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Published: December 7th 2006
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We left Railay at 6am, the place was like a ghost town. A Thai lady came to meet us and guided us to our long tail boat taxi. It was just about sunrise when we boarded the boat and this was the first one we had seen since arriving in Thailand. It took us about an hour to reach Krabi port, where we waited for our mini bus to pick us up. The bus arrived on time at exactly 7am. We had another 5 hours ahead of us before we arrived at Satun to board a ferry to Langkawi, Malaysia. It was quite sad leaving Thailand as we had had such an amazing time there, but at least we were leaving there on a high. The ferry to Langkawi only took an hour. It was quite funny though how they played a DVD, Poseidon (for anyone who does not know - this is a film about a ship that sinks!). - they obviously didn’t think too much about the passengers before deciding on the entertainment!
On arrival at Langkawi port it immediately had a different feeling to Thailand. We went through passport control and grabbed a taxi to our hotel
the Holiday Villa in Pantai Tengah. Ok - so we may have spent a little more than normal on accommodation but it was the first one and only one out of about 10 hotels that bothered to reply to our email. The hotel is stunning and the swimming pool ridiculously long. As soon as we got there we tested out the pool with its Jacuzzi and swim up bar. We were both shattered that night so had a relatively early one.
We decided to hire out a ped again for a couple of days as its definitely the best and cheapest way to see the island. As nice as our swimming pool is and as fantastically beautiful as the beaches are, it is possible to get bored with sunbathing and I think a couple of hours a day is the most we can manage at any one time. Our first full day in Langkawi was spent SHOPPING! Kerry was craving it and thankfully she had found a boyfriend who could have been gay when it comes to shopping. We shopped all day! Langkawi is a duty free island and so we thought we could get ourselves a couple of
bargains whilst we were here and that we did! We got back to our hotel about tea time, dropped our stuff off and went straight back out - accidentally pulling up at a very very tasty Japanese restaurant. Stu checked his phone only to find out that one of his friends from Hockey club had been killed in a car crash a night or 2 before. Craig Hooks, otherwise known as Hooksy was only around 21 - 22 years of age which makes this even more of a tragic loss. It really makes you think when someone this young has their life taken away from them and our hearts go out to his family - we had a drink for him to remember him by.
The following day we decided to take a tour around the island. We took the coastal road up to Pantai Kok and followed it around to an Oriental Village Shopping Complex where we found the station for Langkawi cable car. This cable car ride is certainly no “Heights of Abraham” as you get whisked to the top of the Majestic Gunung Machinchang, some 710m above sea level for some magnificent views of Langkawi and
the Andaman Sea. Once you reach the top you can get off to take some breathtaking pics of the scenery. There are a couple of view points to take pics from and also a curved suspension bridge which takes you from one mountain peak to another. If you have a fear of heights then you really should not tread the bridge. There were loads of warnings about severe weather and to make for an immediate exit if you see rain clouds or if winds pick up! The bridge did shake considerably half way across which was rather unnerving but the 4 quid each we paid to experience this was well worth it. We had some lunch before getting back on our ped to explore more of the island. We carried along the North road which took us to Pantai Tanjung Rhu. The beach here was picture perfect and you could even walk from the beach over to an island along a sand back which only meant you come up to your knee several meters out to sea. We stayed here for a couple of hours before heading back to our resort. We spent the evening watching Bond movies in our
room (as we were skint) to Kerry’s delight (not).
Our last full day in Langkawi was a lazy day. We spent the majority of it by our pool and on the beach playing frisby - it’s a hard life! Langkawi really is an idyllic island, perfect for a quiet vacation. Its certainly more of a family resort than a backpackers haven. I think we looked a little out of place in such a nice hotel, so much so that the security men on the gate questioned whether we were staying in the hotel - cheeky! Langkawi is certainly somewhere Kerry’s mum would love - so maybe she will treat her to holiday to pay her back for all the free loading holidays she has had off her
Our next stop is Penang, Georgetown. We were advised by a couple of people not to go there - so we are going! Its apparently a bit of a hole and our hotel that we have booked is a fiver a night including breakfast! We are only staying in Penang a couple of days as we are just using it as a stop to plan our travels inland to the
Cameron Highlands. Whilst waiting for our ferry to Penang we read about an earthquake (6.6 on the richter scale) which occurred on 1 December in Sumatra. It said that “The earthquake is not expected to trigger a Tsunami but tremors where felt in Penang for as long as 5 minutes.” Oh well - best crack on!
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