Langkawi

Trip Start Sep 11, 2008
1
23
87
Trip End Jun 05, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Malaysia  , Kedah,
Wednesday, November 26, 2008

We went back to the bar in Satun in the morning and said goodbye to the Thai girls. They had gone to bed at 3 and opened the bar at 6, pretty hardcore. We got a lift with our mate Trevor to the pier at Tammalang and caught the ferry across to Langkawi in Malaysia. I told him about the mad old Thai guy I saw wandering round the garden that morning with a small scythe in his hand but he wasn't bothered. I bought a bottle of Sang Thip whisky from a shop at the pier before we left, at least we think it's Sang Thip, the Thai ladies spoke no English and just nodded at everything. It tastes like piss whatever it is. Loads of Thais came along hurling empty suitcases on top of the small ferry as Langkawi is a duty free island. One missed and they had to hail a local longtail boat to fetch it before it drifted off out to sea. The ferry took an hour and Malaysia is one hour ahead so the sun would go down at 6.30pm rather than 5.30 which meant an extra hour on the beach! It was getting boring when its dark just after 6. We got an unofficial cab to Pantai Tengah, near to the touristy area but just south, where the Malays go apparently. We arrived at the Zackry guesthouse and got one of the last rooms, met the people there who were clearly just up for getting pissed every night and watching DVD's all day, they didn't look like they'd been anywhere near the beach. We walked along the beach and went to a super posh restaurant for a great burger which was pretty cheap. Theres lots of posh resorts all along the seafront even where we were staying and all the swanky shops and restaurants to go with them. It's all very spread out though and you have to walk quite a way to get anywhere. We ate great local food at a small restaurant but they didn't serve beer as it was Muslim.
Next day it rained hard all morning and stayed grey in the afternoon so we decided to go fishing off the rocks. After losing half my gear, Lucy went off to find some bait and came back with a few clams, a small sand crab which are as quick as lightning, and also a broken toe from slipping on the rocks. After losing the last of the gear I went off to buy more. Using that we caught a small pretty reef fish and cut him up for more bait. We caught a couple more small fish which we threw back but nothing decent. The Malay guys fishing near us didn't catch much either. As we hadn't caught dinner we went to the little restaurant again where I had a big piece of stingray in chilli sauce. Tasty but bony. When we got back we chatted for ages to Zack the old Chinese Malay guy who owns the place about Malaysia and how we should go to Taman Negara and catch the best fish in the world using young tomatoes. He drinks a lot of whisky, but he's a great guy.
I planned to get up at 6 the next day to go fishing before we had to leave around 1 to go to Penang but I switched the alarm off and woke up at 9. It didn't look like beach weather again so we decided we'd go fishing for a couple of hours. We borrowed a rod from the guesthouse for Lucy, bought some squid at the local shop and hurried to the pier, a 10 minute walk we were told which turned out to be 25 minutes. We were also told it's good for fishing but it was small and crowded with longtails constantly coming in and out. I spotted another jetty nearby so we walked through the jungle then waded out to it. It looked a bit rickety, I went first and got to the end OK and started to set up the rods. Lucy went past me to sit down, then I heard a massive crack and heard a scream as she fell through! She didn't go right through, just one leg up to the waist which was now stuck. I managed to get her calmed down and she pulled herself out, if I had tried I think we would have both gone right through. Her leg was all grazed and bruised to go with her purple toe from yesterday. We set about fishing and were constantly harrassed by puffer fish, in the end we were trying not to catch them as they were annoying us so much. We couldn't avoid catching 3 though and they got really angry out of the water, blowing themselves right up and barking loudly. We had no pliers or anything to get the hooks out and had to use a sandal to hold them down while I fumbled around, terrified of getting spiked or my fingers bitten off. The sun came out and we got a bit sunburnt as we legged it back to the hostel to catch a cab to the ferry. We washed briefly but I'm sure we both stank of squid on the ferry as nobody sat near us. Langkawi - good for beach bumming, if you have lots of money and it's sunny, crap for fishing.
Print this entry