By this stage it was 9pm. The bus was leaving KL at 10.30 and I still wanted to check availability, check my budget and check what transport I'd need. So much to do, but we were both so excited. We got on the net, and I managed to find out that the accommodation won't take online bookings and that I can only ring on the day of arrival to see if there's room.. I also found out that it's not at all expensive.. Me and Andy couldn't quite believe how our meeting had turned into something that could be so meaningful. It was amazing.. We said our goodbyes and hope to see each other again soon. But I still didn't have any certainty. I was leaving KL without a proper destination or plan in mind. This was totally new to me!! But I did decide at this point, that I would ring the hostels on Langkawi in the morning, once the bus arrived at the pier just to make sure that there's no vacancies. But at this point, the thoughts of Langkawi felt so wrong, when Kho Phangnang felt so right..
I sat on the bus, after traipsing through the city, and all I could do was dream about being there.. I was so far ahead of myself, it was unreal. The journey to the pier was 7 hours, I didn't get much sleep, and all I did was "daydream" about me being Leonarde diCaprio, starring in the beach.. He was in seach of something different from the normal backpacker scene, he was venturing out into the unknown, he was going to extremes as he was trying to find what it was he was searching for and didn't have a clue if what he was going to find, was what he expected. How amazing.. No wonder i didn't sleep much..haha. When I did wake up from the little sleep I got, last night all felt like a dream. But it wasn't!! It was all happening..as long as I was brave enough to take a chance and see if my meeting Andy was all part of the "master plan"... how cool!
We got to the peer at 06.30am. What was I going to do? Follow what felt right..which was go to check if the sanctuary is all it's cracked up to be, and take a leap of faith..or Follow my initial plan and risk having to pay 100euros for one night on Langkawi.. Twice i stood in line and twice I left the line. I didn't care at the stage that I had no clue of how to get to Kho Phangnang exactly, all I knew was that I had to go somewhere and I wasn't going to pay so much money on being in a place I didn't want to be.. So I hopped into a cab, got the trainstation in a town called Arau where I met the most nicest people and chatted for ages. I was still on such a high from the night before. I got the train to Hat Yai, which is the first town over the Thai boarder. It's also where I"m sitting right now, 5 hours later. I still can't quite believe how I landed myself here.
It's feels so great being back in Thailand again, surrounded by such beautiful people. I"m loving every minute of it! The people are so warm and the spirit in the air is totally different to that of Malaysia. It's so beautiful. The amount of smiles I"ve gotten already, is amazing.. Not like in KL, where you're afraid to smile for fear of what that person might think. No here in Thailand, you give a smile and one is returned!!
So now, my bus is due to leave at 05.00pm and i then have an overnight boat to Kho Phangnang. I get there at 06.00am tomorrow morning. I'll be a zombie and stinking.. but I don't care. I'll have taken a risk, and hopefully I have got to where i want to be. But the funny thing is that when I get there, I still won't know if the Sanctuary has a bed for my wee head.. And even funnier is that I'm not worried or stressed about it all. If it's meant to be, it will be. If not, at least I'll have tried and I'll have met some amazing people along the way and have had some great adventures too..
I'm in the land of smiles now.. so that's all I can do!!!
Showing posts with label Langkawi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Langkawi. Show all posts
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Cuation..it's a bit of confusion-1
It's Saturday the 05th. I've just about lost track of the days and of the time.. The last time I seen a bed was Thursday night and the next time I'll be seeing one is Sunday, if all goes according to "plan".
Thursday night it all started happening, without me being aware of it: I met this dude from Germany in the hostel. We got chatting about this and that, watched a movie and by 12 it was time for bed.. I was delighted. It had been a hectic day, Aine (the Irish girl who I had gotten to know pretty well) had suddenly decided to move on that same morning and I had spent the day exploring some more of the city. I had been rained on, I had been out for dinner by me tod (which is such a buzz by the way!) and I was just generally wrecked. I had said to myself on Thursday that Friday would be the day for moving on, so that's what I did. Friday morning, I hung out in the hostel till 12noon, packed my bags and with no where to go, I left the hostel, said goodbye to the German dude, called Andy, we exchanged email addresses and I didn't expect to see him again.
