Monday 5 June 2006

Lessons Learnt in Langkawi Part 2

Cool things to do in Langkawi. Stand-not-so-straight.

On the second day of our holiday in Langkawi, I woke up really early. Or at least, early by my standards. The reason being was because I was hoping to capture a few pictures of the sunrise. Unfortunately, the view from our unit was very limited. Not only that, I wasn't allowed to use the car to drive to a nearby beach to get my pictures. What a letdown :(

Luckily, the rest of the day turned out to be better.

After a simple breakfast of mushroom soup and some rather dry bread, we set out in search of adventure. However, initially, it seemed to me that my dad was just driving the car with nowhere particular in mind. All that changed when we came across the Marina Bay. I must inform you that I just made up the name 'Marina Bay' to describe the place; lest any of you go to Langkawi, try to look for it, only to return heartbroken. Anyway, we stopped there to take some photos. "This is turning out to be quite a photo trip", I thought to myself.

At the Marina Bay

A row, row, row of boats...

Lesson learnt: Photo opportunities may arise at any moment. Be alert at all times.

After having taken enough shots, my dad thought that it'd be nice to have a go on the cable car. And that's just what we did; have a go on the cable car. Langkawi's Cable Car takes you for a ride all the way to the top of Mount Chinchang, which stands approximately 700 meters above sea level. The scenery itself was worth every ringgit paid for the ride (RM15 for adults, RM5 for children).

That is the top-most station. Note the two viewing stands at either side which look like flying saucers.


Looks kind of like the "Sky Kingdom" to me. What say you?

After having enjoyed the breath-taking scenery, we went down and played with some rabbits. As we were entertaining the sniffing mammals, a man was walking around, selling rabbit feed for one ringgit a packet. Another money-making scheme, obviously. But since the kids were so excited at the idea of feeding real, live animals, my mom bought a couple of packets for them anyway. The end result? A lot of squealing (from my siblings, not the rabbits) and a few rabbits doing stand-up tricks.

This was one of the better behaved rabbits.

Lesson Learnt: Rabbits are cute things, but they still may nibble your hand. And that is not cute.

Next up on the agenda was a visit to the Seven Wells Waterfall. But owing to some unavoidable circumstances (read: the journey up was far too tiring), we settled for a cascade which was situated at lower ground. Whilst I was entrusted to safeguard the belongings, the rest of the family had fun splashing in the cool water.

A waterfall! What's that purple shade in the bottom-right bottom-left corner?

I can tell you, the rocks are arranged beautifully; so much so that they form some kind of slide. Naturally, my siblings had a go at sliding down the slippery slide. Although it wasn't as good as those slides in Sunway Lagoon, the setting still provided a nice ride down. Still, in the end, my sibs ended up with sore bottoms.

Lesson Learnt: Friction can be a pain in the arse.

The next day, it rained again. I was pleasantly surprised at this, and even said a small thank you prayer silently. Little did I know that the rain would bring more than just rahmat to the family that day.

Since it was a wet day, my dad decided that it'd be fitting to go shopping, or at the very least, window shopping. We rolled off at around ten in the morning with the rain drizzling lightly. A very funny thing happened on out way to the shopping complex; we followed a black van into the wrong road for no apparent reason. After realising the mistake, the car was steered into a mosque compound so that we could retrace our path.

It'd must have been an unlucky day for us. My dad Somebody behind the wheels reversed the car without being aware that the ground wasn't as sincere as it looked. To avoid any unneccessary headaches in describing the mishap, here are a couple of diagrams to explain what happened.

Diagram 1: This is the car being reversed.


Diagram 2: This is the car performing a balancing trick.

Lesson Learnt: You can guess this one by yourself.

To make things more miserable, it was raining heavily as the rest of us tried to push the car back up onto normal ground. As my dad put it, "I was laughing out loud to see you all wet like otters!". Grrr.

Anyway, we went on with the initial plan i.e shopping, and bought some chocolates, some kain, and a small towel to dry ourselves. Needless to say, it was rather uncomfortable walking around with very damp - and somewhat dirty - clothes. Our (mis)adventures for the day were ended with some nice cendol whilst admiring the vastness of the sea in mid day sun.

(to be continued....)

21 comments:

Mama Pongkey said...

Sky Kingdom? Oh yeah. Only needs a giant teapot or two to complete the picture *wink*

Purple shade on bottom *left* corner? Er, halimunan? :D

Anonymous said...

haha...why did I end up laughing out load in my stomach (tahan gelak nie..)ri8 aft I read this entry??? ^_^ so, hows d car??? ok tak?? ke dah jd tukun ikan kat langkawi??

Anonymous said...

haha...why did I end up laughing out load in my stomach (tahan gelak nie..)ri8 aft I read this entry??? ^_^ so, hows d car??? ok tak?? ke dah jd tukun ikan kat langkawi??

Anonymous said...

haha...why did I end up laughing out load in my stomach (tahan gelak nie..)ri8 aft I read this entry??? ^_^ so, hows d car??? ok tak?? ke dah jd tukun ikan kat langkawi??

