Langkawi

On Thursday I left Penang to head towards my next destination, the island of Langkawi. The quickest way was to just catch a direct ferry from Penang, although it was a lot cheaper to catch a bus to Kuala Perlis and get a ferry from there so I did that. I learnt my lesson from in the way in and caught the ferry from Georgetown to Butterworth instead of catching the bus down to the bus station on Penang, which would have essentially just put me on another bus to Butterworth. The ferry was actually really fun as it was an old rickety thing, and I saw lots of massive jellyfish in the water from the deck.

From Butterworth I soon got a bus to Kuala Perlis, making a swift transfer onto the ferry when arriving. The ferry annoyingly didn't have a deck though and from inside the windows were a little grubby so the beautiful scenery as we went into Langkawi was slightly obscured. Langkawi is made up of 99 islands, and ferry terminal was in the town of Kuah on the main island. Kuah however didn't have much to offer other than duty free shopping which many people come to Langkawi for. I wanted to get to Cenang on the other side which was easier said than done as the only form of public transport on the island is by taxi. Luckily as Cenang is the main tourist core for people wanting to stay by the beach I managed to share a taxi with a couple of other people heading the same way which was lucky.

By the time I got to Cenang and settled in it was actually quite late, although I had time to visit the weekly night market before just about catching the sunset on the beach. The following day I had a chilled out day, taking a short stroll down to Tengah Beach in the morning which was a lot quieter than Cenang Beach. There were some nice views of some of the smaller islands from here, and I spent much of the morning here relaxing. I headed back to Cenang for lunch, which was basically one long street full of tour companies, hotels, duty free shops, and bars/eateries. Come afternoon I went and hired a deck chair on Cenang Beach, even finally getting a swim in the sea for the first time since I arrived in Asia. It was nice to have a chilled out day, and the beach was real nice, the sand white and powdery.

On Saturday I went over the Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park for the day. Langkawi has three areas classified as Geoforest Parks, and Machinchang was the most easily accessible as it was based where the cable car was, one of the most popular tourist attractions on the island. The other two, the Kilim Karst and Palau Dayang Bunting Geoforest Parks were only realistically accessible by going with tour companies as they're best explored by boat. My plan for the day was to do a walk to the summit of Mount Machinchang via the Seven Wells Waterfall, and I once again managed to share a taxi with a couple of people heading over to visit the cable car.

When arriving it wasn't long before I reached the Seven Wells Waterfall, which was a relatively easy climb up this staircase from the cable car. From there I started doing some more serious climbing through the forest, the humidity just absolutely crazy. Before long the path got incredibly steep and I basically just had to follow this rope which was put in place to help you up. I eventually reached the 701m summit and the views were stunning looking over at the jagged peaks in the rest of the park. It was a little too cloudy to see right across the island though, but I had complete solitude up top which was special.

The descent was pretty challenging, and I kind of appreciated just how steep it was as I had basically climbed to the top of some jagged rock sticking out the forest. I didn't see another person until reaching the popular Seven Wells Waterfall, so Mount Machinchang was a hidden gem, although it was a challenging hike. The waterfall is called the Seven Wells because at the top there are seven pools which are linked by small waterfalls which you can swim in. The water was lovely and refreshing and much needed after the humidity experienced whilst hiking. A couple of the waterfalls even acted as natural water slides! After cooling off in the pools I headed down to the base of the waterfall, although it starting chucking it down with rain. It was amazing how the downpour changed the nature of the waterfall from a trickle to basically a torrent, before becoming a trickle again when the rain stopped.

When reaching the cable car I had a look round Oriental Village which had several attractions and shops linked to the cable car. It felt almost like a theme park. The cable car takes you up to one of the other jagged peaks in the park where you can do this sky walk thing. After leaving the village I went down to Kok Beach, which was another less touristy beach, also home to a lighthouse. There was a nice backdrop of Machinchang and the cable car from here too. Come evening I went out to watch the football, although I was unable to find anywhere showing it live which was annoying. Luckily the pub had WiFi so I could still follow it. When I left there was an almighty thunderstorm, and I inevitably got drenched when walking back to the hostel.

On Sunday I had a far more relaxing day, heading out to the Temurun Waterfall in the northern parts of the Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park. The waterfall itself was the highest on Langkawi although it was basically just a massive cliff with a trickle coming down it. Apparently it's more impressive in wet season. Despite this there were a couple of nice and refreshing swimming holes where I stayed until lunchtime. After leaving the waterfall I headed to the nearby Pasir Tengkorak Beach, which was a small pretty beach literally translating as Skulls Head Beach due to a few local and quite gruesome tales. It was a nice and quiet beach where I went for a short walk along the coast, before relaxing for a couple of hours on the beach. I headed back to Cenang later in the afternoon where I just chilled, heading over to Telaga Walk in the evening where they had several street food units, and a big screen showing the football, something I wished I knew about the previous day.

On Monday I thought I'd go and do one of the boat trips the tour companies were offering. My two options were a mangrove river cruise including a visit to a couple of caves, or an island hopping trip round some of the smaller islands to the south of Langkawi. I went for the latter. Our getting a minibus shuttle down to the wharf near Tengah Beach, our first stop was the Pulau Dayang Bunting Geoforest Park to see the Pregnant Maiden Lake. The islands coming into this island were very dramatic with some very interesting rock formations. When landing on Dayang Bunting we took a short walk to the freshwater lake in the middle, which we were able to swim in. I took a walk round the lake to this viewpoint too which no one else seemed interested in doing, so I had complete solitude up the top!

After leaving Dayang Bunting we continued weaving our way through the islands, before stopping to feed some eagles which was quite a sight! We then continued to Pulau Beras Basah which was a nice island with a beach we were allowed to chill on for an hour. There were lots of annoying monkeys though! From Beras Basah we returned back to the mainland. It was actually a real worthwhile trip!

Come afternoon I wasn't sure whether to stay another night on Langkawi or cross the border into Thailand. From Langkawi there were twice daily ferries to the island of Koh Lipe, and Satun on the Thai mainland. Both were tempting options, and I ultimately had to decide whether I wanted to island hop northwards, or head north over the mainland. I decided to head to Satun in the end. The ferry was ride was nice and smooth and the border was quick and easy because there was probably only about 30 people on the ferry. I wasn't sure whether I'd get a 15 day visa or 30 day visa for Thailand because it's really unclear online. Luckily I got a 30 day visa which gives me a bit more flexibility than what a 15 day visa would have.