Langkawi Holiday Day 2 Part 1.

11^th August 2017. Day 2, Part 1.

After a good night sleep I woke up feeling fresh and ready to start the day. The first activity on the list was island hopping! We were informed that the organisers would pick up the guests at around 8.30 am. Since we were all up early, we all went out to search for breakfast.

We walked along the shop lots in Chenang. I thought finding a place that would be opened that early in the morning could be quite a challenge. But we were in luck. Not far from the motel, we came across a restaurant that was already serving breakfast. The best thing was, they were serving local Malaysian breakfast! A very good start of the day! Some of us ordered nasi lemak but I was keen to try their roti canai – roti canai is one of my favourite food on earth BTW! It was great! The food was nice, the price was reasonable and the owner was friendly too.

Mine. Both of them LOL

After the quick breakfast, we went back to the motel and changed to a more appropriate attire for the island hopping activity. Oh, remember the ‘Billabong’ shorts that I bought the night before? Yeah, turned out the brand was actually called Bill Board, and not Billabong! I didn’t even realise it and was only aware when my girlfriend laughed as I showed her the photo of the pants. So, sometimes, being a picky and diligent shopper like Kamil, pays off. I learned my lesson, but nonetheless, the pants was comfy and cost me only RM 25.

The mistake I made. Cheap mistake HAHA

As I tried to move forward from that mistake, I suddenly gotten myself in a pickle. After I refilled my drinking water, I noticed that the PVC strap on one of my flip flops snapped. I believed Kamil had something to do with it haha! You see, Kamil wore my flip flops the night before and did complain they were getting really uncomfortable. I found it odd as I just bought them.

I had to react quickly. The clock was already 8.15 am and the van that would take us to the jetty will be arriving at 8.30 am! I thought I should even wear my shoes! Then I remembered, while we were walking out to have breakfast, we saw a couple of shops (selling souvenirs) were already opened. I guessed they must be selling flop flops as well as what we saw the night before, almost every shop was selling them.

I decided to make a quick run – okay that statement was a lie. I decided to walk pretty fast as I was lazy (LOL) to the shops. Zi had volunteered to join and help me out. I was actually quite touched to be honest. I was panicking a bit and to get that kind of support was quite nice hehe.

I even considered renting one of these during my flip flops hunt

Once the both of us had reached the shop, we started looking for the flip flops. But it turned to be a complete disaster as not a single pair was sold there! What were the odds, right? The night before they were sold at almost every corner of the streets, and that morning, at one of the biggest souvenir shops, of all of the products available – towels, keychains, shirts, shorts, framed photos, not a single pair of freaking flip flops was available! I was freaking out actually because those were the only shops that we saw that had already opened. I was getting desperate and would settle for any kind of flip flops. I even wouldn’t mind ones with a pinkish girly design at that moment LOL.

To make things worse, it was then already 8.30 pm. We didn’t receive any calls from my friends at the motel so I guessed the transportation to take us to the jetty had still not arrive yet. Then, Zi suggested to look in the 7 – Eleven. To be honest with you, I thought it was a lost cause already and I was pretty confident there weren’t going to be any flip flops in the 7 – Eleven. But, guessed what? I was wrong! There were a lot of them and the best part – it only cost RM 9.90 per pair! That’s even cheaper than the ones sold at the souvenir shops! Thank you 7 – Eleven, Chenang! Hehe.

Mission accomplished! Feeling happy, Zi and I walked back to the motel. I didn’t know the exact reason, or maybe we had forgotten a bit about the time, but Zi and I walked back casually in a slow pace. Not until our one of our friends (couldn’t remember who exactly) called us and said the van was there and ready to go! Luckily Zi and I were already close to the motel. My friends then told us the van would pick us both at the main road. Once the van arrived, I noticed it was already packed with other tourists. I felt quite guilty for causing the delay but I was just so relieved that I found the flip flops. 

What a disaster, such early in the morning but it all came through and I was finally ready to have some fun!

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The ride to the jetty took roughly about 10 – 15 minutes from our motel. Upon arrival, we saw there were plenty of boats that had already been taking visitors to visit the islands. The weather made us worry for a little bit. It started to lightly sprinkle and all I could do was hoping for it to stop soon!

Once the van dropped us off at the jetty, the driver told us to wait at one spot until we were called to get on the boat. But my complaint this time was; we were not clearly briefed of what was going to happen, how long we had to wait, who we were supposed to engage with for clarifications and all. So we just waited there, clueless.

It was only about 20 minutes later that we were finally called for our turn to get on the boat. Before getting off the jetty, there was a photographer who took our photo before getting on the boat – to be sold to us once we’re back.

Finally, it was time to begin the island hopping experience! By the way, we were all required to wear life jackets during the ride. We got on the boat with tourists from the UK, India and Japan. But based on the excitement shown, WE were the ones who looked like tourists from out of Malaysia LOL #TooExcited #Jakuns.

The photo was taken from where we had to queue for our turn

The boat ride was pretty smooth. The boat was moving at a pretty fast speed. I loved the wind and smell of the water! I was sitting on the right side of the boat so my only concern was to restrain myself not to take my phone out to take a selfie. I didn’t want to risk my clumsy self to drop the phone off the boat by accident! 

I didn't want my glasses to fall off as well so I took them off. Seemed like Kamil and Zi like living on the edge :P

A small tip; if you are afraid to get sea sick, it is best for you to be seated at the back of the boat. For our case, a couple from the UK was sitting at the back – good for them as the lady was pregnant.

