Ting's Side of the Langkawi Story

Hello!

Been a while since I last wrote. I was just reading Julien's post "The Eagle Stone" and I decided I should share a few other memorable moments about the short holiday for me that Julien had not mentioned.

First thing we did when we arrived was hit the beach. I love the beach, and I'm not sure if it was the same for Julien, but I really wanted to check if the sand was fine and the water was clear. The result - It was AWESOME! As Julien had mentioned, we didn't do much the first day we arrived. So we just strolled the beach, enjoying each other's company. This is what life is about - I was thinking to myself. We were lucky enough to enjoy a great sunset as well. Unfortunately, I think Julien was a tad too hungry.

So we adjourned for dinner.

After dinner, we took the binoculars to the beach and star-gazed. It was just amazing the number of stars in the sky. It was as though God had taken the best diamonds in the world, and just scattered them across the black velvet sky. Julien claims the best place to star gaze was Scotland in the winter when the sky is clear (which is rare...very rare). This I got to see. That was day one.

Day 2, we spent the whole day at the beach sun tanning and swimming. At one point, Julien was asking me if I felt stingy all over. I had told him that he had too wide an imagination. We both took a closer look at the water and realised that there were tiny jellyfish everywhere! Little brown ones that looked like bubbles, and the common translucent ones. Lucky for us, they were too tiny to really hurt us, but we were really careful after. I am glad to announce that I got a new shade of tan in 30mins. Julien, well, he was all purple, especially on the legs since he had remembered to pour thick layers of sunblock on every other part of his body, except his legs.

The third day was the highlight for me. We did activities that brought me back to days of my childhood! My parents used to take my sisters and I to the water falls in Kota Tinggi, Malaysia, and I loved it! For those who have not swam in one (yes you can swim in it), the water is really cold! Like swimming in ice water which is GREAT since the weather here in the tropics can get unbearably hot hoT HOT at times. I had noticed that there were a few waterfalls in Langkawi on the map we had taken at the airport and I was eager to see them. Day 3 was "Project Waterfall". The objective was to go waterfall hopping. I had got it all planned out in my head as we were riding out: "1-2 hours max and then on to the next" was what I had told myself in my head. I knew we had to climb to get there.. I just didn't know it would be that steep a climb. The thing about waterfalls is it's best if you can go up to the very top because I believe the water there is freshest. Just getting to the first level was a challenge already. I don't know how long we had to climb but it seemed like a long time... my legs were already starting to cramp up BEFORE we even got to the first well. But when we got there, it was all worth it.

Just looking at the first level made me want to adventure up to the other levels. I was sure it would get better. Needless to say, that gruelling climb outweighed my enthusiasm, and I was more than grateful when we had finally reached the second level. It's one of those things where you reach the top of what you had thought was a really long flight of stairs, only to realise you were at the bottom of the second flight of stairs! I cannot remember how many such sets of stairs we had to climb to reach the second well. There is a Chinese saying that goes "First bitter, then sweet" - Directly translated, it refers to certain situations and circumstances in life where we need to go through tough times, before it gets easier and we enjoy the fruits of our labour. I couldn't have found a more appropriate description for this occasion.

Julien enjoyed himself quite a bit too. Who can resist the water falls?!

By the time we swam about a little, and did some tanning, it was already mid day, and looking at how majestic this waterfall was, we couldn't wait to experience the second one we had in mind to visit. The climb up to the second one was a lot harder than the first one we visited. Maybe also because we were pretty tired out from the first climb already. The huge steps were roughly cut out from the existing stones from the natural formations, and they were pretty slippery too. It looked like these steps were cut out for giants!! I felt like a 3 year old learning to climb steps for the first time.

We were supposed to see this:

We saw this:

I cannot further express my disappointment.

I was happy enough that we still managed to spend the better part of the day in the seven wells, and even have Julien experience his first swim at a water fall.

The ride back was nice too. Past few times we rode by this area close to the hotel, we saw many cars parked but didn't know why they were parked there. So with the bike, we decided to stop and snoop a little. To our surprise, we had realised that even though these private hotel establishments had somewhat robbed the locals of their very right to their own beaches, since they bought over these beaches, the locals had found a part of the same beach with a better view to rendezvous at FREE OF CHARGE.

