Crossing Thailand from east to west gave us a good indication of what to expect in terms of amenities between cities: next to nada. We read some blogs of people who cyclotoured through central Thailand giving the impression that the only places to eat are your ever-popular dusty, rickety shed roadside food stalls serving mystery meat on a stick that has been sitting out in the sun for far too long. No thanks, not after our episode in Cambodia.
So it was on to another ferry to the next island stop of Koh Lipe, a very small spot that is known for some of the best snorkeling Thailand has to offer and we were not disappointed. Most worthwhile snorkeling in the Andaman Sea requires a boat trip of some sort, but on Koh Lipe we could spend hours exploring right from the shore! On one venture we saw a small shark, a venomous sea snake, the elusive stone fish, many little Nemos and a jellyfish the size of a small car tire not 100 meters from the beach. Koh Lipe caters exclusively to the tourist. The island is barely 1 km long with one main walkway leading from the south beach inland. We 'toured' it within an hour. The main beach is lined with shops and restaurants, constantly busy with wandering tourists, the shore lined with longboats (boat taxis) eager to shuffle people and products on, off, and around the island. We managed to get a nice quiet little bungalow close to 'Sunrise Beach' away from the craziness of the south beach. Not exactly a bamboo hut, but with functional A/C - we would have taken a dog house if it had A/C. We spent a few days indulging in the island life, snorkeling around, dinner here and there, we even joined the crowds on the party beach one evening for some cocktails at a reggae bar while watching the fire jugglers. Not a lot of cycling, but plenty of good times. Touring Western Europe and South-East Asia has been quite an education. Spending time immersed in different cultures and gaining a new perspective to compare against our own has given us an invaluable life experience. We have been met with warmth and welcome by so many people in every country. Unfortunately, we have also witnessed the gross disregard for the environment in South East Asia. You can't get far without noticing the garbage along the sides of the streets, some of it piled up and burned or tossed into the nearest waterway. Riverbanks accessible by automobile are covered with loads of trash. We see it every day, ride past it, sometimes through it. The general population doesn't seem to care about how it looks and I don't think they are aware of the consequences. Over 200 million people live in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer but it's really bad. Canada and other developed countries produce far more garbage per capita but we hide our waste in piles on the fringe of the city. I'm not sure which is worse.
Anyway, enough of that. Our next island hop brought us to Malaysia. Pulau Langkawi is a relatively large island off the west coast and we were keen to set up and explore. We weren't in Malaysia for long before a Starbucks Grande Latte was in hand followed by a really nice lunch on the beach at Le Brasserie. We were finally back to more familiar surroundings where the service was in English and the drinks came before the apps and the apps before the main meal! Small things. Our accommodation for the next few days was at The Box Chalet, a ten-room guesthouse in the middle of the island away from the tourist areas. The couple that run it are completely generous, very helpful and naturally excellent at what they do. Langkawi is a UNESCO World Geopark site which usually means it is well maintained as an international place of interest. We visited one of these geopark zones that featured a cable car ride up to a very scenic hill top 700 m above the sea in view all around us. The base of the hill was a massive tourist trap zone complete with horse rides and outdoor food court. I don't think this is what UNESCO had in mind for promotion of the area (they recently issued a 'yellow card' warning to the city) but the cable car was a lot of fun and the view at the top was truly awesome.
Leigh and I were both looking forward to some more solid time on the bikes as our island experiences so far have been pretty cushy. Langkawi is home to the LIMBC, an international mountain bike race as well as the Tour of Langkawi, a 10-day stage race that covers most of Malaysia and attracts some of the best pro teams. I figured there might be some good mountain bike riding to be had and a decent cycling scene as well. There was no cycling scene that I could find but we did manage to stretch the legs up Gunung Raya, a hill climb with a gain of 900 metres over 15 kms. Some of it was 10%, the last bit up at the top was 15%. Ouch. It was a tough one, but watching the monkeys and monitor lizards along the way was quite entertaining and the cold, fresh water fall halfway up the hill was a gift from the gods. We underestimated the effort and didn't quite bring enough water, so once we made it to resort at the top I went right for the chilled can of Coke calling my name. The Plague could not have kept me from that Coke!
Langkawi is not known for snorkeling despite the surrounding 99 islands, so we caved in and jumped aboard a ferry with another 100 or so tourists to Palau Payar, a Marine Park that absolutely everyone knows about! Tourists arrive by the big boatload one after another to a relatively small but largely developed area for snorkeling. It's quite a sight in itself to see so many people lying facedown on the surface of the water! You might think this would make the marine life swim for cover but we were once again amazed at the number and variety of fish just hanging with a bunch of big smelly humans floating around! And then the Black Tip Reef sharks showed up as fish food was thrown into water off the dock above us. They were from 3 to 5 feet long and had no interest in us but we were shaking in our flippers for a few minutes. Despite running into other snorkelers (literally) we were thoroughly impressed with our last adventure in the islands of the Andaman Sea.