Malaysia: Langkawi

From the 21st to the 23rd, 30 of my closest exchange friends descended on Palau Langkawi (Langkawi Island) off the North-west coast of Malaysia for a long weekend of relaxing, and generally bumming around under the sun.

We did far more exploring than I anticipated, and it was awesome. I had no idea one small island (it is slightly smaller than Singapore, and has a population of 60,000) could hold so much...not to mention the 98 islands that make up the Langkawi archipelago!

To get to Langkawi from Singapore, you have a few options - bus (it takes about 20 hours in two bus trips, and then a ferry), plane (the most expensive is direct sgp-langkawi, but we did it differently), or ferry from Penang (and a bus from sgp to Penang). The route we chose (because of time and monetary constraints) was Singapore - Johor Bahru (taxi x2) - KLIA (plane) - Langkawi (plane).

Now, whilst this may have been the cheapest method given time constraints etc..., my ears really don't appreciate so much up-down-up action in one day. One long plane flight gives me time to adjust. Two 45min flights (when I have a cold) are never fun. However, having said that, my head only felt like it was about to explode once, on the flight from KL to Langkawi.

PGP-JB
From the moment we left PGP (5:30am!!), we were all pretty excited. For most of us going, this was the first real sidetrip, and was going to be one of many. I had never seen Langkawi, aside from a few pics in a general guidebook to Asia. Having now seen it, I can definitely recommend it.

Johor Bahru (JB) looked stunning at 6am. The city was dead, the water still, and the boats docked in makeshift piers reflected perfectly. The old, fading look of JB without neon lights added so much to the atmosphere. There is an old-school amusement park on the water, which at night (as I learnt afterwards on the way home) looks perfectly normal and lively, has an eerie quality with the lights out and the gates locked.

The airport was dull and would probably not exist was it not for the low-cost airlines like AirAsia. Taxes leaving JB are nothing compared to those leaving Changi (Singapore).

JB-Langkawi
Flights were non-eventful, aside from aforementioned brain explosion. At KL we had an interesting conversation over some strange cheese croissants of the merits of certain aspects of Singapore's sex policy, but we shall leave that for another time. For now, let's just refer to it as 'equal opportunity'.

Langkawi - Day 1 (Friday)
Upon arrival at Langkawi, we hired cars and drove straight to our accomodation, and then the main tourist beach on the island (Cenang Beach). At the time, we all loved Cenang. It represented the picture-perfect beach, and was great for watching the sunset. We stayed there for the entire afternoon, and discovered the cheap beer waiting for us at 7-11. RM3 for a Tiger Beer. That's just ridiculous!!! We're all hoping Singapore can instigate a duty-free policy similar to Langkawi, so all the exchange students can enjoy cheap alcohol. For those interested, cigarettes are also RM3 here ($A1!!).

A fair few of my photos from the trip come from this time at Cenang. It was the only time (aside from a few hours on Saturday night) that we had the whole group together, so we took the opportunity to take the obligitory 'group photo' about 5 times!

Dinner was, shall we say, interesting. Ah, forget it, it was dreadful. Really really bad. We chose the restaurant spontaneously, having realised that it was 8pm and we hadn't eaten. We picked an empty restaurant (mistake no. 1) on the main street (mistake no. 2), which advertised seafood (mistake no. 3). It turns out the restaurant was brand new, and had just opened. The problem was we didn't find that out until we were leaving. Of a menu of about 10 pages, only 5 items appeared to be available. Again, that would have been OK had they informed us it was the case. It was not until half an hour after we ordered that we realised our food wasn't coming and found out the chicken had finished, and there was only fish. This was after I had been told the fish was unavailable.

Eventually, around 10pm, I had really nice (and quite spicy) fish. It was unbelievably cheap (RM2.5 a fish, cooked), however the whole lack of atmosphere, and stupidness that went along with actually getting dinner meant the evening was a write-off.

Langkawi - Day 2 (Saturday)
For many of you who know me well, this won't come as much of a surprise, but today I slept through my alarm. It was set for 8am. I woke at 10, when we were supposed to be leaving. Luckily two of the three drivers were in our room, so we had to wait for them.

First stop was the waterfall at Durian Peragin. Silly Tristan had forgotten proper walking shoes, but luckily the path didn't go too high, and the waterfalls were quite small. Still a very nice place to visit, and well worth it, but I can imagine it gets hugely busy in peak times, judging from the carpark and the shop set up at the bottom.

