The Slitherants: Langkawi - Wed 10/03

Langkawi…Our final destination in Malaysia before slipping over into Thailand, Langkawi is a much hyped tax free island that seems to exist purely for the sake of luring local and foreign tourists. The island’s tax-free status came about in the mid-eighties and was designed to encourage development and deliver prosperity to the local inhabitants and, of course, the Malaysian government. Development has certainly been gifted upon the island and this has taken the form of enormous hotels and busy shopping precincts some complete with turrets and looking as though they’d be more suited to residing in Disneyland. The first thing you notice as the boat pulls into the pier is the giant statue of an eagle which is supposed to be a symbol of good fortune and prosperity. Langkawi has a formidable reputation amongst the Malaysian people with nearly everyone we spoke to saying how fabulous it is and how beautiful the beaches are. I have to say that the beaches pale in comparison to the ones we had encountered on the West coast and on the whole we both felt the island didn’t live up to the hype about it but there were still a few things that made Langkawi worth visiting.

Before I get to those things though I will just mention how we managed to sort our accommodation after our debacle that we brought upon ourselves by missing our ferry from Penang. As we had to catch a boat, then a bus, then a taxi and then another boat to get to Langkawi we had of course arrived a lot later than those who had actually caught the morning ferry over from Penang. We had heard there was not a lot of budget places to stay on Langkawi but the places that were cheap were all along a beach on the west side called “Cenang’. So this is where we arrived by taxi from the ferry terminal and not surprisingly almost everywhere was full. We had been used to paying around 20-30 ringgit per night (about $6-$10 AUD) so we were not very happy when the only budget room that was left in Cenang was going to cost 40 ringgit ($13 AUD). It may not sound like a huge difference but when you’re on the road for nine months these little increases have the potential to add up to a more significant amount in the long run. The room however was pretty nice and had a bathroom attached (a rare luxury) and a TV that couldn’t receive any channels, not that I would have been able to understand any of the local programmes anyway.

From here it was to the holy grail…the duty free shop. The island has many of these and they have a variety of goods that are a mixture of duty free and goods that you could find in any store on the main street. As we all know duty free only means two things, cigarettes and alcohol, and I don’t smoke! Neither does Kate so it was off to the beer fridge I ran, ahem, walked briskly. Due to Malaysia’s official Muslim status drinking for the locals is strictly prohibited. In fact on our last night we were chatting to a local bloke who worked at a jet ski operation on the main beach and he informed us that he loved drinking with foreigners in the bars. This is not because he’s crazy about us but because if the muslim police, that’s right they have their own police, catch them drinking or drunk in a bar then they fine the guilty party 3000 ringgit!! That’s about a grand Australian and more than most of the locals would earn in six months I’m betting. Therefore if a local bloke gets caught in the bar he simply pushes his drinks towards the foreigners and makes it look like it’s their drinks and hopefully saves himself the kind of financial hangover he may never recover from. None of this was my concern however as I strode up to the well stocked beer fridge that seemed to be emitting some kind of golden aura to my beer starved eyes. Malaysia has meant a bit of a dry spell for me as the beers have been so ridiculously expensive…until now. 50 cents. That’s right, dear reader, tax free cans are 50 cents AUD rather than the $3.50 they had been everywhere else with the exception of Tioman island at the beginning of our trip which is also tax free.

With my checkout bag bristling with golden goodness it was down to the beach to check out the scene. Pretty disappointing really. There was the obligatory reggae bar (complete with the local Malaysian guys donning their best Jamaican accents-rasta mon!) and a plethora of rather expensive water sports such as jet ski’s and para-sailing, but the beach itself was nothing to write home about. Cenang is touted as being one of the better beaches on the Island so this didn’t fill myself or Kate with a lot of confidence. After a very quick dip and a night spent wondering around the main street shops and markets, all which sold the exact same goods as virtually all the markets we had seen so far, it was time to plan our next day. When the beach is average and you’ve got all day in which to amuse yourself there’s only one thing to do-hire a scooter!

