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I want to live here
Jaw dropping beauty....the beach, not me!!!After a brief stop over in Krabi where we enjoyed the last taste of our favourite Thai dish Massaman Curry, we again said goodbye to Bow at Chau Fa Guesthouse and set off on our six hour land and sea journey to the duty free island of Langkawi, Malaysia.
When we had previously enquired about the trip to Langkawi, Bow had assured us that it would be by air conditioned mini bus to Satun on southern Thailand’s west coast where we would catch the speedboat to Kuah on Langkawi. The journey was not quite so straight forward but as Bow is only the “middle man” we don’t hold her responsible for what turned out to be a crappy if not eventful journey. First of all we were collected from the guest house as promised in an air conditioned mini bus bang on the agreed time of 7am; at this point there was just the two of us and a couple of girls from Portsmouth so we stretched out, reclined our seats and set off with the knowledge that this would be a nice comfy ride. A couple of minutes later and three streets away we were delivered to a small
Langkawi Ferry
Taking in the views at 40 knots travel agents office and told to get out of the bus and pile onto a second already packed mini bus that had barely enough room for the four of us let alone our backpacks. At this point we were handed an envelope that had written upon it “to buy boat ticket to Langkawi” ……….what an absolute cheek!! The envelope was stuffed with a portion of our money that had previously been paid over for our minibus/speedboat transfer…..we were expected upon our arrival at the ferry point in Satun to queue and purchase our own boat tickets…..unbelievable!!!
To make matters worst the aircon on the bus was dodgy, the seats were broken and the usual minging curtains had been removed (maybe for health reasons), which meant that the burning sun tortured the poor buggers that were sat in the window seats……..poor Barry (ha ha)!!! Confusion was rife as all of the passengers got chatting and discovered that we all had different destinations, quite where we were going to end up was anyone’s guess. Eventually we arrived in Trang which of course was not on the itinerary but by this time we’d lost the will to live and were just happy to
Zackry
Try retrieving a brick dressed in your pyjamas from this one!!!! see money exchange hands from our driver to the driver of yet another mini bus which we along with the Portsmouth girls and another group of backpackers were told to board for the next leg of our intrepid adventure. After two hours we eventually pulled up at the jetty, unfortunately this was not Satun jetty where we would catch the speedboat, this was some other little known jetty to god knows where, the other passengers were transferred to a boat but Barry and I along with the Portsmouth girls, who we’d become quite attached to by now, were told to wait a while for our next mode of transport which turned out to be a pick-up truck….ok so it had seats in the back but it definitely wasn’t air conditioned, which if you remember was what we’d paid for at the beginning of this saga. The driver this time was a lady who filled the front cab with family members and continued to pick up more of them along the way, so for an hour we bounced along some of Thailand’s pot holed roads in the back of a pick up truck with a couple of Thai kids beating the
At the bottom
All smiles......but not for long s**t out of each other next to us, and a couple of old Aunties gawping at the Farangi (foreigners) through the cab window…..marvellous!! To add insult to injury we stopped off in a small village to drop the family off whilst the driver lady took the opportunity to make a ten minute animated phone call then stopped again to fill up with petrol, we were all by this time laughing at the situation that we’d paid good money to get ourselves into. The boat to Langkawi did turn out to be a SPEED boat so no complaints there!! and we arrived in Kuah tired, hungry and looking forward to a hot shower at our chosen lodgings Zackry’s in Pentai Tengah.
We had chosen Zackry’s because of the good reviews we’d read on the internet and from a recommendation from other travellers we had met, we waved goodbye to the girls as we jumped out of the taxi and dropped our bags at the reception desk where we were met by Niamh from Dublin who runs the place with her Malaysian boyfriend Shah. As we were shown around the place Bev was looking very happy and pleased with our choice,
Back on Terra Firma
Three quarters of the way up a mountain is hardly Terra Firma but he's happy enough I on the other hand was quietly in turmoil, I hated the place, it looked like a builders yard (an untidy one at that), there was a guest standing scrubbing the pool with an elongated bog brush smiling at us, I should just mention here that the pool was actually a large inflatable paddling pool, and I am not kidding !!! Anyway being a hardy backpacker I put a brave face on it and said things like ”smashing, great, super” as we were shown the TV lounge, bar area and kitchen. As we took our key and settled into our room I thought I’d put on a good show of looking pleased that we had booked and paid for five bloody nights to stay in Steptoe’s yard, who was I kidding, the first words out of Bev’s mouth were “You hate it, don’t you?” my response was “Jesus, don’t you?“ to my surprise Bev really liked it, especially the honesty system for drinks at the bar, which included red wine…. that’s why she liked it !! We were handed a drinks chitty which we had to record the number of items we drank and were told to just pay at
the end for all consumed (I like that idea, I have to say). So, to try and find something good about the place for me, we set off to look at the beach which was just across the road apparently, we walked up and down the main road looking for the track that lead to the beach for 20 mins without success, eventually we found it further along the resort but it was not the picture perfect type we had imagined, to make things worse, the main strip of bars and restaurants at Pentai Cenang was a further 15 mins walk away (I am almost exploding at this point; “What the F*** are we doing here?”), Bev was at this point agreeing that it was not the perfect location.
