A break in Malaysia
 

Dear Travellers

My friend and I (both girls) are due to visit a family member in Hanoi and was going to travel on to Malaysia afterwards, to have a "beach" holiday. Can you recommend the best place to go. Ideally we are looking for a pleasant location, good hotel, water sports, somewhere not too quiet (we will run out things to talk about otherwise!). I am also a vegetarian so will that be a problem?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks.

There are many wonderful beaches in Malaysia, however if you want to combine some nightlife with the beach, I recommend Penang Island.

The shopping is decent, the beaches are great, the food is excellent, ad I found the night life to be fine. Of course, I am an old married man with an 8 year old daughter so discos, etc., were not in the picture this time (I can hardly wait until she becomes a teenager). They do have them tho.

I think that there is a Penang site on the net. Georgetown is the main town. You may want to check it out.

Enjoy

Paul
The Old Sarge

t racy I disagree with sage (I'm a 29 year old partier... and georgtown is lame... ther are plenty of backpacker type sit down and chill bars.. I remember one had a regae place which had a sign that said "no weed alowed"..
and oh yah Georgtown is not a beach resort...
do some reaserch on langkawi but I here it's more of a honymooners pace...

If your lucky maybe you could go too the full moon party in phi phi island, thailand, it is held near the end of every month and is considered one of the wildest parties in the world..

Tracy;

Orgy and I obviously have different ideas of what it is to party. Thirty years plus do make a difference. Besides, I don't smoke.

To clear up any misunderstanding. Georgetown is the main town on the island of Penang. It is not a resort and I didn't mean to give that impression. However, there are beach resorts on the island and, since the island is small, none of them are too far away from Georgetown. Most should be within a 20-30 minute drive or less by taxi, 45 minutes by public bus.

Enjoy

Paul
The Old Sarge

PS: Orgy, it is Sarge (short for Sergeant) and not Sage.

Thank you Sarge & Orgy for your views and comments. I think I now need to sit down with my pal and plan this very carefully (which is proving difficult at the moment as she has vanished "off the face of the earth"!). I realise that we are not going to get an Asia "Ibiza", which is NOT really what we want, however, we want to have the choice of entertainment and tranquility. I think the honeymooners place is out of the question... nothing worse especially as my "significant other" will be partying it over in Miami at the time !! What's the weather like in Malaysia around end June/beg July - monsoons? We originally were going to go to Hua Hin or Koh Samui after Hanoi, but heard that the weather is bad at the time we want to travel and both places are a little "seedy" - can you shed any further light on this?

Sorry about all these questions - want to get it right.

Thanks
Tracy

Hi Tracy, can tell you that the weather in KL at the moment is VERY hot, as the rains have stopped. The weather people are predicting this dry weather right up until August. It is not monsoon season at the moment.

Hua Hin and Koh Samui have good weather thru to October, Hua Hin then has slight rainfall as it is the driest resort in the region. I have been to all these locations. Penang I found unfriendly and boring, sorry. Langkawi is much nicer as a beach destination but trying even to get a taxi after 6 pm was a hassle, there is absolutely 'nothing' to do at all.
Thailand will at least give you the beaches and some nice lively restaurants, and if you need a disco or some live music then you can find and enjoy. The 2 countries are just oh so different.
I would certainly never choose Malaysia over Thailand for any reason whatsoever.
I am not an all night party-goer but I like to enjoy and have the opportunity for entertainment if I wish, on that score it has to be Thailand and I'd say the same for people in their 50's/60's just the same.

how about bali????

where would one go if looking for a romantic spot in malaysia??? for a few days? any suggestions? Sarge?