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Published: January 18th 2007
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Langkawi is marketed as the main tourist-attraction of Malaysia. This is the place where anyone can travel to.
We took an early early (8.00) ferry from Penang to Langkawi. Arriving 2 hours later still very sleepy we only had a vague idea of where we wanted to go. We found our way to an information booth where a guy was ringing around to all the places to try to find us a room. The main problem was, there were no rooms! We arrived in between christmas and new years and it was full everywhere. We decided to just go for dormbeds for the night and see what we could find the next day.
We were lucky as the owner of our guesthouse Gecko said that there was a room being availible at 9 in the evening. The problem was what to do until then. I managed to fall asleep in a hammock for 4 hours.
My first impression of Langkawi wasn't the best, I thought it was too expensive and that it was too touristy. Places where charter-tourists go usually only show what they want you to see and it feels a bit plastic and fake.
The
other people staying and Gecko was a happy bunch. There was a Thai called Thon who could play anything on his guitar, a few Canadians, an Australian and so on. The place was actually so chilled out that some days you didn't leave it at all.
Another good thing about Langkawi is that it is taxfree which means basicly cheap beer. The rest of the things that should be cheap due to the lack of tax well, they aren't.
There was quite a lot of western girls living at Langkawi with Malay boyfriends. The main population of the island is Malay and it is a big difference compared to Penang which has a lot of Chinese and Indians.
We heard a story from a taxidriver:
If you give a Malay 1 000 ringgit after one month he has nothing left
If you give an Indian 1 000 ringgit after one month he has 1 000 left
If you give a Chinese 1 000 ringgit after one month he has 10 000 left
It gives a good view on the differences. The Malay are happy and easygoing people that lives for the day. The Chinese are
always working, doing business. Most of Kuala Lumpur is actually owned by the Chinese. And the Indians, well, somewhere in between.
We took it easy a couple of days, adjusting to the new place. Then we rented a motorbike to go exploring. It is a great island for motorbiking, good roads, not much cars and people drive sensible.
First ee went to a waterfall, but being dryseason it wasn't that great. I ended up feeding the macaques some peanuts and that was pretty cool. When there was only a few of them that is. Later on when I gave a monkey the nut I saw 30 or something monkeys rushing towards me. That was quite scary so we left. Next place we went to was also a waterfall, but before the fall there was 7 ponds big enough to swim around in and smooth rocks inbetween so that you could slide from on to the next. We arrived quite late so most tourist seemed to leave, and we always prefer a place less busy so that was cool.
We also went to a handicraft place but that was a waste of time, the first time we went
it was closed and the second time it was open but it was more a big souvenir shop than anything else.
One day we went to the northeast of the island to go kayaking into the mangrove forest. Unfortunatly since being the dry season the water was too low to go in between the trees. And it was a funboat not a kayak which made it hard to steer in the wavy water. I had fun though, we stopped at a small island and saw some cool animals. I also managed to step kneedeep in mud. Something that I am sure is good for the skin. And we both managed to burn our leg on the exhaust of the motorbike so this must have helped it heal.
We also saw the worlds biggest mangrove crab, it was gigantuos. It made me want to eat crab. It was well massive.
A malay restaurant just by our guesthouse had a great lunch, a buffee with good crab and really nice chilli beef. And the best thing, it only costs about 80 pence including a drink. Apart from that I think that the food in Langkawi was a bit overpriced.
We did have good Italian pizza but it was probably the most expensive meal we have had so far.
We celebrated new year with the people from Gecko first we went to one bar, then to the reggie club (the place where everyone ends up every night). It became 12 and the usual happy new year. I was a bit bored and decided to go home, but I met Thon on the way back and he was heading towards the reggie club so I went back there with him. He had been playing guitar and singing and had champagne and satay. Somehow people now started to give me a lot of alcohol. I had myself only bought a couple of beers (tiger beer, my new favorite) and now there was champagne. And walking back a few hours later we stopped at another bar and people kept giving me beer.
Amie had left for home earlier, however I had the key to our place so she couldnt enter. And me staying out for long, well, when I got back she wasn't anywhere. I unlocked our chalet and went to the beach searching for her. At the beach I met
two girls that stayed at Gecko and chilled with them. Somehow they managed to feed me whisky, red wine and beer. I got to bed about 9.30 in the morning.
And waking up the next day...I thought that I had died, and this was me paying for all my sins. It was bad.
After new years everyone seemed to go away and Gecko got a bit boring. So we were heading to a new country, Thailand.
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