Cable Cars, Waterfalls, and a Stranger Named Dede

Today was my first full day in Langkawi. I got up in the morning, went out to the balcony, feeling extremely refreshing! The scene I saw was so different from the urban skyline I saw back in China and in KL. No skyscraper, no pollution in the sky. The sky was so clear and blue with fluffy clouds hung up there. Trees were spread all over the land, with crystal-clear lakes in between. In the distance, water in the oceanwere shining with warm sunlight and reflacted the mountains covered in lush vegetations. From time to time, birds’ twitter can be heard out of nowhere, saying hello to every morning bird!Houses and castles, scattered between greenery, showed their charm with colorful roofs and turrets. Not far away from where I was looking out stood a white tower, like an indefatigable guard of the people in town! I had never wokenup with this beautiful nature surrounding me before! What a nice morning right in the nature!

After my morning routine, I went out looking for a laundry room. It was quite enjoyable to walk on the sidewalk on this beautiful tropical island. However, the first laundry that was supposed to be opened at 9 am was shut, so I used Google Maps to help me find another one. For some unknown reasons, I missed the next one and the map tried to take me to the third one! As I was searching, the weather was getting hotter and hotter and the sunshine was stronger. With my heavy laundry bag and a backpack, I was sweating like crazy. I reached what the map said the third laundry would be but I couldn’t find it even asking people nearby for help, so I had to return back and finally found the second laundry room, which turned out to be self-service! Just before I was about to give up doing laundry since I couldn’t figure out how it worked, a local came in and God bless him, he explained to me step by step how to redeem coins for the use of washing machine and dryer, and I eventually get the machine rotating!

Now what I needed to do was to find a place to have breakfast (It turned out to be brunch since it had been late morning and I ate a lot). I went into an eatery called Nestle Café because I found that Nestle products can be found in a lot of places in Langkawi. I ordered a RM11 Chicken Murtabak, which is a pan-fried bread stuffed with chicken. To quench my thirst due to the long trek in the morning, I ordered 1 iced rose milk (so smooth, fragrant and delicious!) and 1 iced lychee tea (learnt the pronunciation of “lychee” is “lie tree” instead of “lee tree”)

After lunch, I placed an order in Grab to go to SkyCab. The Grab ride was once again quite fun. We talked a lot, like the differences in way of travelling in Langkawi between Asians and Europeans. What’s interesting about it is that I soon met a French woman in the SkyCab! The Oriental Village underneath SkyCab is so photogenic and picturesque that I couldn’t help but taking lots of pictures of its bridges, huts, water features and flora and fauna. Queueing up to get a ticket at the ticket office, I found that there were a lot of Europeans here. The queue was so long that I wanted to book the ticket online but unluckily, my phone lost Internet connection. Well, or I should say lucky, because EVERY THING HAPPENS FOR A REASON!A woman behind me in the queue seemed to be very friendly since she smiled to me when I was turning around and looking back. I decided to talk with her to kill the long waiting time. Then here we go! We ended up going on the day trip all together and I had a really good time with her!

Talking with her while waiting in the line for boarding on the cable car, the time went by so fast. The cable car took us from base station, located at the foothill of the Machincangmountain, to an intermediate cable car station on the eastern ridges, covering 1,700 meters in distance, during which we could take in the spectacular views of the mountains covered by lush rainforests, limestone rocks forming peculiar shapes and the turquoise water of Andaman Sea. Upon reaching the Middle Station at an elevation of 650m above sea level, wealighted and walked up to the viewing platformswhere we enjoyed panoramic view of the main island as well as the many surrounding islands

A short walk up the stairs from the Top Station at an elevation of 708m above sea level lie two viewing platforms at the top of Machincang mountain, providing spectacular 360 degrees panoramic views of the Langkawi islands and Southern Thailand. But let’s wait until we visited the SkyBridge! After taking a short 10 minutes’ walk through a jungle trail, we reached the majestic SkyBridge, curved above the jungle between 2 mountain peaks. As the longest free span and curved bridge in the world, it offers a spectacular panoramic view of the Langkawi islands.

Back to the Oriental Village, we decided to go to Seven Wells Waterfall together! Named after seven natural pools connected by a gushing river, Seven Wells Waterfall is one of Langkawi’s most captivating natural performances. The legend says that this waterfall is home to fairies and that the water has healing powers. Seven Wells Waterfall has actually two parts that can be visited: the lower section and the upper section.On our way to upper section pools, we encountered lots of cute monkeys along the roadside feeding on their own! After a long trek, we finally reached the top of the waterfall withwells of various depths, shapes, and sizes. I strolled around, immersing myself in the picturesque landscape and chilling out in the symphony of breeze, birds and flowing water while Dede, my travel buddy, bathed in a refreshing natural pool to cool down in the scorching day. Along a slick rock connectingtwo pools formed a natural waterslide, and people slid down to have fun! The atmosphere was so relaxing and I enjoyed hanging out here so much! The next adventure waiting for a was a jungle trail right into the dense rainforest surrounded by the songs of birds, all the way to Blue Lagoon Waterfall where a small waterfall formed on the rock, flowing into a small lake. We then returned along the same route and took a detour to the most imposing vertical waterfall in the park, cascading down a 91-meter-high cliff face. There were also some natural pools at the base of the waterfall, amidst leafy trees with monkeys swinging between their branches. Possibly due to somewhat dry season, the waterfalls were not as magnificent as depicted in the photos but they were still worth a visit!

It’s been evening after we returned from Seven Wells Waterfalls. We went back to Oriental Village to find WIFI since I completely lost my internet connection once I arrived at SkyCab (Yes!, worst mobile Internet carrier!). Dede left before I ordered my Grab ride and the moment I arrived at the car park I noticed that my appointed car was, once again, leaving! I failed to catch it and without connection I didn’t know what to do next. After finding a free WIFI back in the village I finally could connect with the driver again and told him that I was going to wait at the car park. Luckily, he came back and waited at the car back for me since I needed to run all the way from the village to the carpark. It turned out that he left the carpark to another location which he assumed I was there when he couldn’t find me in the carpark. He also told me that some passengers would cancel the ride after drivers are trying their best to find them, which I almost did (Respect the work ethic of Langkawi Grab drivers). Again I had a very enjoyable conversation and he even showed me the primary school he worked at as a headmaster there as we passed by it. He took me to Tanjung Rhu Beach at the north-east corner of Langkawi, where the sand is whiter , softer and cleaner without as much human trace as in Cenang Beach. I soaked in the beach view for a while, watched some people play beach volleyball and made an order in a beachside restaurant in an outdoor seat before a huge thunderstorm came and I had to dine inside the restaurant underneath the shadow. Here I had my last unbelievably delicious coconut shake. After finishing the dinner, the sky had been completely dark and people working in the restaurants were preparing to leave too. Not surprised but quite frustrated, my sim card didn’t have any connection and I got help from a very friendly lady of the restaurant who offered me hotspot to stay connected for ordering Grab ride. All the people of the restaurant waited until my appointed driver came to pick me up so all of us left together, under the deluge, lightning and thunder. It’s such a relief to be with someone in this challenging situation and get help from friendly locals, which constantly happened to me during my stay in Malaysia, so I am so grateful for that.

The driver was very nice too. Since I needed to take my laundry back from the self-service laundry room, he offered to take me to the laundry first before reaching my hotel, without extra charges. Of course, I gave him a RM 6 tip after the trip, for my appreciation of his excellent service and kindness. This ends my second day in the beautiful island Langkawi!