Day 29-32...Langkawi

Our taxi picked us up from our hotel for the 8.15am ferry to the island of Langkawi - We hadn't originally planned to go here but after a glowing recommendation from Nick and Colby (from the China tour) we decided it was too good to miss. We hadn't actually realised where Langkawi was so was a bit surprised when we found out it was going to take around 2 and a half hours to get there. It was freezing on board as the a/c was going full throttle from every angle and I only had shorts and a t-shirt on - felt like Beijing again. Once we docked we actually ran into trouble as the ATM wouldn't accept my credit card - while we were fussig about this we had the hassle of every taxi person in the building asking if we wanted a taxi every five seconds, roisin went mad at one of them in the end. We did eventally get a taxi (not from the guys that were hassling us) and went to the Cenang area.

Cenang beach is one of the more popular areas on the island, both our book and Nick and Colby had said it was the place to go though, so logically we went. We got the taxi to drop us in Cenang and went to find a place to stay. Luckily the hotel across from where the taxi dropped us had Beach chalets for 35 ringitt a night (about Euro 7.50). I was kinda unsure but after we checked the chalet it seemed fine and we decided to go for it (its only catch was no hot water - but you didn't need it in this heat anyway, oh and no a/c, but we had a fan). Anyway its not everyday you can have your own beach chalet on a tropical island!

After we dropped the bags in the chalet, we had a gorgeous lunch in the Red Tomato Cafe were they baked homemade bread mmmm... before we hit the beach. Wow, it was unbelievable, white sand, blue sea, clear skies, we were thinking Thank U Nick and Colby. We got a couple of deckchairs and just sat on the beach for the entire afternoon, had a couple of fresh pineapple and watermelon juices and basically soaked it all up. The sea was a lovely temperature, not to hot or cold. Once we soaked up the main sunrays for the day we got changed and headed for the Lighthouse restaurant for a few cocktails and watch the sunset on the horizon. This place is actually a seafood restaurant and while the food looked amazing, it was a bit out of our price range, anyway we were concentrating on the cocktails. We got a nice little table on the beachfront and had a couple of potent cocktails to start. The place got even more gorgeous as the sun went down and it was just the most stunning setting ever. We were really getting into the cocktails at this stage and decided to have one called an AK47! Well this cocktail had brandy, whiskey, vodka, cointreau, gin, rum and just for a laugh lime juice! Well it certainly hit the spot and we decided that a couple more Jim Beams with coke would finish the night of nicely. As we hadn't eatan in the Lighthouse we had to find somewhere before all the restaurants shut up shop for the night quickly, we eventually settled in a Muslim restaurant and had some lovely satays and fresh battered prawns - muslim restaurant is just our own term for them, Langkawi (as is most of Malaysia) is predominantly muslim, and alcohol is not welcomed in a lot of places, so the restaurants that didn't serve alcohol we just called the Muslim restaurants. In fact, the next day we headed to 'best breakfast place in town' (Rough Guide 2006) which turned out to be crap as (it being a muslim place) did not serve bacon or sausages.

After breakfast we decided to take more of Nick and Colby's advice and rent a car. Well as you all know (or don't) im useless and havent learnt drive yet so it was down to Roisin. The fact that she was didn't have her license with her didn't put them off renting the car out to her so we got a little punto lookalike and set out to explore the island ourselves for a day at the extortionate price of 50 ringitt (Euro 10). We firstly went to the airport to try my credit card again but it was again refused, i was starting to get a bit worried but couldn't let it take over the day.

Langkawi had a number of tourist attractions which we decided to go to. Of course the scenery of the island as we were driving was stunning. We firstly went to the Langkawi cable car, which looked out over the island. It wasnt a very easy experience as the car was swaying in the wind as we went up over mountain after mountain. You got just gotta try not to think about it and definitely dont look down! When we got up though the scare was worth it as we could see the whole island from these viewing areas which included a suspension bridge which also swayed in the wind. Still it was great to see and we have some fabulous pictures.

