♥ Tuesday, January 18, 2011 ♥
Langkawi Part 4
18 December 2010
(It's exactly one month before today, as in 18 January 2011!)
After leaving the Oriental Village we hired a van to take us to Westin Resort. After a discussion with the driver, we decided to go 'eagle-feeding', or more accurately, 'watch-eagles-being-fed' as it was on the way to Westin Resort and we had loads of time to kill.
The trip wasn't cheap, RM350 to 'watch-eagles-being-fed', cruise around the islands and mangrove swamps, visit fish farms and caves. Not exactly worth it, but I suppose it was quite an enjoyable experience. The trip was supposed to last for 2 hours, but we only spent ... maybe an hour and 45 minutes, on the boat.
Wooooo, setting off!
It was reaaaally nice to feel the wind whipping our hair about our faces. The weather was still really awesome, slightly sunny but cool.
Had to put on sunglasses, kept worrying that my contact lenses would get blown away by the wind, or that some foreign object would fly right into my eyes, haha.
It was very ... green! Pleasant sight for the eyes, haha.
There was a wide expanse of smooth, calm water all around us (until of course, our boat caused rippling waves on the surface of the water), and lots and lots of trees.
Anyway, the waters looked so peaceful, nice, soothing and just so ... generally harmless, that I kept having the feeling of wanting to jump straight in for a swim. Even though I don't know how to swim. Haha. Have no clue what lurks beneath the deceivingly tranquil water.
Soon after we stopped and the boat driver turned off the engines, and dropped pieces of meat onto the surface of the water.
Then we waited for the eagles to come while the driver explained that he couldn't possibly feed the eagles by putting the meat onto his palm because the eagles would snatch at the meat first with their sharp claws before devouring the meat and his palm would be hurt in the process.
I think all of us were expecting him to feed the eagles right from his hands, hahaha.
And lots and lots of eagles came!
Couldn't take any decent photos of the eagles. I think my cousin did though! Not sure.
It was an amazing sight, all those eagles swooping down on the meat, their wings all ... straight and still, not flapping at all. Okay, I don't know how to describe it.
There was this one .... uh, "king" of eagles (as I'd like to think of it), it was white and gray, simply magnificent, and larger than the other orange-brown-copper-white eagles. Haha.
Here it is, isn't it pretty? It's like the Hedwig of owls! XD
After the feeding fest, we resumed our ... cruise around the area.
...
We passed through this ... damn it, what's it called? A narrow ... uh, strip, of water between two ... WHAT? CLIFFS?! Crap. I should know, after reading The Lord of The Rings (for the second time, no less)! Hahaha.
Okay, irrelevant. But Tolkien elaborated so much on the 'sights' like rivers gullies ravines forests vales mountains etc! I should have learned something, but guess I didn't. Haha.
I was saying, after passing through the PLACE, I immediately thought of Argonath, the Pillars of the Kings, from LOTR! Big difference, but still. HAHA.
Behold! A CAVE!! It's called Crocodile Cave. We were so excited when we saw the cave, and my cousins even took out torch lights and everything.
Turned out, it wasn't quite what we expected, because, upon entering the cave, we saw ....
DAYLIGHT! =.=
Definitely felt a sense of anticlimax. Hahaha. I didn't know what my cousins were expecting, but I definitely wasn't expecting anything like that. Such a small cave. Booo.
I suppose I was thinking of a grand old cave like ... like ... the cave Voldemort hid his Horcrux! LOL I read too many books.
Anyway on the rocky ceiling of the caves dwelt a lot of tiny black bats, not exactly a pretty sight. But it WAS a sight. If you get what I mean. Like the sightseeing sight. Something people would want to see in caves, I guess? *shrugs*
Went past all these private yachts with their own names. Saw a person with long and slightly curly grey hair and beard on one of those yachts, and immediately I thought of Robinson Crusoe, though I do not know why. Hahaha. Even waved at him when we passed the yacht for the second time! XD
Every place looked the same
Cruised around the mangrove swamps, look at all those roots! BIOLOGY!
We spotted lots of crabs, even some purple ones, on the muddy banks.
Went into another cave after that, forgot what it's called.
BATS!!!! Eeew.
There was this intriguing-looking ladder in one of the two caves, leading up to ... where, nobody knows because we didn't climb up the ladder. First, it was creepy and cold, not to mention wet. And second, we weren't properly attired. Haha. Third, we'd probably hit our heads and hurt ourselves in the dark, even though we had torches.
Last stop was the fish farm, and there was really nothing much to see except this huge and very cute sting ray called Mimi. My uncle fed the ray with a tiny fish, and had the chance to feel the ray ... err, nibbling? sucking? on his fingers. Eeeek. I just touched the ray though, it was slimy and slippery, and reminded me of my mom's delicious sting ray curry, hmmm.
