Welcome to Langkawi, our northern most Malayan port.

The plan for today was to hire a taxi for the morning so that we could visit a couple of the key tourist sites . We would then finish our day at the beach for a bob in the ocean.

Once again we needed to locate a taxi. This of course meant haggling with the drivers. After declining a couple of offers that were clearly taking advantage of us (one driver suggested our proposed itinerary would take 7 hours and cost at least AU$100 – our initial research suggested otherwise). We ended up going with a lovely young fellow who did an ok job. There was a small miscommunication about seeing Eagle Square but we worked through that – the driver thought we wanted to go to the wetlands to see the eagle feeding when we really wanted to a big statue of the eagle.

According to Langkawi folklore, the island's name was derived from two Malay words – helang meaning eagle and kawi meaning brown. The eagle, particularly the brahminy kite eagle is of great significance to the locals. Legend has it that the legendary garuda (half man and half eagle) had the island as its resting area . One of the popular tourist sites is a huge statue of a brown eagle facing out towards the open sea as if poised to take flight.

The area surrounding the statue is both a tourist trap as well as a pick pockets prime hunting site. We saw one young fellow being escorted away from the area by security. We’re not sure what he was doing but he did seem to hanging around the area a little too much.

After seeing eagle we headed inland to see the tomb of Princess Mahsuri. She was a princess who was accused of adultery and shed white blood when she was executed. Many legends arose from this and it is said that with her last words she cursed the island for seven generations. Thankfully for the island, the curse has now been broken and they can once again flourish.

The site has a small museum that tells the story of Mahsuri, how she met her husband and how she fell foul of the powers that be. There were also a couple of examples of traditional houses and traditional music. As we were leaving the museum/tomb, we came across a woman cooking some batter things in hot oil. We aren’t sure what they are called but they are pretty to look at and taste good.

Final stop for the day was one of the many beaches that are on the island. As we were wanting to catch the cruise shuttle back to the ship, we decided to go to the beach right next to the shuttle pick up spot.

On the way to beach we came across a small café. As once again we had not had anything to eat since breakfast and were still trying to stick to the 'eat local food’ rule, we decided to have lunch here. I had Dumpling Mee (noodles, chicken, dumplings and bok choi), while mum had a stir fried noodle with prawns and egg. Both meals were excellent and we both wished we had space for more.

After paying our Ringgits to use the deck chairs, we applied what sunscreen we could and headed into the disturbingly warm waters of the Andaman Sea. We bobbed around for just under two hours and then decided to dry off and head to the shuttle.

After a sail away drink and a couple of photos, we prepared for dinner. The evening was finished with a viewing of Gravity on the big screen. Once again the person making the popcorn was a salt lover (mmm salty popcorn).

Fun fact:
The local beers are Tiger and Anchor.