Jamil said...

kenakelayan

I would've photoshopped it to include the giant teapot, but was too lazy to search for a suitable teapot picture *LOL*

Thanks for the correction. "Post Langkawi confusion syndrome" must have set in.

salfiza

The car was alright in the end. We managed to haul it up to safe grounds.

p.s. Multiply the above by three to reply all of your comments :P

dith said...

After having enjoyed the breath-taking scenery, we went down and played with some rabbits. I thought this sentence sounded a bit odd, hehe.It's as though you decide to do something very trivial after performing a giant task!

Anyway your pics look grand. I believe it's been taken with a new digicam?

*trying to imagine 6 slimey otters pushing a car*

Nusayba said...

that 'marina bay', i love taking boat pictures there. almost all of the pictures would turn out well. thank goodness for blue blue skies and pretty body of waters.

poor car. poor otters. good laugh for your dad. :D

and hiyoshi, that car drawing, is so cute la.

Ikelah said...

hahaha...could not stop laughing looking at the drawings of the misfortune.

the pics were nice.... cant comment much or i'll 'look' like paul moss. i have to morph to somebody else to make critical remarks. ;) (searching left and right for mynn).

what a pity your dad did not allow you to drive to watch the sunrise. i guess it must be the distance the reason why he did not allow you to go. didnt you thought of calling pycno who was there. he might be able to bring you around.

tak rasa mee udang langkawi?

pycnogenol said...

Yes...WHY didnt you call Pycno? It would have been no problem at all for both of us to go round 'clicking away at the sunrise.' After all, I was hardly using my camera anyway!!

BTW, I couldnt stop laughing looking at the drawings of the misfortune too. What were the 'otters' doing when dad was reversing the car? Sleeping away, for you guys had reliable dad, who who could always handle everything all by himself? I would therefore look at the incident as a blessing in disguise, a life-lesson well learnt!!

Sorry otters, but my vote goes to your laughing dad. Jangan marah ye!!

Jamil said...

DITH

Upon a few rounds of scrutiny, I agree that the sentence does sound odd. Rabbits indeed!

The pictures were taken with the same old digicam (Fuji Finepix F455). But this time around, pictures were taken during the day with lots of sunshine.

23

Yup, the Marina Bay is indeed a good place to take pictures. Lovely scenery, lovely skies and lovely water.

And thank you for the compliment on the drawing :)

ikelah

*LOL*

I suppose that is the reason why dad didn't give his permission. He's also the type who doesn't really trust other people. I would've asked pycno to chaperone me around, but then again, it was a family vacation and it's so hard nowadays to get the whole family together. So, takpelah.

pycnogenol

I don't think there was anything we could do anyway. The Wira we were renting was the 'lowered' type. So, you couldn't really see very far from inside the car. Besides, who would've thought a mosque compound would have grounds like that?!!

Mama Sarah said...

O brother! what an adventure! (but can't help to ketawa as well) sempat lagi your dad bergurau tu!

nice sketches too!

Jamil said...

mama sarah

Somehow or rather, when we were soaking wet after having to push the car, it didn't seem much of a joke to us *LOL*

Anonymous said...

so comey la that car.haha

Jamil said...

awe
Ke mana lama ko menghilang? (Berpura-pura tanya sedangkan dah tahu jawapan)

Dah buat belum partition tu?

mynn said...

ikelah - LOL, tergelak baca your entry.

also tergelak looking at hiyoshi's pictures of the car .. well drawn! ada bakat jadi animator ni.

i love the pictures of the bay ... makes me want to visit langkawi, seriously! jom bie?

mynn said...

ps.
ikelah -
but the way you put your comment was much more berlapik compared to PM. also, i found it very useful: tak pernah terfikir nak suruh the people pakai baju hitam for silhouette photos. keep up the good work!

Jamil said...

mynn
If you must know, that was a very hastily drawn car. Not that there would be much difference had I drawn it carefully. It would still end up looking like a flattened version of the Beetle.

Jalilah said...

Assalamualaikum Hiyoshi. Sorry for my long absence.
Wah, what a great trip. I was planning to go to Langkawi this month after my short semester ends but I am going to be short of cash this month :-( So sedih...
Everyone seems to be enjoying the picture of the car. Hehe, very cute indeed. I personally prefer the picture of the rabbit coz I have always loved rabbits. They are so cute and white, aren't they?

Jamil said...

jalilah
That's okay :) The rabbits were in varying degrees of white. I suppose the 'teh susu' coloured ones still hadn't taken their bath yet :P

Anonymous said...

err... I just wanna give my opinion on hadnt-take-their-bath thingy. I think the teh-susu-coloured rabbits did take a bath, it just that they might use "sabun cap kapak" instead of other effective shampoos. Thus, my suggestion to the teh-susu-coloured rabbits: try dove shampoo for smoother, healthier n fairer skin..tq =p

Anonymous said...

Like Genting, it has been years since I went to Langkawi. I almost have no memory of it. But I do remember many of the fairy err.. folk tales that are associated with the island.

Good thing your dad had a whole army of otters at his call :P