Beach days

Today's destination - Tanjung Rhu Beach - on the other side of the Island. I had considered renting a car for the day. I didn't want to risk a scooter. I decided not to in the end.

Despite this hostel having mosquito nets, I still seem to have been bitten a lot by mosquitos - or 'mosquwitos' as I think I say in this video. I don't edit them so they are what they are! 😅. The mosquitoes, somehow, still get inside with me - I've spotted a couple.  

I had to get a taxi - this time a lady driver. It seemed a bit daft getting a taxi to the beach, but this beach is supposed to be cleaner and more peaceful. 

It was nice at first. I sat and watched the Eagles, circling over head and finished reading my book. But gradually, more and more people and boats turned up.

I moved round to the other side for a bit. Had a swim and a sunbathe.......its a hard life I know.

I walked further on to another beach - along the road. A kind lady on a moped stopped to give me a lift. It made my day! The next beach wasn't too nice so I walked on further

Found another beach but by this time I was just feeling hot and bothered and only stayed for a short while. Its a 'black sand beach' as opposed to the white sand on the others, due to the mineral composition of the soil.

Land for sale:

A lot of shops and businesses are called 'enterprises' , I find it quite sweet.

I booked a Grab, but the first one didn't arrive. The time kept getting longer for arrival, instead of shorter.

Grab is designed to be safe for users and the drivers movements are monitored. If they don't go the planned route a message pops up, asking if you are okay, and if you don't respond, they put a call through to the Police!

In the end the ride was cancelled and I booked another, but he was weird. Despite accepting the trip, he was complaining that the distance was too long? At least he turned up, but he wasn't chatty at all.

The following day I went back to the nicest local beach, with my little picnic, a short walk through the Cenang tourist area

Langkawi is a 'duty free' Island, so there are many duty free shops. I looked around a few - trying carefully not to knock anything expensive off the shelves with my rucksack! 

In the supermarket in KL I dropped a full jar of coffee on the floor, which smashed everywhere. They made me pay for it immediately! They were even kind enough to bag it up for me at the checkout. I think they were expecting me to take it away with me. I didn't. Fortunately, it was the cheaper end of the coffee scale and only cost me £3. I did buy another jar.

It amazes me how these ladies stand to be on the beach wearing so much clothing! They were trying to persuade their kids to leave

Talking of kids, it amazes me how many people want to mess about on jet skis. Or these ridiculous boats shaped like 'lightning McQueen' from the cars movie - or that's what I thought they look like anyway.

Parascending - I tried this in Turkey once - I really didn't like it at all - the feeling in your stomach. It feels like one of those nightmares where you are falling - ughh.

There was something about the brightness of the sand that I had to wear my sunglasses. 

Incidentally - my old pair - which were pretty worse for wear -  finally broke whilst I was on the cycling trip in Penang. One of the eyes fell out, and when I tried to poke it back in, it crumpled.

Later the same day, at the botanical gardens, I found a really nice pair of sunglasses just sitting on a rock. I discovered they are 'vintage designer' by Renato Ballestra. Certainly better than 'Boots' I guess. Funny how the Universe occasionally provides.

My sandals are also getting a bit frayed. In the malls, amongst the inane Chinese music, I had searched for a replacement. It turns out though that they only seem to sell trekking sandals for men in Kuala Lumpur, none for women. Perhaps Malay women aren't allowed to trek.... At least the toilets in the malls are decent and usually have toilet paper.

The custom here - as in Indonesia - is to wash yourself with water after. Although I wonder how you get yourself dry afterwards? They provide paper for tourists, but here in Malaysia, its often on the outside of the toilet, where the sinks are, so you have to remember to take it in. I always have a supply in my pockets. You're not supposed to flush it either - just put it in the bin.

Sorry - a little 'toilet' aside there. My favourite topic 😀.

On the way back to the hostel I stopped off at the Aquarium for a visit. It was quite good, although I felt a bit sorry for the fish etc. but I suppose many of them are endangered in the wild now. It did feel a bit like some of them were trying to get out of their tanks.

Feeding time!

These spiky things are venomous as were the 'bluespotted ribbontail ray' - I had to look that up. Some of the descriptions around the place were slightly lacking.

There were also flamingos, penguins and some reef sharks, turtles and otters. I made a video of the highlights.

I went out for dinner at a restaurant on the beach. I had to pick a place where they took cards, since I'd used up all my cash - it being my last full day in Malaysia. The setting was nice, but the meal was a bit disappointing. Never mind. I would have had fish, as on the first night, but its highly priced up for tourists in the beach restaurants.

The walk back to the hostel, in the day:

and night:

The hostel is in a quieter area, except, it seems, in the early hours of the morning, when there was the roaring of scooters driving past in droves......I wonder if its part of the boy racer circuit.?

Farewell Langkawi.