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For our one year anniversary, we decided to
take a long weekend away from our little tropical island of Singapore and visit another
little tropical island, the Malaysian island called Langkawi (Long-Ka-Wee). For those of you unfamiliar with Langkawi, it is a cluster of islands off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia near the Thailand border. For further reference, Singapore lies at the southernmost tip of Peninsular Malaysia, and until about 40 years ago was actually considered Malaysia. For a more in depth lesson on the geography of Southeast Asia, please see our map page. Most of the 99 islands of Langkawi are uninhabited by people, but support a huge variety of plant and animal life. The ocean around Langkawi is known for it's coral reefs, and generally good diving and snorkelling conditions in which to view them. Langkawi is, in short, a natural paradise. It's a favorite destination for Japanese tourists, who seem to make up about 50% of the tourists we saw. |
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Arriving from Singapore by plane takes all of an hour and a half, and the resort we stayed at provided us transport from the airport. Life on Langkawi is noticably more laid back that that of Singapore, or even Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian people we had contact with were friendly and helpful. On the bus ride back to the resort, I noticed some strange looking dogs digging through some garbage on the side of the road. Wait, were those dogs? No, they were monkeys! Yes, monkeys are a common sight on Langkawi, and in some places, they have become rather tame from frequent contact with humans. (More on this later.) |
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After settling into our hotel, we decided that we wanted to see one of the famous waterfalls near our hotel. A recent guidebook warned that our resort had diverted the water from this waterfall, and it was now not a waterfall. We couldn't believe that any resort would commit such a crime against nature, so we hiked up an incredible incline to find out. Sure enough, the waterfall, although still there, seemed to be on the weak side. Water must have been diverted at the top. |
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Still the most interesting sight at the
waterfall was the monkey sitting on the side of the road as we climbed up. He had found a
discarded Pepsi bottle and was casually drinking from it while we approached him. As I
stopped not more than 2m from him and put down my backpack to take out my camera, he
stopped drinking and started walking toward me! Apparently, he had been fed by humans
before and was expecting the same from me. Not really wanting to get THAT close to a wild
monkey, I backed away, but snapped a few pictures of the monkey I've gotten closest to. It
was really cool.More |
