LANGKAWI: TOURIST ISLAND PAR EXCELLENCE

Langkawi is an island located on the northwest coast of Malaysia, so it is known for its high level of tourism and offers a wide range of activities. It is a tax-free island so there are plenty of duty free shops that flourish everywhere. We disembarked by ferry with Dacian, an American met on the bus and 4 Germans (so far the Germans are the ones we have met the most, they travel a lot!). We shared a mini van to go to the popular beach of the island and there was the first surprise: while we were preparing to negotiate the price we noticed that here the prices are set by the government, it is like that and not otherwise! Once we settled in our hostel, we walked down the shopping street. In fact, Langkawi can be summed up as a shopping street along the beach but a street with shops on either side, which means that in fact you can't even see the beach! We even had a hard time finding a way to get there! And when we finally set foot on it, we were more than surprised: the beach is full of jet-ski stands that land you in every direction, cars are driving on the sand and even motorcycles, normal what! The sea is full of boats, some pull buoys in which tourists howl, others parachutes, jet skis dance on the water to make us dizzy, in short we don't know where to give our heads. For the quiet beach, we'll come back. The main attraction of the island is the sky cab. These are small cabins like cable cars that take us to the top of a mountain where the view of the sea and the surrounding islands is magnificent. We rented a scooter to get there (our friend Oliver). Arrived there at 10:30 am, we discover a village built especially for the attraction like disney village what! We quickly understood when we saw the world queuing up that everything was done to make people wait: gardens, water bodies, shops, snake man, restaurant, museum and even a 6D cinema. And for good reason, we arrived at 10:30 am we had our tickets 30 minutes later to go up with the 1:15 pm session which finally took us to the top around 2:15 pm. Luckily we had our buddy Richard who drove us to a waterfall not far from there while we waited for our time to pass! In short, all this to say that once at the top... we didn't see much! The clouds surrounded us and when we sometimes saw the beach below it didn't last long. Moreover we were disappointed because once we arrived at the top and went around the two very small platforms 4 times, we still had to pay 10WD to go on a bridge that connects two mountains. Needless to say, we didn't do it. To finish the day, we drove with Richard but in fact we realized that as soon as we left the famous shopping street there was not much around and it's a shame. Just to move a little bit from this hectic beach and because it was our last days in Malaysia (and we had some ringgits left to spend!) we did a tour in the mangroves. On the program: boat trip between the mangroves, observation of eagles, monkeys, visit of a cave with hundreds of pitiful bats and visit of a fish farm. We were not too motivated at the base because it is the tourist thing par excellence but we know that at least it will allow us to see something else and finally the ride was fun. For our last day we walked for 1 hour to find a quiet beach where we could land, enjoy the sea and sunbathe! The sea in Malaysia... or when you complain because the water is too hot! The last evening we met a French couple, retired teachers, with whom we had a good time over a delicious ice cream!