We have just had the most amazing two days. We spent a rest day in Trang. We decided to do a day tour of the islands rather than go and stay on one of them. We would have liked to have stayed on Koh Muk but because is was Chinese new year there was no available accommodation. We booked the day trip through our hotel and did not realise at the time that is was not aimed at foreign tourists but local tourists. When we arrived at the jetty to get on our tour boat we realised that nobody spoke much English. Luckily for us there was a lovely woman from Bangkok who spoke perfect English. She was our interpreter for the entire trip.

The trip involved snorkeling, a  cave, a beach and then more snorkeling. The Cave was the highlight. I will try to explain it to you. We arrived at the vertical cliff of an Island where there was a small cave at the water line. We were fitted with life vests and put in the water one by one. We were instructed to hold onto the life vest of the person in front of you. There was about 50 people on the tour so we made a 50 person long, human snake in the water. Our guides had flippers on and they towed us into the cave. We slowly made our way through the tunnel that had a low ceiling and twisted and turned in a few different directions. If it wasn’t for the head torches on the guides heads, it would have been pitch black inside. Eventually we reached the center which was a beach with a small jungle surrounded by vertical cliffs. If you imagine the Island to be a doughnut and the beach and jungle are in the hole in the middle and the only way to the beach is a small tunnel through the doughnut. It was really surprising and the boys really enjoyed it.

Today we cycled to another cave called Le Khoa Kop Cave. It is a cave in a limestone outcrop just north of Trang. There is a muddy river running through it.  It is a pretty ordinary cave as cave go but the fun begins when you are leaving the cave. You are taken into the cave in a small wooden boat with two guides. When you have finished the cave tour and go to leave the cave, the guides instruct you to lie down in the boat facing up. As they slowly paddle you out of the cave the ceiling gets lower and lower until it is only about 2cm from your face. Allister had to suck in his gut to avoid some of the stalactites from scrapping his belly. It lasts about 8 minutes but felt like an hours. You would not cope if you were claustrophobic. Again, the boys loved it.

We reached Trang today. You would only come here as a stop over on your way to one of the islands off the coast. The view from our hotel room could be any location in south east Asia except for the power lines. Such a Thailand giveaway. No other country I have been to has power lines like it.

We are on the 4th floor which I am glad of as tomorrow is chinese new year.  Tonight is going to be one big party. The firecrackers have started already. 

We are having a rest day tomorrow so planning on doing a day trip out to three islands. There will be cave swimming, snorkeling and lunch on a remote beach. 

Allister informed me that we have done over 1000km so far. So the boys are having a well deserved break watching YouTube. 

Beautiful day cycling past limestone cliffs and water caves. We stopped at a couple of the caves.  The first was a temple with monks attending to the caves. The second was a tunnel sea cave that was 4 km long and ended at the ocean. The third was a fresh water cave that we could not resist swimming in. The water was cold and such a contrast to the air temperature. 

We could not find a food stall for quite a long distance today but eventually we came across a lady selling fried banana and sweet potato.  She sent her husband for ice and made us cold drinks.  It was lovely.  

The boys are not the only ones getting asked for selfies. Very unexpectedly, I was asked by a bunch of guy’s if they could have a photo. I assumed they wanted a photo of the bikes so I stepped out of the shot. Before I knew it they were crowding around me for a photo.  

In the afternoon we hired a driver to take us around.  We ended up at the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. The source is a fresh water spring rising up through the limestone.  Over years and years the dissolved limestone in the water has created these ‘candle wax’ pools. Stunning. 

Yesterday we cycled from our accommodation to the cable car in Langkawi. The cable car takes you 700 meters up a mountain and you can see the most amazing views.

The boys had more fun playing in the fountain out the front of the ticket office.

Typical.

We have not told you about it much but it has got to a point now where it is just beyond funny. 

When we are cycling around we are being asked if people can take photos of us or if they can take a selfie with us. 

The guy in this photo stopped us on the road to take a photo of us and when he tried he couldn’t get the camera working on his phone. Allister helped him work it out and he was very happy with the photo he took. 

We cycled through the centre of Langkawi yesterday. For such a touristy island we were surprised to find a place called hidden valley. It was beautiful. Only locals and rice paddies. We arrived at the west side of the island and decided to stay at a guest house with basic facilities but really lovely owners and location.

There has been a few days gap between posts because of the poor Internet where we were staying. 

We spent two nights in Georgetown because of the beautiful accommodation that we booked.  We planned on only staying one night but we had a 4 bedroom apartment with pool, sauna, spa and bathtub all to ourselves for $70aud so we stayed another night. 

Allister and Robert met a lovely chinese couple on our second day and we ended up going out to dinner with them.  They took us to their favorite restaurant where they ordered garlic pork soup for us. It was good but a little too fatty for my taste. 

We cycled on the next day, heading to the other side of Penang Island.  If you have ever been there you would know how mountainous it is.  We had a 10km uphill during the 40km day. It was hard work but really beautiful.  On the way to the other side of the Island we discovered an adventure park called Escape.  It was a high ropes park with all sorts of activities to do. We decided to give it a go. We expected to spend about 3 hours there but in the end we were there for 5 hours. It was great fun but exhausting. 

In a place called Titi Teris we stayed in a ‘warm showers’ house.  There were 3 other cyclists staying so we had the opportunity to socialize with like-minded people who didn’t think we were crazy.  

We left there this morning and have just completed the 10km uphill to get over the mountain again. We stopped along the way to see the butterfly park. It was the best butterfly park I have ever been to.  It was really amazing and informative.  We were allowed to glue the crysalids onto the hatching poles with the breeding program staff. The kids really enjoyed it.  Science class covered again.

As we were cycling through a tiny town called Penanti we noticed smoke stacks rising into the sky from a factory. It was a warm day with high humidity and we were suddenly hit with a wall of odour so thick that none of us could breath. Robert was nearly crying from the smell and we were all cycling as hard as we could to get through the odourous fog. Patrick decided to do a test breath through his nose rather than through his mouth. The smell was so bad he vomited between his legs onto his drink bottle.  I started laughing so hard I could hardly cycle.  It was one of those horrible situation where you either laugh or cry. Patrick was laughing too. 

We tried to describe the smell and I thought it smelt like milo and rotting meat. The boys said it had a touch of vomit smell as well but I think that came from Patrick.  

Later on in the day we boarded the ferry to Penang.