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Published: March 26th 2009
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Langkawi
We spent 3 nights at Koh Lipe, got great sunburns then moved on to Langkawi Island in Malaysia by speed boat.( we did have to wade up to our hips in water, with suitcases in tow to get to it via a longtail boat which looked like it could sink at any moment). There were 48 people that went with us all of which needed visas to Malaysia. We started about 2:30 in the afternoon and finally began loading at 4. It took about 1 hour of actual travel on the water flying over the waves. When we arrived at Langkawi you could immediately see the difference, the pier was beautiful. Yachts and sailboats doted here and there. It was now 6:30, once we were unloaded and took a long walk with our luggage up the pier we started to get a bit concerned as the tour company still had our passports. We were now on foreign soil with no passports or visas and our boat took off. There was also no customs in sight, no town or any visible services anywhere.
Finally some fellow came and explained that our passports had all been taken to customs
office
in town and to just wait there on the pier. An hour went by still no passports. There was nowhere to even buy a drink; we did not have any of their currency anyway. Again he came out said they were on their way, this time he spent a little more time explaining the system, helped exchange some of our Thai baht, and ordered taxis for everyone.
By about 8 our passports arrived and when we went to get our taxi there was nothing big enough to take us to other side of the island to our resort. This fellow again assured us a van was on the way as he jumped in his truck and took off. This left just the 4 of us standing on the pier for another 20 mins in the dark with not a soul around. Of course I started to giggle because by this point it was just totally ridiculous.
Yes the van did come and we had about a 35 min ride to the resort. The island here is beautiful. The roads were actual double lane highways with very little traffic. Our resort was very remote so we drove through countryside
most of the way. The resort itself was beautiful and huge; we paid more here for 2 nights than we had for 2 weeks in Vietnam. It was so big that they had shuttles taking you to the huts. Since it was now well after 9 we hurried, changed and got a shuttle to take us to a restaurant; there are 5 at the resort with only one left open at this hour. The prices were very high here beer $6, sandwich $9.
We were starved so we paid and we ate. (Keep in mind it is Friday the 13th so this day totally made sense)
Since it was dark when we arrived we were not able to appreciate the beauty of this place, apparently there are tons of wildlife here as our huts were in the jungle (including those stupid monkeys). The sounds at night were so foreign it was eerie, it actually reminded me of the bayou in Louisiana when I was camping with my parents and AJ years ago.
In the morning we decided to walk to the restaurant, what a beautiful place. This would make a great honeymoon spot. Lots of privacy, over water
bungalows, great pool, hot tub water falls, and, oh my, the scenery. We are on the side of a mountain so everything looks out over the sea, with doted islands here and there, beautiful lazy sailboats on the horizon.
This resort has so much to offer, the only problem is they decided to gouge the guests with extreme prices on food and drinks. Also the customer comes 1st does not apply here as it does in Thailand, no big smiles and when we got down for breakfast we found out the time had changed by 1 hour so we were now 15 mins late and had to order lunch. Absolutely, no offer to make a exception (in Vietnam we paid $20 a night and when we asked about eating later one evening, because they were sending two masseuses to our room to relax us after a day of walking at the ruins, the person at the front desk said don not worry we are available 24 hours a day when your hungry we will wake someone to get you something to eat). Oh well, I had mushroom soup and a bun.
The rest of the day
we spent at the pool, in the evening we got a cab and went to town for dinner. Shopping here is very touristy, nothing special at all. We went to the night market which was locals, almost like a farmers market at home. We enjoyed it here and tried some different foods sold at the stands. We started to walk to find the areas we had seen when we came by taxi on our arrival along the way we met a couple from Canada and asked about a good place to eat. It turned out they had a sailboat and they have been sailing this whole area since 1995, based off the coast of Africa, Fiji and now here. They referred us to a great seafood restaurant that is one of their favorites. We had a great meal and guess what a beer was only 1 dollar.
We purchased some juice and returned to our resort where we sat on our deck had a peaceful drink in the jungle. Now, we had been warned about monkeys, they are so smart that they can open the sliding doors and waltz into your room. The front desk people made sure that
we were told to lock the doors and windows all the time because they can become pests. There are also flying squirrels which we witnessed while we sat out in the dark. But the scariest of all was the giant leaf that flew off a tree and landed between Yvonne and myself, we both screamed, much to Ron and Jim’s amusement.
My take on Langkawi, ok, lots of monkeys, beautiful scenery, the people uninterested, quiet in comparison to other places, amazing scenery.
Would I come back? No
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