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Published: April 16th 2012
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Ah, Langkawi! A great start to the Malaysian leg of our trip (although most of ye know how that ended)! After a full day boat trip from Thailand, stopping in Koh Lipe for some amazing snorkelling, we finally arrived in Kuah town. Most people when they come to Langkawi head straight to the beach, but we were interested in seeing what the town was like before heading out to the coast. For anyone unfamiliar with Langkawi, its an island off the north west coast of Malaysia, also known as the jewel of Kedah and it about 25km in length and width.
First thing we did when we arrived was find somewhere to eat that was showing the Man Utd Man City game! We were in luck, as right across the road was a big open air food court full of people with a big screen showing the game! There was a great atmosphere as the majority of people were city followers, due to the noise when city, who were 3 nil down scored twice in the second half! Langkawi is also well known as a duty free island, so alcohol is much cheaper here (we took advantage of this after
spending a month in expensive Thailand)! The next day, we headed to the jetty, home of the Langkawi eagle! As you will see from the photos, it’s a massive statute of an eagle about to take flight, right on the edge of the water. Next to it was the entrance to the Legends Park, which we made our way through, looking at all the weird sculptures. The park is full of statutes and monuments which depict the legends of Langkawi and how the island supposedly came into being. It was really interesting! That evening, we headed to the cinema, I know a weird thing to do on a Malaysian island but we wanted to see the new Mission Impossible!
The next day, we headed to the beach, specifically Pantai Tengah and the infamous Zacharys hostel. It was very basic but close to the beach! In the photos, you will see a small pond at the hostel, where we were told that a few months previous, during the rainy season, a giant anaconda had been found in it!!! Spent the day on the beach, although the snorkelling wasnt great compared to Thailand. With one full day left in Langkawi, we
decided to rent a scooter and explore the island and the other tourist sights, such as the 7 wells waterfalls. The next morning, we headed off in that direction. The waterfall is named after the 7 natural pools along its route and is in the uppermost point of the island. After struggling up over 300 steps, past lots of monkeys we made it to the top, but there was hardly any water cos it was off season doh!! Still great views of the surrounding mountains! On our way back down, we stopped at a smaller waterfall and Vinny braved the cold water and jumped in! We then headed off for lunch in the Oriental Village where we came across a sort of petting zoo and decided to feed the rabbits! This was probably the highlight of the day! It was so funny. There were millions of rabbits in this enclosure and for a small fee you could go in with a bag of carrot sticks and feed them! The rabbits were obviously well used to this because when we walked in, we were surrounded! It was like something from Father Ted, everywhere you looked they were coming out of the
woodwork! Soon, we were completely covered in them! It was so funny, in the end we bought another 2 bags and stayed in there ages!! Had to drag vinny away when it was time to go!
Back on the scooter and off we headed across the north of the island to check out the beaches along there. We enjoyed the amazing scenery and jungle-like vegetation before heading inland, to try and get to the highest point on the island, the mountain called Gunung Raya. We found the road that led up the mountain and decided to try it. Half an hour of chugging up steep windy roads around the mountain on our little scooter (while looking at the worringly low petrol gauge!), we were rewarded with spectacular views of the whole island. There is a hotel at the top and for a fee you can go up to a viewing tower, so we did that. It was really scary cos you are out on a ledge and its really windy but the views were just amazing. Running out of words to describe how class it was. We eventually left and practically freewheeled it all the way down the mountain
before heading back to the beach to drop off the scooter. A little reluctantly, we decided to leave the next day and booked our ferry tickets online. We really enjoyed our few days in Langkawi and were struck by how different the Malaysian people were to the Thais. Everyone was very nice and helpful and the food was great! The next morning, we got a taxi to the port and caught the ferry to our next stop in Malaysia, Penang.
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