a scooter, but not really. This one has 1 wheel at the front and 2 at the back, like a tricicle. The front, where the driver sits is closed and the back is open, with 2 benches for people to sit on:

Even if it became more touristy lately, Lanta is going on with its own Thai life and, unlike Rai Leh or Ko Phi Phi, it feels refreshingly authentic. Its beaches are not up to those in the previous two places, but its charm is greater.

Here are a few pictures from the “old town” where we stayed:

This next one is Kirsten’s pic (a Canadian girl we made friends with):

The Old Town used to be the commercial centre of the island that provided safe harbour to Chinese and Arabic trading vessels on their way to the larger ports of Phuket, Penang and Singapore. Its main road is still lined up with long houses, some 100 years old – traditional wooden homes, here built on pillars right above the water at high tide. Their long structure allows a nice breeze to sweep through. Here is how they look like, at low tide… The place we stayed at was a similar long house:

A long house at high tide (also Kirsten’s picture):

On the porch:

Greg, with a few friends he made in town . They must have been 13-15 years old. Could you think of any better initiation into manhood than experiencing and understanding monastery life?!

A day at the beach:

Boi (yes, his name is Boi!) is a 19 year old who helped us get around the island in the back of his parents’ taxi-car, and we ended up spending the day together.
After the beach, he drove us to the Sea Gypsies’ Village:

The Sea Gypsies (or Chau Lei in Thai that literally means “people of the sea”) are nomads who fled Indonesia, and after a couple hundred years on the sea, finally settled in these parts of Thailand:

Some kids hopped in Boi’s car to come with us for a ride. I was happy to see there are still places where people trust each other and every adult is not a suspected, potential child molester – you know, like sometimes (and understandably so) in the West:

Us, Boi and the kids back at our place:

Practical Advice

Where to stay
The Old Town is a charming place, if you don’t necesarily want to go out in the evenings, since everything here shuts off at dark. At the time, we were the only foreigners staying in the Old Town overnight. We stayed at Mango House, a long-house with huge rooms (clean, no air con but airy enough). Recommended for a group of three or more.

Must See
The Old Town
The Sea Gypsy Village

The islands were devastated by the 2004 tsunami – basically no building in the main village of Ton Sai on the big island was left standing when waves hit it from both sides (from one side with about 800km/h). However, everything on Phi Phi Don seems to be back up and running. And RUNNING. Someone was writing on a website that it’s impossible not to “shed a tear” if you saw the big island in the early 90s and you are returning now. The beautiful village bay, with perfectly clear water full of colourful tropical fish on both sides of a tongue of fine white sand was taken over by a jetty, and noisy boats and restaurants (with the entailing garbage of course).

Ko Phi Phi Don and Lei are part of a Protected Marine National Park and apparently, before the tsunami, the government was making progress in limiting development and setting up more rules for the existing one, but with the chaos following the natural disaster (and perhaps connected to the high levels of corruption in Thailand), groups of interest have managed to regain control of Ko Phi Phi Don and development has re-exploded with no restrictions.

Most places to stay (of reasonable prices) are in Ton Sai village, but this is no quiet or relaxing place. Its few narrow streets have turned into a giant bazaar with merchants trying to sell you overpriced cheap-souvenirs and ladies calling you in(to) dubious places for massage.

In spite of all this, Phi Phi and the surrounding area are of such an amazing tropical beauty, that when the boat first brings you here, your jaw will drop. Even stepping down of a ferry, at the jetty, with tenths of noisy motor boats all around, we saw a colony of “Nemo fish” making their way through somehow still clear water.

Also, if you sleep in Ton Sai it doesn’t mean you have to spend the day there; you can take snorkeling trips or taxi boats to the Phi Phi Lei, the northern less developed beaches of Phi Phi Don or a few other uninhabited islands around that look better than any perfect tropical-beach post cards!

