October 9th-October 12th

So we awake at the ungodly hour of 7:00am, we're people who lie in now ha! We set off on our journey to Malaysia. We started off in a minivan, then on a boat, then in a minivan, then on a boat, then in a minivan. We then got dropped off in the middle of nowhere, and then hustled into another minivan. He drove for a while thinking he was Schumacher down country roads; we then stopped off again and were put into a taxi. We finally ended up at a large pier and got onto a big boat!!! That all happened within 3 hours. Finally we were over Malay waters and we arrived on the beautiful island of Langkawi.

Langkawi is the northern most island in Malaysia and has became the tourist hotspot for Chinese and Malay to visit, the island has had a lot of cash pumped into it and enjoys being the countries holiday gem. Our hotel was on the opposite side of the island, as so often happens. We've wondered why the main place to stay on all the islands we've visited just doesn't build its own port, as we are forever being ferried across islands in taxis. Any who, this taxi ride was enjoyable as it traversed roads along the islands coastline and gave us some excellent views of the island and the ocean as we went up and down the hilly landscape.

We arrived at Pantai Cenang, this area of Langkawi has a 2km long beach of fine white sand that is untouched by resorts and kept incredibly clean. We dropped off our bags and went hunting for a cheaper place to stay and some much needed food after our strange multi vehicular journey. We found McDonalds!!!!! The triple cheeseburger that had so far eluded Declan finally yielded to the increased hunger and his deadly jaws. We know it's bad to go away and eat stuff you can get at home, however we didn't care and it was really cheap, both meals cost £4.00, were getting seriously ripped off at home!

The following day after a morning of sunbathing we strolled off to Underwater World. The aquarium has different zones with obviously different fish, a rainforest zone, an arctic zone and a coral reef zone. The aquarium boasts over 200 species of marine animals however we were pre occupied with the penguins. The centre had all the 'Finding Nemo' fish, some jellyfish and even a few flamingos!!!!! We watched the seals being fed and hunted for the highly camouflaged leopard shark and sting rays in an 80foot long underwater tunnel. That night we got some astonishing pictures of the sun setting over the smaller islands that surrounded the bay.

Our third day proved to be the most packed. We awoke early and ventured off by taxi to the Crocodile farm. This farm had hundreds of crocodiles from many different species all lazing about waiting for feeding time. We started off in the periodical pond, which like the name suggests has crocs of varying age. We were amazed to see just how big they were in such a short space of time. After 6 years they are bigger than a human and by 10 years they are roughly 15ft long. We made our way around the park until we heard over the tannoy (there's a word you've probably never spelt) that the show was starting. The show involved three different crocodiles of different sizes, small medium and large. The small croc was trained so that he could be lifted and we could see the bottom of the chest; apparently this is where the best crocodile skin comes from. The medium croc was trained to allow the trainer to brush his teeth; he used an oversized brush and the croc seemed to like it. The last crocodile, the big fella, at first resisted the trainer trying to move him into position. He eventually played ball and moved into the centre of the pen. This crocodile was huge, like 18ft long and after the trainer had him settled the real show began. The trainer used some sort of 'Mick Dundee' hand and eye trick to send the crocodile to sleep. After he gave the all clear, one of the trainers went along his back and sat down on the croc, after this another trainer then went and lay down on his back (see photos). Then finally just to show he had him fully under control he thrust his arm inside his jaws!!! The show then ended with everybody safe and sound. After the trainers had left, the crocodile just stayed there, asleep in the middle of the pen. They obviously knew better than to wake a sleeping croc. We moved onto the main enclosure where 400 crocodiles jumped and wrestled for food before sulking off into the waters murky depths.

After our visit to the croc we decided to go to the Langkawi cable car. The cable car climbs to the summit of Mount Macinchang. From the base of the resort it isn't even visible to see the top of the track as it extends above the cloud cover. Melanie wasn't too thrilled to be climbing up the near vertical lift to the summit nearly 2,316 feet above sea level. Although we were told the views were amazing. Declan was too busy ranting about the price and the fact the sky bridge was closed for the season. Anyway we bought our tickets and set off on the 14minute ride to the top of the mountain. The cable car has two main sections of climb and after the first section dangling above the rainforest canopy the second section is all rocky mountain. The cable is the longest, steepest free spanning cable in the world and at times it was a very fine mixture of awe and fear. At the top however the views were amazing and we could see the entire island and most of the 99 smaller islands surrounding it (see photos, although they really don't do the view justice). Melanie was very proud of herself for reaching the top, and even more so when she reached the bottom.

The next morning we were off again to another island. Usually this is where the blog would end however something needs to be mentioned. In the taxi on the way to the pier our driver kept on burping. Not the occasional, oops one got out type of burp, full on burping. Nasty stinking burps that he kept on forcing up. This lasted 25 minutes. Very strange.