Apologies for the late entry of this blog but I’m sure you appreciate the reasons. We’re now back in the UK to send Neil’s mum off on her final journey so we took a little time out to put together this entry.

This blog entry covers our stay in KL from 5th Jan to our unexpected return to the UK on 15th Jan.

We came to KL last year and stayed with friends, Les and Maya. We did a lot of the sights together, some on our own, but sadly we lost most of our pics due to a fault with the camera.

We have returned to see them both again and to capture just a few of the tourist pics that we lost. They now have a pleasant house in a quiet suburb of KL with easy access to taxis and public transport for the short journey into town.

The highlight of our stay was a night out with one of the hash clubs (running & social clubs which are worldwide although started in the 1930s in KL, nothing to do with herbs….) that they belong to for a New Year Dinner entitled Shanghai Nights. It was a blast!!

Les was asked to play the prestigious part of Cai Shen, The Chinese God of Prosperity. He is a traditional part of the Chinese New year and Les was extremely proud of being given such a prestigious role especially as the Hash is predominantly Chinese.

The food was a 9 course banquet and there was free flow beer, red wine and very good quality whisky, a Chinese favourite. The meal was interspersed with a range of cabaret performed by the Hashers themselves; it was truly a fabulous experience that was finished off with plenty of dancing “like your dad” to endless party favourites.

We also had some time with Chen and Florent who we met on Langkawi Island over Christmas. We had a chinese lunch chosen by Chen and then went on together to the Petronas Twin Towers to take the some of the pics that we lost last year.

It’s been good to get be back in the UK despite the cold damp weather, bbrrrrr we are looking forward to returning to 30 degrees. It has been a great to catch up with the kids, especially for Cheryl who only managed to spend around 36 hours with Alex during the whole of last year. It was also good to meet Leanne’s new man of several months which proved impossible before we left last year. Paul & co continue to look after the house and Bruno looked enormous as he had grown an oversized “arctic fur suit” to fend off the bitter winter…..he’s going to shed an awful lot of hair when the spring arrives!!

We’ve been on Langkawi Island now for almost 2 weeks and life at Zackry’s Guesthouse remains as sociable as ever. It is such a great place to meet people, chat, swop stories and even make plans to meet up later in the trip. Niamh, pronounced Neev, is from Ireland and is Zack’s girl Friday. She looks after everything here at the guesthouse and makes sure that things run smoothly. Our room has lots of shade so it’s lovely and cool to sit outside our cabin and catch up on mail and our blog.

Christmas was great with a dinner on Christmas Eve of fish and chicken, Champagne provided by Florent from France and Chen, his Chinese girlfriend, to see in Christmas Day. On Christmas Day we had Roast Beef, washed down with fine wine and rounded off with lots of Old Jamaica Chocolate. The beef was excellent and it was fantastic to have a big slab of real meat on the plate for a change. Of course, there is nothing quite like a walk on the beach on Christmas day.

We have a great mix of ages and nationalities, Swedes, French, Chinese, Japanese, Serb, A Brit teaching in Brazil, Czech, Ozzies, Kiwi’s, and lots if Irish. We also have 3 Neil’s!! Let’s not forget the South African lady, Leana, who, over the last 2 years, has cycled all the way here – respect!.

This is a duty free island so things like drink and chocolate are relatively cheap. 2 litres of Bacardi costs £11 whilst a can of beer costs 25p. That’s cheaper than a can of Diet Coke!! But, cheap booze aside, we have been very good in trying to keep to the diet with only one trip “off piste” when Cheryl regretted those extra Bacardi and cokes and spent the next day in and out of bed feeling miserable. She says “when will I ever learn”? “Never dear, probably never”!!

We do like Langkawi, it’s fun here, but we do miss the peace and tranquillity of Koh Chang. Langkawi is really quite touristy with lots of people and bars etc. There are also the world’s worst invention – Jet Ski’s. Zack’s is at the quiet end of town so we have to walk to go to the main shops etc. Since last year there has been quite a lot of development so this is probably the last time we will come here.

