Langkawi

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.