From the waterfall we continued to cross the island to Gunung Raya, the 2nd highest mountain on the island, and the only one you can drive to the top of. The Malaysian PM visits here every 2 years for a meeting, and the guard at the top was kind enough to show us around. The place is quite large considering its rare use, and it has amazing views of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. The day we went though, was quite cloudy, and the views didn't allow us to see Indonesia. Just saying that sounds crazy! Obviously the Malaysians agree and have placed a satellite station there. No prizes for guessing what it is there for.

By that time it was lunch, which was eaten at the most 'local' place on the island, right beside an open sewage ditch, near Black Sand Beach. Really added to the atmosphere. I felt sure that if I was going to be sick from anywhere on the trip, it would be there, but we were all fine! Malaysia is definitely not Indonesia in that respect.

The afternoon was spent driving around the island, from one side to the other, and visiting the Cable Car at Gunung Machinchang ("Oriental Village"). I 100% recommend anyone who gets the chance to ride on the cable car. You get the most awesome views over the island of Langkawi, and of the surrounding islands and reefs. It's just unbelievable. When I post the pictures you'll have a much better idea.

Our last stop before the beach BBQ was Tanjung Rhu, a beach in the North East of the island. If I thought Cenang was amazing, it has nothing on Tanjung Rhu. Unbelievably soft sand, a long, wide beach, and really shallow water. The only downside, coming from an Aussie perspective, was the complete lack of waves, or surf. Other than that it was most relaxing. Not to mention the tasty battered bananas we had (see mum, I am eating fruit!).

Langkawi - Day 2 (Saturday) [Part II: Beach Party]
The beach party, organised by Leong, was awesome! He supplied the food, we supplied the alcohol, and Langkawi supplied Cenang Beach, almost deserted. The reason for the island being so quiet was the tsunami that hit the West coast of Malaysia on the 26th of December 2004. Although it hit Langkawi very very mildly, it's impact on tourism could definitely be felt. Many places were very quiet, and this is meant to be the peak season. If anyone out there is reading this, and is wondering about Langkawi, just go - they need you and there is nothing wrong with the island!

The beach party was hampered by the efforts of the owners of the bar we were at to kick us out if we didn't spend money, and by a few other things, but all in all, it was a very cool night. Believe it or not, I think it was my first beach party - and I live in Sydney! Got to bed at 3:30am, which compared to Soren and Laura, who arrived at our room at 7am, was quite good going!

Langkawi - Day 3 (Sunday)
Today's itinery revolved around doing the 'must-do's that we didn't get around to doing on Saturday - namely island-hopping.

On our 4hr speed boat trip, we had an amazing view of Palau Langkawi, and through some of the many surrounding islands. We visited three - Palau Beras Basah, Palau Dayang Bunting, and what I think was Palau Singa Besar.

The first and the last were known for their v.v.nice beaches - with crystal clear waters (shallow as always), and lovely sand. Once again, I forgot something - this time it was a towel. At least I had a camera and sunscreen - the other two necessities.

My writings here won't really do these beaches justice - when I post the photos, you'll have a much better idea. Also, I will soon (as in, in 10 minutes) be able to add photos as single blogs very easily, so I'm looking forward to that!

The 2nd place we visited (Palau Dayang Bunting), contains the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden, which is a fresh-water lake, exisiting within an island surrounded (obviously) by salt water. It exists because of a natural 'wall' seperating the ocean from itself. Cool huh!

Believe me, its very refreshing!

No discussion of this trip would be complete if I didn't mention the monkeys. Being a tourist spot in Malaysia, there are many of them, and they have become quite adept at stealing and eating food left on beaches and on decks! Within about 30 seconds of Xavier putting some biscuits down on the beach, they were gone. For some strange reason, at PBB, they have erected a small, useless wire 'fence' around the monkeys, which does absolutely nothing, as monkey's can climb!. Who was the doofus who thought of that. Actually, come to think of it, maybe its to stop humans going into the monkey's habitat. That makes more sense.

From the island-hopping trip, we went straight back to the hotel (Kondo Istana btw, in Kuah Town), and from there to the airport, and back home. We were all so tired by the time we got back to PGP (at midnight), that I think everyone just crashed.