Langkawi, Malaysia

I spent nearly 6 weeks in Langkawi, Malaysia. Langkawi is a small island off the Malaysian and Thai coast and it’s known for being duty free. So I was initially only going to stay a few days as I thought that it was going to be really rowdy because of the cheap booze. It was actually quite quiet.  I stayed longer because I had Achilles tendinopathy and plantar fasciitis and I needed to get these two issues resolved. By the end of the 6 weeks my plantar fasciitis had gone and so it is now just working on the Achilles tendinopathy. Both issues have come about due to walking, so cycling was not actually an problem  so I was still able to cycle and get some fitness back after having been really lazy in Penang.

I managed to perfect the art of taking selfies whilst cycling.

The island was really pretty, and I did cycle around it once and really enjoyed it but in that one cycle ride I got chased on two separate occasions by dogs. I was later informed by a couple of locals that the dogs that chased were most probably hungry strays. So after that I didn’t cycle around the island again.

I have absolutely loved cycling in Malaysia but I have been chased a few too many times by dogs.

I stayed in a really nice hostel except it did have bed bugs and I know I should have moved, but I was too lazy and everyone was so friendly. I met some really interesting people:

Philip from Austria has been living in Cambodia for the past 4 or 5 years. He cycled from Cambodia to Malaysia on his really comfortable ‘sit up and beg’ bicycle.

Akmal is from Penang, he was working in the hostel whilst I was there. By the end of my time there he was extremely sarcastic; I don’t know where he learnt that from.

Han on the left was from Inner Mongolia and Tania originally from Russia but now living in China.

I went on an organised tour with Dave from Bewdley, Worcestershire. Sadly he’s a Wolverhampton football supporter and thinks that a Wolf will always beat a Fox. He’s recently been proven wrong as Leicester City Football Club beat Wolverhampton.

After nearly 3 months in Malaysia I caught the boat to Satun in the south of Thailand.

Malaysia has been one of my favourite countries so far.