We had discovered a palm sized jellyfish that the local kids had taken an interest to as well. Even the adults came round after a while. Haha.

Julien and I both had sore scalps (i'm not exaggerating) after. So sore I thought it was bleeding at first, like it was sore from a cut or something. We had realised only later that our scalps had been sunburnt! What an eventful day!

The rest of the holiday went past like a breeze... short but rejuvenating.

My thoughts bring me to the last day where if I had a seperate blog about it, I would title it "Men are Big Boys". A picture paints a thousand words... it can't be more appropriate for this..

Ok, I'll be fair and say we both had fun on the swings. It's fun to be kids again!!! I think we're all too grown up sometimes we forget to be kids. Oh! See that brown skirt i have on in that picture. That's the nice tube dress I bought at the flea market which I discovered can be worn as a skirt too! Very Bohemian!!!

That's all for now.. Till the next post!!! By the way, there are many nice post card like pictures of Langkawi that we have posted on our Picasa album for your viewing pleasure. =)

The eagle stone

Here is the post about the Eagle Stone, better known as Langkawi where we had a gooooooooood vacation!

I don't know where to start or what to tell you first, there was sea, there was sun, there was food, scooters, jelly fish, waterfalls, sharks and many Dutch.

Langkawi
Officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah, is an archipelago of 99 islands (an extra 5 temporary islands are revealed at low tide) in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of north-western Malaysia which is adjacent to the Thai border. By far the largest of the islands is the eponymous Pulau Langkawi, where we were, with a population of some 45,000, the only other inhabited island being nearby Pulau Tuba. Langkawi is a duty-free island.
The name Langkawi is a combination of "Lang" and "Kawi". "Lang" comes from the local native Malay word helang which means eagle and Kawi means "red". In the past, the land was a home to innumerable red-eagles(helang Kawi). Also some Hindu historian said "Kawi" is Sanskrit for marble, which is found in excess in this part of Malaysia. Both words are joined to form the word "Helangkawi" which ultimately became Langkawi. (Source Wikipedia)

Mutiara Burau Bay Hotel
We stayed in Burau Bay which is on the western side of the island, the furthest away from Kuah, the main town of Langkawi, and it was good to be far away from the city. We had our own little villa (Bungalow would say Ting) which must have been at it's best in 1972, but equipped with satellite TV. Mainly families seem to go there, and a few young couples. Mostly westerners. Apart from the beach, the pool and two restaurants there is absolutely nothing to do there. The food in the restaurants was just ok. Buffet dinner with different themes everyday. Nothing special here...
The beach is really nice. Fine sand, palm trees, clear water, water sports, and just a few jelly fish.

The first day we went canoeing hoping to see things under the water, unfortunately it was too windy. So the hour spent on the boat only helped my burned legs get worse, like an overcooked lobster. I ended up canoeing about with my t-shirt over my legs to prevent them from further cooking. Ting also had the pleasure to witness a fat pink jelly-fish swimming under her canoe, "It was the largest jelly-fish I ever saw". She was real happy after her rare encounter.
We also got to see the shooting of an Indian movie. It was really funny to watch the actors dance and sing in their numerous layers of heavy clothes under the scorching sun on a Malaysian beach. I have no idea what the title of the movie is and I highly doubt I'll ever see it. Bollywood is not exactly my favourite kind of film.

As the hotel is far away from everything if you don't rent a car or a scooter, you feel kind of trapped. So we rented a two wheeler. And it was really fun to ride through the lacy roads of Langkawi mountains.

Road Trip

Our scooter wasn't exactly in the best condition. The mileage counter was stuck at 11,756 Km and the speedometer didn't budge which ever the speed. The whole machine started trembling very soon after accelerating so I didn't go fast. The roads are very good, nice tar evenly spread, wide enough to let two cars cross. And as the island is pretty hilly the roads are really enjoyable to ride. I think even Ting sitting in the back enjoyed it. We both looked very stupid in our helmets though.. not exaggerating.

