Langkawi - Chillin' in da Babylon

What a great week! I was seriously in need of a time-out from the project and Langkawi didn’t fail to put on a good show, and cheered me up massively :-) I’m sorry if this entry is quite long, but I don’t want to forget anything!

Seeing as the students were packing up to go home on the Friday before half term, there was no need for us to stick around. We caught a night bus on the Thursday night, which took us to Kuala Perlis in the northern state of Kedah. We arrived around 9am the next morning, and caught the ferry over to Kuah in Langkawi.

We were very fortunate in having a friend at school who lives on the island. His brother Khairul very kindly met us at the ferry terminal, and drove us 25km to the west of the island. Pentai Cenang is the main beach strip and has many backpacker-like hostels set a little way back from the beach. We stayed the majority of our nights in Gecko Lodge, a very laid-back and friendly hostel – costing Rm35 per night (7 pounds) for a double room. Every morning we would immerge from our rooms and sit in the communal area, being offered mangoes if they happened to fall off the tree at the right time.

It was so nice to meet the other volunteers there. We all stayed in the same place and every night we had a good catch up/gossip. I feel very lucky to have such a nice group in Malaysia, and to have them all so close by! (The furthest are 2 hours away).

Day 1 - Saturday

After a good sleep we had a ‘group meeting’ (go us!) to decide on a vague plan for the week. There is a lot to do/see in Langkawi so we didn’t want to miss anything! After a heated discussion, the pens were put away and we all headed for the beach for what was left of the afternoon. That evening we met Hafiz (friend who had returned from Batu Pahat) and Khairul for dinner. We had a huge spread of various seafoods cooked in different ways, with rice. There was also ‘TomYam’ which is a spicey Thai soup, containing seafood, ginger, and vegetables. It was so delicious and I labeled it my best meal in Malaysia so far :-)

This photo is of Kate and I on the beach.

Day 2 - Sunday

Snorkelling trip day! Khairul used to work for a company who run trips so he got us a good deal. We took picnics and caught a ferry from Langkawi Yacht club to a nearby island, which is a Marine Park. Funnily enough I spotted some Sunsail yachts in the marina, and then found they had a base there. It was a weird feeling seeing the sunsail boats, they looked so familiar having done 3 flotillas with them. Langkawi would be the best place ever to charter a yacht – it’s just so beautiful and the conditions would make it easy sailing. Anyway, an hours ride took us to the island, where we suncreamed up and dived in. I was four when we visited Australia’s ‘Great Barrier Reef’, slightly too young to appreciate fish! At 18 I can safely say that the fish were appreciated – they were so cool!! The water was super clear, and we saw so many fish. We even came across some baby sharks, which were about 1-1.5m long. Don’t get me wrong, I still stayed very close to Rebecca when they were swimming around us…!

Day 3 - Monday

On Monday we went to ‘Seven Wells’ waterfall, which we had read about in the guide book. We spent the afternoon jumping into the pools, and sliding over the moss down the rocks. We then decided to treck into the rainforest in our bikinis, and after it clouding over and us losing Fiona we realized it was a bit of a silly decision!

Day 4 - Tuesday

Katie’s 19^th Birthday! We had been out the night before, so unfortunately we were all quite hungover! Still, we had a good relax on Cenang beach, which was only a 5 min walk from the hostel. In the evening we treated ourselves to a proper western meal at ‘T-Jays’, an Italian place run by a man from Exeter would you believe! I shared a pizza and pasta with Lyndsey and it was soooo delicious! Like, amazing. Yeah it cost Rm40 but it was so worth it! When I am home and we go out for family meals I am going to appreciate them so much more :-)

Day 5 – Wednesday

Langkawi is quite famous for its cable car. We had been told by our students that we had to go, so we left reasonably early as to avoid the queues. For Rm30 you are taken in a gondola up the tallest point of the island, where there are look-out points to take photos/admire the view. Unfortunately the visibility wasn’t great, I heard that on a good day you can see Thailand. At the top was a suspension bridge, which wobbles when you walk across! It was a good thing to do, but I won’t lie the highlight of my day was finding mint choc chip ice cream at the bottom…

Day 6 – Thursday

Pentai Cenang is Langkawi’s most popular beach, and naturally quite busy with hotels and watersports. We took taxis up to the north coast to Tanjung Rhu beach, which is much quieter for being a bit out of the way. I don’t think I have ever been to such a beautiful beach. Half is owned by a hotel, but the beach had perfect sand and looks out to a large bay, with small islands dotted around. Kayaks were available to rent, so we got 3 kayaks between 7 of us. We had a good paddle around, and had various splashing fights. I managed to climb out of the kayak onto some rocks to jump in, avoiding the many crabs which were well camouflaged… As the day went on the light was so beautiful, and I walked along the shore collecting some pretty cool shells. 5-7pm is my favourite time of day, especially if you are on a beach. The sun is not strong enough to burn you, and somehow everything becomes still. Love it!