I walked with my 22 kilo's of luggage to the busstation, decided to book a bus to Langkawi, which is an island off the northwest coast of Malaysia. It's a 7 hour journey and the bus was due to leave at 11pm. This was great, cause I'd have saved a night in the hostel by sleeping on the coach and any other bits of the city I hadn't yet seen, I'd now get a chance to.. Well that was the plan anyhow. But that soon changed when I just wasn't arsed anymore. I had been walking again, only for an hour, and I was done with it. I started to feel lonely and was tired of always knowing that there was someone looking at my every step. Because that's what it's like in that city. I was tired of it. So I hopped on the Internet, both to escape from the world and to book a hostel for Saturday night on Langkawi. But shock, shock, horror, horror, every hostel and hotel on the island was fully booked! There was nowhere for me to sleep!! O no.. I panicked, and that made me feel even more down and alone and drained. I didn't know what to do. I tried to get a refund on my bus ticket or even postpone it to a few nights later, but they weren't all too helpful (wouldn't be the first time). The thoughts of staying in Kuala Lumpur another few days didn't feel too good either, I actually dreaded the thoughts of it. So, to cheer myself up, I dropped German Andy an email, seeing if he wanted to meet up for some dinner, just for some company and some advice on what I should do, with this problem of finding accommodation.
So we met up and chatted lots, had yummy dinner and an overdose of green tea... How nice!! And he started telling me about where he stayed in Thailand. It was on the island of Kho Phangnang, on the eastcoast, and it's called the "Sanctuary". Well, the things he told me about it, were amazing. We both seem to be on the same wavelength when it comes to the books we read and the things we want to do along our "journeys". So this place he stayed at, was exactly what I was looking for, when I had planned on coming to Malaysia. It's, apparently, isolated from the road, by the beach and only accessible by long tail boat. It has yoga, meditation, massage, workshops and courses on offer nearly every day.. There's so much of what I love, in such a tranquil little haven. And it was much cheaper than the normal hostels in Malaysia too. He loved it there that much, that he said he was probably going to go back. But all I could see, as we were talking, were visions of me being there and doing all the things I want to do; yoga, meditation, massage, writing, reading..all surrounded by people with the same mindset..tucked away in a little piece of paradise. I couldn't believe it! This is where I wanted to go! This would solve my accommodation problem!
The excitement of it all!!!There's so much more to come..
Thursday night it all started happening, without me being aware of it: I met this dude from Germany in the hostel. We got chatting about this and that, watched a movie and by 12 it was time for bed.. I was delighted. It had been a hectic day, Aine (the Irish girl who I had gotten to know pretty well) had suddenly decided to move on that same morning and I had spent the day exploring some more of the city. I had been rained on, I had been out for dinner by me tod (which is such a buzz by the way!) and I was just generally wrecked. I had said to myself on Thursday that Friday would be the day for moving on, so that's what I did. Friday morning, I hung out in the hostel till 12noon, packed my bags and with no where to go, I left the hostel, said goodbye to the German dude, called Andy, we exchanged email addresses and I didn't expect to see him again.
I walked with my 22 kilo's of luggage to the busstation, decided to book a bus to Langkawi, which is an island off the northwest coast of Malaysia. It's a 7 hour journey and the bus was due to leave at 11pm. This was great, cause I'd have saved a night in the hostel by sleeping on the coach and any other bits of the city I hadn't yet seen, I'd now get a chance to.. Well that was the plan anyhow. But that soon changed when I just wasn't arsed anymore. I had been walking again, only for an hour, and I was done with it. I started to feel lonely and was tired of always knowing that there was someone looking at my every step. Because that's what it's like in that city. I was tired of it. So I hopped on the Internet, both to escape from the world and to book a hostel for Saturday night on Langkawi. But shock, shock, horror, horror, every hostel and hotel on the island was fully booked! There was nowhere for me to sleep!! O no.. I panicked, and that made me feel even more down and alone and drained. I didn't know what to do. I tried to get a refund on my bus ticket or even postpone it to a few nights later, but they weren't all too helpful (wouldn't be the first time). The thoughts of staying in Kuala Lumpur another few days didn't feel too good either, I actually dreaded the thoughts of it. So, to cheer myself up, I dropped German Andy an email, seeing if he wanted to meet up for some dinner, just for some company and some advice on what I should do, with this problem of finding accommodation.
So we met up and chatted lots, had yummy dinner and an overdose of green tea... How nice!! And he started telling me about where he stayed in Thailand. It was on the island of Kho Phangnang, on the eastcoast, and it's called the "Sanctuary". Well, the things he told me about it, were amazing. We both seem to be on the same wavelength when it comes to the books we read and the things we want to do along our "journeys". So this place he stayed at, was exactly what I was looking for, when I had planned on coming to Malaysia. It's, apparently, isolated from the road, by the beach and only accessible by long tail boat. It has yoga, meditation, massage, workshops and courses on offer nearly every day.. There's so much of what I love, in such a tranquil little haven. And it was much cheaper than the normal hostels in Malaysia too. He loved it there that much, that he said he was probably going to go back. But all I could see, as we were talking, were visions of me being there and doing all the things I want to do; yoga, meditation, massage, writing, reading..all surrounded by people with the same mindset..tucked away in a little piece of paradise. I couldn't believe it! This is where I wanted to go! This would solve my accommodation problem!
The excitement of it all!!!There's so much more to come..
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