Scooters are extremely cheap and as long as you take it easy (which is guaranteed if you have Kate on the back pinching you if you go too fast!) then you should have a lot of fun. We had heard there was a cable car/gondola on the north western corner of the island not too far from where we were staying. We could see some very steep very high hills in the distance and it turned out this is where the cable car was located. This place was freaking awesome! It was by far the best thing we did on the island and pretty good value for around 28 ringgit ($9 AUD). Now this was no ordinary gondola and makes the smallish one in Christchurch look pretty feeble. It was a behemoth monster of a gondola that went up almost vertically to about 600 metres above sea level in a matter of moments. Looking down the cable at the ground below was certainly pretty nerve-racking. You then got off and had a look around the ’sky deck’ where you could buy food or drinks, take pictures and even get a Chinese massage if you had found the trip up particularly un-nerving! You then boarded the cable car again and went up to the top station which was somewhere around the 750 metre mark above sea level. The cool part was that between the first and second stations the cable car turned and crossed between two peaks and to the right there was a huge suspension bridge floating above another enormous chasm that you could walk across to from the second station. It was a real eagle nest and you certainly hoped whoever had built this thing had really paid attention during their math lessons as the whole thing was perched on the top of these enormous peaks and looked like it could tip or slide over at any minute. The views were insane and walking around the viewing platforms and across the suspension bridge was a vertigo inspiring thrill. After we had done the laps and taken all the obligatory holiday snaps it was down the sheer vertical cable to the bottom which I think was even scarier than the trip to the top!

While we still had the bike we decided to cross to the northeast coast of the island to a place that was supposed to have the best beach on the island. It turned out that if you weren’t staying at the resort there then you couldn’t even get a blade of grass to yourself under the trees in the shade so you were forced to turn into some kind raisin/lobster hybrid in the blistering sun on the sand. The beach was nice and was probably the best one we saw on Langkawi but it was still nothing worth selling the kids for and the idea of spending the next two weeks in a Malaysian burns unit courtesy of the midday sun didn’t really appeal much either.

After a dip and some pretty ordinary lunch it was off on the beast again to our next destination-a traditional Langkawi folk village that harboured some unusual birds and wildlife and the legend of a girl named ‘M’ something. Yes, the name escapes me, probably because her story was not particlulary interesting but to the people of Langkawi it holds some special mystical significance. The jist of the story is that a long time ago a young girl came from Thailand to Langkawi and the head chief/king guy was smitten with her. Echoing the sleeping beauty classic, the wicked step-mother hated her because now she was no longer the ‘fairest of them all’ on the island. So while the King guy was away slaughtering the neighbouring tribes or clans the step-mum framed the young girl for adultery and she was promptly put to death, the usual stuff. However the only interesting part really is when they tried killing her with their spears none of them would pierce her skin so they had to send back for a spear from her place of birth in Thailand and this apparently did the job. But here’s the kicker. When they carved her up she bled white! This was allegedly because she was innocent and, not one to go quietly, the girl put a curse on the island of Langkawi and it’s inhabitants for seven generations whereby their crops would die, people would become sick and the island would be a become a barren wasteland. She certainly wasn’t the forgiving kind. Top stuff and now everyone of course will tell you that the curse came to fruition, the island went to the dogs but now happily the seven generations have long since passed and the island is now free to prosper without the hindrance of a dead Thai girl‘s vengeance. Unfortunately the ’museum’ was deeply average and had a few relics of not much importance and some old shacks that the people used to live in, they must have been from the time during the curse. There were some caged birds with cantankerous attitudes that were pretty cool (and easy!) to rile up but on the whole the place was a scam.

That is a pretty apt description of the island in general come to think of it because for all the hype surrounding it Langkawi does not really deliver the goods. The cable car was cool but most everything else was average to deeply average and it was with no great sadness that after a couple more days of lounging around we boarded the ferry for Satun in Thailand with the idea of making our way up to an island by the name of Koh Lanta. This place, we had heard, was more of a family destination but with the promise of Thai food, nice beaches and reasonable prices we thought we’d give it a try. But more about that next time. ‘Til then.

Cows grazing on the grass. We were told by a Langkawi local that this year has been a very dry year. Her father usually plants rice around this time of year but this year it has been dry.

More of the country side. I didn't think that Langkawi was very beautiful however this might be because of the time of year - the dry season.

This is us going up the gondola. Looks like Tim is a bit anxious!

Here is me looking a bit nervous!

The view of the forest below and in the distance you can see the steep cliff we have to travel up to the first viewing platform. The first viewing area was about 650m above sea level.

The very steep incline to the first veiwing platform. You can see in the distance a (very) small gondola.

The view from the first platform - on one side you could see out to the ocean and the other side was very steep, pointed mountains.

The very steep mountains. In the distance you can see a bridge you can walk out onto from the second viewing platfrom. The first viewing platform is to the right with another gondola joining the two platforms together.

The bridge you could walk along to see more of these stunning views.

Me posing for the camera! Behind me are the gondolas that connect the first and second viewing platforms.

Tim and I striking a pose! You can see the mountains in the background.

A rubber tree - you can see they are collecting the rubber in the white cup at the bottom of the tree. I often saw rubber tree planations between cities - this tree however was near a touristy cafe and not part of a planation.