Fuzzy Weekend

I headed north to Langkawi Island with my secondary school mates a couple of weekends ago. Langkawi Island is an island up north in peninsular Malaysia, steep in history and legends. According to the folklore, the island was cursed by a princess named Mahsuri, who was wrongly accused of being adulterous. Before she was killed, she cursed that for seven generations Langkawi soil would remain impoverished and parched and nothing could be grown on the island.

Today, the island is thriving as a popular holiday destination famous for her soft sandy beaches, towering limestone mountain and green lush jungle. More importantly it’s a duty free island, which translated to cheap booze, and that set the tone of our trip of debauchery.

Seriously, when alcohol is almost as cheap as mineral water, what would you do? And who would care about the beaches and the waters and the history?

But we did take a detour from our imbibing to visit the geopark, boarding the cable car atop the limestone mountain. Well we had to stop drinking as high altitude and alcohol is a lethal combo. The cable car ride itself was exhilarating. The six of us packed into one car and climbed slowly up, above the trees. Any slight movement from us was exaggerated and resonated by the swinging or bobbing of the cable car. For a height-phobic like me, that was nerve-wrecking. My knees again turned into jello, even as I was sitting down.

We were greeted by a slight drizzle at the top and part of the mountain was shrouded in a veil of mist, adding a mysterious feel to the formidable mass of rock. But the view awaiting us at 705m above sea level was simply magnificent, a 360 view of the ocean. The ripples of the turquoise waters stretched as far as eyes could see, extended into the blue sky it seemed. Then there were small islands dotting off coast the main island. On a clear day, if you squint your eyes hard enough you could even see Penang island. OK, I made up the last one.

The rest of the trip, they were kinda’ fuzzy. I remembered getting a pampering treatment of foot, shoulders and back massage, tasting some cheap fresh seafood, sipping some cheap lovely wine, teasing the hell out of each other, laughing so hard that almost pee in my pants and of course knocking back a lot of cheap beer…

Another fantastic island getaway. Same old routine, I just showed up for some good food, good wine/beer, good laugh, good company and a hell of a good time.