Penang and Beach Heaven

I am in Langkawi at the moment. After a rather bumpy 3 hour boat ride from Penang and drowning out the sounds of people being sick into little black bags with my i-pod, I'm in paradise! The people in Langkawi are very laid back. I had a few drinks with people from my group and realised how much I needed this. Less than a week into my trip, and I feel I still have a long way to go before I can truly say I am relaxed. Perhaps it is a sign of how stressed I really was too.

The group I have joined are really friendly, however, the friendships made do not seem as special as those made on my own. Many of them were part of another tour in Thailand and are now hardened to the basic gripes of travelling (I am probably far too happy and positive for many).

Afer a day in Hong Kong, I did question whether I was doing the right thing. Time stretched out before me and instead of having too little, I felt I had too much.

However, I feel I am very fortunate to have the emails of two friends made on my travels (the professor I met in Hong Kong is in my first blog entry) and an Australian girl, Claudia in Penang.

I felt I connected with Claudia in such a remarkable way. I had just arrived in Penang and the light was starting to fade. Penang was an area I knew I would need to exercise a degree of caution. A few men who helped me with my luggage warned me to be careful.

Armed with clear directions of where I was going for dinner, I was no more than 3 minutes down the road when a girl came up to me and asked if I could speak English (she had been approached by 3 women trying to take her bag). That was the start of my friendship with Claudia and after dinner and a few beers together, I felt penang was not such an awful place.

The following day, I had until the late evening before the group arrived. I spent all day with Claudia and we explored Penang on rickshaws.

There is so much much I will remember about Penang, the woman who makes models of locusts out of palm leaves, young children being pushed around in cardboard boxes on wheels and our old rickshaw driver, asleep in the midday sun. However, there is also the seedier side of Penang. Sex is everywhere and yet nowhere in Penang. That is to say, despite hoards of women in very little and the strip of pole dancing clubs, it is hidden and not discussed by any of the people. The strong Muslim culture reminds us of the importance of tradition and strong values over a desire to embrace all things from the west.

The friendships you make through travel are very different from the usual channels. As time is limited, they are often very intense and you must remind yourself, essentially you are travelling on your own and you will need to get used to that solitary experience again. With each experience and friendship, my confidence is growing and my initial doubt has disappeared.

I wish I had done this before. It is an amazing period of growth for me!

Tomorrow we go out on boats (all I can see is white sand and blue sea at the moment), swim and take in all of the delights of this island.