Palau Langkawi 9/3/12 - 12/3/12

Our last stop in Malaysia was Palau Langkawi, an island off the north west coast of the mainland. We spent three nights in Pantai Cenang in a hotel right on the beach front. The area was geared towards holidaymakers rather than travelers so we struggled to find accommodation, either it was too expensive or looked like some form of 'hostel' from a low budget horror movie.

We spent the next day on the beach and then had dinner in a very nice restaurant on the beach that got very busy at sunset. The following day we rented a moped and drove to the cable car. It took us ages to queue up but the queue was well worth it. The view was one of the best we have seen on the entire on the trip and we even got to see a couple of eagles from above! We had a really nice Indian family in our cable car and the little girl said as we were arriving at the top that it reminded her of 'Never Never Land' from Peter pan and to be honest she was spot on. You will see what I mean in the photo below.

There is also a large suspension bridge that you can cross which was very spectacular although I am not sure it is supposed to move that much!

After the cable car trip we still had the rest of the afternoon so we decided to go to Tanjung Rhu beach in the north of the island as recommended by our Lonely Planet guide book. It says the sunset view is classed as one of the top 10 in the world, so we settled down with our towels and books after being told to move further over to the other end of the beach by the hotel security staff (there was a hotel located on the beach) as apparently we were making the beach look untidy! The cheek! The resort did look like a 5 star retreat and I guess if I had paid the money to stay there I wouldn't want any 'commoners' blocking up the beautiful views, although we were already penned in around the corner so we weren't in view!

So at about 6.45pm just as the sun was starting to go down we were told the beach was closing and we therefore had to leave. So after all the palaver, we didn't get to see the sunset after all! What made matters worse was that we got absolutely soaked on the moped ride back to the hotel. It then carried on raining for the rest of the evening so we got drenched again when we ran to the restaurant for dinner! We ate in the same restaurant as the previous night because we were so impressed with the food. They also had a band playing live acoustic music so that was a nice end to the evening and our time in Malaysia.

We really enjoyed our time in Malaysia and saw some incredible things but I felt it lacked a little something that parts of Indonesia had. I can't tell you what that was though if that makes any sense? Perhaps it was the fact that we went to Indonesia first? We still had a lovely time in Malaysia and I don't regret anything we have done on this trip but I think if I ever went back I would go East to Sabah, Sarawak and Borneo. It looks a little more cultural, it has turtle island only a few kilometers off the coast and plus there are loads of orangutans in Borneo!