[Langkawi to George Town, Malaysia] The Putra hotel was an acceptable flea-pit. Pity we had a room on the side of the main road (lucky for silicone earplugs) and the free WiFi didn’t quite reach to our room. Anyway we headed out first thing back to the ferry terminal to get tickets and store our packs. It feels cooler here. Guess it’s the trees and not being on a beach. After getting tickets we asked around for a shop that could develop our underwater photos. Luckily the Langkawi Fair mall down the road had was able to help. We arrived there around 10 and waited 40 minutes for the camera shop to open (late start) and were told it takes and hour for the machine to warm up and another hour to process. How did we ever survive before digital photos?!

With nothing to do but wait we found an open WiFi point to abuse, had a bite to eat (just in time too – V was getting ready to go cannibal on me), and checked out the shops in “the largest mall in Langkawi”. Nothing interesting but we did get some smarties and almost some scotch (pinching pennies now). The photos cost more than a night’s accommodation and are pretty bad but there are one or two cool shots to remember V’s dive course (I’ll try to ‘scan’ and colour correct some shortly).

The ferry ride was again very calm but longer than expected. We arrived in Georgetown around 18:00 under a torrential downpour. We gave up waiting for it to pass and hit the streets looking for lodging without our GPSs – the heavy electrical storm above had us placed in China! The LP guide describes the place as a bigger, busier Luang Prabang (Laos). Well not so far but it was hard to tell in the rain and evening light. We easily identified the ‘Little India’ and ‘China Town’ areas as we walked along.

We found a basic and dismal hostel style room at ‘Love Lane Inn’ on Love lane – no kidding. V liked the description of the place online – I think maybe because they have hamsters on the second floor. We went out for dinner to the Indian area close by. Less like Luang Prabang and more like Chatsworth. Seems Malaysia will be an interesting mix of India, China and everything else. BTW. They drive on the left and have UK standard plug sockets. Do you have a flag ?

We are here for two nights – tomorrow we’ll do some walking to see what there is to see.

[Pictures: Look, another ferry. See, Hamsters – sorry for the bad quality shot. It was dark]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi