Lovely Langkawi

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LANGKAWI

We arrived at the ferry port, sailing past the big Eagle at ‘Eagle Square’, we grabbed a taxi to Pantai Tengah and Zackry’s guesthouse, which we made home for the next couple of weeks. We were given a double room, but that afternoon they were changing the roof from a noisy one for the summer, to a quieter one that did not tinkle so much when it rains. It is funny, when you are exhausted, how you can sleep through anything! Even a roof being changed.

That evening we took a walk up the road, looking for some where to eat, everywhere seemed so expensive but we came across a nice little restaurant in the Sun Mall. It had a ladyboy as the waiter, who was very pleasant and it turned out that she had come across from Penang seven years ago, but much prefers it here in Langkawi.

As it was Earth hour that night, the restaurant had decided to observe the hour, with our blessing, by switching off the lights. It was quite nice dinning by only candle light, but it did make us giggle when an older couple had problems seeing there bill and nearly set it alight on the candles! We went next door to the off licence after supper and was happy to discover how cheap the booze was (it is a duty free island, yeah!) Liam got a crate of Tiger beer for MR1.60 a can, which is about 32p! We also got a litre bottle of Absolute vodka for MR38, again cheap at about £7.60.

We spent a day chilling grabbing some lunch at a local restaurant that serves the best mixed Satays where monkeys were jumping on the roof after stealing the menu. The afternoon was spent on the beach, lots of swimming, where we would get tiny stings from baby jellyfish, that were annoying, but not painful. Dinner tonight was at a lovely looking Malay fish restaurant, part a hotel group, however it turned out to be one of the worst meals we have eaten, the service was really poor and the food decidedly average.

Today we headed into town to find an ATM so we can replenish our funds, we found one at the Aquarium. We went into the Aquarium which was interesting and we were lucky enough to visit at feeding time, so after seeing a lot of large fish and a jungle area, a bit like a mini Eden project for animals and more fish. We passed through the seal area, where we discovered the feeding times and into the penguin area (Charlottes favourite animal at the moment), for the feeding of two different types of Penguin’s. Onto the Shark tank where we watched some one dive into the tank to feed the Sharks, Turtles, Stingray, Grouper and many other fish.

We saw the Otter feeding, where they got the Otter to perform tricks before heading through more fish tanks ending in the lovely jellyfish tanks. So beautiful but deadly. Leaving we had to go through loads of tourists stalls ending in a pharmacy, then a café! Looking outside we saw that the sky’s had darkened and the heavens had opened. We sat outside, under the awning watching the rain, until it had eased enough for us to venture forth!

We walked up to see the rest of the town, passed all of the market stalls and started a hunt for accommodation for a couple of days time. The idea was to get a beach hut so that Charlotte could spend the days in the sun, while Liam sat in the shade. We went into every hotel and hostel along the beach, however, they were either lacking in some way or too expensive, so we decided to sleep on it. We stopped off for some supper in the Red Tomato and had Chicken Tikka with Garlic Naan and Butter Chicken. Yummy.

On the way back to the hostel we came across a fish eating place, so popped in and spent twenty minutes with our feet submerged in fish tanks full of tiny fish that nibbled away the dead skin and bacteria from our feet and lower legs. It was a little tickly at first, but very refreshing.

We ended up deciding to stay in Lovely Langkawi for five more day’s at Zackary’s Guesthouse as it had free WIFI and was the cheapest place. We spent the rest of the time there chilling on the beach and having little walks into town. We found a lovely restaurant next door to the hostel called Kung fu Chinese fish restaurant. The place was run by a very friendly man, who was always saying Hi and gave us a 15% discount because we were staying next door. The served the nicest giant garlic Tiger prawns and Chicken with Cashew nuts. We also dined at a funny restaurant that backs onto our hostel called Fat Mum’s Chinese restaurant, but it was not quite as nice as the Kung Fu place.

We met a great guy called David in our time at Zachry’s guesthouse, he is an ex-policeman (retired) from Canada, used to live outside Toronto, but has recently relocated to Victoria on Vancouver island near Vancouver, one of Charlottes favourite places. His wife had just left him as she did not like Vancouver and he had come out for a couple of months for some time out to think. He spent the days reading (about a book a day!) and chatting to other guests. A very nice man who loves being involved in his Grand children’s lives.

Other highlights include a walk down to Eagle point, which turned out to be just a hotel complex, but it was also where the boat trips went from. We kept getting caught in the rain which our receptionist found hilarious. One night to keep the rain off we brought another crate of beers and Liam carried it home on his head! Great umbrella! It might just catch on!

We booked one of the three island tours and got picked up the next morning and taken to a longboat down at Eagle point. We were one of twenty or so boats going out and had a very friendly guide, although his English left a bit to be desired, with a cute little lad as our deckhand.

We headed off first to Monkey Island and got dropped off at the Pier and told to follow the path to the fresh water lake and the boat would pick us up in an hour. Walking along the Pier we spotted lots of monkeys, which at first seemed quite cute, however they started attacking the people in front of us, trying to nick there plastic carrier bags as they normally contain food, then they kept trying to grab at Charlotte, but we soon figured out that they were after the plastic bag that was in her hand that she had put the camera in, in the boat to keep it dry. Once we put that away they did not grab quite so much. But were still quite scary, especially the one that had lost half of its lip, so you could see its menacing teeth.

We walked over to the lake and dived in one at a time so we kept our stuff away from the monkeys, that were everywhere! It was lovely to soak in water that was not salty and sandy. We then had a catfish foot massage, by dangling our feet into the shallow area whilst people threw in bits of bread to make the catfish come to the surface an swim around our feet. They were a little slimy, not as good as the fish that nibble your toes.

Next we went to another bay of an island where the boats threw chicken into the water and loads of Eagles swooped down to feed. It was amazing to see so many brown and white Eagles swooping around.

Our final stop was at a beautiful white sand beach for an hour of snorkelling, sunbathing and swimming. We did spot what looks like a closed down resort with loads of beach huts on that lovely beach and spent the day dreaming of owning it.

We headed back to the main island and back to the hostel and jumped out of the cab at Cactus restaurant where they serve the most amazing English breakfast including both Coffee and Orange juice. We met up with another guest from Singapore who also fancied going up the cable car that afternoon, however it turns out that they had closed it for two weeks that day for maintenance. What bad luck!

So we decided to go up Mount Rasa, which was the highest point on the island. We went to flag down a cab, but none of them wanted to take us as it is a very windy and steep road. Then they started quoting really high prices MR130 each (60 there 60 back and 10 waiting as there was no taxi‘s up there), so the man from Singapore decided to just go to the beach as he was only there for two days and we decided to go shopping in town, near the ferry port.

The cab took us to the shopping centre, where Liam found some new sunglasses to replace the ones he had broken and Charlotte found a really nice chopstick set. After wandering around the shops for a couple of hours we grabbed a McDonalds and walked over to Eagle Square which is a star shaped pier over the water holding a massive Eagle welcoming visitors to the island. We walked back to the ferry terminal and looked around the shops there before getting a cab home.

We left in a cab early the next morning and went to the ferry terminal and brought a ferry ticket to Satun in Thailand and were planning on getting a bus from there. After getting the ticket we went over to Starbucks for breakfast and a coffee before going through passport control and onto the ferry.

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