Day #5 & 6: Langkawi island

I cannot really speak about Langkawi island, as a whole because we haven’t been moving around almost at all. The place where we are staying is quite green, with a sandy big beach just 2 minutes far from our room. The beach itself is very nice and with some palm- trees, which give the exotic feeling that they should give. The water is light blue, warm but not very transparent, compared to the greek sea I am used to. But what is the best part is that the beach is huge and there are hardly any people there! I don’t know when it is high season in Malaysia, because the climate is steady every month of the year between 23-32 degrees every day! It is a paradise really…The temperature is exactly as it should be, for a Greek at least!

First day we spent here it was split into two halves for me. Half on the beach and half with my laptop, working. Natasha on the other hand stayed at the beach almost all day and is already tanned. Today we have been island hopping! This means that we were on a small boat that drove us for 4 hours around the island and to a sweet water lake. It has been great to get an idea of how green the island is and see eagles and monkeys so close to us! We also met some people from Australia, Ireland, Scotland, Malaysia and China and it was fun. There is not a lot to say, as things happen and I forget about them after that. Time flies and we will leave this island tomorrow morning to head to KL. We will be travelling more or less all day and I am flying back to Greece at 04.00am.

There are two small things I want to share before I close the Malaysia post session. The first is concerning swimming suit. It has been difficult to find a swimming suit in China, and I thought that it was normal since we were leaving quite far from the beach and experiencing the coldest winter for the last 50 years. So this was my main concern as soon as we landed in Malaysia. I haven’t found anything in Kuala Lumpur, and I thought that it is OK because it was again far from the sea. I was pretty confident that I will find in Langkawi, which is supposed to be extremely popular among Westerners. BUT…there is always a big but in Asia! We are in a country, where around 60% of the population is Muslims. And the shop owners are mostly Muslims….so in the place where we are I only found swimming suit with normal top and little skirt for the lower part. I couldn’t imagine myself wondering around with skirty swimming suit with flowers so I bought some shorts and I am bathing in them and with my T-shirts. Really not wyloozka style, if you know what I mean (wyloozka means cool in Polish, it is an expression we were using there!) And I am sorry, but I just have to say that…They are too conservative to be selling swimming suits for women but they have an incredible variety of condoms and lubricants, as you can see in the picture. I mean both me and Natasha have never seen most of the stuff they are selling here. What can I say about this Muslim Malaysians?!Me with my not-so-stylish swimming suit

The variety I was speaking about....You see only one third of the available products.

The second “thing” I want to share with you is actually literally a thing. It is called Durian and it is by far the most popular fruit in Malaysia, by Malaysians though!!The reason for that is that it smells like hell…Do you know how French cheese smells? Pick up the three smelliest, put them together and you get Durian smell! We, that is to say the Balkan girls, felt brave enough to try it today. We went at the fruit shop and bought one. I have a video of the girl preparing it for us. It is supposed to smell hell but taste heaven. There, we met some cool German guys, who were already experienced with Malaysian fruits and they made us try some, which were great! And one of them also gave us an important info! He said that we shouldn’t drink any alcohol, when eating Durian because we might even die!!!!Imagine that! No one has mentioned anything about that to us! And we wanted to buy a couple of beers for dinner. And here is the difference between Greeks and Croats: Me, I thought “Well, then OK we will not drink tonight”, whereas the addicted Croatian lady said “OK! Then Durian is for breakfast!” The ones who know us both, will know what I mean I suppose. So…more news about Durian next time that I will log in. We even though that the guy was exaggerating and asked a local who was shocked by the question and answered…:”No no no alcohol!” Now seriously, someone should tell the locals in the fruit stores to inform tourists if it indeed is so dangerous. I have to check online to find out more.

The fruit in the front is Durian!

Enjoy the photos and don’t be too jealous! Malaysia is not that far from Europe, there are cheap flights here (around 600 euros, I suppose) and I have spent 160 euros for a week here, including accommodation, buses, ferrys, taxis, food. It is a great country to visit and an incredible feeling to be bathing in exotic beaches during February, while exploring Islamic, Chinese and Indian culture and cuisine at the same time!