A tour of the island – including Cable Car, Black Sand Beach, Eagle Square.
For 140 Ringgit ($47) we hired an air-conditioned minivan and toured the island with a driver for 4 hours. Our driver said he’d give us an extra ½ hour as bonus which was nice. First stop was to the Langkawi Cable Car. We arrived to an overwhelming sea of people lining up to buy tickets and get on a cable car. It was going to be a couple of hours wait…at least. We decided it would be best to return tomorrow, early this time and get tickets and go up. We could purchase 95R ($32) tickets that would bump us up the line, compared to 45R ($15) foreign adult and 33R ($11) foreign child tickets. Billie and Dacey classified as children (2-12 years) – woo hoo that’s a first! But best to bring the passport along to show their age because in this country they both look so much older than what we say. We would return bright and early the next day.
Update: At the cable car area there was a specialty GoPro shop – so we asked about why Charlie couldn’t download her movies…she was using a sub-standard speed SD card, so more Ringgit later she had a fast SD card in her hands and a now working GoPro Session to use.
Next stop Black Sand Beach. It was a lovely spot, reminiscent of being lost on an unspoiled tropical island. Our own Gilligan’s Island perhaps? Boats bobbing in the bay, the sand soft and in parts the colour black, and a million-dollar outlook to die for. It was a great stop for us to get out of the taxi to explore, take some photos, and for me I was happy to get my range of new lenses out. We walked slowly along the shore line, under the beating sun then returned to the taxi for our next stop: Eagle Square, located within the main city centre. There a large eagle stands with wings fully extended out looking out onto the water. The monument is eye catching and worth a visit. The sun was beating down (make sure you have SPF30+) in the open-air square and it was a good thing we didn’t spend too much time wandering.
Lunch at an authentic Malaysian buffet restaurant
Before visiting Eagle Square, we asked our driver to take us to a place to have lunch. He stopped off at a Malay buffet style restaurant where we had lunch with the locals. It was a large open air restaurant with BBQs out the front cooking all types of meats, and inside a long and wide table showcasing a smorgasbord of Malay food – I could see the dish Morning Glory (a common dish throughout Cambodia we enjoyed thoroughly) lots of leafy green vegetables. Eggs, quail, meat in sauces, whole grilled fish laid out topped with spices and marinades, more vegetables that we could not take a guess at. One of them looked like cut up celery pieces, but when I tasted it, it was spicy! Deep tubs of white rice, where you had to venture down with your whole arm and scoop out the sticky grains with a spatula. It was busy too and we got quite a few looks from the customers there.
We had been told that due to it being Friday, most of the shops in and around the city were closed. I’m assuming it’s a Muslim thing as to why they’re closed, but we couldn’t make out the answer provided by our driver. Anyway, the food and the restaurant was an authentic Malay experience.
Beach – sunset, drinks, and more water sport activities
Our driver mentioned to us that his car “not working” so we had to swap driver and car in the city before heading back into Cenang Beach. So we hauled ourselves into the hotter and less working air-conditioned van with tongues out like dogs looking forward to hitting the pool and then the beach with a couple of beers and nibbles and watch the sun slip away for another day. The girls played volleyball on the beach with an inflatable ball Charlie had purchased the day before to use in the Adina Motel pool. Steve and I sat peacefully on the silky white sand contemplating how we could quite easily invest in another week in Langkawi Island.
Dinner – Kebabs, Indian, Mexican, Italian are most popular restaurants in town.
Found a Kebab place but they’re only serving chicken kebabs (no beef or lamb which they all prefer to call mutton) even though they promote beef too on their posters. The owner of the small kebab place was a man from Tunisia, the chef was from Syria, and the waiter/help staff was a young man from Sudan. An interesting combination. We sat at the kebab bar that looked into the preparation area with the heat off the kebab cooker radiating out while we watched the chef from Syria cook and prepare the tightly rolled kebabs. Dacey is finding everything just that little bit too spicy for her palate, so we had to order another kebab WITHOUT the chilli sauce.
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