5 Days in Langkawi

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Day 1

We take the express train to the airport from Sentral station, it’s a bit more expensive but turns out to be worth it as it’s really fast and comfortable. KL international airport is very impressive, everything looks brand new and it’s very easy to get around. We booked the domestic flight with Malaysian Airways, it worked out at €75 euro each. If we had of booked earlier it would have been cheaper but we weren’t sure what the plan was. Customs and check in had no queues and we just went straight to the gate in plenty of time. There wasn’t many people around so we just put on some music and chilled. There isn’t many people at the gate but strangely I see two couples that were sitting beside us just start legging it down the terminal. I go to the nearest screen and see that our gate has been changed to a different wing of the airport and the plane is boarding. Shit! I tell Ciara and we start walking/running to the other gate. We arrive just in time and are basically the last people to get on the plane! That could have been a disaster.

The flight goes fine and we get a taxi from the airport to Cenang beach. We get left off at this place called “The Cabin” as they looked nice and they hadn’t got back to us to say they had no rooms left like everyone else we contacted. Luckily they had one room for us so we just take it for one night to save us walking around with the bags. They are basically a portacabin converted into a bedroom and ensuite with flatscreen tv, fridge and aircon so they are nice enough. We walk around to have a look at Cenang and see what the other accommodation is like. The beach looks amazing and the place in general isn’t too touristy, one bad thing was there is a sewage smell on some parts of the street that will take a bit of getting used to. We find a place called Cenang Rest House and have a look at the rooms, they are good, basically on the beach, beside a good bar that we heard about called Babylon and are a lot cheaper than what we are paying now so we decide to book the next 4 nights there.

We go for dinner in an Indian / Malaysian restaurant called Tomato, its open 24hrs a day and pretty cheap. We get malaysian butter chicken, tandoori chicken, roti cani, nand bread, vegetable fried rice. The feed is amazing and probably the best we have had so far. I doubt we would have ate here in the first week as its not much to look at and the hygiene standards wouldn’t be what we are used to at home but I suppose that’s all part of the travelling. We head to Babylon then for a few drinks, beers are 5 ringgit (€1.25) for a coke can sized can. The bar is part of the beach and there are mats to sit on and seats and tables made out of drift wood. It’s really chilled. Ciara also decided to try beer and has her first can of Chang which she soon seems to really like! Think the price might have helped a bit J. When the place starts to get busy about 10:30 a lot of the tables have massive bongs on them and everyone is sharing them. We later find out that it’s only flavoured tobacco which we were kind of surprised at. We meet loads of Swedish and German people and have a good night with a bit of a party on the beach after the bar closes. Some of the really drunk people decide to go skinny dipping, good thing we can hold our drink!

Day 2

Ciara wakes up and says she is “changing”. I have to give it to here I was impressed with that one. We grab breakfast before we move, an omelette for me and pancake with banana for Ciara. It’s pretty good and very cheap. This place is starting to grow on me. After we move we head to the beach and it’s a very warm day. The water is basically like getting into a warm bath! There are some sea lice though so u have to keep moving so they don’t nip you. They don’t bother me too much as the stinging only lasts for a few minutes. After reading books and lying about for about 2hrs Ciara realising that we may be getting burnt a bit so we head back to the room to cool off but it’s too late! I am burnt really badly on my calfs, back and sides, Oops. The sunburn is pretty bad probably the worst I’ve ever had, I can’t believe how fast it happened as it was fairly cloudy and I had sun cream on but obviously not enough. Damn you Irish skin. Of course Ciara is fine.

The water seems to be cut off to the whole town so the showers are not working and neither are the toilets! It doesn’t worry us too much and we head for dinner in a pretty nice looking restaurant called Red Sky or something like that. We get Malaysian chicken fried rice and a Malaysian chicken curry. It’s unreal and probably beats the feed the night before. Because of the sunburn we make it an early enough night.



Day 3

We sleep in the next morning and when I wake up the sunburn is bad, the worst place being behind my knees! Walking is not easy. We get lunch a cross the road and it’s a pretty nice feed and very cheap again. One thing we notice is the amount of cats, they are everywhere, at least that’s means there probably isn’t many rats! We book island hopping for Friday and organise the cable car for tomorrow. We don’t do much else that day just walk around and chill. We go for dinner in Orkid Ria a Chinese / Seafood restaurant for dinner and it was amazing. We get roast duck and sizzling pepper chicken with a few beers. Definitely the best food we have had since we left Ireland.

We go to the beach with some drinks and watch sunset and just chill, this is the life. After we go to Babylon for a few more beers and some socialising. We meet some girls from Sweden and have a nice night talking to them and just chilling.



Day 4

We get a taxi to the cable car which takes you to the viewing points on the second highest mountain on the island. The cable car was a pretty interesting experience, it’s basically one big steel cable holding all the pods. There were a few hairy moments on the way up, suddenly the whole system just stopped and all the pods were just swinging back and forth and up and down. Any tan that Ciara had achieved over the last few days was instantly gone, she was white as a ghost and just sat with her head in her hands. When we get to the top the view is class, we take a few snaps and head towards the sky bridge. Once Ciara sees the bridge she doesn’t look too happy and I doubt she will go near it but to my surprise she says that she wants to give it a go. As we walk holding hands out towards the middle of the bridge I have never seen her as afraid. Her legs are wobbling like mad and she is freaking out every few seconds but she wants to make it to the middle!! She makes it just about and quickly turns around and heads back to the start. The whole cable car and sky bridge is a great day out.

The weather turns really bad as we are going home, we pass a car crash on the way home in the taxi. It’s pouring down and thunder and lightning are hitting the hills around us. When we get back we decide we want some “western food” for a change so we go to this pizza place. It was a bad decision as the food was nice but we were not satisfied after. It starts pouring down so we head back to the room to watch it and chill. It never gets better and the streets are empty so we just settle in for the night.

Day 5

We are up early the next morning for island hopping. The minivan picks us up from outside out place and brings us to the pier. There are 9 of us in the boat and there is plenty of room for everyone. We go to an island for some snorkelling first. I’m surprised as it looks like a lot of people can’t swim as they leave on their life jackets and just stay around beach. I swim out pretty far to the coral and see a few fish and some alright coral nothing to get excited about. After this we got to a small bay where there are a load of eagles. The boat driver throws out some bread into the water and the eagles start swooping down and grabbing the bread out of the water. It’s pretty impressive and some of them are massive birds and get very close to us. Next we go to “pregnant lady island” it’s called this as the hills on the island form the shape of a pregnant lady lying down. It’s a 10 minute walk past some very aggressive monkeys to get to a fresh water lake where we do some swimming. After we head back on the boat to the pier the whole thing took about 4hrs. We decide to get some drinks in the shop, go to the beach to chill and watch the sunset again. Beers in the shop are 1.6 ringgit (40cent) J We have a pretty relaxing evening, there is lots of thunder and lightning in the distance after it gets dark and we have a pretty cool light show for a few hours. Back to the room to get ready for the journey to Koh Samui the next day.

John (The first and possibly last blog I will do)

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