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Emma's Travels
28/7/06 - Got up, had a nice breakfast, we sat outside looking across the beach to the sea, lovely! After breakfast we walked to Underwater World. It was great, saw lots of marine life, the penguins were the best, sooo funny!
On the way back to the resort we stopped at Lucky restaurant, which is actually next door to the resort, for lunch. Nikki was not impressed at all! She ordered vegetable fried rice (she does not eat meat or fish) and she found chicken and squid in it! The man said we should say when ordering that it is for a vegetarian! - it seems to be a bit of a problem here in Malaysia, everything is meat based, it was easier in Thailand. We've since been told that in Malaysia you will only find vegetarian food in Indian or Chinese restaurants.
After lunch we relaxed all afternoon, read, dozed. We had dinner at a different restaurant on the beachfront. Just as we had finished it started to rain. It had been raining all day on and off, so it was a bit miserable!
29/7/06 - Absolutely fab day!! We hired a car, so cheap about 8 pounds and petrol was about 4 quid for three quarters of a tank!!! I drove and Nikki was navigator. It was a first for me, I'd never driven abroad before!! fortunately they drive on same side of road as us, so it made it easier! The map turned out to be pretty useless in the end, so it was more luck then judgment and a bit of common sense that got us around! Most of the time children on bikes and cows tried to throw themselves on the bonnet!!, so I had to have my wits about me!!
We visited the Batik Art Village first, a lovely lady showed us how the batik's are made on both cotton and silk. We had a look around their lovely shop. I thought Nikki might buy a lovely batik of 2 cats (she has 2 cats back at home!) but she decided not to.
Next we tried to find an ancient tomb, but ended up at the Makam Mahsuri Mausoleum. This was very interesting - it's the story of Makam Mahsuri, a beautiful lady, who's sister in law was so jealous of her beauty that she spread malicious gossip about her having an affair, which wasn't true. She was tortured for her supposed sins, but even though people tried they couldn't kill her. She finally told them that only her own family sword would kill her. They found it and used it and her blood ran milky white and she then vanished into thin air! A very mythical place, with replicas of ancient houses and her tomb is now there in it's final resting place.
After this we eventually stumbled upon the ancient tomb we were originally looking for. We drove up a dirt track and really didn't think we were going the right way, just about to turn round and go back to main road, when Nikki shouted 'there it is!'. Well it was just to bits of stone sticking out the ground surrounded by residential shacks, so it looked part of someone's garden!! Hilarious!
After taking photos to prove this tomb exists!, we went to the cable car and oriental village.
We had lunch before going up the cable car and I was very disappointed to find that the Anna and the King Gallery was in fact about the Jodie Foster film and not an exhibition of the real people!! The film had been shot in the surrounding areas. The cable car had great views, it went very high and is among one of the steepest in the world! Got some good piccies!
After that we walked up to Seven Wells Waterfall (Telaga Tujuh), which was lovely. Legend says that fairies play at the bottom of it - this I liked! I tried to take a photo but a lady in a blue top just would not move out of shot. She eventually sat down, but I had to take the photo with her in it! never mind!
We then drove a little further and found Black Sand Beach. It's black because of mineral/deposit reactions, but I prefer the legend that a mermaid who was angry with a fisherman turned it black!!
As we were driving along one road, we turned the bend and the side of the road was covered in monkeys, with some trying to cross the road. I pulled over and we very slowly, so as not to scare them, moved out of the car and took some piccies, they were sooo cute!
Next was the Durian Waterfall which wasn't very nice, it was strewn with litter - very disppointing!
As well as children and cows throwing themselves at the car, nobody indicates either - so I became a bit of a mind reader!!
We never found the snake sanctuary or the crocodile farm. Signs would just mysteriously disappear just as you thought you were getting close, I thought there was a bit of mischief going on and someone was deliberately moving them and have a good giggle about it!
We ended up driving the whole way round the island. We stopped off at 2 shopping malls on the way, Billion and Langkawi Parade (I kept singing this to the Prince song 'Raspberry Beret'!) We had dinner at a lovely restaurant called 'Sunday'. The food was fab and the place was nicely decorated.
On the way back got stuck behind a very very slow driver!! But because I didn't know the road ahead and by now it was pitch black, I didn't overtake, so it was a tedious journey back! Dropped car off at hire place, as it was still open, better than having to get up and hand back in the morning and Nikki found a place to book a day trip the next day out to the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden.
