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Published: November 23rd 2010
Water Buffalo
the picture is nearly worth the stares from localsHaving hired the car for 24 hours, we awoke, with a morning available to us to go anywhere & do anything that we wanted and decided to indulge ine on of our pastimes from home - simply driving. It wasn’t quite the Autumn in the lanes of Devon & Cornwall that we are used to, but it was wonderful to be able to go wherever we wanted.
We headed for the north-west tip of the island as the map showed that it has some beaches and we thought that it might be nice to experience a different stretch of sand for a while. The drive through rainforest was beautiful and the glimpses of the ocean that we caught through the trees along the way also looked stunning, however we were disappointed to discover that the beaches shown on the map could only be accessed from the luxury resorts which must own them - and those resorts have big entrance gates which, whilst not saying so, make it very clear that non-residents are not welcome.
The road on this side of the island just suddenly stops in the middle of nowhere and another set
of electronic gates flanked by signs decreeing “Private, No Entry” block you way. So, with no other option, we turned around and continued our island tour along the North coast, which seemed to me to be rockier and less visually appealing than the south coast, before heading inland and back towards Pantai Chenang for lunch and to return the car.
En-route, we collected our washing which, for the first time during this trip, smells awesome and took a little detour along a back road where I was able to hang out of the car and take a photo of a water buffalo doing its thing whilst Gregg took the brunt of bewildered stares from drivers passing in the opposite direction. Apparently, in Langkawi, it is usual only to stop at one’s destination and not simply to take in one’s surroundings.
Having returned the car, we decided to catch up on some blogging and other computer-based activities and managed, in the process, to catch up with a number of friends and family via Skype and Facebook which was welcome. Sorry to hear about the cold in the UK guys…to be truthful, right now, I’d love some. As I type,
Millipede? Centipede?
Not a pede at all...can anyone tell me what this is please? it is 9:15pm and has got to be in the mid 30’s. with, apparently, 83.8% humidity.
Enough of that…and back to Langkawi. As evening passed into night, our stomachs started to rumble and we headed off along the beach in search of sustenance. Today’s venue of choice was a beach front bar called Lilias lit mainly by candle light.
As we were sharing a beer and a hand or two of cards after the meal, I began to notice that a couple on a table behind us seemed to be having some sort of an issue. First, I noticed that the girl had her eyes lowered as if in tears and, being the romantic that I am, I thought he might have just proposed (if would have been a great place for it). When I looked up a couple of minutes later, I noticed that the girl’s eyes were closed and, when her partner turned around looking concerned, I asked if she was alright and he replied that she had fainted and he needed help to lie her on the floor. Gregg to the rescue again - he really is a hero!
The girl came around pretty
quickly once she was horizontal (and before Gregg could put her in the recovery position) but, when the poor thing opened her eyes, the first thing she was Gregg which must have been a bit of a shock , not to mention disorientating. The girl recovered quickly and, having handed out some advice on dealing with the heat in these parts, we headed back to our room and to sleep.
21 November 2010 I am going to partially spoil this blog entry by telling you that today was one of the busiest we have had in a while and another one for firsts.
Whilst Gregg was busy feeling guilty yesterday for the fact that we hadn’t really ‘done’ between Chiang Mai and the previous day, I decided that we were going to go on an island hopping tour today. So, we set the alarm for 7am and were ready and waiting to be picked up by minibus by 8am for an 8:30am boat departure. No minibus was to be seen by 8:20 and we were starting to feel slightly concerned, when a low slung black beast of a car drew up and a guy would
down the window asked us if we were going island hopping today and, if so, who with. He looked mildly amused by Gregg’s response of “yes we are - with you!”.
Apparently, he had forgotten which hotel we were at and we were getting our own chauffer to the quay. ‘Quay’ is in fact vastly overstating it. We arrived at a bay filled with wooden motorised boats and lots of Asian holiday makers and were shown to some chairs by a lady who appeared to be in charge. Shortly afterwards she appeared and gave us each an oblong blue sticker (the kind you can buy in a multipack in WHSmith in various colours) and told us to wait.
