I had previously visited Langkawi during my Part I days here back in 2009, therefore as the plane descended and we headed off to the resort, a flood of memories came rushing back. It was strange how little things had changed on the island in the last four years.
Once we were at the resort, I naturally began to feel more in the holiday spirit than I had back in KL. We wasted no time in dropping our bags off and heading to the beach to catch some sun before it set. The weather outlook for the coming days was not great – mostly sunny but with chance of heavy showers. We decided to take the chance and hire a bike while the clouds were at bay and go to the nearby town of Kuah.
I should point out that I am not a motorbike person. As such, I reluctantly agreed to ride shotgun as my friend rode the bike towards the town. By the time we reached the place, the sun had set and my fear of the bike grew. However this was probably a good thing, as what I really needed was to jump in at the deep end and tackle this fear or else the rest of the holiday was going to get unpleasant.
The main attraction at Kuah was the Eagle Jetty, an aptly named place, which contained a massive statue of an eagle with wings spread out towards the sea. Luckily, due to the timing of our visit, we were the only ones there and managed to get some excellent shots before grabbing some food.
As I expected, that night we proceeded to sample Langkawi’s main allure – the beer. Safe to say, everyone was content by the end of the night.
The next morning was spent having breakfast at a ridiculously quaint English Café called (The English Tea Room). The place reminded me of something you might stumble upon on a trip down to Devon – with its walls covered with memorabilia of Royal functions and county maps. This breakfast served us well, as we headed out onto the road and circumnavigated around the island covering the remaining unseen coasts to the north and west.
It was during this time that we came across the famous Langkawi Cable Car (the highest in Asia). Unfortunately, while it was not raining, the clouds were in full bloom that made for a subdued view at the top. However, getting to it was immensely enjoyable, as we were literally moving through the clouds into the grey abyss. Jon, who was not particular to heights, was a true champ and weathered the rocky ride to the top.
Other places of interest that we stumbled upon were the Northern Black Sands beach, so called for the iron deposits nearby which has turned the sand black. By this point, we decided to turn back, due to the time, and quickly found ourselves back in Pantai Cenang before sunset. This was followed by, what was now becoming routine – a trip to the bar.
Tuesday was a miserable rainy day to begin with. Once we were finally up, the rain was still relentless and so we conceded that this would be our relaxing day of doing very little.
After a long breakfast (which turned into lunch after a few hours) the rain subsided and allowed us to visit the beach. The great thing about the heavy rain is that it’s followed immediately by scorching sun that dries up the water fairly quickly. As such we were lazily relaxing on the beach for the entire day taking a dip in the water occasionally, but spending most of the time sat on the deck chairs reading or sleeping.
Our final day in Langkawi was spent once again on the beach as the events of the day before repeating. We did not want to risk heading out during the sunny patches for fear of being stranded in an isolated part of the island for too long.
So as it stood, we managed to get a solid day and a half of traveling around the island, and two days of resting on the beach. Neither of these things was bad, and together they made for a great island retreat.
As we headed back to the airport, I was already looking up Coach details to get to Singapore for the day after…