Slept very well, a very tiring but great day out - girls on tour!!
30/7/06 - Relaxing, lazy morning, looking forward to trip at 2.30pm. Oh My Buddha! It rained and rained and rained - then turned into thunderstorms - so subsequently did not go on our trip!! Boo Hoo! We ended up wandering around some shops, Nikki bought a lovely bracelet in a crystal shop, the lady made them all herself and she custom made Nikki's so it fit perfectly, it was great to watch. I nearly bought a bracelet too, but decided not to. Weather just RUBBISH! went back to room and read and dozed.
31/7/06 - We decided to leave a day early and go to Penang, the weather was still awful and there was just nothing left to do on the island. Fortunately, we had done our girls on tour bit on the right day! We got a taxi to the pier and caught the 2.30pm boat to Penang.
Got to Penang about 5pm. For the first time in ages, we got off the boat and there weren't any people jumping on us to get us to stay at their places, so we wandered out to the main road a bit lost! A nice English man showed us where we were on a map and suggested a hotel not far away. So we jumped in a cab and went to the Continental Hotel on Jahal Penang. Hurrah, they had a superior room available for 98 Ringgits (around 15 quid) so we took it for 4 nights.
After checking in and resting a while we wandered down the main street and had dinner at a superb restaurant called Passage Thru' India. The proprietor was fab, he explained the different dishes and advised what to have for our different palates. The food tasted gorgeous! The place is decorated lovely, very authentic, nothing tacky! It seemed that he and his staff were very proud of the place!
We then wandered around to see what was where and we stumbled into a little tea shop in a side street. It wasn't a tea shop as in cakes and tea, but a traditional shop which sold different loose tea and traditional china tea sets. The owner Philip Ooi was very welcoming and he sat us down and made us green tea and we sat and chatted for quite a while and he kept topping up our cups with lovely green tea. He took some photos, which he has since emailed through and they are lovely, he gave us lots of info. about the health benefits of drinking green tea and a few other kinds. He showed us the back of the shop which he is renovating for an official opening launch, as the shop has only been open 2 weeks. He is planning on setting up an area to educate people on the different tea. A very nice man, who I'm sure I will keep in touch with.
1/8/06 - Taxi's on strike as of today they have to use meters and they are all up in arms that the meters mean they are going to have their income slashed in half! Therefore, it has been a struggle over last few days to get around the island. Only about 10% of taxi drivers are still out working. We managed to get one though and he took us up to the Botanical Gardens. It was a very peaceful place and there were lots of cheeky monkeys! Two kinds, macaques and grey leafs, got some good piccies! Met a nice man who took photos as his hobby, he had recently won a competition and had gone to see the final of the World Cup in Germany as his prize. His photo had been of the flowers on the Cannon Ball tree. He showed us in the Gardens and we took some photos of our own. The flowers look like underwater coral and he told us that they are only found on Penang, no where else in Malaysia or in the World! That is probably why he won the competition, as people marvelled at something they hadn't seen before. He gave us his business card incase we ever come back to Penang. He is a doctor and he definitely has a sense of humour as we noticed afterwards that in one corner of the card it say 'Chairman of Scrabble Players'!
We tried to get a taxi back into town, but no joy, so we walked down to find a bus stop. We thumbed for a lift a few times whilst sat there, but no-one stopped. Then all of a sudden 3 men went past in a 4x4, they turned around a bit down the street and came back to us. Nikki and I thought no way, 3 men and us, no way! They gestured did we need help, so Nikki said 'Yeah, do you know what time the bus comes?' they said about half an hour, so we said 'Thanks'. They said get in, where you want to go, but we politely declined, you just don't know, do you! Anyway, they had literally just left and a lady pulled up and said did we need a lift, so we said yes please!! Another guardian angel intervention maybe? It turned out she is a chauffeur and drives privately for people. She took us to a Pewter Shop first (on the pretense she needed the toilet - I think she probably gets commission if she brings people there?) we had a look around, but didn't buy anything, then she dropped us off at the Prangin Mall.
Nikki had been looking around and checking prices for a new camera for James. Ended up buying one in the mall at a bargain price!! - result!!
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THE SYSTEM HAS DONE IT AGAIN AND DUPLICATED THE ENTRY????? THIS TIME HOWEVER YOU NEED TO READ THE FIRST 28TH JULY ENTRY TO SEE ANYTHING PAST THIS DATE??!!!
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