Day Nine
Today I'm in: Pantai Cenang, Langkawi, Malaysia
Don't worry about the title. It was only a minor attack and I am uninjured. More on the monkeys in a moment.
As mentioned, today I did a five-hour "island hopping" trip set up by a tour agency in Pantai Cenang. After lunch I met up with the group, and we were driven a few miles away to a dock in the neighboring village of Pantai Tengah, where we loaded onto a boat. We were packed in pretty tightly, and once we started moving everyone got drenched. I was sitting in the back of the boat, near the engine, so I got wet right away, but by the time we reached our first stop, everyone was soaked.
First stop was the island of Pulau Dayang Bunting, about 25 minutes off the shore. The island is uninhabited by people, but as we made our way down the dock, as if on cue, hundreds of small monkeys came down a hill and swarmed around us. The guides and boat crew hadn't said anything to us about monkeys. Several people had plastic bags of fruit and drinks ripped right out of their hands. I had two monkeys grabbing at my daypack, but it was slung across my body, so I just kept walking and eventually they lost interest. Once we reached the beginning of the trail, there was a less-than-helpful sign which would have been more useful if it were located on the dock.
On a plateau high on the island is the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden - local mythology has it that an infertile woman who longed for a child became fertile after swimming in the lake, so today it's a bit of a pilgrimage site for Malays who want to have children. I took a dip too, but hopefully there will be no miracle conceptions coming my way any time soon.
Upon leaving the island we had to run the monkey gauntlet again - incredibly, some people hadn't learned their lesson the first time and lost drinks and snacks they had just bought at the kiosk near the lake. This monkey made off with a French woman's orange juice, and after several attempts at opening it, finally just chewed a small hole in the side of the plastic and slurped the juice out.
From Pulau Dayang Bunting we went to a neighboring island that's home to a huge flock of golden eagles. Some tours were there feeding the birds - our tour specifically doesn't do this, since it keeps the birds from learning to forage on their own - but we got to sit and watch as they dove for the food. The damn things flew so fast that getting pictures of them was difficult, but I managed a few good shots.
We finished up at Pulau Beras Basah, another small island with a gorgeous white-sand beach where we got to spend an hour. The beach was much nicer than the one at Pantai Cenang, and if it's any indication of what some of the other Langkawi beaches are like (I'll find out tomorrow when I drive around the island) then this place deserves to be a primo destination. The beach was also a big event for me, as it marked my first time swimming in the Indian Ocean. Technically it's the Andaman Sea (which is part of the Bay of Bengal, which in turn is part of the Indian Ocean) but this means I've now gone swimming in the world's three major oceans. I'm choosing not to count the Arctic Ocean.
The weather was more cooperative today - we passed through two thundershowers on the boat, but we were already soaking wet from the spray - and so far it hasn't rained at all tonight. I'm optimistic that things will be equally nice for my tour of the island tomorrow. I've never driven a scooter before; I've seen all sorts of tourists doing it here - and I'll have a helmet - but wish me luck all the same.
Today I'm in: Pantai Cenang, Langkawi, Malaysia
Don't worry about the title. It was only a minor attack and I am uninjured. More on the monkeys in a moment.
As mentioned, today I did a five-hour "island hopping" trip set up by a tour agency in Pantai Cenang. After lunch I met up with the group, and we were driven a few miles away to a dock in the neighboring village of Pantai Tengah, where we loaded onto a boat. We were packed in pretty tightly, and once we started moving everyone got drenched. I was sitting in the back of the boat, near the engine, so I got wet right away, but by the time we reached our first stop, everyone was soaked. 
First stop was the island of Pulau Dayang Bunting, about 25 minutes off the shore. The island is uninhabited by people, but as we made our way down the dock, as if on cue, hundreds of small monkeys came down a hill and swarmed around us. The guides and boat crew hadn't said anything to us about monkeys. Several people had plastic bags of fruit and drinks ripped right out of their hands. I had two monkeys grabbing at my daypack, but it was slung across my body, so I just kept walking and eventually they lost interest. Once we reached the beginning of the trail, there was a less-than-helpful sign which would have been more useful if it were located on the dock. 
On a plateau high on the island is the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden - local mythology has it that an infertile woman who longed for a child became fertile after swimming in the lake, so today it's a bit of a pilgrimage site for Malays who want to have children. I took a dip too, but hopefully there will be no miracle conceptions coming my way any time soon. 
Upon leaving the island we had to run the monkey gauntlet again - incredibly, some people hadn't learned their lesson the first time and lost drinks and snacks they had just bought at the kiosk near the lake. This monkey made off with a French woman's orange juice, and after several attempts at opening it, finally just chewed a small hole in the side of the plastic and slurped the juice out. 
From Pulau Dayang Bunting we went to a neighboring island that's home to a huge flock of golden eagles. Some tours were there feeding the birds - our tour specifically doesn't do this, since it keeps the birds from learning to forage on their own - but we got to sit and watch as they dove for the food. The damn things flew so fast that getting pictures of them was difficult, but I managed a few good shots.
We finished up at Pulau Beras Basah, another small island with a gorgeous white-sand beach where we got to spend an hour. The beach was much nicer than the one at Pantai Cenang, and if it's any indication of what some of the other Langkawi beaches are like (I'll find out tomorrow when I drive around the island) then this place deserves to be a primo destination. The beach was also a big event for me, as it marked my first time swimming in the Indian Ocean. Technically it's the Andaman Sea (which is part of the Bay of Bengal, which in turn is part of the Indian Ocean) but this means I've now gone swimming in the world's three major oceans. I'm choosing not to count the Arctic Ocean. 
The weather was more cooperative today - we passed through two thundershowers on the boat, but we were already soaking wet from the spray - and so far it hasn't rained at all tonight. I'm optimistic that things will be equally nice for my tour of the island tomorrow. I've never driven a scooter before; I've seen all sorts of tourists doing it here - and I'll have a helmet - but wish me luck all the same. 
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