The Jungle Book: Langkawi July 5

Langkawi

Langkawi is only a 3 hour ferry ride off the northwest coast of Malaysia (very close to the border of Thailand). From the ferry building we then had to take a taxi to the other side of the island where we had booked our hostel. Usually that part of town was very crowded, yet this seemed to be the exact opposite. Most days we spent hanging out at the beach and watching the World Cup at night (we were with two Dutchies, so the Holland vs. Brazil game was a lot of fun)!

I convinced the other guys that we should rent motorbikes to check out the rest of the island and for $8 we each got our own bikes for 24 hrs. Based on recommendations from a few of the locals we first stopped at The Langkawi Gondola which went straight up 700m limestone cliffs of Gunung Machinchang to the most spectacular views of Langkawi and on a clear day into Thailand. At the top there's a bridge that connects two of the peaks which was a bite frightening as it swayed in the wind. After spending a couple hours at the top of the gondola and walking around the peaks we were back on the motorbikes and drove to Tanjung Rhu, a beautiful beach on the north of the island. We arrived in the early afternoon with the beach practically to ourselves (there were four other people there). Not surprisingly, we spent the rest of the day hanging out at the beach and eating some of the local fruit (mangostenes, dragon fruit and mango).

On what we thought was our last day in Langkawi we were getting our stuff together to head to the 4pm ferry back to the mainland when the lady running our hostel asked us where we were going. We told her we were heading for the Perhentian Islands but we discovered that the bus timetable wasn't too favourable today as we also wanted to catch the Germany vs Spain game later so we decided to stay another night in Langkawi and get the ferry tomorrow instead to Kuala Perlis and then an overnight bus from there to Kota Bharu on the East of the country. From there then it will be a ferry to the islands – journey of epic proportions in store!! Due to our change of plan, we had to book our bus and ferry tickets in Kuah so we jumped in a cab with the Dutch guys who were on their way to catch their ferry to Thailand. We found out in the meantime though that it was cheaper to rent a car for 24 hours than get a taxi over and back to Kuah so we decided to do that. We got a a serious racer mobile - the aptly name Proton SAGA for $15 for 24 hours at the ferry terminal!!

Our Ferry was at 5:30pm the next day with our connecting bus to the Perhentians leaving the mainland at 8:30pm. We arrived in plenty of time for the bus so we grabbed a quick bite to eat while contemplating the horror journey ahead of us! The bus was due to arrive into Kuala Besut at 6am and from there we still had to get a 40 minute speedboat to the islands. We got the 2 last seats on the bus which were at the back and unbelievably uncomfortable. Also the insanely twisty road meant that sleep wasn't really going to be an option. We eventually arrived in Kuala Besut just about in one piece! We grabbed a quick breakfast as we waited for the 7:30am speed boat to the Perhentians. It was definitely worth the effort though.