Langkawi 101

Langkawi had no public transport so rather than navigate the island by scooters we chose to hire a driver and car with AC.  

Great decision, our driver explained a lot about the island and it's history. According to folklore Langkawi's name comes from the Malay  word 'alang'-eagle and kawi - reddish brown, hence the eagle being the bird that greets visitors that arrive in the port  Kuah, the main municiple town for all the islands.  Others say Langakwi means many islands, take your pick.

Langkawi is approx 18 miles off the coast of mainland Malaysia in the Andaman Sea. It's in an archipelago of islands and you can go island hopping if you fancy. We could have nipped across to Phuket in 2 hours today from the Kuah port.

There are about 65,000 residents on Langkawi making it the most populated island and it serves the civil and administration function for all the islands.

Apparently it  was a sleepy backwater until 1987, when the island was granted tax-free status with the intention of promoting tourism and improving the lives of the islanders. Because of Langkawi’s tax-free status, alcohol is allegedly cheaper than in the rest of Malaysia. We went into a duty-free shop in Cenang which was doing a roaring trade but we were horrified by the price of wine. Whittaker's chocolate was on sale there, go Whittaker's 😊.

Love the labelling on products here

The food here is fantastic. We have eaten our way through green papaya salad, nasi lemak, pad Thai, black pepper prawns, cactus chicken, yellow noodle stir fry and thom yum to name a few. There are so  many flavours, Thai, Malaysian, Indian, Chinese and we even found a genuine French patisserie, yum!

At our breakfast spot yesterday, the barista had spent four years studying at Massey in Palmie Nth, the world is a village. It is  so hot you have to keep well hydrated. Today we discovered the best Singapore slings....better than in Singapore and half the price. The cocktail mixologist was from Singapore and he was good!

We loved visiting the little back water port where the fisherman moor up and mend their nets. 

Venice of Langakwi  😊

This fisherman had a big heart, he was so tender to all the cats, one was even playing under the net he was making.

There are so many beautiful birds and butterflies here. You also see monkeys on the side of the road or swinging in trees.

Our last stop with our driver was another little fishing backwater. Our driver said it was completely destroyed by the tsunami. He said he was working in a two story hotel just beside here and they got a phone call to say a Japanese tourist that was visiting a high sky walkway which has island harbour views started shouting tsunami, tsunami. Our driver  said  there is no word like this in Malay so at first they didn't understand. Then they had to run. The entire area was destroyed. He said they were all shocked. They have since installed a warning system out at sea.