First days at Langkawi

Here are first comments/thoughs about Langkawi during our 3 days in here:

The island is really clean. There is basically no garbage lying around and trash cans are plentiful. Quite often you can see signs about keeping Langkawi clean and no littering. They’ve done a great job in this matter 🙂
As I wrote in the previous post it seems that the island is partly still under construction. Every once in a while you can see a huge area with a abandoned construction site and walls built around it. In some cases construction work has been resumed but if to look at the pace work is being done then I guess they’ll finish by 2050. There are beautiful pictures on the fences and walls about what is supposed to be built but if you look behind them all you see is a big hole and some pieces of early foundation. As I read the financial crisis hit this area quite hard and a lot of the companies went bankrupt without no-one taking over the projects and continuing the work. I really hope that in the near future they sort it out somehow since otherwise it’s really beautiful here 🙂
The life in here is really laid-back. No-one is in a hurry, there are not so many people walking around outside the main tourist street, quite often you can see workers sleeping in the tree shadows, beaches are quiet and rather empty and so on. It’s actually pretty nice :). You can definitely relax here and just lay back on the beach watching the sunset. And sunsets are quite magical here. It’s just the combination of beautiful beaches, islands in the distance and that calming serenity that creates the perfect atmosphere. (This picture represents only about 1/10 of it 🙂 )
Although the beaches are beautiful and with white sands the water itself is actually not so clear as in Phuket. At least in this part of the island.
There are 3 very friendly dogs walking around in our Hostel area. They feel very much at home and sometimes join you while you’re sunbathing, just lying in the hammock or of course eating something good 🙂
Watersports are hugely popular here. There’s a big variety of options to choose from starting with ski-jets up to parasailing. Although they’re still relatively expensive. Yesterday we watched as they were taking tourists to parasailing and every time one of the guys arranging this just jumps aboard to steer the parachute. But they were not attached in any way. Just holding on with their hands and afterwards sitting on a piece of rope. Well.. at least they seemed to enjoy it.
Since Langkawi is a duty-free zone it means that alcohol, cigarettes and other similar things are really cheap here. For example a beer costs 2 ringgit which is about 0,4€ (I know that some of you reading this last line just bought a ticket to Langkawi 🙂 ) and 1 liter bottle of Captain Morgan rum is about 35 ringgit (roughly 7€). Nice 🙂
They sell extremely delicious spongecakes here with different flavors. It costs only 3 ringgit (0,6€) and is a really decent size. I really hope that we don’t consume too much of these cakes and beer here….. 🙂