When planning our route onwards from Ipoh, we were tempted by the idea to leave the mainland and simply hop from island to island for a while – all the way into Thailand. There are two big islands off the Malaysian West Coast, Penang and Langkawi, from the latter speedboats connect to the Thai island of Koh Lipe, far out there in the Andaman Sea.
We reached Penang by bus – Asia’s longest bridge spans across the ocean here to connect this island with the Malaysian mainland. We stayed in the main city of Penang, Georgetown, and actually quite liked it – sometimes it’s good to come to a place and have not too high expectations. It has a lot of colonial architecture, ‚Little India‘ feels really authentic here, and – no surprises on this front – the Chinese presence is very strong. We found a really cool and dirt-cheap local hotel, away from the backpacker crowds, which we are starting to actively avoid, if we have a choice. Wandering around the city, we stumbled on temple upon Chinese temple, interspersed with some mosques. With Chinese New Year, one of the biggest holidays in the Chinese calendar, just around the corner, the city turned into a huge red light district – lit by thousands of Chinese lanterns.
A few hours of ferry ride to the North, and we set foot on Langkawi. It instantly felt a bit more like a holiday island than Penang. We rented a scooter, and had a bit of a rough start on our island exploration tour. The scooter did not have enough petrol to reach the next petrol station, contrary to what the guy in the rental shop had tried to convince us. So shortly after leaving the village, we found ourselves pushing the scooter through the heat towards to petrol station. Luckily a friendly Malay woman helped us out by giving us a ride and lending us a plastic bottle to refill the tank. 
No longer stranded on the roadside, it was onwards and upwards from here. Upwards quite literally, as we climbed up to the Seven Wells – natural terraced rock pools. The last one before the waterfall must be one of the nicest natural infinity pools out there! After taking in the beautiful mountain and sea views from the pools, we continued our journey through the jungle-covered island. We encountered loads of monkeys on the road, and sometimes it was hard to tell who is more curious – them or us. The beaches around the island were good but not amazing – the water wasn’t as clean as we would have liked. But I guess we are getting quite spoiled by now when it comes to tropical paradise beaches… Great food in atmospheric beach restaurants that we found along the way and very friendly locals brought our stay in Malaysia to a great end. And before we knew it, we watched Langkawi Island getting smaller and smaller on the horizon, from the speedboat on the way into Thailand.
