Pangkor

Pangkor Island located on the west coast peninsular of Malaysia and about 4 hours drive by bus from Kuala Lumpur. But of course bus wouldn't drive straight to the island, you must take a ferry to the island. Lumut Jetty is only 5 mins walk from the Lumut Bus Station. Ferry service to Pangkor Island from Lumut (vice verse) start at 6 am and last ferry is at 9.30 pm which cost only RM 10 return. 

Malaysian Navy Force base also located at Lumut.
There you could see a battleship along the way to Pangkor 

What I like about Pangkor Island is that there aren't much vehicles going around except taxi. Most locals using motorbike to go to one place to another. And Teluk Nipah is situated at the back of the island where most of the tourist are & didn't disturb the local as they live near the town. 

Hammock!

I stayed at Nazri Nipah Camp for 2 nights whereby its only 200m away from the beach. There are various types of rooms as low as RM30 per night! Staying here pretty much feels like you staying at your home where they provide a kitchen for you to cook, free WiFi, TV & radio and of course hammock everywhere. Staying here also give you a chance to meet up so many people from around the world. 

Beach in Pangkor is quite clean however the water aren't that crystal clear compared to the island on the east coast. But I still find Pangkor is nice. There are many activities that you could do in Pangkor Island like snorkeling, diving, kayaking, jet skiing, island hopping, jungle trekking (where there you could find a Suspension Bridge), visit the temple, mini version of great wall of China, visit a Dutch Fort, Sacret Rock and many more. 

Hornbill

In here you can get around by bicycles, motorbike or even hitchhikes. You could rent a motorbike in Pangkor at normal rates of RM30 for 24h but, if you good at bargain, you could get it as low as RM15 like I did. I find Pangkor is cheap, except having a seafood dinner near the beach that cost me RM90.

I love Pangkor, infect I was here twice in 3 weeks! I didn't had any bad experiences here. Everybody were nice and friendly to me. I definitely will come here again soon!

Expectation Ruins Everything

If it wasn't Didi who told me about this place, I probably never knew that this place is exist! Vang Vieng, after I googled it, I expect a lot from this town. Why I say that? Based on the google image of course.

Vang Vieng.

It just amaze me that so many westerner came to this small town just to party. To be honest, I'm not interested to be part of the river arena as I think the safety measurements does not meet standard requirements. Anyway, besides from the river party, Im very interested with Vang Vieng hot air balloon (claimed to be the cheapest place in the world, so I've heard) and Blue Lagoon river cave.

From Vientiane, we took a bus that cost us 200 baht and the journey took 4 hours. There is no highway to get there, more of the country side road with potholes and traffic jams. Not really a pleasant journey tho but that doesn't bother me. What bother me was, this bus  is supposed to leave at 10 am but departed at 11 am. Hey bus driver, over 1 hour make people waiting is really not nice. 

Main street in Vang Vieng Town.

As we arrived at Vang Vieng, I was complete surprised as the town appeared not like what I expected. I mean I didn't expected anything much but Vang Vieng town seems.. quite. Our first mission was to find a tubing party but that was a fail mission. We couldn't find it, but end up at a small shack near the river. For me, it almost impossible to do tubing activity as the river flows very strong. We continue our hunt to find the tubing party with the bike that we rent for 250 baht (24h) but end up finding out that there is a jungle party that will start at 9.30 pm. It's only 7.30 pm, in the mean time, we hang out at Jaydees Bar (where you could find illegal 'stuff' but can only take it there or in the hotel room) and all of sudden it's raining. Very heavy. So no jungle party. 

Rain so much outside, we're kinda stranded at Jaydee's Bar.

June till September are not the right time to visit Vang Vieng because of the raining season, said the hotel receptionist. Oct till May are the perfect time to visit Vang Vieng and due to the bad weather, there no hot air balloon flying around. Last hope, we went to Blue Lagoon. Blue Lagoon located in a very secluded area and It took around 40 minutes to get there, but to go there, first you need to cross the bridge that require to pay toll cost 40 baht (bike) if you are from Vang Vieng town.

