We had found a great deal on a lovely little apartment to rent for the week from this Dutch couple who ran a few properties there. They picked us up at the airport which was nice of them. Unfortunately the apartment was around a 30 minute drive from the main touristy part and was near a Malaysian holiday town called Kuah (we think that's Malaysian for kip). The apartment complex was gorgeous with lovely gardens and a HUGE pool. We had a lovely studio with a big deck at the front so were delighted to unpack for the first time in two weeks. There was a load of little dub-step birds living in the trees outside the apartment (dub step is dreadful dance music, but the birds were very funny - see here http://youtu.be/ZGhVXgMoz4g ).
We went out the first night to find somewhere to eat and have a few drinks. Do you think there was a bar anywhere in sight? You can imagine how distressed we were. Langkawi is a duty free island so in theory there should have been a river of cheap beer flowing through the town but, alas, Malaysia is a mainly muslim country so they don't go in much for having a drink and enjoying themselves, no wonder many of them are so miserable looking. The Chinese-Malay and Indian-Malay are super friendly though.
The island is so beautiful, it's actually 99 islands in total. We went on a boat trip on our second day there. It brought us all around these lovely islands (they would remind you of scenes from King Kong or Lost). We met some funny monkeys, one of them stole my apple. I had a bit of a stand off with him over it but in the end I let him have it cos he was so cute (and probably had rabies).
We then went to this lovely lake on one of the islands but hardly anyone was swimming in it. I had to try it as it looked so nice and the water was really clear and warm. Brian dived in but I felt a bit paranoid as one woman was swimming in her full burka and I didn't want to insult anyone so I compromised and did a few bombs in my t shirt. I later found out that it was called the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden...oops, maybe thats why no one was swimming! That could put a spanner in the works!
We met this brilliant couple from Liverpool called Sylvia and Dave. Dave is a huge Liverpool fan (he's actually a toffee but we know he's reading this :)). They were staying in the apartment above us and knew langkawi really well as they'd been holidaying there for years and had even tried living there for a couple of years. They brought us down to Pantai Cenang which is a really gorgeous beach lined with loads of good restaurants and (thank God or Allah or Buddha or whoever!) BARS!
We spent most evenings down there after that as it was a great spot and taxis were really cheap back and forth. There was one really cool reggae bar right on the beach where people sat on mats on the beach and there were candles all around the place and cool bands playing. It was so chilled out.
On our last day in Langkawi, we went on the most amazing boat trip along a mangrove river and out to sea. The guide was brilliant and loved nature and was great at explaining how all the wildlife and the environment worked together. We met some hilarious monkeys who would dive off the trees into the water to swim for some monkey nuts. We also met a tribe of friendly monkeys who came onto the boat to say hello and eat some more nuts from us.
We saw loads of little bats sleeping in a cave. When we were in the dark bat cave, there was a woman in a burka on a different tour. It's the first time in my life I saw Brian bite his lip, well nearly, all he said was 'there's a batman joke there somewhere'.
We saw a small viper snoozing in a mangrove tree; brown eagles diving for fish; and a giant monitor lizard swam by us in the boat.
On the way back, we saw part of an air show that was taking place that week in Langkawi. There were huge fighter jets doing all sorts of tricks in the sky! It didn't do much to calm Brian's nerves about flying out the next day.
We then stopped off for some lunch in a lovely local restaurant on the river. It was a great day out and the highlight of the Langkawi trip.
Langkawi is such a beautiful place, we would definitely recommend it but stay in Cenang not in Kuah!
Oops, dunno how that got in there...
...that's more like it!
Sorry guys :)
No comments:
Post a Comment