Langkawi 08

DAY 2.

I wake up at 4am in the toilet coiled in a fetal position, drenched in water and vomit. There was still a large amount of alcohol in my blood and I felt it as I slowly got up and washed up for a full hour, hoping that the shower will bring back my memory and allow me to remember why I was in the toilet drenched in vomit and water. (I washed the toilet as well. There were bits of prawn everywhere.). Changed and dragged myself into bed between SH and WL. Soon I was woken up and offered breakfast. I declined and went back to sleep. Finally woke up at 11am and had massive nausea and traditional hangover lethargy. Pulled myself out of bed and showered + cleaned up. We were then ready to go for our island hopping.

First stop as always was the DFZ Duty Free outlet at Underwater World but this time we only bought a couple of chocolates. Waited for a while until the "guy" who was taking us for our trip came. We followed him to our boat and I took my t-shirt off and put my lifejacket on. It was time for some Hopping! Island No.1, Pulau Beras Basah "Wet Rice Island?!". Took photos and hung around on the beach for a while playing in the water. Some of the others went for the Banana Boat but I didn't want to go. Boring-much! Next change? Eagle Feeding. Our boat-man took us to a bay in one of the islands where I noticed a few eagles circling overhead. Initially I didn't realise the number of eagles there were in that bay but when the boat-man threw pieces of chicken into the water, all hell broke loose. Dozens of eagles swooped down and plucked pieces of chicken right out of the water. Truly a wonderous sight.

After that we went to Pulau Dayang Bunting were there is a huge freshwater lake just 20 metres from the saltwater sea. Fantastic bit of geography that. We fooled around in the lake and swam around like little idiots. A few people who didn't know how to swim borrowed lifejackets and pretended to swim. All a bit of good, clean fun really. Finally it was time to head back to base. Another stop in DFZ Duty Free (we seem to be going there rather often no?) to purchase duty-free cigarettes, liquor and chocolates for our loved ones was compulsory of course. (Although buying cigarettes for your loved ones is an oxymoron really. I mean who in their right mind would give their "loved" ones a one way ticket to the grave? Rather that would make them your enemies really. Funny.)

Stocked up and we left to look for food. In Langkawi, food is pricey. So we looked for a restaurant where somebody who actually LIVED in Langkawi would eat. We finally found one (after 1 hour of hunting high and low). It was a old Chinese Coffeeshop with a grand total of 2 staff, one of whom could only speak Hokkien (which is a problem because nobody in our group has any measure of fluency as far as Hokkien is concerned.) and had only one dish on offer. Kari Mee (Noodles in Curry). So with a dearth of choice all 10 of us ordered Kari Mee. One by one bowls of (tasteless) Kari Mee appeared with bits of chicken in it. The Chicken looked a bit amiss until we realised where it came from. The Chicken Rendang prepared for lunch. (Chap Fun). So with all the (tasteless) Kari Mee in our bellies we went back to the apartment to shower and prepare for dinner.

Showers all round, a round or two of Cho Dai Di (Big Two/大老二) followed and we were off to dinner. Finally a proper meal and I dug in to our 8 dish Chinese fare. There really was everything on the table, vegetables, fish, prawn, squid, venison (deer), chicken and a couple of others. After feasting we went to Al-Ikhsan (Sports Goods chain store) in Kuah town and fooled around for a bit while the girls bought stuff. Some funny scenes ensued upon discovery of Aston Villa and Arsenal jerseys in the store. Needless to say Arsenal jerseys were on the ground under a heap of Villa jerseys. Back to the apartment and some final packing was going on. I missed out on the nights gambling and went to bed early. Early being midnight in this case. WL and SH struggled into bed at 4am and 5am respectively.

DAY 3 continues..