One of the cave signboard on the side of the road to Blue Lagoon.

Along the way, you could find many caves that allow you to do caving activity. Once you get to the Blue Lagoon, there is an entrance fees (40 baht) per person. Blue Lagoon offers not only for swimming, but also provide flying. Blue Lagoon river aren't blue when we're there, probably because of the rain make the river changed colour. If you can't swim, better to rent a tube or wear inflatable life vest because this river cave is very deep. I wanted to do caving, however due to the raining non stop we have to cancel it, we don't want to take any risk as there is only 2 of us and we're not really equip with anything. (just flip flop, shirt & short).

Blue Lagoon

Laos traditional silk & materials beautiful, and they are not made by machine, it's all  handmade and if you are on your way back from Blue Lagoon, check it out on the side of the road. Price are much cheaper compare the price at the town.

 As we arrived back at the hotel to shower and all, we found out there that the electricity were cut off. Not only in the hotel, but the whole town have no power. Not an issue for me, I think no water supply is much worse. The power came back 4 hours later and during no power, we just walking around Vang Vieng town. If you ever visit to Vang Vieng, please please please try the side road sandwich. This is the most delicious sandwich I ever eat and if you are traveling alone or less than 3, better take a mini van back to Vang Vieng. Much faster & comfortable.

In conclusion, always do your homework to the place that your will be going to. It is better to have plan B if the plan A didn't work out. Secondly, always keep your expectation low or better yet, none.

It is sucks when you have a high hope for something and it didn't work out exactly like you wanted to. Thirdly, always stay at the centre of the town, this to avoid unpleasant situation, let say you are stuck somewhere and the rain seems no ending, you could just walk back instead of waiting till the rain stop. Besides, in town there is more people and much safer, at least that I what I think.

Shafri, Didi & Vientiane

So, Laos. What brings me here is because of my friend Didi. She asked me if I'm interested to come with her and since I'm on semester break, so yeah! Why not? Besides, it's good to have someone that can speak Thai / Lao.

To fly to Vientiane it only took 2 and a half hours which is by a direct flight with Air Asia from KL to Vientiane. Have to admit that I have fear of flying and the weather up there wasn't really nice to us. It was bumpy all the time.As arrived in Vientiane, I noticed that they accepted 3 currencies 1) Lao Kip 2) Thai Baht 3) USD. For us, it is much easier to use Thai Baht as it easy to calculate (100 Baht is equal to RM10). Besides, Lao Kip has less value if converted in Malaysia as Thai Baht exchange rates accepted here and everywhere with good value. 

Departed from KLIA 2 airport.

We arrived in Vientiane at 9 in the morning, and the check in time is at 1pm. We basically have no idea where to go, as this trip we both didn't do any homework about Vientiane. All we know is 1) Tubing party 2) Hot air balloon 3) Blue Lagoon which is all located at Vang Vieng. We decided to walk around to the town and guess what, you could just walk! At 11.30 am, we went back to the hotel as the National Museum & all tourist attraction close at 12pm for 1 hour break. The hotel receptionist are kind enough to let us check in at 12pm and the rates of this hotel are reasonable which cost us 1000 baht per night. This room includes AC, twin beds, TV, wi-fi, hot shower, breakfast, minibar and safe box. Not to mention the bed is so comfy. That fact that the bed is so comfy that make us slept since we enter the room until 5 pm! The plan was to take a nap for 5 mins but opps.... We overslept. We did some research on some nice place to visit in Vientiane right after we got connected to the wifi in the room.

Fail attempt of taking 360 angle view of our room. Didi seems very comfortable sleeping.

On the evening, we went walked along Mekong River. There you can see lots of Lao people jogging, riding bicycle, exercising and Zumba-ing! Based on 4 nights stayed at Laos, all I can say is that Lao people areare very nice, polite, shy, honest to us (from what we experience they exchange rates from Lao - Baht calculate in front of you). Alongside the river there are some streets stalls that serves local and western food which we decided to have a dinner there. So by guessing the street food stalls is cheaper than the standalone restaurant, it's totally wrong. It's very expensive actually, cost us 2 people 600 Baht. But we didn't complaint as the food is very good, besides the view that we had is just to die for.

