Well it has been a rather eventful two
weeks. We decided to continue the theme of ‘roughing it’ and travelled to the
tropical island of Langkawi. This collection of over 500 islands is located on
the north-west coast of Malaysia. It is considered one of the best wildlife
islands in Malaysia with many species of birds, reptiles and extensive
mangrove. Oh, it’s also duty free, which means alcohol was not only allowed but
cheap.
http://goo.gl/maps/ajexV
We travelled to the small town of Kuala
Perlis by night bus from Kota Bharu. This 8 hour experience was made less
enjoyable by my inability to sleep on moving vehicles and the fact that James
went out like a light after 10 minutes. We travelled as a group of 7, James and
I, along with Helena and Alex from Kuala Krai and the three boys from Besut. We
arrived in Kuala Perlis at 6 in the morning, and caught the first ferry the
Langkawi. This ferry was interesting as the Malay’s had attempted to be highly
organised and assign everyone seats, on a ferry. This did not work, everyone
was wandering around very confused by the ridiculous seating plan, some people
were in the same seat and even some people sets didn’t exist. We finally
managed to arrive on Langkawi and find our accommodation, Pantai Tengah Beach
Inn. After a well earned chill out session, we strolled into the main town and
had a McDonalds. Bliss. An evening of relaxation mixed with cards and question
based games followed were much was revealed out about some people.
The next day was supposed to be our beach
day, relaxing in the sun, getting a tan (or in my case getting burnt, James
compared me to a lobster more than once). However it was raining. Yes on this
tropical island paradise for the one week we were there it was raining. No
matter, like true Brits we powered through, we went in the sea instead. The
rumours of calm crystal blue waters were totally wrong, the huge waves, crashing
breakers and fierce winds made for a more breathtaking experience. After being
battered for what felt like hours, we retired home. That evening we went to the
famous Little Lylias beachfront bar, complete with life music, palm trees and wooden
tables with candles. It was a lovely scene.
The day after the group divided, James,
Dale and I rented Mo-Peds and toured the islands while the others 4 went for a
full day snorkelling experience. On our island tour we went the Langkawi Aquarium,
cable car, Bird Paradise, black sand beach and several waterfalls. Then after
becoming totally lost we were guided back through the back of the backstreets
by a friendly Malay farmer. During this excursion James managed to take a bump
a little too fast causing his phone to fly off his bike. Let’s just say not all
the pieces were found. That evening we had been told all about this fantastic
night market, and since we still had the Mo-Peds we decided we should try and
find it. After assuring Helena that my driving was very safe and she wouldn’t die
if she rode on the back with me, we heading out into the night. An hour later,
we had lost James and all sense of where we were. Not good. We somehow managed
to stumble back to familiar lights, however with no luck on the night market
mission. James appeared 30 minutes later, so at that point we decided to call
it a night.
The next day we had booked a mangrove tour.
After sleeping in and almost missing our transport, we boarded a boat and
heading into the mangrove. After seeing a bat cave, eagle feeding, monkey
feeding, crocodile cave and a limestone cave (we walked through, it had not
been eroded with tall people in mind) we went to a floating fishing village for
some lunch. That’s when it started to rain, and rain it did. It was so strong
it was painful to drive through it, so the trip was unfortunately abandoned. After
changing at home, another chilled out evening followed, made memorable by James
and the girls pretending to be unicorns using pointy shells from the beach, oh
dear.
On our final day was our island hopping
trip, the activity that had been most recommended to us by every teacher at the
school. Our first stop was the lake of the pregnant maiden, which legend says
if you swim there with you partner you will conceive. Thankfully that hasn’t yet
happened to any of us. The enjoyment started with Danny. Danny had purchased a
large tube of Pringles, smoked barbeque flavour. He promptly ignored that
numerous warning of ‘No food on the island, leave everything on the boat’ and
took them anyway. We got about 50 metres onto the island when a monkey, as
cheekily as possible crept up behind him and snatched them. The mocking was
endless. When we finally reached the lake, we chilled out and fed the catfish
for a while, it was such a peaceful spot. The rest of the trip included eagle
feeding and a lively beach visit. When we gt back to Langkawi there was time
for one last McDonalds before the ferry back. We caught our bus home and
arrived in Kota Bharu at 4:30 the next morning.
James and I had failed to remember that
later that day was our schools family day, a hectic day filled with tiring games
and activities. After that we then had a uncomfortable and mosquito filled 5
day ‘team-building’ camp with Form 3. After almost 2 days of nearly constant
sleep we have now recovered, and I have written this blog. Mum, if you nag me
about this one being late, the death will be quick and painless. To sum up,
trip to Langkawi was wet, expensive and not much of it is fully remembered. We
had a fantastic time.