HAHAHAHA. Cannot imagine how many dishes of curry could be served with that one ray! Evil thoughts, LOL. Mean!! Not sure whether that particular type of ray is edible or not though.
Helloooo!
Okay, after that we went to Westin!!
When I first saw the lobby I wasn't impressed. I mean, the deco was elegant, classy and stuff, but ... I don't know, maybe I found something lacking. Haha. Not sure what though. And the Christmas tree was ... well, not really Christmas-y, pretty though it was.
See what I mean? Hahaha.
The candles were a nice touch though!
But after I saw the VIEW through the windows of the lobby, I changed my mind. I was struck by the beauty and serenity of it all. You could see for miles, and see all the islands in the distance, and see ships and tiny vessels sailing on the sea, and the ... "dining venue" on the sea, according to the Westin Langkawi website.
The grounds is very large as well, but not bigger than Berjaya I guess.
Westin is very different from Berjaya! Like one is more modern and the other more traditional. And Westin is posher. And more well-tended to, perhaps.
Complimentary drinks. Red one contained alcohol whereas the blue one didn't.
Windy!
Eh, don't know why I was clutching my drink like that. Hahaha.
My thigh looks sort of skinny in the photo, yay. =.=
With my cousin. We didn't want to take any photos (because we were sick of wearing the same outfit), but couldn't resist because the view was so beautiful. Hah.
And also, because we were tired. Look at my face!
My filthy toenails! XD
Went to Jetty Point for dinner after bathing and changing. Left my aunt in the hotel because she was feeling nauseous and not at all well. Had dinner at Kenny Rogers, of all places. Because my cousin had never eaten there before. So.
Okay. End of the post. Gotta go put the Christmas tree into keeping. A bit late, yes, I know. Hahaha.
♥ craving chocolate kisses ..
8:09 PM
8:09 PM
♥ Tuesday, January 11, 2011 ♥
Langkawi Part 3
18 December 2011
The second day of the trip!
Sad to say, most of the photos for this post are photos of us and not the scenery.
Okay, wait. They are photos of the scenery, only that they're partially (or mostly) blocked by our, or should I say, my body and face. Haha. Of course my narcissist of a cousin also took thousands of photos of herself with (not and) the gorgeous scenery, but they're in her camera, not mine. Well, duh.
So, we woke up early in the morning, and went for the buffet breakfast at the Dayang Cafe. I mentioned it before : I quite dislike buffets because of all the pressure as I don't want any money to go to waste by not eating enough.
The problem is, you can NEVER eat enough at buffets. You pay almost a hundred bucks for a buffet (for posher places, they're well over a hundred bucks), but you can never eat the amount's worth of food. Well, I never can anyway, not sure about other people. And it's not like the food at buffets are particularly awesome. Lots of varieties, yes. Extremely tasty, no.
After breakfast we went for a walk around the hotel grounds again, went for a short walk around the mangrove swamp. Not my idea of fun, the path/walkway was made of floating ... uh, things like plastic containers, but obviously they were made for walking. I THINK. Not that that made it easier to walk on, it was very slippery, and we all were wearing flip-flops.
If you slip, you'd fall into the shallow but muddy water, and you'd get to swim with some small, peculiar type of transparent-ish fish, and maybe get a nip or two from the tiny red crabs. Nice.
There was a small pond full of these large pink water lilies, which was kind of surprising. We turned a corner, and behold!
Had to zoom to take this photo, AND my cousins were all miles away already, so I couldn't linger and attempt to take nicer photos. Don't really like this photo.
HAHA pneumatophores! A Biology student's nightmare, mangroves. A lot of things to memorise. But I loved Biology! :P
Ah, here we are, blocking the view again. LOL.
It was really peaceful and serene. Quiet, with hardly anyone about. Even the waves didn't make much of a sound. You could see hornbills and eagles flying around, and crabs scuttling about the beach (at night).
After that we went for a swim in the resort swimming pool. Well, my cousins did anyway. I was merely had a dip, it was either that or drown trying to swim. HAHAHA. And the water kept getting into my eyes and displacing my contact lenses. Very uncomfortable. AND the water was unbearably cold.
Went back to our chalet, bathed, packed, and left our luggage at the lobby for safekeeping, and took a shuttle to the Oriental Village at around 11 in the morning.
But ....
Look at the CROWD. It was unbelievable.
The queues snaked around from downstairs to upstairs.
My aunt bought tickets while we queued up, and it wasn't until ... around 12.30 pm (I think) that we finally got into a cable car. Phew.
My cousin and I went for ice-creams during the wait, and of course, had to take a few photos. To quell the sense of boredom. Haha. It was sweltering hot, very sunny!
