A summary of the last weeks

Just realized that the last proper update was from Langkawi on the 17th of January. And to be honest not much has been going on since then.

After Langkawi we took the ferry to Satun, crossed the Thai border and got on the bus for yet another endless bus ride (last one on this trip though!). This time Patong beach in Phuket was our final destination. First night we met up with Elin and Fanny for some drinks and delicious  Pad Thai. The rest of the time in Patong was spent relaxing on the beach, drinking fruit shakes and spending some time with Marjolein, a Dutch girl we've been travelling side by side with since KL.

Next stop was Phi Phi islands where we ended up staying for as much as seven nights! If it was for the fact that we fell in love with this beautiful little island or that we simply didn't have the energy to travel anymore we leave unsaid. A normal day on Phi Phi was spent eating a long and delicious breakfast, reading Håkan Nesser on the beach, eating a long and delicious lunch, reading some more on the beach, heading back to our guest house for showers and finally having a long and delicious dinner. Not bad at all. Marjolein joined us at Phi Phi as well and the evenings were either spent partying on the beach or just talking over a beer or two.

But again, every sun has its cloud and at Phi Phi this cloud was definitely all the party tourists, most of them Swedish actually (people didn't even bother to ask for directions in English, the possibility that you spoke to a fellow Swede was very high). The fact the the beach turned in to a massive dance floor at seven obviously made it look pretty bad the next day (read; cigarett butts, empty beer cans, used condoms, urine etc).
Luckily enough there was more than one beach to go to if you wanted to avoid all this nastiness.

We left Phi Phi today and are now back in Phuket for three nights before ending our trip with a quick visit to Jakarta.

See you back in London on Saturday!

Langkawi island

So far we've never spent more then three nights in one and the same place (if not counting Vang Vieng we're we stayed four - only because we were to hangover to move). But we're now on our fourth day in Langkawi and do not intend to leave for yet a few days. It's so beautiful here, unbelievable.

The beach is just five minutes walk away, the sand is white, the water is turquoise, the beer is cheap and the food is amazing - what else can you ask for? So far we've spent all days just relaxing on the beach from morning till late with just a few breaks for food and ice cream, we are definitely not complaining.

One thing that stroke us both by surprise is the amount of Swedes here, we are everywhere! In every bar you go to you'll find a Swedish girl behind the bar, on the beach you're surrounded by Swedish speaking people, in the book shops you'll find books in Bahasa Malay, English and Swedish and I guess about half the rooms on our guesthouse is occupied by Swedes.

- is there even anybody left in Sweden?

On Thursday we're leaving for Phuket in Thailand to meet up with my friend Elin and her cousin that are just in the beginning of their South East Asia-trip, it's going to be awesome!

If anybody have been to Phuket or Phi Phi islands before and has any  good tips to share - please feel free!

What we have been up to

As we have abandoned the blog for some time I thought I better make a brief summary of where we have been and what we have been up to recently.

After Vang Vieng we headed for Vientiane, the capital. Most things we had heard about the city were true - less beautiful, more expensive and fewer things to do than other Lao cities.

After Vientiane we spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur which wasn't too nice either. Apart from Chinatown which was a cool place, most areas seemed to house buildings that was either banks or hotels. Also, the humidity (95%!) made it just impossible to enjoy anything at all as we were stuck in a big city.

I think that was why we decided to go to Pulau Penang, an island a couple of hours away. We had this idea of an amazing Malysian island paradise which unfortunately didn't exist on Penang. We got absolutely soaked both days we spent there so we decided to not think too much about consequences and flight tickets and go where the sun was. That place was Langkawi island and we haven't regretted going here once. It's amazingly beautiful, don't Google it unless you want to die of jealousy. Seriously, I mean it.

Turquoise sea, Khmer food and 32 pence a pint

So we're finally in Sihanoukville, easily our favourite stop so far! Every day we are enjoying a blue sky, white beaches and a turquoise sea. And of course spicy Khmer food (I needed assistance of nearly two litres of water when eating a Khmer SALAD the other night) and the local beer Angkor which is as cheap as 32 pence a pint. London prices are going to get hard to get used to again...