As our time in Zackry’s went on we actually came to realise that it had a great deal more about it than I had first thought, the surrounding area was far better than the main strip, with better restaurants and bars, and when you were told how to get to the real beach it was pretty near perfect; we were beginning to fall for its charms, and I admitted that all
Clouds have arrived
2 mins later the cloud takes control of the mountain those reports on the internet were actually spot on.
Langkawi has a lot of attractions to visit but as it’s quite a big island, you need to have your own transport which is one of the cheapest we’ve come across in Asia (£10 per day for a car) we decided to take a scooter for a day and do the local area to get our bearings before taking a car later and going further around. After carefully picking the cleanest most comfy bike from the stock, trying on several helmets to get a perfect fit we headed off down towards the main street, when we had completed our first mile the rain started, slowly at first, which we laughed off, then heavier, and heavier as we pulled on our condoms (remember those?) under the shelter of a tree, we both had doubts about carrying on, we were right, as we tried to head back the sky split and it was impossible to ride the bike as the storm made the one on Phuket look like a shower (thankfully this was the only rainy day we had on Langkawi). Eventually we arrived back at the hire shop, I had to laugh
"What the heck??"
After a terrifying ascent, the view gets spoiled.... don't you just love it!!! as Bev stood in the door and said to the girl “ Give me a car !!” the poor girl replied “Oh…goodness, as soon as you left the rain came Mam, we were worried” but I’m sure I saw her stifle a laugh (Bev was wearing her pink condom after all!!).
Barry’s height phobia is legendary so why on earth he agreed to take the cable car to the top of Langkawi’s highest mountain is beyond me……honestly, no arm twisting took place. Anyone that has been up anything of height with Barry can vouch for me when I say that he’s honestly not good to be around when the phobia kicks in. Anyhow we paid our RM 30 a head (£6) and began what to me was supposed to be a leisurely ride above the jungle canopy to view the beautiful coastline of Langkawi, to Barry it was a test to see whether his height phobia had got any better, after all we’ve done lots of ‘high things’ on our travels over the past few years so he was kind of hoping that today’s experience might not be too much of an ordeal………how wrong can you be??? He got
Cooling off
At the Oriental Village close to where you catch the cable car the panic attacks followed by shallow breathing and we were only 100ft off the ground, I had to sit rubbing his back whilst talking to him like he was the patient and I was the psychotherapist “it’s OK, you can do this, just take deep breaths and imagine you are just sitting on the bus”, while all the time what I really wanted to say was “Stop acting like a fanny and stop the bloody whinging, I’m trying to enjoy this you pathetic idiot”. Poor Barry clung onto the floor as our gondola came to a complete stop mid way along the cable about halfway up, approximately 1500 ft (I admit that at this point even I was a bit scared as the wind rocked us back and forth). I was glad when we finally arrived at the first station, but not as glad as Barry was, he jumped out of the gondola and immediately sat on the floor with his head in hands, the girl operating the thing did a double take as Barry mopped the sweat from his brow and tried to stop his body from shaking. After he composed himself we managed to take some photo’s before
Perfect Beach
Tenga Rhu Beach on Langkawi getting back into the gondola and heading over to the second station where the viewing suspension bridge that spans two peaks of the mountain is situated, unfortunately by the time we got there the weather was so bad that they closed the bridge then eventually closed the cable car altogether. We landed back on dry ground and set off in our little hire car to see if we could find some sunshine which fortunately we did as soon as we got away from the mountain.
We headed over to Tenga Rhu Beach on the islands north west corner, after parking the car in the small car park behind the beach and managing to dodge the souvenir sellers on our way, we came to the opening that leads to the beach but we were trapped by a tout trying to sell tours and fishing trips, I’d already spotted the beach and was standing there jaw wide open at it’s sheer beauty……..it really was one of the most gorgeous beaches we’ve ever come across, the pure white sand was surrounded by thick lush jungle and the sea was clear and calm, not a shack, sunbed or umbrella in sight, it was
Kuah Jetty,Langkawi
Big Eagle on the waterfront stunning!!
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Paul,Jue,Joe & Matt
non-member comment
Who needs a pool when you've got all that sea ya moaning buggers!
Goodness me!! I've never seen a pair of misserable moaning beggers! I don't hear you mention any road closures, shootings, our beloved politicians on the Rob! (by the way has Gordon Brown got his delivery of silk cushions delivered to his 2nd home overlooking that beutiful beach you mentioned, I mean he does need to have a place to chill out! Doesn't he!!). From what it sounds like you have hit the rainy season, well what a bloody shame!!! It does sound like you're having a great adventure and experiencing some remarkable sites, I'm only jealous! Have a great run in to the end of your trip!