Langkawi, Malaysia

We finally reached our first destination . . . Langkawi, Malaysia.





We stayed four days in Langkawi--the day after we arrived, we went on a long kayak trip through the mangroves. It was cool, but Jeff and I were a bit tired from the travel, and we didn't make the best team. We went with English couple that were on their honeymoon. Let's just say they were much more lovey-dovey than we were.



The breakfasts were delicious and abundant . . . and complimentary thank goodness. Dragon fruit and mie goreng (fried noodles) with a nasty egg (that's Jeff's breakfast).





Oriental Village and Cable cars--very steep cable cars.







Jeff attempting a conversation in Malay (Malay and Indonesian are very close) with a Malay man in the cable car.



My feet are huge in this shot--my wide-angle lens distorted them here. Photoshop can fix that . . . but why? j/k.



What a fun surprise to find these monkeys on the side of the road; we stopped our scooter--I just had to get up close. It was successful until the protective father monkey started to growl at us. We quickly left . . . but not until I got some shots. What an experience!







Jeff and I rented a scooter and drove around Langkawi. It was a fun experience. We got off the scooter to take a picture of this lighthouse and turned to find a couple monkeys on our scooter. This monkey I swear is looking in the mirror. And more scooter exploring . . .





We ended our stay in Langkawi with a six hour boat tour around the islands of Langkawi on the Damai Indah (boat name). It was amongst several Europeans and just one other American family, luckily everyone spoke English. Great fun and beautiful!

Penang, Malaysia

We stopped at a local butterfly farm. There was a huge down pour of rain that day; I was worried that this would make it hard to view the butterflies. I was wrong and it even made the pictures more interesting with rain drops on the flowers and leaves.











These are called monkey cups-- monkeys will drink from them after a rain shower because they fill with water.



We also visited a batik (a wax and dye process on fabric) factory, which was just outdoors under some tarps. It was neat seeing the artists at work, up close.






We also stopped by an old fisherman's village. It was raining pretty hard then, so these shots are not in sharp focus.






A Buddhist Snake Temple--filled with venomous and non-venomous snakes. Here's even a shot with Jeff and the snakes. He didn't dare get any closer to these Vipers out in the open.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Where do you find the tallest twin towers in the world? Guess . . . give up? In Kuala Lumpur--the Petronas Towers. We had a great view of the towers from our hotel room.





Jeff wanted so bad to get a picture of a completely covered muslim woman (notice the husband in regular duds). . . I was too scared that they would see us trying for the shot, so Jeff took this one.



Petaling Street--an insanely packed market full of stalls and where every vendor wants your money. I became quite the haggler.





I was quite interested in the all the blow-ups and clothing hanging from these apartment buildings.




This Hindu woman made me a pretty jasmine necklace (I'm wearing it above). Smelled so good.



Dragon fruit and China pears . . .



An interesting looking tree I had to photograph.