After another scare on the way back down we wanted to go the Seven Wells which is in Telaga Tujuh and consists of waterfalls and natural pools. The booked had warned us about monkeys parading the walk up to the waterfalls and that they can be aggressive if provoked-great! We got there and there was monkeys sitting on the roofs of a couple of cars next to where we parked. We got out slowly and made our way to the first waterfall passing round 50 monkeys along the way - and no we didnt provoke them. The first fall was lovely, really quiet area, the only people we met were 3 Australians who told us there was a natural pool down the bottom of this fall which is great for a swim. We said we'd check it out so went down to have a look. We decided not to swim there but to just dip our feet and hands in. Just as we were about to leave we Mossie repellent into the pool...as it floated away I went to take my shoes off to jump in and get it. Roisin beat me to it though by climbing out onto a jut of rock and grabbed it,soaking herself in the process. That was pretty funny.

Anyway it was time to face the 367 steps which lead up to the seven wells, another waterfall area. After about 3 steps the was sweat dripping off us, it was a fairly steep climb, we stopped about 4 times on the way up, but i tell you it was sooooo worth it when we got there. This area was made up of these natural pools, considering the climb you had to make to get there it was unsurprising that there were only a few people up there swimming. This place was definately not one where we could refuse a swim. We got changed and made our way into the first pool. Now these pools are very easy to get into but very hard to get out of, the rocks are so smooth like silk you just fly into the pools and slip all over the place - great fun though, and i have to say probably the most refreshing swim i have ever had. We swithched pools a couple a times and decide to face the natural slide, it was basically a rock so smooth that you go straight down from the top pool into a really deep pool down the bottom - was fantastic fun.

After spending about an hour at the pools we headed back down to the car where luckily no monkeys had climbed onto. We then went to what is generally said to be the best beach in Langkawi called Tanjah Rhu. It was like a scene from that crap Beach movie with Leo Di Caprio in it. Stunning beach though. As we had already been swimming we just had something to eat at the seafood restaruant next to the beach and again went for fresh prawns. Prawns being the only seafood we actually bought as it was surprisingly expensive to eat fish in Langkawi. Afterwards we decided to head to Kuah, the capital of Langkawi. There actually wasn't too much to see there to be honest although we found a nice food market, so we headed back to the chalet after a fantastic day.

The next day we decided to take the car for another day and go back to the Tanjung Ruh beach we were at yesterday for the day. We got our stuff togther and and headed off. We stopped in a crocodile farm along the way which was really cool as they had huge crocodiles in ponds and swaps, it was great cause they were going for each other and everything - you could here a big crash every few minutes. They also have a disabled croc, he has no teeth and a bucked jaw. We got to walk over a bridge with shit loads of crocs underneath, it was scary as they tend to look at you like they are gonna strike at any minute. Luckily they just went for each other and we made our way to the beach.

We got to the beach and there was literally about 10 people on it, which so nice. We lazed around for the afternoon and swam, saw just the one jellyfish which was lucky. We found out that in the high season you cant swim in the sea cause it is full of jellyfish (its the low season now). Well we got burnt like crisps on the beach even though we had a loads of suncream on. Unfortunately its one of the sideffects of our Malaria tablets that we are more at risk to the sunrays - They got it right. That night we decide to go look for somewhere to have dinner and hopped into an Irish bar for a quick drink. We got a jug of Tiger and had look at the food menu, which included Irish Stew! The staff of course were all locals, they greeted us with Conas Ata Tu which being the Gaelige Connaissuer I am I knew wot they were saying straight away. Anyway we had a another couple of jugs of Tiger and after a few chats with some English couple decided to just have dinner there. Roisin went for the Irish stew and I had the beer battered cod and chips. It was great food and the stew tasted better than anything you would get at home. You can tell that ever since we got to Langkawi it has been Western food all the way - sick of noodles, curries, rice...its like a take-away every night.

Our last day in Langkawi was spent on Cenang beach soaking up the luxury for one final time. We spent all the day in the shade mind since we had turned into lobsters from the previous day (bit sensitive). That night we ate Malaysian and our Langkawi paradise had come to an end. We would seriously recommended anyone coming to this part of the world going to Langkawi and hopefully we will come back some day ourselves - reckon we might have a few who wouldnt mind coming with us!

From Paradise

Team Domro