Village road, by where we stayed:

By Ko Phi Phi Lei (the small island) this is where they collect swiftlets’ nests, which are used for the Chinese delicacy “bird nest soup” and make for a profitable business (probably a reason why Phi Phi Lei has escaped development):

By the bird nests, in our snorkeling boat:

Ma ya bay, where “The Beach” was filmed:

The next 3 are at Ma ya bay:

Bamboo Island, an uninhabited island close by. The beach and water here are of unbelievable beauty. We arrived early and had it all to ourselves for 30 min, after which hoards of tourists came in speed boats:

A beach further from the village on the big island:

At our breakfast coffee shop, very hot:

Practical Advice

Where to sleep: White (about 1200 BT/night), in Ton Sai Village; clean, air con, private bathroom

Where to eat: Only one good place to eat in Ton Sai – oops! we forgot the name (to come later)

Must see: Bamboo Island, Ma ya Bay

Observations:
– Ma ya bay gets awfully crowded during the day – the bay fills with boats.

– Do not be worried about a new tsunami if you go to Phi Phi. When the 2004 tragedy happened, the tsunami notion was foreign to Thai people, and thus caught them totally unprepared. Now, every place has well set up evacuation routes and alarms that are set up to sound one hour before a wave would hit the shores. This being said, chances that something similar happens again are close to zero.

It is very hard to get out of the “tourist bubble” in Rai Leh, and in general, in Thailand’s famous island-resorts.  This is to be expected, since the only people who live in Rai Leh are the workers at hotels/restaurants. BUT, even for someone who doesn’t like touristy places, Rai Leh is just beautiful. The white sand, the clear green water shaded by the limestone cliffs, it feels surreal.

This being said, if you wonder off into the parts of Rai Leh where workers are hosted, you cannot stay as happy looking at the conditions they are provided with. A concrete wall separates the nice tourist bungalows from the downright shacks workers live in.  Also, a part of the east beach of the peninsula, that is used mainly for boats and not for swimming, uncovers a pile of garbage at low tide… Quite understandably, Thai workers here seem rather fed up with tourists (or “farang” or “fareng” as they call foreigners) and if you long for a display of that famed Thai hospitality, Rai Leh is not the place you’ll get it.

“Long boats” have been traditionally used in Thailand for fishing; they have a particular shape and most of the times luck-bringing colourful cloths are tied to the front. Nowadays they have an added engine at the back and they are used a lot for tourism as well as fishing. The next picture is from our long-boat ride from Krabi to Rai Leh:

Phra Nang beach, the most beautiful in Rai Leh; the bay is shaded in the morning, the water is always warm (around 30 C) – it is the kind of place that makes you lose track of time:

Local bird, spotted from the water:

The next picture is at our hotel (actually a set of bungalows spreading from the West Beach towards the inside of the peninsula):

The West Beach:

Rai Leh being such a touristy place, food is generally safe, but not too delicious (for Thai food)…This place is the exception, with the greatest food (and view)! The first picture is the view, the second the food: fragrant coconut chicken soup served in a coconut, pineapple rice served in a pineapple, green Thai curry, coconut milk straight from the coconut…mmmm. Seriously, this was among the best food we’ve ever had.

On a less happy note, the garbage I was talking about, uncovered by low tide on the East side:

Practical Advice
Sleeping
It’s unlikely that you will find cheap decent conditions in Rai Leh. We recommend the West Beach for accommodation – even if a bit more expensive, you will be away from the somewhat unpleasant east side… plus the west beach is very nice at night. Just look around and ask for prices. Conditions are more or less similar.

Eating
A bit hard to find, up the hill, past the cave, but the best in Rai Leh: Rock Restaurant

Must See
Phra Nang Beach

The shower in our bathroom (the room was actually nice):

We envied him a bit – he looked really comfortable and was the only one appropriately dressed for the weather:

Town street:

Rambutan (delicious fruit abundant at markets in SE Asia):

The night market – overflowing with delicious fresh food:

Husband and wife, making very good Thai style pancakes. They each had their own meticulous style and people were crowding at their stand: