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So back to islands and beaches, which meant more boats....I have discovered that I am actually a lot more sea sick than I thought I was so I wasn't looking forward to the 2 and a half hour journey being packed onto a tiny boat. The boat ride turned out to be just as bad as I thought and even longer so we couldn't wait to get onto dry land and get to our hotel. When we eventually got there it turned out to be one of the nicer hotels on the island and our room was pretty impressive, except for the fact that it smelt very damp which was a shame but we got used to it. We quickly headed out and had a quick look around the beach. Unfortunately we had already been to Thailand so we were a little underwhelmed with the beach itself...it was still nice but nothing compared to the amazing Thai beaches we have been to. That night Paul looked up a recommended restaurant on the island...according the the "Rough Guide" named the Lighthouse, it seemed like a bit of a trek at the time and when we got there it was very expensive but thought we would try it. The food was really good, one of the best meals I had had in a long time and the restaurant was right on the beach so that was nice.
One highlight of the hotel was the pool. Its quite impressive as it looks a bit like a lake, the water was a lovely turquoise colour and instead of tiling it was more like stone and there was a massive waterfall right at the back and no one seemed to be using it. So we decided to make the most of it and spent most of the day sunbathing and swimming in the pool (to be honest Langkawi itself didn't really seem to have much to offer in the way of things to do and the beach wasn't particularly great) One of the main attractions of Langkawi is the magnificent, amazing UNDERWATER WORLD!!!! "The largest aquarium in Asia!" Paul seemed pretty keen on going so we did. It was appalling in my opinion, it was tiny, there was hardly anything there and overall quite boring, I would also like to add that it was incredibly over priced and expensive. Paul thought it was OK though. It really was nothing compared to the aquarium we visited in Osaka in Japan and last time I checked Japan was part of Asia so I don't know where they got their claims of largest in Asia from. In the evening after eating at an Indian restaurant we headed down to the beach to find a nice bar to have a few drinks, we came across one playing live music which seemed quite popular so we sat down and ordered our drinks. The waiter was clearly completely off his face and came to ask us about 3 times if we had ordered and what we had ordered, amusing though.
Our Third day in Langkawi was the best and most exciting and probably one of my favourite days so far travelling through beachey places. We went on a rather pricey day trip to the National Marine Park. (To be honest if we hadn't have gone here I would have been severely disappointed with Langkawi as apart from this day trip the place doesn't have much going for it and its really expensive). So we boarded a coach full of people and headed to the harbour where we got our boat. I have to say it was a shock how organised everything seemed to be after having been in Thailand for a month where absolutely everything you do is a complete shambles with these tour groups. Whilst on the boat they showed videos of people diving and were doing the hard sell of an additional diving trip included in the day trip. I was 100% up for it but Paul was a little unsure, he quickly changed his mind though as it was actually quite cheap and you didn't need to have dived before as you have your own instructor holding you the entire time and helping you with everything. (We also opted for the video which is hilarious and was embarrassingly shown on a big screen on the way back for everyone to see. Nice. It starts off with me plodding into the water with my flippers and mask on looking like a complete idiot.) Anyway so when we got there we saw straight away how beautiful the little beach was and there were little black tip reef sharks everywhere. We quickly got into the water and the snorkeling was amazing, loads of different types of fish and sharks and beautiful coral. Huge fish too that were practically leaping out of the water to snatch bread from out your hands. So after spending a considerable amount of time in the water snorkeling we went to do our dive. It seems so long ago now as I'm writing this so its difficult to explain what it was like and give it justice at the same time, but it truly was an amazing experience, both Paul and I loved it and if we weren't so poor we would get certified and really make the most of it in oz in the great barrier reef. We were able to touch some of living coral that stuck to your fingers and see the little clown fish playing between the coral. We got so close to all the fish and to see all the amazing coral really up close. It was such a strange sensation though breathing under water and it took a lot of getting used to, it feels so unnatural at first so you really have to just stay calm and follow what the dive master is saying. Overall though really good, one of the highlights of our trip so far.
Our final day in Langkawi was a bit of a disappointment as it was overcast all day and rained on and off so we couldn't really do much. We had a short wander around but other than that had to just stay in the hotel. It was a shame because we wanted to spend one last day at the beach before we hit the countryside and jungle in the centre of Malaysia. We did have a really lovely evening walking across the beach though, the sunset was beautiful and we got some good photos. We ended up having dinner at a very crowded Chinese restaurant, the food was quite good, Paul enjoyed his huge duck. As we walked back to the hotel it started to rain...heavily! this was serious rain. Something you don't really appreciate in England. It absolutely poured it down and by the time we got back to the hotel we were absolutely soaking. There was a massive thunderstorm and we basically got caught right in the middle of it and our clothes still weren't dry in the morning when we were leaving so we had to pack them wet. Not nice.
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