Imagine white sands with swaying palm trees, small islands in the distance across the sparkling seas. Now imagine that combined with an airport duty free lounge that had a baby with a holiday resort, congratulations you've successfully imagined Langkawi. I'm not saying its a bad thing, Langkawi's duty free status was definitely convenient for picking up some tobacco and the alcohol was far cheeper than the rest of Malaysia but it took away some of the paradise vibes I'd been expecting. It was popular, the main beach near where we based in Pantai Cenang was packed with tourists soaking in the sun and the shops were filled with those looking for a good deal. I think I would just preferred somewhere that felt less western, where we didn't have to hunt out the few authentic places left.
We reached Langkawi via a boat from George Town. Despite what the reviews promised the boat thankfully wasn't filled with passengers heaving with sea sickness - so we counted the cramped conditions and Bollywood film playing small prices to pay. The first hitch in our journey came when we arrived on Langkawi and found out that public transport just isn't a thing there. You would have thought by now we'd be good enough at researching to notice a thing like this, but it didn't occur to us that a popular tourist destination wouldn't have any way to get around. Okay... there was a way but taxis are expensive on a backpackers budget. After spending 70 Ringgit to travel 120 miles on a boat to get here, the 30 Ringgit for the 12 miles to our hostel seemed a bit like a rip-off! Our only option other than splashing out for a taxi was to camp out at the port in some sort of protest, and we really didn't think the latter would help so taxi it was.
Our accommodation was a cute little hostel that I can no longer find anywhere online. It did seemed to be mainly filled with volunteers who got to stay for free by pretending to run the bar and liked to hold "staff" only events, maybe that's why its gone under. There was a slight confusion when we arrived as the promised pool was non-existent but apparently we had permission to use the pool in the next hotel over, at least I hope we had permission as we spent quite a bit of time there. Despite the hostel having a slight exclusionary feel to it, there was always people around to play cards with in the evenings and interesting people to chat with. Oh! I almost forgot the ping pool table, which Ben insisted we play quite often - I think mainly as he knew he'd win.
While in Langkawi we decided to go full on tourist and book into an Island Hopping tour, a four hour afternoon trip exploring the small islands that dot the seascape around Langkawi itself. In premise, it sounded great. To be fair it started out alright despite our boat driver being a maniac; he would hurl us full speed towards the shore only stopping or dodging obstacles at the last minute - I am so glad that I don't get seasick as my stomach was in my throat for most of the journey as it was! Our first stop was the lake on the pregnant maiden,this is when we realised that perhaps this trip could slightly be a scam. Instead of the entry fee being included (as we expected), when we alighted from the boat it was straight into a kiosk where we then had to pay an additional 6 ringett each just to be able to see more than the shore. Once we climbed over a hill and back down to the interior of the island where the lake sits, we were informed that if we wanted to actually get in the water we would have to pay even more money for the obligatory life jacket. Being a goody-two-shoes (I wonder what the etymology of that phrase is!) I stayed out the water not wanting to get in trouble. Ben the dare-devil along with Momo (one of the staff members from our hostel who happened to be on the trip too) jumped straight in the water, rules be damned. The fun didn't last long before an irate staff member came to shout at them, going as far as calling Ben a "fucker" and yelling at him "do you want to fight!?". Ben, being somewhat stubborn refused to get out the water until another random guy swam up and defused the situation.
I forgot to mention the one good things about the island... Monkeys.
Finally out of the water, and somewhat done with the "rip-off-lake-you-can't-even-swim-in" we decided to get out of there to wait on the jetty until it was time to leave. We all settled on the boat and waited, and waited, and waited some more, then half an hour past when we were supposed to leave the last stragglers from our boat unapologetically turned up and we could finally head off. Behind schedule, our crazy captain put the peddle to the metal and at warp speed we hurtled to our next stop.
I'm not sure if it was because we behind schedule, or our captain was a cheap skate but he didn't bring any food to the eagle feeding portion of the trip. So we had to just float about until another boat turned up. The other boat chucked some fish (I'm assuming) into the sea and then the eagles descended, swooping low around the boats before grabbing their treats and flying off again. It was pretty amazing to see these amazing creatures up close, but we weren't there for long before it was time to get to our final stop.
Our last stop was a small private island where we could go for a swim. By the time we arrived the tide was out and it was a bit shallow and rocky to do more than lay in the 10 inches of water and cool off before it was time to head off for home. All in all, the trip was a bit of a let down but at least it gave us some good stories to tell and to be completely honest some of the views while travelling from place to place were truly stunning.
The only other notable thing to happen in Langkawi was the night market that wasn't. A group of us from the hotel decided to visit the Thursday night market, unsure of the best time to go we asked our hostel hosts and they said it would be getting into full swing at 9pm. That decided about an hour before we all headed off for the 5km walk and as we arrived we realised we were too late, half the stalls were empty and the rest were shutting down! Thankfully, a few weren't completely shut so we raced around to get our goodies before they did. With a random assortment of food to try we found a nearby wall to perch on to relax and eat before heading back.
Somehow, despite it really not being our favourite place, we stayed for quite a while. I guess there's only so much hopping from one place to the next, we could manage without having to need a breather. We knew that our visa was for three months so there was time to decompress from all the sights we'd seen, all the new cultures and new food. There was time to get into a routine of sorts, but eventually we got the travel bug again and it was time to continue on. After three weeks on Langkawi we decided to move on and arranged transport via our hostel for our next location, Thailand.
Trip Date : Feb 2020
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