Once nearly everyone else had set off on their tours, it was our turn and we waded the short distance out to the boat and took our seats on one of the benches that lined either side of the vessel which, on closer inspection, wasn’t completely wooden after all.
First stop was “The Island of the Pregnant Maiden” (Pulau Dayang Bunting)- the tree topped peaks on the island look like the reclined outline of a pregnant woman - which
had two particular sites of touristic interest. The first were the monkies that inhabit the island and I took LOTS of photos. The second, and for me, the tricky pill to swallow was the lake of the pregnant maiden which is effectively viewed as some kind of fertility pool. Had we been visiting later in our trip, I suppose I might have been tempted to give it a try but, as it was, I was happy to dangle my toes in off the man-made pier and enjoy watching Gregg have some fun.
On arrival at the island, we had been told that we had 1hour before we would be collected. Being of the ilk that don’t like to keep strangers waiting (I know I can’t claim not to keep friends and family waiting!), we were back where we needed to be with ten minutes to spare. The boat arrived and we all clambered on, when it became obvious that a family of four were missing. We waited, then we waited some more and then the captain’s son was sent off to try to find the missing passengers. Then we waited some more and the boy returned. The captain waited
a bit longer and, once a good 20 minutes had passed, went off searching himself, shortly after which, the family of 4 turned up and clambered aboard, apparently oblivious to the delay that they had caused,. The captain was nowhere to be seen. Finally, the boy roped a passenger in to hold on to the boat and he went in search of his father.
You are reading this blog written by two people aboard the aforementioned vessel and you will therefore have gathered that the captain did eventually turn up. Whether it is a cultural difference or that the family that were late spoke a different language to the captain and he could not therefore communicate with them I have not idea, but Gregg and I were both gob smacked that he said not a word to them, as he clambered to the front of the boat and coaxed the engine into action even though we were, by then an hour behind schedule. In truth, I think we were both guiltily looking forward to some kind of a showdown but there was none.
We think that the next portion of our trip which was then curtailed somewhat but,
Gregg going for it..
for some reason, this pic makes us both giggle! of course, we will never know. Next stop was a spot where sea eagles feed and we set and watched 10-15 swooping overhead for a while. They are incredibly graceful birds and it was a delight to see,
Our final destination was Pulau Beras Basah, a small island that was, I am sure, once beautiful but which is now litter strewn and made both of us feel quite difficult about being there. This is clearly the tourist boat island and nothing else and, on our arrival, there were probably between 20 and 30 other small boats either dropping off or picking up their cargo of visitors. There is a kiosk for getting drinks and a stretch of white sand which would probably be stunning if it wasn’t crammed full of homo sapiens. If the delay at the first island hadn’t reminded us of why we had been avoiding tours since arriving in Cambodia, the sight of this island certainly did and we were both relieved when our boat arrived to take us back to Langkawi.
Back at our hotel, we enjoyed reading (and, in my case sleeping) and generally winding down and then Gregg suddenly announced that he
fancied going parasailing which was being offered by a number of companies on the beach. He went out to research cost and left me deciding whether I was up for giving it a go. Buoyed up slightly from conquering the bridge two days previously, I threw caution to the wind and off we trundled.
As we were harnessed in, I looked out to sea where the sun was starting to fade, making the ripples of the water glitter and thought “this is the best time to be doing this” and then I got scared. It was a bit like getting scared once you have been strapped into a rollercoaster however - there was no going back.
I think the entire ‘flight’ was only about 4 minutes but it was amazing. It was perfectly serene as we floated over the sea and the birds eye view of Langkawi and the islands surrounding it was breath taking. I am not saying that I would ever find the guts to do a skydive, but I am certainly converted to parasailing!
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