Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia
It hasn’t really all gone to the dogs, but that’s where we have ended up again. Back at the Lassie animal shelter in Langkawi. Been a couple of weeks since I penned an entry and to be fair you probably haven’t missed too much in that time. It was genuinely sad for both of us leaving Myanmar. A new country, a new experience, and a great one at that. One which we wished we could have continued for longer, but as we had return flights booked back to Bangkok there was no real option for us to extend our stay there without shelling out more precious money and that’s something we simply don’t have anymore hence the return yet again to Langkawi. We spent a couple of days recuperating in Bangkok after a hectic three weeks in Myanmar of grueling travel and new adventures. We have certainly had more than our fair share of days in Bangkok during this trip, probably more than we needed to and I guess with hindsight we needn’t have. This trip has certainly felt different to the last trip we did. The last trip we were pretty much always moving forward and on to new places, rarely retracing our steps. This time we have used Bangkok and Langkawi as two hubs that we have been operating out of and most of it has revolved around money, or the lack of it I should say. Our funds have pretty much been depleted now. A combination of rising costs in Asia and a 15- 20% decrease in the value of the pound following the Brexit referendum has taken it’s toll. Given the fact the budget we came away with was very small to start with those two things combined have really changed how this trip has played out. But, that said we are certainly not complaining either. We’ve enjoyed a month living it up in Bali, had around 3-4 weeks of great island life in Thailand, worked in Malaysia’s Royal Belum National park in the beautiful wilderness of the ancient rain forest and also had three amazing weeks exploring Myanmar. Certainly not a shabby traveling performance in the six months since we left the UK.
So, as we neared the end of our Myanmar adventure and checked the bank balance it was obvious we would not last the final three and a half months of our current trip with the money we have left. At this point I got in touch with Narelle from Lassie and she very generously agreed to host us in Langkawi again along with a small allowance in return for helping out at the animal shelter on a daily basis. Great hospitality and generosity and very much appreciated in helping us to continue our travels until Christmas. We are going to be here for at least two months this time and hopefully it will allow us to finish the trip with a bang and one more new country under our belt before we return home. Whatever happens towards December or wherever we may end up based on the funds we have available I know it’s certainly a better option than returning home earlier than planned.
So here we are, back in the land of cats and dogs, to give our time up here to the cause of caring for the poor stray dogs and cats that Lassie supports. We also know enough people here now for our stay to be comfortable, relaxed and sociable so I guess it now feels a bit like home away from home…along with Bangkok….and Bali…..and Koh Lipe, not a bad thing at all.
I’m not sure how the blog will go now for the next couple of months given that we are now parked up in one spot again but I’ll still check in on a regular basis with any tit bits I feel are worth writing about. We have a couple of ideas of where to head to after here but I wont say anything until we have some definite plans in place as I don’t want to get our hopes up too high only for it to fall apart, but hopefully we should know more soon and I’ll let you know as soon as we do.
In the meantime we will keep enjoying the nice constant 30 degree weather here, the occasional £6 litre of Jim Beam we treat ourselves to after a long sweaty days work and the great company of both our four and two legged friends we have here on the island. Life isn’t too bad really is it?