Okay so for our first stop, we were taken to Tasik Dayang Bunting or Lake of The Pregnant Lady. Before we reached the lake, our boat stopped near the island where the lake was located. The reason was for the guide to show and explain to us that the term ‘Pregnant Lady’ was due to the shape of the island itself. The structure consisted of a head, breasts and a pregnant belly. More information on this island could be read here. As the guide stopped the engine explain, I couldn’t help myself to be amazed of the beauty of the surrounding nature. The islands, the vegetation and oh my, the colour of the water! Absolute knock out!

We then arrived at the island and before making our way to the lake, the guide informed us we need to be back at the boat in an hour. For me that’s a bit too short – but knowing that we still had two more stops, maybe the visiting period had been carefully scrutinised.

At the island, we needed to walk a bit from the jetty to the entrance. The path to the entrance was not that long but be careful with your belongings as there were monkeys (I don’t know what kind) scavenging around and we were noticed that they might snatch the food we brought and even our phones! #YouMayTakeMyLifeNotMyPhoneLOL

Heading towards Tasik Dayang Bunting

The entry to the island was RM 5 (for local adult). We had to walk for about 10 minutes to get to the lake. Also, bear in mind, there were a lot of monkeys everywhere. They didn’t seem to harm us or anything but we got a bit nervous being around them.

Once we reached the lake, there was already a lot of people there. You could enjoy for a dip in the lake and also get a ride on a small swan boat – but I was not sure how much this would cost. Since the water is quite deep (I heard it is 3-storey-deep), it would be best for us to rent a life jacket (RM 5 per jacket). While Kamil and Zi decided not to swim, Yun, Syuk and I took a dip in the water and had made those two to take photos of us haha. It wasn’t crowded yet at that time and we enjoyed swimming while observing the personalities from the visitors. There was a group of girls form India that kept on encouraging for their friends to get in the water. She seemed pretty scared – maybe she had a bad experience before. Finally she forced herself in. I was glad that she was able to enjoy the swim with her friends. Another tourist also caught my attention. That guy was not wearing a life jacket and when someone asked him about that, he just said, “Ahhh not a problem. I’ve swam in deeper lakes before, everywhere.” I was on the line of hating him or inspired by him. He sounded so cocky but at least he had the skill and courage. Haha

The Deck Of Tasik Dayang Bunting

Angle from a far end of the deck

I was swimming, happily ...

... then Kamil kicked the water towards us :(

After a few minutes in the water we realised that our time there was almost up. So, we decided to head back to the boat. Everyone had got on the boat – except for a family from India. We had to wait for them for almost 20 minutes! I guessed maybe they didn’t hear the instruction given by the guide earlier. But them being late was not totally a terrible thing. We get to connect with some of the tourists in the boat. I got to know that some of them were from Cardiff. I used to live in Cardiff for four years so I was thrilled to have had a conversation with them about Cardiff.

Okay so we were twenty minutes behind schedule. But I didn’t think it was that big a deal. Obviously, the guide thought differently. No, don’t get me wrong. He wasn’t mad or anything. But he looked like he was in a hurry, too apparent, I must say. Why? Well, remember when I wrote that in the beginning when we first got on the boat, the boat ride to Tasik Dayang Bunting was pretty fast? Just imagine that. Now, whatever speed it was that you were imagining, triple that! Seriously, the ride was CRAZY fast! We were literally bumping up and down and I thought we could even fallen off the boat at one point! The bumps hurt as well especially for the old guy sitting at the front. We asked the guide to slow down but he said that the current/wave was high so he needs to go fast – honestly I didn’t know what he meant by that. Then we also told him that there was a pregnant lady sitting at the back and finally he slowed down a bit – Thank God!

We then reached our second destination which was Pulau Singa Besar (Big Lion Island). We weren’t getting off the boat for this. Rather than witnessing some big lions at the island (that’d be a hell of discovery, we were there to observe the majestic creature: the EAGLES. The island is famous for eagles flying all over and we were amazed to see a lot of them in a distance so near to us. Apart from being beautiful, their movements were just astonishing. I wished I had a binocular with me that time. The guide told us the eagles love to eat chicken skin. The eagles should know the skin is not good for their cholesterol level – okay lame joke. We didn’t spend time very long there. Just enough to take a few photos and after about 10 minutes, we left and off to our third and final destination – Pulau Beras Basah.

I rather observe the eagles than having everyone else on the boat staring at me taking photos. Haha

We reached Pulau Beras Basah but it started to rain a little bit. We were told we get to spend time there for an hour. It seemed like a heavenly place to swim and chill, but to be honest with the light rain drizzling down, I was not lured to swim at the beach. 

Pulau Beras Basah

Gloomy :(

But suddenly the sky got sunnier! Too sunny, even! So, I took that as a sign from God for another swim session! I am not a huge fan of the beach, really. But since the beach was so beautiful. The hot sun made the experience even better – the water got a bit warmer, the sand seemed whiter, ladies started sunbathing, eh, JK :P. I thought it was the perfect place to end our island hopping activity J

Better weather :)

As much as I enjoyed this beach, it was quite sad to see the condition of the national flag like this 

A group photo (with strangers behind us LOL) before we leave the island

So, as our time at the beach was up, we were then ready to head back to the main island. During the final boat ride we were already a bit sleepy. We felt the wind blowing to our exhausted bodies made us more tired. I guessed it was normal to be in that state after we had all the water-related activities. It made us HUNGRY too!

Finally, we reached the mainland and didn’t wait long until the van picked us up to send us back to our motel. For RM 30, having to spend half a day doing what we did, and visiting where we visited, it was totally worth it! Definitely recommended! So, as we got back to the motel, we agreed to quickly go freshen up, rest a little bit and perform our prayer, as we were already starving! For lunch, we had planned to go to Laman Padi – a famous restaurant in Langkawi! We couldn’t wait!

To be continued in Part 2 …