If you’ve been to Malaysia, but haven’t been to Langkawi, this means you actually haven’t been to Malaysia! Heavenly beaches, cheap Airasia flights from Kuala Lumpur and duty-free shops leave no excuse for you to miss it.
The only problem Langkawi has is its lack of public transportation. Having come from the airport by taxi, next morning we decided to hire a car. And we did not regret despite the left-hand traffic. The taxi cost 30 MYR per hour, but if you reach your destination and let the taxi-driver go, it is likely that you will not get another car. The receptionist from our hotel (Best Seven Motel) called to the car rental company, and their employees came to pick us up in 15 minutes. They brought us to the ferry terminal and offered two options: automatic Almeria (110 MYR a day) and local VIVA (70 MYR, plus 30 MYR as a deposit). As we wanted a smaller car, we chose the second option. It was of course very unusual to drive it, but, after all, it was easy too: the island is small, there are signs everywhere, and we had a map from the hotel and Nastya as a navigator.
On the very first day we went to Durian Perangin waterfall, a beautiful place, requiring some fitness to reach its major sight.
Then we drove to the crocodile farm. The entrance cost 20 MYR (plus fee for the photo). There are many crocodiles of different colors and ages here, even including those with disabilities.
And the babies, of course!
At 11.15 and 14:45 the show starts. As for us, the performance was not too exciting, rather trivial. They cleaned the crocodiles’ teeth and put hands into their mouths. You will feel pity for the crocodiles: they are dragged by the tail all the time and poked into the ears with the sticks.
After the show, the rest of crocodiles were publically fed with fish.
After 10 minutes, we decided that we were done with the crocodiles and went to Pasir Tengkorak Beach with white tender sand and clean Indian Ocean.
For a moment we even thought: why do we run around in every trip? This is the paradise. Yet, we got tired after 1,5 hours of paradising and drove further. By the way, at the entrance to the beach, you may buy the ticket to use the shower and toilet (and nobody ever checks it).
At the Wet Market selling fish we bought a lot of dried seafood for the beer and ate a lot of snacks in its small canteen.
Then we drove to the Night Market, which was open at least from 6PM. You should remember that night market in Langkawi migrates and is held in different places every day. It sells all kinds of clothes, souvenirs and food.
Trying to buy some cheap alcohol from duty-frees we actually failed: it was quite expensive. Still, we had the possibility to get surprised by the pictures on the cigarettes.
Next morning we went to another beach, this time Tanjung Rhu. The sand was not so soft any more, but the beach’s desertedness compensated everything. We swam, collected shells and pieces of coral reefs, and simply walked.
Everywhere, including the beaches, there are monkeys, be aware!
Then we drove to Black Sand Beach. In spite of its name, there were only small pieces of black sand. The beach was small and shadowy, so we decided to walk in the nearby market instead.
The cable way (30 MYR) was our next destination. We spent about 45 minutes in the queue and were already quite unhappy about our choice, but the view appeared to be nice.
We wanted to get some food on the way, but most of the places were closed during the praying time. Finally, we found a small café with some infidel selling Tai soups and Malaysian sponge cakes.
We also visited the largest and the most popular beach, which we did not like at all. It was too crowded and the water was not to clean if compared to the smaller beaches. The street parallel to the beach has a lot of cafes and restaurants with the prices much higher than in the rest of Langkawi. We were happy to have taken the hotel far from this center of the universe.
In the Night Market, we again had too much of food. Also, we had a drink called Sendol – the most expensive and the most disgusting one, not even because of the taste, but because of the texture. These are pieces made of flour (made of some grass) resembling worms in the liquid; this is to drink from the straw.
In the last morning, we said good bye to our favorite Pasir Tengkorak Beach in Langkawi.
Also, we picked up our clothes from the laundry – for very little money we god cleaned ironed clothes!
Finally, we returned our car in the port and departed towards new adventures – to the island of Penang.
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