The New Years Eve celebrations commenced with the customary curry and beers followed by drinks in the guesthouse bar. We also took a break from the partying to go down to the beach to watch the “posh” hotels fireworks. It was full moon and quite magical sitting on the powdery white sand, sipping our homemade raspberry vodka & orange cocktail and watching the amazing firework displays for around 4kms down the island. There were also hundreds of Chinese lanterns being lit and floated into the sky.

After the fireworks died down we wandered into Holiday Villas, (very expensive) and blended with the guests who paid over £50 each for the buffet and entertainment. We managed to get one of the waiters to take our picture with the very large 2010 sign in the background. You will see from the pics that we “liberated” some garlands which we took back to Zack’s to hand out. It was quite hilarious as we blatantly walked through the hotel with all the staff wishing us a Happy New Year as we left. We giggled like naughty children all the way back to Zack’s. Flushed with our success at party crashing Neil wants to up the ante and get a full dinner as well next year. We’ve come to the conclusion that out here if you are western you just need to look confident and you can get away with most things.

Partying at Zacks went on until we don’t know when as we can’t find anyone that remembers who went to bed last or at what time. After Cheryl’s misbehaviour of a few days earlier we were much more careful and we were tucked up in bed by about 2.30 a.m.

We are relaxing or a couple more days here before heading to the bright lights of KL.

We left Melaka to head down to Johor Bahru. It’s the border town with Singapore and it’s easy, but slow, to get across to Sing for a day trip. Sing is very expensive for hotels so to extend our visit to Sing we stayed in JB for two nights.

We had read about JB and we were not too surprised to see what a dreadful place it actually is……“a border town of extensive urban decay” would be a polite description. Take a look at the pics to see the area around our hotel. Finding any info about places to stay in JB wasn’t easy so when our cabby found it difficult to find our hotel we knew we were in for an “interesting” experience. Finally he found it. The area was very run down but the hotel reception was welcoming and the room clean but small. It wasn’t expensive, RM 60, and you could rent the room for 2 hours for RM30!!

Anyway, we used the hotel exactly as we had planned, as an overnight to have an extra day in Sing. It worked and the food we had at a nearby street stall was really good…..so not all of JB is that bad!!

Our day in Sing was to look for Netbook, a tiny computer mainly used for internet work and minor spreadsheets and documents. We have had so many problems with internet cafes, bugs on the camera sticks and memory sticks for our trip that we decided to buy one of our own and save all the hassle not to mention the noise in some of the cafes created by kids playing each other on “shoot ‘em up games”. Another advantage of the netbook, apart from portability, is that we can now use it for Skype and see as well as talk to people for free anywhere in the world……OK, so we’re late in getting there but we’ve made it…..we’re up to date with this new fangled techie stuff!

Next stop Sing!

Melaka is a town of amazing history that started around 1400 with the Malay Sultans. Around 1500 The Portugese took over, 1640 The Dutch came in and then around the late 1700’s the Brits took over. There was a short Japanese period during the war before Independence in 1957. 

The resulting mix of people, cultures, ethnic influences has created a really fascinating city that is full of little treasures that we just “fell upon” as we walked around.

The hotel was on the edge of Chinatown so it was perfectly placed. By day, temples, mosques and people doing their “stuff” and by night all lit up beautifully by red spot lights and, as Chinese New Year looms, lots of paper lanterns, of course, also in red.

The shoemaker, Raymond, is apparently the last shoemaker making handmade replica tiny shoes for women who have had their feet bound. The practice was outlawed around the early 1900’s but was done to show that the woman was from a very wealthy family and she didn’t need to walk or work. It practice was started by an Emperor who liked dainty “ballet” dancer feet. Raymond has a book of his customers including Jaques Chirac, ex French President, and Eddy Merx, ex Belgian cyclist.

Our last few days were spent shopping and visiting temples and KL. As you can see from the pics, Ikea lives here along side Tesco……how very sad is that!??

Seriously, the shopping trip was to get mice to feed Maya’s snakes. The female guzzled 4 in quick succession but the male, still “on heat” refused food as he is being kept apart from his mate. The little white mouse dropped into his cage was very confused by the whole episode but was still running around the cage the following morning.

The big shirt….we’ll leave you to work that one out!

We have been looked after really well and Maya has cooked us some great food, full fry up breakfast, pancakes and Spam Fried Rice!! You may laugh, the Spam F R was actually very good.

