Langawki lament

Today we leave Langawki with mixed feelings.

On our first visit to Langkawi in 2019 we enjoyed the relaxing pace of life in the sleepy beach village. There were things that were a bit rough around the edges and you could see a lot of new large scale hotel development in it's early days. Fair enough. 

Now post Covid you have to wonder if they have the recipe right for development on this little island. Some of the basic civic functions, from what we see, are not functioning well.  

The street rubbish collection is non existent and where good citizens have deposited rubbish in the large communal skips they either haven't been emptied soon enough or the monkeys and dogs have gotten into the rubbish and it's strewn around and not exactly hygienic.  

We've seen locals just toss rubbish out car windows or off motorbikes without any qualms...not cool when you can see it's spoiling what could be a beautiful little island. Plastic washes drown the streams from villages into the sea and water bottles just get tossed willy nilly including from island visitors grrrrr.

When jet skis retire

Each day we see small stall owners brushing the patch in front of their shop/stall to make it nice but they really are fighting an uphill battle. 

The impact of Covid and border closures has clearly hit the island hard. Like many places around the world there are staff shortages everywhere, the Villa we are staying in is only open  at half capacity as they can't get regular cleaning staff.

There's a big new Langkawi City development with a tower and revolving restaurant being built at the Kuah Port which looks lovely but it sits smack bang in a really grotty area that would cost a small fortune to upgrade and the million dollar question is will it attract domestic and international visitors?I'm not sure the island locals will be able to afford it. Something with the development strategy feels a bit out of kilter. 

There are wonderful locals that are so friendly and caring. Last night we saw these stray cats and kittens being fed a mix of rice and fish by the cafe 'Aunties'💓

I was wondering why so many cats had either no tail, short stubby tails or tails that had an almost 90°bend.   It turns out  that the short-tail gene, carried by Japanese Bobtail cats and Siamese cats (who  have naturally short, kinked tails which have been bred out in Western countries for aesthetic reasons), has gradually spread all over Asia to the extent that it has become the norm. We first saw this in Penang and thought it odd but on Langkawi it's everywhere.

 We've seen amazing wildlife right by our villa. Check out the Monkeys in the short video below.

 You could watch the monkeys for hours, from a distance :)

 The bird life is fantastic too. We haven't been quick enough to snap some of the brightly coloured birds but we've seen  bright blue, canary yellow and the Toucan birds are incredible. The Kingfisher is electric blue - picture below courtesy of the internet :)

With temperatures consistently around 30 - 40° the sun worshippers love the beach here. You just have to be able to cope with the high humidity. 

We've had a lovely time. The smells of frangipane and jasmine as you wander about are divine. The locals are friendly and welcoming. So it's farewell Langkawi and we wish all the best for the plucky locals trying to get through after the border closures. And we're off again :)

Next stop Kuala Lumpur 👍

Langkawi nature

A lovely couple of days relaxing in our little beach side village of Pentai Cenang. 

We've been exploring daily on foot until we reached melting point and then it's been a beach or pool swim to cool down. 

The sea is very warm and you miss that refreshing cold shock you get when jumping into the sea back home.

Our little villa is about five minutes walk from the beach and is in a quiet back lane that would have been rice paddy fields. 

Often by the time we have walked back from the beach we are so hot that we jump onto the villa pool.

We have the resort to ourselves as no one else is expected to check in for a few days.

We've had amazing thunder and lightening storms, one at night and the power went off and one during the day. Spectacular weather change in 30 mins. We got caught out on a walk and had to shelter in a beach shack.

The little frogs down our back lane loved the rain and provided a   deafening frog chorus!

There are so many wild cats and dogs here.  There is a move to protect the pure dingo dogs but they are breeding with ferral dogs and the population is increasing and some now carry rabies. There is concern the tourists and construction workers are feeding the dogs and making them dependant on humans. The pure dingos are very healthy, strong and well adapted to living in the jungle. They all have a curly tail which is a bit different.

Every day we see kittens and mamma cats. An Australian woman has established The Langkawi Animal Shelter and Sanctuary Foundation (LASSie) and they are doing great work but up against funding challenges. They have a project to sterilise the stray cat and dog population and are staffed by volunteers and a rotating team of vets (some volunteers) and veterinary students. Volunteer vets stay for up to a month and work in the clinic assisting the two resident vets.

The tropical rain has freshened everything up. The foliage and flowers are just stunning.

The little crabs on the beach create amazingly artistic sand sculptures :)

We'll leave you with a few beach shots :)

Exploring Langkawi

Today we ventured around the island. We looked into renting scooter/s or a  car and in the end we called up the taxi driver that drove us from the airport and he was our driver for the day - win win all round - one vehicle rather than two scooters, no worries about insurance , great local guide and best of all  AC between stops...have I mentioned the humidity :)

Before we hit the road we were admiring the garden in our villa and look what we spotted, eek! I think it was more frightened of us :)

We were telling our driver and he said they're harmless. He then went on in the next breath to say a cobra came into their village house! Yikes! 

Our first stop was the Perdana Quey & Telaga Harbour.  A small marina where you can take a boat to Thailand. 

Fantastic old customs building.

You can see the grandeur of the old marina buildings that are slowly  falling into disrepair.

Next stop was a black sand beach with Thailand just over the water - beautiful!

Onwards we went to a northern beach Tanjung Rhu - stunning!

It was  so hot we set off for the cool of the interior and jungle shade.

As we drove inland there were family groups of monkeys on the side of the road. There were a lot with tiny baby / new born monkeys. They look sweet from inside the car but they can be quick as a flash and  have the glasses off your head or anything loose is fair game! Needless to say they looked great from inside the car!

We did a short walk up the trail to the Durian Perangin Waterfall. With the shade of the jungle it was a little bit cooler but as you hiked up the trail you soon worked up a healthy sweat. It was nice to see family groups having picnics and swimming. 

As we continued driving through the middle of the island we passed rubber tree plantations where the rubber is tapped. 

 
We also passed a coconut plantation and there was a new calf  looking curiously at us. 

The houses in the jungle / plantation areas are built off the ground to protect them from moisture. 

It was so interesting seeing the little settlements, many with very humble housing and facilities and many slowly being taken over by vegetation as they looked deserted.

We were so lucky to visit two temples today.  Our first temple visit was to Wat Tham Kisap which sits under some limestone cliffs in the jungle.

This Buddhist temple looked to be more Thai/Siamese influenced with ornate decoration,  numerous Buddha statues and animals.

It was so quiet and peaceful, we were the only ones there. A groundsman said we could walk up to the Golden Buddha which we greatly appreciated.  

Guarding the stairway was a five headed  dragon leading to upper level temple.

 The golden seated Buddha is magnificent.

We were able to enter a main hall where there were numerous statues of Buddha. 

Just down the road from this temple is a smaller Hindu temple, Hanuman Temple, that looks like the jungle could take it over in a few months. It looks deserted but there was a stunning statue under a limestone cliff that still looked cared for.

Our next stop was the  Buddhist temple Wat Koh Wanararm. It has a beautiful  statue of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy carved into the  limestone mountain.

 You can walk around the peaceful courtyard and gardens and admire the beautiful stupa and golden Buddha statues. 

The temple is a common place for locals to dump unwanted puppies. At the temples we saw so many dogs that the monks care for. 

There are three Buddhist schools here, Thai, Chinese and Himalayan.

We saw the Stupa of Reconciliation and Nirvana....so beautiful.

Did I say we were the only ones walking around? Unbelievably beautiful and peaceful, perfect way to end our day.