A Malaysian Melting Pot

Hi Guys,

Our first stop in Malaysia was Langkawi, a small-ish island on the west coast of the main land. We were both so excited to experience a new cuisine and to visit a country with such diverse mix of cultures.  We stayed in a little town called Pantai Tengah at a hostel full of people 'finding themselves' by doing nothing all day.

The main reason we went to Langkawi was to visit the Seven Wells waterfall and to cross the sky bridge. Again, the main method of transport around the island was mopeds, so on our first day we hired a bike and off we went to the cable car that took us up to the top of a hill for the sky bridge. The views on the way up were incredible, jungle that stretched for miles, and the other side the bright blue sea. Once we reached the top we were so high we couldn't see anything as we were in the clouds. A strange experience but still worth the ride.

A quick stop on the way back from the sky bridge (mainly because our bums had become numb from the hours trip across the island) was a stop at a local Ramadan market. Lots of stalls mostly locals going in and getting there dinner, it was great loads of chicken skewers flavoured with chilli and tamarind. A new for dish was Murtabak something we had never heard of but it was fab, a fine roti dough stretched out and filled with spicy egg folded up into a neat package it was delish, spicy, crispy and super Moorish a great little find.

Day 2 in Langkawai we headed back towards the other side of the island for the waterfalls. After a short walk up a very steep hill we arrived at the picturesque location. We jumped straight in much to some Chinese tourists amusement and swam around the fresh water. A slippery walk - where Luke landed on his arse - to the top of the fall was entertaining for the many on-lookers watching. We stayed in the pools for the whole afternoon, a really peaceful place and a definate must see if you ever head over this direction. We ended our time in Langkawi with a pub quiz, 3 teams entered and we came away with the bronze medal. 

The cheapest way to get from Langkawi to Penang, our next stop, was to get the ferry. A storm appeared as we left the harbour so we had the most horrific 3 hour sea crossing. Really not ideal and would defiantly splash out flights if we had our time over. 

We stayed in George Town in Penang, a trendy city full of street art and artisan coffee shops, a hipsters dream. We popped up to the newly refurbished hill station in Penang. Once we got to the top we took in the beautiful views of the city and followed a nature trail where spotted some spectacled langur monkeys.

One of the main reasons we were in Penang was definitely for food, there is such diversity in Malaysia and nowhere is this more prevalent than Penang. Little India and Chinatown are next door to each other and there are classic Malay stalls with there Nasi Lemak (rice and a variety of curries) laid out. We quickly realised 2 days was not enough to sample everything but we had a bloody good try. Night one, we hit up the Chinese next door they were queuing for hours to get in and when we eventually did get a table we realised why. The menu was full of delicious sounding bits and bobs we plumped for some glazed pork which was sticky and magnificent, spicy fried chicken and a gorgeous oyster sauce broth topped with loads of veggies and various bits of pork offal it was to die for.

I could go on and on we had so much great food here the chicken Rendang with a huge array of pickles and preserves, to the nitrogen ice cream parlour and then the street food van doing steak sandwiches... Everything tasted immense and was amazingly diverse. 

Our last stop in Malaysia was the capital Kuala Lumpur, we don't really have to much to write in about it to be honest. It was great to be in a modern city. we went to a few shopping centres and marvelled at the amazing Petronas towers but our evenings and afternoons were curtailed by storms meaning we were stuck inside a bit more than we might of liked (we even went bowling to get in from the rain) and a trip to the Batu caves was scrapped because of the weather. 

Leaving Malaysia a bit disappointed, mainly because we didn't give ourselves enough time to fully explore places like Ipoh, Malacca and Sarawak but on the flip side gives us an excuse to visit again and visit we shall! We loved the food, loved the culture, loved the mix of mordern and colonial architecture and loved the peace at which so many different faiths live side by side without any fuss, we could all learn from that.

4am alarm before a trek out to KL airport for a flight to Singapore.Well excited but super super tired now, starting to feel like this non stop bouncing around is catching up with us.

Next stop, Singapore!

Luke and Lily