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Published: July 14th 2007
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(By Ben) Today we are in Georgetown in Penang, staying in the heart of the town. We had planned to see the sights but unfortunately this morning as we were getting ready Sarah walked into a brick that was propping a door open, and may or may not have broken a toe (again)! We'll keep you updated on that one. So we're having a lazy day in this colonial town, and the Internet is free in our current hostel, so i'll write about Langkawi. (Sarah - the brick was actually a sodding huge breeze block!)
Our first full day in Langkawi was spent on the beach, beautiful white sand that squeaked under your feet (Sarah - like Whistling Sands) and coconut trees running it's length. The water was a little murky I think because it's monsoon season slightly further north. There were a few jellyfish in the water (we think!) but they were harmless jellyfish who's sting produces a bit of a sore tingle.
Going on the brilliant sunshine of the first day we decided to hire a moped/motorbike (125cc) and explore the island on our second day. On this day we saw more
rain than ever before. It was crazy. Plus all we had were shorts and t-shirts and visor-less helmets. Sarah managed to stay dry though as she was sat behind me while the rain drove itself at my front! We did manage to see a black sand beach, and on another beach, a sea otter! We were walking along a beach, not straying too far from the water as we had been politely asked not to as it belonged to a very posh resort, when we saw what we thought was a cat emerge from the water, 'very strange' we thought, 'didn't know cats liked the ocean!', and then we realised it was an otter! It soon saw is and alarmed dove back into the sea, so we sat and waited for it, and soon it emerged on our other side slightly further up the beach observing us.
When the rain was at its worst we had to stop and luckily there was a 'cultural complex' close by. I was soaking wet and typically this place was air-conditioned so ridiculously string that we were freezing cold!
When the weather had cleared we went to 'seven wells', a short walk up a steep hill, where water runs down through seven natural pools that you can swim in, and the water has smoothed out the rock creating slides from one to the next, which amused us for quite some time! Sarah emerged with many bruises from this activity! The last well ran into a huge waterfall which was an incredible sight. Also here we saw our first snake, it was perhaps a metre long, but quite thin, green at one end and red at the other, and it slithered across our path half a metre in front of us!
Seeing as Langkawi is a duty free island we thought we'd have a look at the cheap stuff on offer. We ended up buying 6 toblerones, a bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum (for about 5 pounds for a litre!) and some Jim Beam! We also bought ourselves a bottle of red wine and proceeded to have a cheese and wine evening later that day. But being Malaysia all we could find was expensive processed cheese slices, so we bought some cheese crisps!
The next day we had another beach day, not much to report, but it was a very enjoyable day!
The day after that we tried the beach again but the wind was incredible and was relentlessly blowing wind in our eyes, so we gave up. Earlier that morning we had visited Laman Padi, the local rice and padi museum! We learnt about the traditional way of harvesting rice and saw the many tools used, but it wasn't the most interesting museum in the world! But it was free so can't complain! And we know how rice grows and we didn't before we came away!
That day we also found a bar that served draught beer! So we indulged, and later indulged twice more in another bar on the beach listening to 80's power ballads of the Celine Dion variety! (Sarah - I knew all the words -thanks Mum!) It was a fitting end to our Langkawi time. The next day we left the island, which was obviously very upset to see us leave as it tried to stop us with a terrific storm, but we made it out! And now we are in Penang, where Sarah's toe permitting, we will see some stuff!
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