I hate my mom's sunnies! XD
The ice creams were really cheap, and nice. We had the 'Rainbow'!! You know, like the Paddle Pop Rainbow, just in cones. Reminded me of my childhood. It was my favourite ice cream back then, I used to find the colours of the ice cream pretty. Ahhh, sweet.
Anticipation!!
See if you can spot two cable cars at the very top, moving sideways! :D
Photos below were taken from the inside of the cable car.
That's the Seven Wells Waterfall!
Another waterfall. I love how all the leaves of the trees have different shades of green! Really pretty to look at.
YES I KNOW I LOOK STUPID. AND ORANGE. Hahaha.
Was using the "sunset" mode on the camera. If you're curious as to why I look so orange in the photo.
My hair was an awful mess. Arrgh.
The ride had us all in awe. It was really, really beautiful, and you could see for miles. Even though the - was it glass? Plastic? Borosilicate glass HAHA kidding, studied too much for Chemistry, maybe - was kind of dirty and badly scratched.
And at long last, we reached the top! We chose not to get off the cable car at the first stop, and took the "parallel"/sideway ride to the other observation deck. If you get what I mean.
The photos totally do no justice to how magnificent the view actually is in reality. This is a weird sentence.
It was really, really beautiful (have I mentioned this already?). There was a strong but cool wind blowing, whipping our hair back and forth (sorry, can't resist it, again). And in my case, it whipped my dress up high, like Marilyn Monroe. Brilliant.
Hehe, but luckily I had the ... uh, foresight? to slip on a pair of shorts underneath, so no harm done.
Actually I put on the dress before breakfast, and after swimming, it never occurred to me to change, and it never occurred to me that it would be very windy up there. It was really ... fortunate that I have had the habit of wearing shorts underneath dresses (thank you, school!), or ... well. Hahaha.
Wisps of cloud!
I really loved how each peak has a different shape and size, they looked great against the blue sky!
Bird-eye's view!
Photos taken on the observation deck. This view (as shown above) was my absolute favourite, completely breathtaking, look at those islands!
Yes, I do realise that I have blocked most of the view.
Anyway, after admiring the view and the cool, crisp but pleasant wind at the observation deck, we went to the hanging bridge, or whatever it was called. Had to climb quite a number of steps down to the place from the topmost observation deck.
Was not exactly dressed in what you would call proper exercising gear. A dress (with shorts underneath, yes, but still), and flat sandals. Odd. My cousin was wearing tight shorts, a three-quarter-sleeve blouse, and flip-flops. And a seahorse necklace. HAHA. We must have looked weird.
And here's the hanging bridge! Did not manage to get other nicer photos. My cousin did though, so when I get the photos from her I just might upload them. Might.
My guy-cousin was ... uh, intolerant of heights, so he stayed only at one end of the bridge, what a waste. But still, I don't think he was ... afraid, not exactly. Can't imagine him being afraid of anything. I mean, a guy who keeps large poisonous spiders, snakes or some creepy crawly as pets, and loves to mix chemicals and create poisons (and threaten to poison his sister all the time) ... scared of heights? Just doesn't fit.
Hello. =.=
I'm at a loss for words, because I have no idea what these are called. Hills? Cliffs? Okay, obviously not cliffs. Hills, that look like cliffs (the rocks, see the resemblance? Not that I have seen proper, I-can-commit-suicide-here cliffs before, but I have always imagined them like that)?
Anyway the hill-cliff thing was beautiful, sort of majestic. Okay I'm going to shut up now.
There, my cousin and her seahorse necklace! :)
It's pretty scary when you look at it like this, isn't it? I mean. Two cables, holding up all those gondolas.
This photo was taken at the very end of the hanging bridge. Very sunny!
The backdrop looks like a wallpaper, doesn't it? Haha.
Stairway to heaven XD
And after around an hour, we left! Took a last few photos while in the cable car going back to the Oriental Village.
There, you can see the Oriental Village down below.
Steep gradient! Of ... was it 42 degrees? Read it from the leaflet. Said it was one of the steepest for cable cars in ... the world? Asia? Sorry I can't remember. I could Google it, but can't be bothered.
RAWRRRR!
Aren't these the most frightening rabbits you have ever seen? What have they DONE to these rabbits? They were so emaciated, filthy and unhealthy-looking. Poor things. I was like, ooh, look, rabbits! And when I got closer ... UHH. Yuck.
I really disliked the Oriental Village. It was dirty, the toilets were revolting, I don't know, maybe I was tired, but it felt very boring, messy and dowdy. The atmosphere ... Didn't like it.
Okay, I shall end this post here. I think there will be 6 Langkawi posts now, LOL. Too many photos! Can't blame me for being a narcissist! XD
♥ craving chocolate kisses ..
9:46 PM
9:46 PM