July 11th, 2019
Today we slept in before taking off and catching the ferry to Langkawi. Last night there was a huge storm. Probably the most lightening I have ever seen. It was like the sky was constantly lit up. It’s really interesting because right now on the east coast of Malaysia, it is their dry season and peak time for tourism. The west coast is having their wet season. The country is not that big, and it seems kind of crazy the seasons are opposite like that. After the intense storm last night, it was sunny this morning when we got up. It took about an hour on the ferry to get to Langkawi. Langkawi is an archipelago of 99 islands in the Andaman Sea. Most of the islands are uninhabited but the main one is very big and felt like a small city when we arrived there. There are many roads with heavy traffic. There are multiple Starbucks and McDonalds. Quite the change from the Perhentian Islands where we just came from.
Malaysia does seem to be getting less expensive as we go which is surprising. Or maybe we are getting more savvy. We rented a scooter from the jetty in Langkawi as our hotel was a 30-minute drive. The scooter was only $6 a day. We got a decent hotel room next to the popular beach area of Pantai Chenang for $16 a night. There was a Thursday Night Market right next to our hotel. We went there and both ate dinner with an iced tea for $2.22. I had a noodle plate and Brendan had chicken and beef satay.
We couldn’t fit all the luggage and both of us on the scooter, so I waited at the jetty while Brendan made a trip there and back with luggage before picking me up. After we checked into the hotel, I decided we should experience the sky cable car since the weather was good, and I didn’t want to miss it if we got unlucky and it rained the rest of the time. This particular SkyCab is supposedly the steepest cable car in the world, and I believe it! It took us up a sheer rock face and it was enough to make my stomach drop a little bit. At the top of the cable car we could walk out on the longest free standing, curved bridge in the world. This pedestrian bridge was completed in 2004 and has won many engineering awards.
The cable car and the bridge were really cool. It was all very touristy where you walk through gift shops etc. before you can exit, but definitely worth the $12 ticket as you get to see an aerial perspective of Langkawi and how big the main island is. What I really like about Langkawi so far is that it has beautiful beaches with a background of big mountains with lots of rock faces. It is really pretty.
Our SkyCab ticket included entrance to a 3D art museum where we could take lots of silly pictures that are kind of fun. I could only get Brendan to participate in one picture, but they also had some cool optical illusion exhibits.
We were there until it closed and headed back to the hotel. The receptionist told us the weekly night market was tonight, and we walked over there and like I mentioned, got some really cheap food.
Wow!! That sky cab looks death defying! Bet you got some butterflies riding on that! Scenery looks incredible! I love the 3D art images and thought you could’ve used some wardrobe changes, (but then you’d have to carry more on your back, I realize), Very Impressive that you made the Cover of Nat Geo, and that B still has a head after tempting that shark with it! I think it would be neat to see you dressed like a local, there must be lots of hijab shops, I’m just sayin…