Don’t get me wrong, I was excited about our whole trip and looking forward to visiting all of the different places, but I was most excited about Langkawi. We had done our research and some friends had made a trip to Langkawi last year and we heard nothing but amazing things. I must admit that I was not disappointed. In fact, Langkawi lived up to its reputation and then some. I could not have imagined a more perfect paradise!
Sitting down now and reflecting on our trip, I don’t even know where to be begin… but I will attempt to start from the beginning and not get carried away and go off on tangents.
When preparing for our trip, we had planned to spend the first half of the week in a small Inn on the northwest side of the island. The appeal was that we would have more of a local feel, eat local food, interact with local people and have a chance to explore some villages. The latter half of the week, we had planned to kick it up a notch and stay in a fancy resort on the southwest side of the island known for its tourist feel and expat community, bars, restaurants, shopping, etc. To be honest, we could not have planned it better.
The ferry ride from Penang to Langkawi was a little bit longer than expected, but it was actually a beautiful ride across the Andaman Sea. Being the geniuses that we are, we wanted to sit on top of the ferry during the ride because we wanted to soak up some sun and enjoy the view. Little did we realize that not only would we end up burnt after the 3 hour ride, but also soaked from head to toe in salt water from the spray of the boat, not to mention completely windblown! Just before the ferry made it to Langkawi, we had to go back below deck with the rest of the passengers to wait the arrival. When we walked in, you would have thought that we were thrown overboard and spent the morning wrestling sharks we were such hot messes!
Anyway, Langkawi was off to a great start. The people on the island were just as friendly as the Malays on the mainland, if not more welcoming (if that is even possible). We made it easily to our hotel after having to bargain for our taxi ride (and every taxi ride after that – it became exhausting). Our hotel – the Tidoq Inn – was definitely located off the beat path, but it was a great find. It was run by a Czech man whom told us entire life story within this first fifteen minutes and admitted to being a luck man to have such beautiful single women staying right next to his room (we made sure to lock our door and sleep close together). The fridge was always stocked with cold water and beer and everything ran on island time! It was really relaxed, and just what we were looking for. The room was no gem. It lacked air con, one bathroom was shared between at least a dozen guests and pigeons pecked and ran across our roof all day and night, but we couldn’t complain much… it was cozy.
The first night was pretty chill. We freshened up after our sea salt facial and bath and wondered around the village a bit. We grabbed some dinner at the local hang out called T 52. The food was fair but the people were incredibly warm. It was like a cheers bar – everyone knew everyone, but they were so excited to have foreigners around. If we would not had been so beat, we would have loved to join in for some local fun, but we decided to call it an early night.
The next day, we rented motorbikes to explore the island. Really, the island was very small – smaller than Shanghai – and it was suggested that we take at least one day to rent bikes to ride around, so that is exactly what we did. We got the bikes around 11:00 am and they were ours for 24 hours. Now Anna and I had no problem with the bikes, they were just automatic mopeds really, but poor Amy was a nervous wreck! She had never been on a motorbike before and was doubting herself. Anna and I took her to an empty area so that she could practice, which actually attracted a lot of local attention (let’s be honest, it was really entertaining… like teaching a child to ride a bike for the first time). After she became a bit more comfortable, we set out for the open road.
Anna and I took off, but quickly realized that Amy was left behind maxing out at about 20 in a 60 k/j zone, so we had to cut her a break and slow it down a bit on back roads. Well the ride ended up being awesome. Although we had a general map, we didn’t have much of an itinerary or destinations. Whoever was in the lead would turn down any road to see where it took us. We curved in and out of the jungle and up and down through the mountain. We stopped at little local shops along the way, beaches and food stands. By the end of the day, Amy was doing a great job keeping up!
(black sand beach)
(riding through the jungle & mountains)
After sneaking into the fancy Sheraton hotel to swim at the beach and in their infinity pool, we headed out for some seafood dinner on the beach, then took another late night ride down the other side of the island to the more popular tourist area. We didn’t get too far before turning around. It was dark, and Amy wasn’t too keen on driving on a main road at night, so we headed back. The next morning, we woke up bright and early to take the bikes out again for a ride before we had to turn them back in. Again, we made our way back down to the touristy beach (Pantai Cenang) for some breakfast and to get a feel for the area before moving down there to our resort.
You know it is rather interesting how things have all sort of fallen together and fallen into our laps throughout the vacation. This day was no different. Since we had arrived in Langkawi, we had been looking into doing some kind of island hopping, or snorkeling, or something fun, but it was turning out to be a whole lot more expensive than we had anticipated. However, while we were sitting at breakfast, an older man who owned the restaurant, and apparently a tour company, approached us and told us about his island hopping tour that afternoon. It seemed legit… it was only 25 RM compared to the 100 RM plus that we found for other tours, so we thought we would give it a chance. Following breakfast, we took our bikes back and prepared for our island hopping adventure…
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