We went to have dinner along Cenang beach, south to where our hotel is, on the second night. A few shops selling the usual tourists goofs and really good food. We had barbecued fish with garlic and chilli sauce. I mean, very good, it's making me hungry again to think about it just now. And the price was insanely cheap. €7.50 for our full dinner with rice and drinks... I mean where can you find that in France? After dinner, Ting insisted we went shopping and for once she did actually buy things, a really nice brown dress, which she discovered later could be worn as a skirt as well, and a pareo for which we haven't found any use for yet, but I'm sure we'll figure out something soon.
The following day Ting and I rode to the closest waterfall called the seven wells. So beautiful and enjoyable I think I'm going to let Ting post on that. She really was happy there, her Dad used to take her to swim in waterfalls and the childhood memories seemed good.
After that first waterfall we decided to go to the Temurun waterfall further north and it was such a deception. Langkawi being in the dry season at the moment, a dribble of water was leaking from this 30 metres high cliff and a puddle at the bottom with a few skinny fish was all to be seen... We stayed long enough to see a monkey steal bread from this Chinese girl's bag, I was the only one laughing... On our way out we crossed a few people who were already expecting to be disappointed after seeing our faces.
Our scooter was rented until 6pm that day so we headed back to the hotel after stopping in this horse stable where all the horsed looked really sad. I don't know if it's their breed that makes their eyes like a cocker spaniel's eye... They did seem to be well fed and treated so we didn't really understand. Anyway, Caroline if you're reading this, know that you can ride in Langkawi as well!

Our holidays were hitting their half time already and it was the moment to take a huge decision: an other day cooking on the beach, or a trip to the marine park to snorkel?
I think the adventurous mind of my dear princess won over my laziness and we went snorkeling! What a good idea this was.

Snorkeling
The marine park is 45 minutes high speed boat south of Langkawi's main island. They installed a diver and snorkeler friendly platform. To be honest it looks more like a factory than anything else: put about 300 people on a platform the size of a tennis court and you'll get what I mean. And I'm not even mentioning the family of Koreans not budging from the ladder leading to the water and just pushing everyone about, tossing too much bread in the water for the fish to gobble... I did get very upset at them but they didn't seem to care much. But let's start with our arrival on the platform.

After managing to find a table to sit, one of the staff tells you what's going to happen on the exciting day:
11h30 to 12h30: snorkelling and first dive for the divers
12h30 to 13h30: lunch
13h00: first small boat to depart towards the beach to see the shark feeding, shark feeding happening soon after.
14h00 to 15h00: second dive for divers / free to snorkel more /walk along the beach / try to get bitten by a shark
15h15: run to the boat and get some after-sun cream for the sunburns
No time is wasted and Ting and I had a great time! We saw the sharks from above and Ting even had them come close to her in the water, I chickened out to be honest... The snorkelling is fun once you swim away from the Koreans, millions of colourful fish, some corals and anemones; it's like swimming in a fish tank!
That was our day... I mean the entire day because to reach the platform at 11 o'clock we had to leave the hotel at 8h10am. We were back a 5pm for a shower and dinner. I really had a good sleep that night, I think the Koreans tired me out too much.

Holidays to an end
The next day was the last already, and with tears running down our cheeks we gave the key back at 1pm (one hour late) and waited for our chauffeur to drive us to the airport. He was the chatty kind who knew everything about everything. One fact is interesting though: Langkawi was hit by the unfortunately famous 2004 tsunami. A whole fisherman's village was destroyed, and one person died. Everyone else was out at sea and the children in school.

As you can read, it was a braw holiday. I probably missed many things to tell about it and some funny moments. Like when Ting and I were looking for the second waterfall (the one with no water) only to realise we had driven past it 3 times already. Or the monkey breakfast: one morning we were welcomed at our breakfast table but many many monkeys. The whole hotel was amazed at how these little burglars jump down from the roof to grab some bread and eat it happily! I should also mention the pool's permanent resident. A huge monitor lizard... It went to swim in the pool occasionally and took showers, getting the person rinsing himself to run away. I heard they are dangerous and indeed I wouldn't bother them too much.

That's all for now. I'll let my dear wife complete the stories about these holidays. She had lots more to say.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Yetinker wishes you all the best for 2009 and, why not?, the other years after that. Let's try to love each other more in the future.

Otherwise, our post about Langkawi is taking time but will be here soon. I think it's still lazing by the beach.