Pulau Langkawi

We went on a 3 day retreat to a spa resort on Langkawi island. I was so impressed with the hotel and loved the bathroom. Ah...a "normal" shower/toilet. :-) We shared a hut with Chicky's parents, aunt and cousin. The hut was in a rain forest and there were monkey's everywhere. We were warned not to keep our doors or windows open unattended as we'd get "visitors". :-) More photo opportunities!

During our stay - Chicky and I managed to get a day away from the family. This was a nice break for me as we haven't done anything by ourselves since our first day in Singapore. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy Chicky's family but wanted to just spend at least one day in 3 weeks by ourselves. So we booked a snorkeling tour. There were 2 packages available - we chose the cheaper one as the tour guide said they only differed in type of boat you get to ride on and food that you'd eat.

They took us to a marine park which is about 2hrs away from the main island. There we put on our life jackets and waited for instructions. The dive master said that there was a black tip reef shark seen the water and to not bother it. That prompted me to want to stay a shore. Chicky was delighted and wanted to take pictures. We didn't have an underwater camera. So we a paid ridiculous price for one (sold by the tour boat of course). Then the dive master announces that there's a large (1-2 meter) baracuda swimming around us as well. Great...shark AND baracuda. There were so many coral fish though! I think it was because so many people were throwing food into the water. Off the pier they would hover and wait for tourists to throw things into the water for them. Chicky was super excited about this and didn't want to wait any longer.

We headed for the beach with our snorkeling gear. There was so many fish that they were near the shore as well. I walked in with my fins and stood in knee deep water as I adjusted my snorkel and prepared myself mental to go into the same water as the shark. Then something bit my toes! I squealed in surprise. Some of the fish wanted to take a taste test out of my toes. I think it's because they are painted and probably look yummy. We went in deeper. More fish came by to take bites out of us. At first it was unnerving but then we got use to getting nipped every now and then.

Swimming out farther I was looking at the schools of LARGE rock cod when Chicky pulls on my life jackets and points to my left. I look over and nearly swallowed down a mouth full of salt water. There was a shark! Not very big..maybe 2 feet long. But very close! Naturally I reacted by trying to swim AWAY from it. Chicky went after it trying to take pictures. After a while we got out of the water for some lunch. A few minutes later the guides were pointing at the water and throwing food into it. SHARK they yelled! I don't know about you but when someone yells shark I stay away from the water, however Chicky grabbed his snorkel gear and told me to jump in. We swam into the mess of fish that was gorging on all the food. The baracuda was slinking around and came really close to Chicky as he tried to take pictures of it. All of a sudden a large dark shape swam by under our feet. It was another shark accept bigger (about 2 meters). OK...time to surface and voice my paranoia. We were already getting nibbled by the fish and then all of a sudden we feel something hitting us. The tourist were throwing food AT us with the shark and baracuda in the water. I think they wanted to see some one get eaten. Chicky swam down and grabbed a chicken leg bone and was feeding the fish. They swarmed him and I got some pictures off. He then handed me the bone and I got swarmed. In the end the day was very enjoyable. The best thing of all was the fact that Chicky was too much of a man to wear a t-shirt or put on sunblock (in his defence it was cloudy and no sun was really out). His back was so red I laughed at him for days and whenever he got out of hand I would slap him on his back.