Penang, Malaysia 24.12.2014
We decided to spend in Langkawi ten days. At first it was really nice but after a couple of days the tourist stuff started to be annoying. Also the weather was challenging because it was raining every day.
Langkawi is a quite big island but it has not so many things to do and see. It's promoted as a heaven of 99 islands but it's so expensive to visit even the closest one that if you are not sailing by your own yacht (that we unfortunately left home) you stay only on the main island. We rented a moped for two days and drove all around the island to see main attraction; The Black Sand Beach, 7 Wells, waterfalls, Underwater World, Craft Complex, Hot springs, Kuah city, Kok Beach, Cable car. The distances are long and the majority of places are hard to find. The Black Sand beach did not have black sand but only a huge cement factory next to it. We walked past the 7 Wells because we didn't understand that it was it and ended up on a jungle trail that after 45min of hiking informed us that it was some Extreme Challenge route. Monica did it in flip flops. The waterfall next to the wells was nice.
The hot springs were unbelievable. There was not any heat from land but only some terrible ponds where water got warm by standing still. They were full of dirt and it would have cost 200RM/50e per hour! We skipped. The craft complex was closed on both days even it's high season. Kuah city was mainly hotels, shopping malls and construction work. We skipped also the Cable car because of the bad weather and actually we hiked up the mountain already earlier so we saw the view..hah. Kok Beach was nice but the security signs of the luxury hotel next to it was a little scary.
In the end we droved almost 100km per day. The underwater world was the biggest disappointment. It costed RM40/10e and included unhappy pinguins and nobody seemed to care about the animals. Tourist took photos of the animals with flash even the signs clearly forbid that. Many also knocked and hit the glasses of fished etc and nobody seemed to care. It was just sad. The exhibitions was build so that after every sections there was some shop. Or popcorn selling point. And everything was so dirty.
The best thing we saw on our drive was a shark on sale in a little fish shop in the middle of the island. And many monkeys.
A good thing in Langkawi were the little malay cafees that are delicious. Also the beach was nice but the waters are full of jellyfish. It's difficult to swim without getting burn. Langkawi is also promoted for it's tax free prices but they compensate with taking tourist prices. Now that we are in Georgetown in Penang the prices are almost the same. Actually textiles are cheaper.
We took advantage of the fact that we can't do anything and relaxed reading, running every morning and eating well. We got a nice routine. We also had time to book this nice hotel for Christmas in Penang.
Merry Christmas everybody! Here Christmas is seen mainly commercially and as our taxi driver said on the first day: "You can go to a shopping mall at Christmas and shop all day!". Not.
Happily we are here together :)
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