PICTURES at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2380203&id=11832762&l=546849d4c2
On our 2nd weekend in Singapore, we headed off to Langkawi, Malaysia. We flew out Friday night after work and arrived at our hotel around 9pm at the Datai. It was a beautiful resort - in the darkness it was breath-taking and intriguing. We decided to explore the resort, put our bags down, and walked to the beach. The resort is amazing - all the buildings are on stilts (like treehouses) in the midst of a 50 million year old rainforest! And the walk to the beach is no disappointment.
We finally neared the ocean as we felt the path become sandy and our ears began humming with the sound of crashing waves. We turned a corner and reached a clearing...wide open sky and a beautiful stretch of unoccupied beach. All ours!!! We pulled out 2 chairs from under the low branches of the nearby forest and laid down towatch the stars. It was so quiet, and more sky than I've ever seen before - a moment we will never forget!
The next morning, we checked out bikes and decided to go biking around the island. Before we even left the resort, we saw a side street to a parking lot and there was a monkey sitting in the middle of the road! We took a few pictures on our small cameras, and then I held Kevin's bike and watched the monkeys while kevin went back to grab his big camera. We took pictures of 3 adults and 2 babies, and when they ran up into the trees, we followed them down the hill to get a closer look. We were shooting pictures up in the tree (bad shots as the bright sun was the background) and some local workers said, "Look down there - lots of them in the trees, very close". We looked into the parking lot, and on a smaller tree, there were 2 adults and a baby monkey, about eye level, just hanging out and eating leaves!
We got very close and took tons of cute pictures and learned that these are the nice monkeys on the resort. They (black fur with white around the eyes) only eat leaves and don't bother humans. The other monkeys on the island (brown colored) have learned that food comes from humans, and for them, food is stolen from someone lower on the food chain. So, since they can get food from humans, they think we are lower on the food chain, and they will break into rooms to steal it, throw things at you, and make growling noises at you if you come too close. Fortunately, we were able to get close to the nice monkeys!
We didn't realize at the time, but soon found out, the crazy windy road we took to get to the resort was indicative of the entire area around the resort! We left the entrance and decided to head uphill...went about 10 minutes until the road dead-ended and came back down. The other direction we could have gone out of the resort was downhill, but we knew it would be a grueling struggle to get back up the hill when all was said and done. Not to mention the close to unbearable heat that was melted away by a downhill rush of wind. Back to the lobby we went.
we went back to the beach for some sun, swimming, and kayaking. After laying out and a short swim break, we checked out the last canoe and headed for an uninhabited island in the distance. Our journey took about 2 hours, but that was long enough for me to get completely fried in streaks across my body. After reaching the beach, we had our lunch on the sand, under the shade of the rainforest, and had the most amazing fruit smoothies (apple mint and strawberry mango) ever! After lunch, I realized how burned I was, and we headed back to the room before our Night Nature Walk and dinner.
We signed up for the Nature Hike and this was, by far, the coolest experience of our entire trip! Our guide walked us down from the main road of our resort, showing us wild live species and pictures of the various native animals. The best part was, he lived and breathed that jungle. As we stood there, he narrated the story behind the bird and monkey calls we heard - showing us the predatory bird that was being chased away by both the other birds and monkeys we saw. He also showed us native figs and explained for every one of the 1,200 fig species, there is a unique fig wasp that can only pollinate the specific fig it is designed for. Our tour ended with a description of native "flying" species on the island - squirrels, frogs, and SNAKES! Apparently, there ARE flying snakes. And apparently, they HAVE been spotted in the wild of Langkawi! I was now not concerned about snakes I can see on the ground, but snakes in the air as well...
After the Natur Walk concluded, we got ready for dinner. For dinner, we had reservations at the Gulai House, the resort's "in-jungle" restaurant. The food specialties were authentic Malay & Indian cuisines, of which we sampled and loved both! We were told we could walk back to the resort along the beach (even though we took a bus to get there) - so we did. Night walks on the beack - STRIKE 2!!!
(History- the 1st time Kevin & I walked on the beach at night, I had a scratched cornea (eye), was wearing glasses, and decided to walk barefoot. It was romantic until the ghost crabs followed the light of our flashlight and freaked us out by running right in our path the entire walk...STRIKE 1!)
This time, the path was not well lit, it was narrowly cut between the thick of the jungle, and was right after our Nature Walk where we learned this island has flying squirrels, flying frogs, and flying SNAKES! A wild boar had also been spotted by 2 different guests during the week that accompanied us on our Nature Walk. PERFECT. Each rustle in the bushes gave us more pep in our step and made us wonder if it was a flying reptile or a wild boar that was coming to get us! We made it back safely...needless to say...but not without a story and a memory we will never forget!
The next day, we explored the rest of the island - in 5 hours! We stopped at a local food stand on the side of the road to buy banana fritters - which tasted like fried balls of banana bread dough! Yummy! We were expecting slices of banana fried in dough (like we find in Singapore, even though it is a Philipino dish) but it was better than that! We went shopping for souvenirs - especially a vase & bowl we saw used in Malay custom to wash your hands before eating. We could not find a good one, so the hunt will continue when we are in Malaysia again!
As I write this, it has been almost 2 months since the trip, and while my sunburn is healed, I still have a splotchy tan to correct! =) It was an amazing trip, one we will never forget!
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