We spent about 6 hours on a luxurious, air conditioned bus that twisted through the lush countryside full of tropical trees and small villages. During a stop about halfway through the journey, we got out in search of a snack and found a fruit stand. We bought some big slices of peeled fresh papaya and a small bag of something else. The woman didn't speak any English so we tried it out anyway (photo below). It was the texture of a slightly unripe pear and was absolutely delicious. We found out later that it was guava!
After the bus ride, we narrowly made it onto the last ferry of the day to the island. At first, Langkawi was not at all what we expected. It had resorts, malls, and American fast food joints. It was big, too, and took a 30 min taxi ride to get to the area where we were planning on staying.
But once we got there, we really warmed up to it and ended up having an unbelievable week. The two of us shared an inexpensive double room (with our own little bathroom, bonus!) at a great place called Rainbow Lodge, about a 5 minute walk from the the beach and the main strip of little restaurants, mini marts, and clothing/jewelry/souvenir stalls.
We spent most of our days on the beach, in the water, and wandering around the area. One day, we rented a scooter to explore the island. Kristina had driven them before and taught me how, which was a BLAST. Everywhere we've been so far drives on the left side of the road, which was probably the only tricky thing about learning how to drive it.
That day we found a beautiful waterfall, lots of monkeys, and climbed about 400 stairs up into the jungle to a place called Seven Wells, a little place with these natural, shallow terrace pools. We slid between them on the smooth rock connecting each. I've never seen anything quite like it!
Later on we ventured to a very secluded Four Seasons resort on the other side of the island in search of a quiet, jellyfish-free beach. We hung out there for a bit but then thought it would be a great idea to go find a swimming pool in the resort. We found a gorgeous one and, thinking it would be harmless to go for a dip, so we did. BUT, while we were in there, the bartender brought a few glasses of water to the table near where we had left our sandy flip flops and grubby little backpacks. We wanted to look convincing when we got out, so we had a sip of the water and dried off with their towels. Then the bartender came over with a plate of fruit for us and asked us for our room number. Uh oh. Kristina, being sly, said 'oh, actually we're staying with a family friend, I'm not sure what the number is but we can go get it if you like!' He said no, that's alright for now but to just have it for next time. We sat there for a few more minutes so we didn't look suspicious, then high-tailed it out of there as fast as we could.
On the weekend, Kristina's friend Blake, who is working in Malaysia, came to join us for a few days. He hadn't had much time off lately and doesn't do a lot of socializing with his co-workers, so it ended up being quite an... indulgent celebratory weekend, to say the very least. On the Saturday morning we went on a little island hopping tour, which was really fun, absolutely stunning and well worth the roughly $8 that it cost.
It also happened to be Chinese New Year that weekend, so at the beach that evening there was a little celebration with these paper lanterns that you could get, then light them and release them into the night sky from the beach.
After 8 nights, it was time to move on. We are now in Thailand, more on that next post!
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