Sunset view. Mekong river

Later that night, we went to the night market. Night market is not something new for us, infect there are also back at Malaysia. But what captured my attention was that this night market is so organised and clean. Yes, clean. Infect the whole town is clean. There is no rubbish thrown everywhere, not like in Malaysia of course. Anyway, I would recommend you guys to visit this market, it has everything but mostly clothes. Paintings, handmade materials, silk, souvenirs, phone accessories and many more to find there. Here you could bargain, maybe it will work, maybe not. Good luck!

Handmade silks / materials could be found on the night market.

I wanted to see many places in Vientiane especially the Friendship Bridge (which connected Laos & Thailand) which attract me the most. I find a border that separate one country to another is very interesting. But the weather is prevent us from renting a bike to go around because it was raining ever since we came back from Vang Vieng. Besides, Didi wasn't feeling good as she had a flu so we just stayed in the room until the rain stop. At night, we went for a dinner and slept early as our plane is leaving at 9 in the morning. On the way came to hotel from the airport we didn't gave much attention how far is it. So on the way to the airport from hotel it only took like 15 minutes (more or less). And we left hotel at 6 am and reached at the airport at 6.15 am. SMH! Lucky there's a TV or else we're like zombie, bored out of our skull. I noticed that plane departed from Wattay International Airport every 2 hours as the airport quite small. So our plane depart on time as we wish, so goodbye Vientiane, Hello Kuala Lumpur.

Day 17 (Bye Salamanca, Hello Lisbon)

Sorry took a while to update my blog, end up today (5/4/2014) after 9 month I've decided to wrote back! Gosh, time fly so quick.

Anyway, What I still remember is that my journey from Salamanca to Lisbon is by taking night train. This was my first night train, sadly i didn't take any pics. Coach were quite full and yes the background music were played by the passengers itself, SNORE! I left Salamanca at 1am.

So the whole journey supposedly take 7 hours and 30 minutes but unfortunately trains delay for 2 hours, makes the whole journey 9 hours and 30 minutes. Oh yeah, not sure you guys know (cause I didn't know) the 1 hour different between Lisbon & Salamanca. So I arrived at 9am.

Because of the delay, I was woke up wondering am I on the right track? Where am I? As on the train there aren't any screen saying where were we or what is the next/past station name. I tried asked some of the passangers but they don't speak english. So I just wait and mesmorize how beautiful Salamanca is.  I was so anxious to know what is the next stop. And when the train finally stop, I get off because I saw sign board Lisboa. Well, here's the thing there are 2 Lisboa station : Lisboa (Sta. Apolónia) and Lisboa Oriente. I supposedly to get off at Apolónia but I get off at Oriente. Anyway, I took a taxi to go to Almada Hostel which located too far from city centre (I've booked because of it's near to the bridge) and it's cost me €30. 

When I reached there, it was way up in the hill, far from the train station, sun is kills me but the view is breathtaking. When I'm about to check-in, I realised that I don't have my credit card with me, I was panicked but act cool and pay by cash. Thankfully the reception quite nice to me and gave me to use the phone which I'm about to call to Spain. So I call my previous hostel I stayed and luckily they found my credit card.

I drop my bag in the room, take a shower (shower room are not private, doesn't have a door, FYI I'm very shy) and going to Lisbon to touring around Lisbon. To be honest, I have no idea what to do with my credit card, my flight to Rome is the day after, so basically I didn't enjoyed touring around. SO I call my friend Mike back at Malaysia and asked him what should I do. He told me that, I have 5 more country to visit, credit card is important, why not I go back to Salamanca get the card and fly to Rome from Barcelona? I quickly go to train station and get the ticket which cost me €56.I went back to the hostel, start packing and left.

Night train left at 7 and I reached there at 4am. So goodbye Lisbon, hello Salamanca.