Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia
January 13, 2014
Another week living on the tropical Isle of Langkawi.
After my bout of Fever I was determined to make something of my day off the following week so sorted myself out a trip to the Mangrove on the North West coast of the Island. It was arranged by Dorothy from the shelter for a good price with the money being donated to the animal shelter, so a good trip out and for a good cause as well. I had been drinking the night before with James the resort manager and his missus from Australia so was a tad delicate when I got picked up at 9am on the Saturday. Several gallons of liquids later and I had managed to perk up a wee bit.
The mangrove trip was pretty cool. I haven’t been on one before so wasn’t really sure what to expect other than the fact I was hoping to see plenty of wildlife and get some decent pics with my camera. It seemed a little disappointing at first as we didn’t see a lot but as the day progressed and we motored round several spots through the rubber trees we spotted more and more as we navigated the waterways.
First up was some mudskippers and brightly coloured crabs, somewhat reminiscent of the Prodigy ‘Fat of the land’ album cover which was pretty cool as well as a trip to the bat cave. Not the bat cave of the legendary Bruce Wayne but a cave with bats in it. From there we saw some Brahminy Kites feeding along the river, swooping down trying to catch fish. There are so many of them here and they are really impressive. A big wingspan and very distinctive pattern, of a golden deep brown body and wings contrasting with a bright white chest. Great to see them sweeping and swooping so close to the boat.
We stopped for a bit lunch on the river followed by a quick trip to a small beach named ‘two faced beach’ as one side of it faces Malaysia and on the opposite side is Thailand as the Island is only a stones throw from the Thai border and it’s most Southerly Isles. Next up on the list of God’s wee creatures was a fair-sized Water Monitor Lizard swimming along and a Diamond Backed Viper chilling out on a branch that I would never have spotted myself as it was so well camouflaged. There were two different types of apes as well that we spotted in the trees but I can’t remember which species. One was fairly docile just sat perched on a branch not really moving where as the small black ones were swinging through trees next to us at a rapid rate. Not long after that I was really lucky to see a White-Bellied Sea Eagle majestically flapping alongside us for a good fifty yards, looking a bit more like a Seagull than an Eagle but hey I guess the Eagle people know their stuff not me.
Last up on the list of cool and crazy critters was the White Throated Kingfisher which was amazing to see, so colourful, again flying not too far from the boat. Looking back on it, I saw a lot really, it was all spread out throughout the day so at the time it didn’t feel like I had seen much but it was a good day out and I managed to catch some decent shots of most of the things I saw and also managed to shift a hangover at the same time.
That was my day off, so what did the rest of the week bring? Well the usual dog walking. Combined with a few escape attempts from the canine population. One biting incident where Judith the other English volunteer caught a nasty set of gnashers around her arm. I felt horrible on Tuesday as I let one of the dogs off the lead who is usually the slowest most easy-going dog who pretty much walks herself only for her to go sprinting off grab a poor little kitten in her mouth and she killed it….I felt gutted, horrible to see and I feel so responsible. On a plus note little Custard that I am fostering has put loads of weight on lately and is over 700 gms now so is heavy enough to be spayed and released. Although she can be released now I will keep her until I leave as the bigger she is the more chance of survival she will have once released back to the wet market here. She has a small fungal infection on her ears at the minute but the cream I rub in twice a day will soon clear that up and it is already looking better. Friday saw Amy one of the managers at the resort leaving along with Greg a Polish lad who was a vet here so we popped along to the town for a few beers and a bit clubbing which was pretty cool, live band on playing some decent rock covers and generally full of friendly locals and cheap drinks. I’ve sorted out my leaving date from the shelter as the 27th of this month and I fly back to KL on the 1st so I’m going to have a few days chill in Langkawi between those dates doing my own thing away from dogs howling during the night and hopefully away from a bathroom that has probably had half a rain forests insect species through it in the past 5 weeks. My day off this week was switched to the Friday so I borrowed a motorbike and went tootling off the day with my camera along the back roads through fields of flowers and swerving past herds of water buffalo. It was a good day and nice to get out and about again.
