Saturday 7th March 2012 - Langkawi

Today has been a great day :-) I decided not to set my alarm and just wake up naturally - there is no such thing in malaysia!!! Everywhere you go there are cockerels and they make the wakey wakey noise at stupid times! The worse thing is, the one that wakes me up here sounds like an old dog that is trying to bark! Haha! Anyway, I jumped straight on my scooter and headed towards to Oriental Village where they have the cable cars and skywalk.  The oriental village was really nice - there were little shops and food places around and also beautiful ponies that were giving people rides around the village. After breakfast - roti canai and chicken satay skewers with pear, pineapple and lime juice I went to the cable car.  The cable car takes you to the top of the mountains and allows you to see all around langkawi from various different viewing platforms. Then once at the very top platform you can walk across the skywalk which is basically a hanging bridge linking two mountains together. It was definitely worth the rm30.  After I got back down to solid ground I jumped back onto my scooter and followed a sign towards a waterfall. There is seven wells which is a half an hour walk up a massive hill - my flip flops weren't suitable for the walk so I only made it to the waterfall. The waterfall was beautiful and really refreshing to swim in. There were locals having picnics around the waterfall and some swimming with their children. It's crazy the different types of activities parents do with their children here compared to England. The kids were sliding down from the rocks and into the water and making their own fun from very little - it was so sweet to watch.  Walking back down from the waterfall towards my bike I saw and heard rustling in the trees. I stopped walking and watched for about 30minutes. There were loads of monkeys in the bushes, I am not sure of the breed but they were black with white faces - really cute but very timid.  After the waterfall I decided to head back to my room to get showered nice and early and head out a little more determined to speak to people.  My first stop once I was ready was the bar at gecko guesthouse. It is quite intimidating to go to the bar as although most people at the hotel are backpackers too, they are usually grouped in the bar together and it is that awkward turning around and watching you thing that happens when someone walks in.  I went straight to the bar and ordered a bacardi and pineapple juice. The bar man started talking to me which was nice. He was a local boy and a proper joker. When I told him I knew Anaz from Monkey Bar he was very quick to point out that it was his friend and that Anaz used to work there. He showed me an old photo of Anaz that was still pinned up behind the bar - of course I uploaded it straight to Facebook and tagged Anaz!!  After Gecko, I saw that the first restaurant on the main road sold shisha. I walked passed this place the night before and because there were not very many people there I headed to the restaurant over the road which was much more vibrant. Today I decided I would smoke shisha and eat there. The stash of all the different flavours of Al Fahker was very impressive and led me to respectfully acknowledging the guy that dealt with the shisha. I knew he knew what he was doing when he recommended guava, grape and mint to me - this is a flavour I have a lot at home. The guy seemed friendly and seemed happy when he realised I was from England. Whilst eating my food (snapper, rice and chinese vegetables) which was amazing by the way, Jay came and sat with me and opened up a blank page in a note book and picked up a pen seemingly ready to write. He said right, tell me about England. I support Liverpool and want to go see the stadium. I sat there reeling off directions to him, places to go in London and which trains to get etc whilst he took notes.  Then out of nowhere he offered me another shisha because of the information I had given him - and also didn't charge me for the first one.  We were also talking about what I had been doing while I was here and what I wanted to do - i told him I wasn't sure but that i was happy just going around the Island with my scooter. He asked if I wanted to do some island hopping and told me that there was a really nice tour that takes you to swim in a fresh water lake, then to feed eagles, and then to a nice island to snorkel. He then pulled out a map from his office and showed me where it would take me and explained that he also works as a tour guide. I asked how much it would cost me and he said normally rm25 (someone was quoting me rm40 for the same tour yesterday) but that because he already had a group of 10 going tomorrow I could go for free as there was extra space. Of course I said yes!!! I would need to meet him back at the restaurant at 8am and then we would drive to the boat port. Jay seemed like a nice guy. He was 32 and loved travelling around the different countries. In two weeks time he is going to Japan and Korea  and then in the summer he wants to come to England to visit all the different football stadiums. He was very in touch with the English and American music and television shows which was really surprising - apparently he has sky tv and the internet and spends a lot of time on YouTube searching for new things.  While we were talking I kept feeling bugs on me and showed him all the bites I had got since being in Langkawi so he kindly went into his back area and bought out some mosquito spray for me. I didn't expect him to do that so it was very sweet. I was happy that I had finally found a friend in Langkawi! :-)