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For our last day in Penang we had decided we wanted to see Penang Hill as well as the Buddhist temple near by which is supposedly the largest in Malaysia. We got up relatively early and had some food from this amazing little bakery next door to our hostel and went to hire some bikes. At this point I am going to make it clear that it was all Alec's idea to hire bikes rather than just get a taxi, so the following events can be fully blamed on Alec!
During our bicycle ride to Penang Hill we realised that all the roads around George Town are one-way so trying to navigate through the town with nothing but a tourist map was pretty amusing. It was also quite scary changing lanes on a bike in between cars and motorbikes if we needed to go right or left on the one-way system. However, this was only the start to our problems as soon after we got out of George Town, a pedal from Alec's bike fell off so we needed to stop and ask at a shop to get it screwed back on. 20 minutes later, it happened again so this time
we phoned the bike rental shop and a guy came out to give Alec a new bike and take back the broken one. We waited about 40 minutes for the guy to come out, in which time we had stopped and had lunch at this small restaurant, which turned out to be pretty good, even if the food freezer was right next to the toilets. We carried on our way, equipped with a new bike expecting a smooth ride out to Penang Hill. Apparently not. 5 minutes down the road, Kish looses his pedal and the crank connected to it. A second bicycle is sent out to us, and we continue on our journey. After all the hassle of replacing bikes and misreading road signs, we managed to turn up to Penang Hill after it had closed! We cycled to the temple and surprisingly, it was also closed. By this point it was getting dark so we headed back to the hostel. The road down from the temple was steep and I was forced to go slowly down it as my bike didn't really have much of a back brake. By the time I had reached the others at the
bottom of the hill Alec had managed to break his replacement bike in the exact same way Kish had and again we were stuck calling for help. We had decided not to get a fourth bike, so instead (being the kind-hearted person I am) I let Alec take my bike as he was so eager to cycle and I got a lift with a bloke called Tengfei (I think) back to the hostel. I find that he is not a simple bike rental person but in fact a photographer for a national newspaper and had travelled to large parts of Asia to take photos. He said he would love to visit Europe but not surprisingly it is too expensive.
After the others had successfully managed to get home in the dark, we headed out for our last meal in Penang before we caught an early ferry to Langkawi. I guess Penang will remain a mystery.
We arrived in Langkawi around 11.30, already loving the sun, the clear water and the dozens of small islands dotted around. We started with a typical breakfast of KFC and then caught a taxi out to Pentai Tengah where we had already looked up
a guesthouse that would hopefully have room for us to stay. The guesthouse is called Zackery's and is a great little place with room for about 24 people, lovely staff and 3 lazy dogs. Oh and having the beach about 200m away is pretty cool too. Zackery's also has this wicked common room where everyone can go and chill and have a couple of chilled Tiger beers. Since we were pretty tired, we hit the beach for a couple of hours and on the way back we found a shop much like Co-op that also rented out cars for a price of 70 ringgets per day. Considering the hyped taxi prices, we weren't going to pass up that opportunity!
We started early on the second day and decided to be super touristy by visiting Underwater World! It turned out to be quite cool as there were some crazy looking fish as well as some randomly included birds and monkeys. After Underwater World we took our dodgy little car and drove to a place called Seven Wells where you could walk up to the top of a waterfall and bathe in the fresh water pools. The view was absolutely stunning
and cooling off in the cold water was a well needed break from the heat and humidity. After fully taking in the view over the forest and beach down below we headed to the Langkawi cable car that would take us 700m up to the highest point on the island with a 360 degree view over the archipelago. Beautiful.
After getting plenty of photos we took the cable car back down and had some food in the Oriental Village which frankly wasn't very oriental but oh well. Then drove back to Pentai Tengah, lay on the beach and watched the sunset with a bottle of Hoegaarden and a guitar.
Day 3 started badly after discovering 20 odd mosquito bites on my feet, never hated them so much as I did that morning. Fortunately it was all good from there as we had booked a boat which would take us to a couple of islands separate from the main Langkawi island. We took a speed boat to an large island called Dayang Bunting which was a protected 'geopark' and contained a fresh water lake surrounded by rock which was named 'The Lake of the Pregnant Maiden'. So named because of
a legend that tells of a Princess who drank from the lake and became pregnant. When she told people about this strange occurrence she was executed after being accused of adultery. Sucks to be her.
There was a large group of monkeys hanging around the pathways to and from the lake, non of which seemed to mind the flow of people walking right past them. We did however witness a fight between two monkeys which was broken up by another massive monkey who chased one of them off. Our next stop in the speed boat was to see a group of eagles being fed fish that were being thrown in the water. Amazing to witness, very hard to capture on camera.
Our final stop was an island where nobody seemed to be living and only a few huts had been built. The beach had white sand and a line of overhanging palm trees, perfect place to relax for a few hours before heading back to Zackery's.
In the evening we drove to the capital, Kuah, to get a traditional Malaysian dish named Nasi Lemak and to check out the massive eagle statue next to the ferry port, which I can
only assume is Langkawi's symbol or mascot or something. We finished the day with a couple of beers at the guesthouse and had the privilege of watching to small lizards attempt to catch and eat a massive moth, but unfortunately it got away with a chunk out of its wing.
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Simon de Kretser
non-member comment
Good Job Olly
Hi Olly Liking the blogs so far, and the pics on FB look great - keep it up! Sounds like you are having a great time! Comment written on my new iPad - cooooolll! Dad