Flashpacking 2020

The next part of the Long Trek Home involved getting from Penang to Bangkok. I had thought of taking the early ferry today rather than the later one yesterday then rushing to the airport to catch the last flight of the day to Bangkok which would have given me another day on Langkawi, but the timings were very tight and I would have needed to drag my case round with me. Being sensible, for a change, I thought that allowing a day for each part would allow for anything unexpected to happen. I went out for a stroll from the hotel to take advantage of the few hours I had left in Penang, and chanced upon a place for breakfast that was so packed it must have been good. It was a really complicated system (well I thought it was, no one else was having a problem sorting out how to order) so I ended up with 2 spring rolls, 2 doughnuts, and a large pot of hot water, not quite what I'd had in mind. One of the staff took pity on this confused English tourist and swopped my pot of hot water fo...

It didn't take me long to pack, I'd brought just the basics with me and left my suitcase stored in the hotel in Penang. This meant that I had plenty of time to have a good final stroll around, this time heading east as I'd covered all the other directions during my time here. I walked through the gardens on my way to the ferry terminal, having one last look at the Eagle mascot, then headed up the hill towards the eastern shore. I passed a pretty row of coloured houses (are you allowed to call them that any more?) and carried on for about another 1.5 km until I was stopped by a security guard at what amounted to a road block. It turned out that this was the entrance to the Westin Hotel and only hotel guests are allowed to pass! So this is a proper road, the shore is to my right, I have no other way of progressing along this road other than here, is that right? Yes, I'm told, private road, no passing, not allowed. This was repeated several times until it was obvious th...

Tomorrow I begin the long trek home. It starts with a ferry from Langkawi to Penang. The next day it's an AirAsia flight from Penang to Bangkok, and the day after that it's a BA flight from Bangkok to London. Since all that is going to be less than relaxing I decided that today would be the day to do as little as possible and have a laze about day as I'm unlikely to have another one of those for quite a while. Since this island is viewed primarily as a beach destination I decided I would conform and do exactly the sort of thing that everybody else does and go to the beach. Getting there, some 25km from where I'm staying, involved a taxi as I certainly wasn't going to walk there. The island operates a fixed fares system so at least you know how much you'll pay to get to wherever it is you're going. In my case this turned out to be RM30, not bad for a 35-40 minute journey. So basically my day was spent walking along the beach with its fine pristine sand...

Last night, my first in Kuah on Langkawi, I decided, as I always do when I first arrive in a new place, to go for a long walk to get my bearings and find some dinner. I managed just over 5km and had dinner in a place that looked really busy, invariably a good sign. When I got back to the (exceptional) hostel I asked the young girl on reception what time the buses stop running as it must be early as I hadn't seen any. There aren't any, was the reply, there is no public transport if any sort on Langkawi. Well that will make life difficult for me as I never use anything but public transport when I'm travelling. How do people get about I ask. Mainly scooter or motorbike plus cars. Or they take a taxi, you get a Grab (the Asian equivalent of Uber), it's easy with the app. But I haven't got the app as I don't use my phone abroad because of the alarmingly high rates imposed by 02. As for a motorbike, I can't see my insurance company being happy about that! So ...