Last night was spent at a Korean BBQ which was very tasty, loads of meeeaatt and bowls of varying pickles to put with the meat and wrap in a lettuce leaf.

The Condo is great and contrasts with the guesthouse life we have been living. 2 pools, 2 badders courts, tennis courts, 2 squash courts and a gym.

Off to Melaka on the 4th to take in some more culture.

Still having problems with the camera so more pics to follow.

KL is exactly what we expected. Clean, green with impressive architecture and parks. The Twin Towers are stunning although we chose to view the city from the Communications Tower instead. You can only go to the height of the bridge at the Twin Towers, about 130 metres, whilst in the Comms tower you climb to about  350 metres. The views of the City are breathtaking.

New Year with Les and Maya was spent in one of the local bars and we watched some amazing fireworks. And, after a night of bingeing what do you do? You get the munchies and what do you have for the munchies? What else, fried spam, corned beef with egg of course!! Les is a great chef and he knows how to treat his guests to real ex-pat binge food!

On New Years Day we visited Batu Caves, a range of caves with stalegmites and stalegtites, that are now a Hindu Shrine. The pics say it all really.

Problems with camera again…grrrrrrr…..pics to follow.

UPDATE …Managed to get some pics from Maya as we lost ours.

The ferry ride from Langkawi took around 3 hours, (whatever the book says, add an hour at least!!).

We checked into our accomodation for the next 3 nights, The YMCA!!!  Another new luxury experience. That’s no joke, real sheets, carpet and a shower screen! We couldn’t resist the photo opportunity with Jay and Simone who were also at Zacks over Christmas.

Georgetown has great history, colonial architecture, Chinatown, Little India and much more. We had two full days of sightseeing and could probably filled another day or two with ease. All this activity was a shock to our systems having done B All for 3 weeks.

This is a short diary entry as the pics say it all. Take a good look as some of the Temples and Wats are quite stunning.

Krek Lok Si Temple

Wat Chayamangkalaram

Wat Dhammikarama

Off to the bright lights and glitz of Kuala Lumpur and to stay with Les and Maya. (Known Les from June’s ski trips and he’s been living out here for 4 years).

Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve.

For the first time in 3 weeks we got off our bums and did some touristy stuff. We went to a cable car with Mick, Karen and their two kids Lindsay and Lee. Views were quite stunning from the top and the cable car ride a little scary for Karen. We also went to the nearby waterfalls which weren’t so good as it’s the dry season. You can see from the pics that L & L did slide down the 7 pools but, because it was so dry, their bums got a tad bruised.

Christmas Eve night we had a big dinner at the guesthouse including turkey, stuffing cranberry sauce, cake and pud with custard……yum. All followed by the worst karaoke ever!

Christmas Day we went for a long walk on the beach and had a lovely Sea Bass in ginger sauce in the evening…..more yum! Back at the guesthouse we sat outside our cabin for a quiet drink and an early night…..no chance……Zack had a further treat in store for us….21 year old Scotch from the Chivas Distillery which he had been saving for a special occasion. Neil was allowed to open the box, followed by the velvet pouch and finally the porcelain bottle. The scotch was very smooth indeed but not sure we could justify the cost of 64 GBP (tax free!!). Luckily for Zack, he had received it as a gift. What started out to be a quiet nightcap on our own turned out to be yet another impromptu bash outside our cabin ending about 1.30 a.m. as a number of other guests joined us with some more drinks. Great night.

Unfortunately, the Mini Christmas Pudding and custard plus the 3 Christmas crackers we had brought from home got forgotten in all the excitement…..what a couple of losers we really are!

Boxing Day back on the beach followed by a Sting Ray dinner, part BBQ and part in sweet & sour….yes, yum!! Back to the guesthouse for another attempt at a quiet evening. You guessed it, Zack brought out the rest of the Chivas so we brought out the crackers. Luckily, as we travelled next day, this did turn out to be a fairly quiet evening and a relatively early night.

Next day we went for a long walk to the next quiet bay with marina, had a light curry with Rajek in the British Raj and then headed for the ferry to Georgetown, Penang Island. True to form, Zack gave us a ride to the ferry which was on the other side of the island…..he is such a nice man.

