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Published: January 6th 2010
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After leaving Ko Phi Phi on New Years day we had to spend the night on the mainland in Krabi town as the trip to Langkawi Malaysia is too long to do in one day. The hotel in Krabi was OK - it was cheap and had a hot shower. Krabi town itself does not have much going on. The next morning we took a minivan which transfered us in the middle of nowhere to a second minivan which eventually took us to the Thai port of Satun. From here we went through immigration and changed our Thai baht to Malaysian ringit (RM). The currency change is fairly easy to calculate - 1pound is aprox 50baht which is 5ringit. So from baht to ringit you just have to drop a zero. After a short ferry ride we were on the island of Langkawi, Malaysia - and it was pouring with rain! We found a cool sounding guesthouse in The Lonely Planet on the main beach - Pantai Cenang. The guesthouse was called Gecko Guesthouse. All of there huts were full but they a had a large room in a house just behind the guesthouse for 50RM with a private bathroom so
we took it. Bizzarely there was an English guy and a Korean girl sleeping in the hallway as when they turned up the place was full but the house owner said the could sleep there for 5rm a night until a room became available. But they decided they were happy to stay there anyway and save some money so we had the room!
The first night we took a look at the beach (the rain had stopped - ) which is much bigger and busier than the beaches we visited in Thailand. Langkawi is a popular holiday destination for Malay people also and we were visiting during peak season. Also the water was very busy with jetskiers, speedboats doing parasailing and wakeboarding and banana boats. We then took a walk along the strip of hotels, shops, bars and restaurants that runs behind the beach. On the middle of the strip is a massive duty free shop (Langkawi is duty free for some reason) where they sold dirt cheap spirits / beer / cigars etc... I think this is another reason it is popular with Malay people as we had read Malaysia is expensive for alcohol as it is a muslim
country. We soon found out its cheaper for a beer on Langkawi than it is in Thailand. Most of the restaurants are indian or chinese, there did not seem to be a Malay food as such. I think a large part of the population on Langkawi is Indian, certainly a lot of the tourists were.That night we went Babylon Bar on the beach and watched a live funk band and had the Malay Tiger beer (no more Chang!) and some rum and coke. Then we went back to the hostel and chatted to some Dutch who were staying in our house. I cant help laughing at their accent as the pronounce their S's as SH, so for example Amsterdam is Amshterdam. I asked the dutch girl what she did and she said 'I am a shitty ecologist in the local park'. We tried not to laugh.
The next day it was raining again so we did some boring stuff like laundry / shopping and internet stuff and hungout at the guesthouse for a bit. Even in the rain its 35 degrees. So hot you wake up covered in sweat in the mornings. Our one fan really is'nt adequate! There is
a really nice atmosphere at the guesthouse, lots of friendly people to talk to and a TV lounge, free wifi and the ice tea is the best we've had so far (we drink at least one ice tea a day, normally at breakfast). Also they do awesome omelettes with real cheddar - so far with only had artificial cheese. That night we wnet to an Irish bar and watched the FA Cup games. I wont comment on the United result. We then went back to the hostel and watched Arsenal beat West Ham which finished at about 3am! Next day took a Taxi to the otherside of the island to get the cable car up the mountain (810m). The cable car was awesome - it begins by climbing steadily over jungle until you a pretty high above the tree's - I have to say I had a bit of a sweat on and it was'nt just the heat. It then starts to climp rapidly up what can only be described as a massive sheer cliff to the first station. The views from here were incredible - check the photo's (when I can upload them!). You could see all around the
island and many of the surrounding islands (Langkawi is made up of 99 islands). You could also see the beach where we were staying 25k's away. We then reboarded the cable car and it starts to ascend over a huge valley above the jungle canopy to the very top of the mountain. From here you could see the otherside of the island and there is a suspension bridge over a sort of canyon which led down to the sea. The descent was also pretty sketchy! The cable car gets up a bit of speed before you drop out the station and descend on the cable. I got a great video of Phil looking pretty nervous.
That night Liam joined us from Bangkok so went out for a chinese (we bought a whole duck) and had a swim on the beach and few beers and then played cards at the hostel until about 3am.
Yesterday (the 5th) we went to the Aquarium on our beach - it is the biggest in Malaysia. It was good - sharks, penguins, turtles, jelly fish, giant rays - but obviously not as good as seeing them in real life. It seemed like the tanks were
way to small. We watched a diver feed the sharks and rays by hand - that was interesting. Also they had the largest fresh water fish in the world there, it was some sort of pike that lives in the Amazon. That night we had lots of Thai food and Phil and I decided to go to the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia the next day, and Liam to Kuala Lumpar so he could meet his friend. We will join them on the 9th. So my next blog will be from the Cameron Highlands...
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