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Published: March 4th 2019
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When planning a few days on Langkawi I was worried that I wouldn’t like it this time (my 6th visit) as last time there was so much construction going on in Cenang I thought it would be horribly built up, with Burger King and the like everywhere. They’d been resurfacing the main road and it was so dusty. But actually it is still very nice without any high rise (local regulations don’t allow it) and we had a lovely time, after the initial shock.
The shock was our hotel(The Daun Resort). I’d spent ages looking at all the options and worrying the beach places were going to be too noisy, so eventually chose somewhere just outside of the town, after the Rice Museum and on the way to the airport. We were going to get a scooter straight away so transport wouldn’t be a problem in the evenings. We also found that Grab was super efficient and the drivers haven’t much work so arrived immediately. But you need WiFi to order one.
We got a taxi voucher from the airport as I was worried about not finding our Grab driver and not having wifi when we went outside. It’s
tiny, it wouldn’t have been a problem, and we spent 30MR instead of 8. Sadness..... I’d read Tripadvisor reviews that rooms at the hotel could be noisy and full of mozzies, so I’d emailed and asked for a quiet room. None of them are quiet. Also they are constructing on the site. We upgraded for 50MR a night to get more space but it was the noisiest place ever. The staff are SO nice and kind, and apologised for the noise but we had the worst sleep due to the TRAFFIC/planes/mosque/thing scratching in the roof. Earplugs hardly took the edge off. The rooms are traditional kampong style, wooden, nicely appointed inside but with many gaps so the air con had a hard time coping and there were mozzies everywhere. The bathroom was separate on the balcony and hot as hell inside, also many mozzies, so we showered really quickly. We thought we’d stay one night and see if we could stand it, then kind of got used to it and couldn’t be bothered to move and lose money. Breakfast is included and OK with some local dishes and fruit.
So the first night, slightly in shock, we hiked down
to the town, walked along the beach and found a scooter place. He DEFINITELY told me 25RM a day, then when we’d got all kitted up and were about to sign, the price went up to 30. He said I’d misheard. I hadn’t. I was surprised as I knew it should be 30 a day but we paid up anyway as there weren’t many places to choose from. Gill’s helmet was a tiny child’s Hello Kitty one, as the others were way too big. It was hilarious. She wasn’t keen on a photo, shame.....All the bikes were 125cc and ours was great compared to ones we’ve had in the past. We were very glad to have it. It had storage under the seat so we didn’t have to have everything on our backs.
After a terrible night’s sleep we hopped on and went to the cable car, which we’ve done before. it was Saturday and the crowds were horrendous. You get a ticket for a time slot, or an express ticket which costs twice as much but allows you to go straight through. 95RM instead of 45. I stupidly got the cheaper ones, a huge mistake, we had to
wait for our slot, 30mins later, then the queue took ages, so an hour later we were at the top. There were hundreds of people. They were super friendly but there were too many of them. We paid for the funicular to go to the sky bridge, as last time we walked and it nearly killed us, but the queue for this was also terrible as it only takes about 10 people at a time, so we cut our losses, gave our tickets to a guy in the queue and went back down. If you haven’t done it before, the views are nice but it’s always a bit hazy. The best part was when parking the scooter a hornbill hopped out of a tree right next to us and we saw a large black squirrel the size of a cat! Also many monkeys at the side of the road on the drive there.
After this slight fiasco we drove up to the north on the road to the Andaman and Datai hotels, where the rich folk stay. There’s a lovely beach, with mainly local families having picnics. A big carpark and stall selling snacks, things on sticks, chips and
coconuts. We had a coconut each, huge and 6RM. The beach wasn’t exactly relaxing as the families were quite noisy, but we lay with the other scantily clad farangs mong the local women and children, all going in the sea in all their clothes. The sand is so nice and the sea clean and you can see the next island, Koh Tarutao, which is in Thailand.
in the evening we went to the Yellow Beach Cafe. It’s really westernised with great beanbags, beer and view. We had pizzas and took half away to have cold for our packed lunch the next day. Then for another terrible night’s sleep, having sprayed ourselves with deet from top to toe. Nice!
On our last full day I was very keen for some beach time so in the morning we took the scooter to Kuah so Gill could see the large eagle statue and some real ones flying around overhead. We failed to find a nice place for coffee. It is now McDonald’s. I remember Kuah being not up to much and it hasn’t changed. Back to hang out on the sunbeds (25RM after some bargaining and shopping around) in front of
the Yellow place. We were very reluctant to take the scooter back when it was due at 5pm and have to walk back to the hotel and into town again so offered 10RM to keep it for another 2 hours. Result! We had to fill up with petrol. 5RM was enough for the 2 days. Then after dropping it back at 7 and having dinner we ordered a Grab to get back, £1.11 very well spent and it arrived immediately. The drivers really prefer cash but as I registered for GrabPay it’s so much easier. No tip needed here.
Today we abandoned breakfast and got a Grab to the airport for our short flight to Penang. In retrospect the ferry would have been fun and dropped us right in Georgetown, but the flight was only £25 each with bags. Definitely want to go back to Langkawi.
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