By the way, we have now mailed our suitcases back to the UK and become real backpackers!! Well almost, our ‘rucksacks’ also have wheels so can double as wheely cases as well as backpacks….how clever is that.

Parting thoughts? This has been our first true guesthouse experience and it was excellent. Very friendly, very social and we’ve met people from all over the world, swopped stories of travel, life at home and plans for the future. There has been the occasional hiccup with barking dogs at night and building work by Zack but overall our preferred choice of accomodation is definitely a guesthouse. NB. The barking dogs were actually next door in the Chinese Restaurant, Zacks dogs were very well behaved and a great source of amusement.

Firstly, we would like to thank you all for the messages….keep them coming as we get excited every time we get one. It’s great to hear from people we haven’t heard from in ages, Charlotte how could I forget you? and all the gossip, Mike & Chloe I need more detail!

Anyway, apologies for the lack of pics but we’re having trouble getting them from the camera. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed when we get onto another PC.

If you haven’t seen our Christmas card, please copy the link below and paste into a browser. It may take a little time but we know you’ll like what you see.

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/PUEVifzKLbfZg2QFaHKH

It’s not likely to be a white Christmas here, only the sand is white! However, all the Chinese restaurants and big hotels are decked out in tacky decorations and playing cheesy Christmas tunes….nice!

We’re having a 2 day party here at Zacks. Starting Christmas eve, to celebrate in Swedish style, followed by Christmas Day for our traditional celebration. Ford, our resident US Cordon Bleu Chef is cooking turkey, Christmas Pudding etc and the Swedish girls are making meat balls and everyone else is going to help…..it’ll be a blast!

We hope you all have a great Christmas too…..we’ll be back on blog in a day or so.

Merry Christmas

A few friends who dropped in to chat and share beers plus some of the ‘activities’ from the bar!!

You can also see Zack’s dogs….all 4 of them.

We were invited by Pit, a member of the staff at Zacks, to see the Annual Hindu Fire Walking Ceremony at the small temple on the Island. Just take a look at the pics…..wow!!

The Hindu’s are only 6% of the population and this ceremony takes place all over Malaysia. Basically, people pray for good fortune e.g. new job, recovery from serious illness etc and commit to walk the fire. Some more devoted pilgrims also commit to walk with the hooks, the cage or some other device. The have such faith that they believe that they will be unharmed by the fire. Cheryl stood about 2-3 meters from the fire and she could feel the heat from it. Every now and again they would fan the fire just to make sure it was hot!!

The Holy Man assessed everyone before they walked and some were refused the right to walk. Some also collapsed at the end after soaking their feet in the pit of milk at the end. No women were allowed to walk across the pit, only men. One pic shows the Holy Man carrying a small child as thanks for a prayer come true.

It was a jaw dropping experience, it was for real and not a show for the tourist. We have never seen such devotion to a religion and we were both completely “wowed” by the whole event.

Alex, this was “hard core” fire walking and nothing like the “jolly one” in Japan.

We’ve been here a week now and got into a strict routine as follows:

10.00 Tea in bed, 11.00 breakfast, read/plan, 14.00 Beer o”clock, chat to fellow travellers who seem to congregate with beers at our table, 19.00 G&T O’clock, scrounge ice from the bar next door, 20.00 food from the myriad of restaurants in ambling distance, 23.00 whisky/wine O’clock, 24.00’sh bed. It’s a tough regime but somebody has to do it!! Don’t they??

Occasionally we fit in a beach walk, we did visit The Rice Museum and we will, eventually, discover the rest of the island. For now, it’s chill and Zack’s guesthouse is a great place to do just that. It’s a very clean and very friendly place where people mix and mingle during the day and night. Handy kitchen for making that all important tea and breakfast in the morning. Zack’s a really nice guy who will do anything for you providing you drink whisky with him at night!

Couple of downsides. Neil lost his wallet. Not much cash but cards are gone and driving licence so just hassle. Neil is now not allowed any more than 10RM pocket money at any one time! The other downside is that Cheryl slipped on the tile floor and is now sporting a rather large and colourful bruise on her bum. Neil helpfully pointed out that having a large, padded bum is no bad thing as the injury could have been worse……Neil is now sporting a neat little bruise on the side of his head!