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3/22

Cable Car and Islands

Still on Langkawi.  Well, I had to go see the cable car, and it was too late to go yesterday, plus it's so simple and fun and easy to be here.  So today, I took a quick morning dip in the ocean, then showered and left with Anne, a Dutch girl who's staying at the same hostel, who I met yesterday.  We rented a scooter and she drove us to the cable car while I sat behind her and watched the scenery go by and held on tightly.  The cable car cost RM30, a fortune here- almost $10, but it was worth it, though it wouldn't have been worth much more.  It was one of those cable cars that's the world's superlative with several additions.  I can't remember exactly what they were, but something like WORLD'S LONGEST CABLE CAR (That Feels Like A Skilift On An Island In Southeast Asia Surrounded By Tourist Shops And Crap Food Connected To A Bridge That Goes Nowhere).  We had a nice view, though you can't tell that from any of the photos I took, walked around a bit and headed back.

We had a few new people at the hostel; a German guy, Nils, and a Danish couple, Stine and Simon, who we invited to our game of Kings, which somehow turned into several rounds.  We were all having a grand time, despite their resistance to Never Have I Ever- the best part of Kings.  They were almost all playing with beer.  I was playing with Razz Rum and Diet Coke.  Maybe it was the extra alcohol in me that gave me courage, but when we found a scorpion the boys started poking at it cautiously, and then I came over and stepped on and killed it.  Later they would argue that they were playing with it and didn't want to kill it, and while that does sound juvenile and illogical enough to accept as true from boys in their mid-twenties, I still think they were simply too scared to do so.  It was definitely the extra alcohol in me that later insisted I go to bed instead of going out with them to Sunbar later, but I didn't mind and it was a great night all in all.

3/23

Stine, Simon, Nils and I decided to rent scooters to go around the island, especially to see a man-made waterfall that was supposed to be cool and some of the other beaches so we rented two ($5 per person for the whole day) and set off, Stine and Simon on one and Nils driving me on the back of the other.  It was fun and Nils was a good driver, though it took me a while to feel really safe.  We drove around for quite a while, Stine navigating, and eventually got to the waterfall, which was as dry as desert sand.  It didn't look like it would have been that impressive even if it had been falling water as it was SO obviously man-made and fake looking.  We headed over to a little locals beach with the same gorgeous white sand as Cenang beach, but much clearer, prettier water.  Unfortunately, we had to get out to keep our stuff safe from the monkeys, who really do like to steal anything that's not larger than themselves.  So we headed to the next beach, which was astonishing because the sand was even whiter than the other beaches and it seemed to go on for a mile, but was totally empty- we didn't see a single other person on the beach.  Unfortunately, I don't have pictures to prove any of this or show you the monkey trying to drive a parked motorcycle because I stupidly forgot my camera. 

By this point it was about 3 p.m. and Stine was starving.  I'd had a croissant and Diet Coke for breakfast, but hadn't eaten anything else that day.  I didn't think I was hungry, but when we sat down at the restaurant in front of the next beach we'd wanted to see, I realized I was actually starving too.  A random tourist came over and told us that the fish was excellent, and since that sounded good anyway, I ordered a fish in ginger sauce.  It took a while, but really was incredible- one of the best meals I've had so far.  The sauce in particular was awesome and had a sort of buttery softness to it that was deeply flavored but not overpowered by the ginger.

We walked down to the new beach and they took a few pictures but didn't stay.  Next we headed up a mountain almost to the highest point on the island in anticipation of amazing views.  After quite a long ride, we made it to a view point with a marker, looked out to the horizon and saw...nothing.  Fog was completely covering everything more than about 100 feet away from us.  Oh well, none of us were too fussed, so we headed back down.  They did want some panoramic pictures, so we stopped when we got a bit lower.  On the tree in front of us, maybe 500 feet away, was a bald eagle, which was very cool to see.  Strange as it seems, they actually have many eagles on Langkawi, and even have an eagle habitat of some kind though I didn't bother to visit.

Eventually we made it back to the hostel, rested a while, then went out to dinner at a Thai seafood place on the beach.  They had the largest tiger prawns I've ever, ever seen in my life, probably just under a foot long if you'd laid them out flat but they were expensive and the crab was cheap.  I went for the crab in a light curry sauce with rice, which was another amazing meal for about $5, 6 with my drink, lime juice, which is essentially limeade.  Somehow neither the German nor either of the Danes had ever had crab before which I found bizarre, so Nils ordered his own, and enjoyed it, while Simon and Stine tasted it and said it was good.  I'm always happy to introduce people to new (good) things.

We went back to the hostel, had a few beers and talked for a while, then headed out for a nice, but uneventful night at Sunbar.  I spent most of the time just watching other people dance which really is extremely amusing as most people are terrible dancers, and everyone went home happy.

*With this post I broke the 10,000 word mark for my blog- very exciting!  I know you don't care.