Day 7 – Friday

Me, Kate and Fiona went on an island hopping tour. We paid Rm25 for a four hour tour, stopping off at various islands for an hour or so. The first stop was to an island which has a fresh water lake inland. There is a legend that a woman once bathed there in order to become pregnant. On the way, the guide pointed out an island which looks like a pregnant woman lying on her back. Stupidly, I stepped off the boat carrying a bag of fruit, noticing too late the amount of monkeys around…. The next think I know I have a monkey jumping up at me, and stealing the bag – the damn thing! Everyone laughed at me because I swore at it and swung my water bottle in its face… It was a lesson well learnt – hide plastic bags - no matter what they have inside, if there are monkeys around!! Island hopping was fun, I really like doing boat trips.

Day 8 – Saturday – Last day :-(

We packed up and were kindly allowed to leave our bags in the hostel kitchen so we could chill on the beach until our bus left. I did a bit of shopping, buying some ‘gap-year’ trousers, a baggy sarong top thing, an ‘I heart Langkawi’ T-shirt, and some bracelettes. Khairul picked us up after work and dropped us to the ferry terminal, making a quick pit-stop at the duty free chocolate shop – to fill our supplies, and take some back for the teachers.

So there you have it. A brief (but still quite long) account of my week. I will definitely go back sometime, but probably not in this trip as there is still a lot of Malaysia I want to see. I really didn’t want to come back – we got a taste of the travelling life, and it was tempting just to take off... Still its only 8 weeks or so until our next holidays. Time to put our bikinis and beers away, and get out the long skirts!

P.s If you were wondering about the title of this blog... 'Babylon' is a beach bar on Pentai Cenang beach, which we were 'chillin' in every night whilst listening to reggae bands.. :-)

Pancake day, dance classes and activities week.

I am sorry (again) for not posting for a while. If Im totally honest the last few weeks have been quite difficult and I havent really felt like blogging! But here I am now.

Shrove Tuesday came, and thankfully Fiona's mum reminded us about pancakes! We were determined to find some flour, and were successful after asking in several shops in some dodgy Malay. I was often on pancake duty in the kitchen where I worked before leaving the UK, so I am quite fussy about mixture lumpiness these days! We used a wok and fork to make the mixture, and fried and flipped away! For main course we had baked bean, egg and cheese pancakes, and for pudding - jam, pineapple and kaya. They were yummy and soon I am going to invite some students over for a pancake night. Its really nice when the girls come over because they can take off their headscarves and we can see all their beautiful hair. Some of them want me to teach them how to do french plaits which will be nice.

I have started running a weekly dance class on wednesdays for the girls. We use benches, chairs and portable whiteboards as barres in a space on the third floor of the academic block. Its really good fun, and there is a lot of giggling. I have not danced properly since July, but surprisingly I can still remember the majority of exercises I used to do! I cant wait to join some dance societies at uni in September, and get back into it. I have so many good memories from my dance school, and as much as I was ready to leave I do miss spending my evenings there!

This week is the schools activities week, which thankfully has been a lot funner than the past couple of weeks! I have been finding school quite frustrating, and it is taking longer than I thought for everyone to get used to us, and what we are here for. I am often quite bored, which leaves me with time on my hands to think about home/other fun things I could be doing. It was always going to be a challenge being the first year of volunteers though. Still, I have drawn a line under the last few weeks and will come back after our week off with (I hope) a refreshed enthusiam to keep at it. I have found that whatever I feel is always to the extreme - I either have a really good day, or a really really bad day. Its almost like my emotions are amplified. I am learning so much everyday, even just from watching people. I have started making alot more effort to learn Malay too, which will come in very handy. Its a relativelty simple language actually, so fingers crossed in a month or so I will be cracking out some lines!

As I mentioned, next week is the school holidays. We are off to Langkawi, a popular island off the north west coast (north of Penang). I will treat myself to some snorkelling trips/shopping, as I havent really been spending much of my allowance. It will be great to have a small timeout from the school, as sometimes I do feel a bit stuck in the compound. Hopefully Langkawi will treat us to some beautiful beaches, and (tax-free) drunken evenings as we watch the sun set :)