Soaking in Rural Malaysian Island Life
- Anna
- Feb 10, 2019
- 5 min read
Greetings from beautiful Malaysia!
I’ve been absolutely terrible about keeping up on this, so for those who want to keep up on photos from where I'm at more frequently, follow this link on my site: https://www.whatannasaw.com/what-anna-saw. Since my last post, I have left Vietnam on January 29, spent a week on Koh Lipe island in Thailand and am now in Malaysia. To get here I took a 1 ½ hour ferry ride from Koh Lipe, Thailand to Langkawi, Malaysia. Langkawi is a much bigger island than Koh Lipe with lush green jungles and abundant animal life. This includes wild monkeys nonchalantly hanging out on the roadways as traffic honks at them to get the heck out of the way (unfortunately, this is largely due to people feeding them over the years). Langkawi has beautiful beaches as well as rural farmland in the interior. Coming from a week on the beach, surrounded by a lot of tourists, I chose an Airbnb in a rural setting on the island, away from the tourist action to experience local village life and to challenge myself a bit. I stayed in a private, modest little hut designed and built by my host. The attached bathroom is open air, meaning it has no ceiling and is essentially outside. I arrived just as the sun was setting over the paddy fields and wow, it was a breathtaking site. A loud speaker many miles away sounded the call to prayer and it echoed peacefully across the fields as the cows and water buffalo wandered slowly and a welcome party of chickens roamed, flapped and squawked freely around the property, circumnavigating my hut before roosting in the tree above it for the night. One or two elderly farmers, wearing white kufis rode their motorbikes through the narrow dirt trails between the paddy fields. One gentleman stopped as he passed me, smiled with a toothless grin, asked me where I was from, commented on the beautiful sunset and away he went.
After the sun disappeared, I settled into my room and then walked to the main road to find a small roadside restaurant to eat. After eating, I made my way back to my room and hunkered down for the night. I was startled when I heard a noise coming from the bathroom. I cautiously opened the door to find a calico colored cat had jumped down into my bathroom and brought with her a large dead rat. I screamed and shut the door as quickly as I could. For some reason I feel the need to point out that I am not a high maintenance woman and can pretty much adapt to most situations and accommodations; however, I draw the line when it comes to dead critters in my bathroom. The day I arrived was the second day of the Lunar New Year celebration, so my host was away for the night but would return the next day. I did not want to bother him and figured maybe if I waited long enough the cat would take its prized possession and leave. Thirty minutes or so passed, I mustered up enough courage to peak in the bathroom and found the cat still there just licking the dead rat. I said several curse words and decided to message my host to let him know of the situation and to please assist me with it once he returned. He sent his son immediately over to take care of it. Ugh, I felt like such an annoying, western diva. Once the son arrived with his wife and two young children (now it was shortly after 11:30 pm), I let him into the bathroom where the cat and the rat were nowhere in sight. I was so embarrassed and apologetic. He proceeded to look around with a flashlight while I talked with his very sweet wife. After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was 30 seconds or less, he emerged victorious holding the dead rat by the tail and I freaked out and recoiled like a young school girl. I thanked the couple and returned to my bed for the night. In the morning I cautiously opened the door to the bathroom and that damn calico cat peered down at me and meowed from her lazy perch on the bathroom wall high above me, fortunately critter-less this time. I cautiously made my way into the bathroom only now to find a tree frog soaking in the back tank of the toilet (the lid to the toilet tank was removed prior to my arrival). I looked at that frog and told him not to move an inch and did my business as quickly as possible! Throughout the duration of my stay, I cautiously opened the bathroom door for fear that she would be waiting to show off another one of her prized kills to me.
This cat, who I have affectionately named Killer, decided she was my best friend for the remainder of my stay. She followed me around, sat next to me wherever I was and only left my side long enough to hunt and bring back a fat gecko at which point I would also retreat. Its all part of the adventure and I suppose charm of village life. I'm just grateful she didn't bring me a snake.
My host and his wife were incredibly kind, loving people who have been married for almost 30 years. They built everything on this property themselves over the years and love the peace, quiet and beauty of where they live, which is easy to understand. There are odds and ends of construction material and what others would consider junk, neatly piled around the property. An old refrigerator was converted into a dehydrator run by solar panels to dry fruit and various leaves for tea. There are beautiful gardens with fruit trees around the property and bee hives that are lovingly tended to. The husband reminds me a lot of a Malaysian, Muslim version of my uncle Kent, a talented man who can take what most people consider junk and build something new and really beautiful out of it.
While here, I rode the Langkawi SkyCab, a cable car which takes visitors to the top of Mount Mat Cincang, Langkawi’s second highest peak. Once at the top, visitors can walk the Langkawi Sky Bridge, a 125-meter curved pedestrian cable-stayed bridge located 660 meters above sea level and take in the views of the island. I also made a trip to the beach and one of the many night markets to sample the variety of wonderful food Malaysia has to offer.
Rural Langkawi was a great introduction to Malaysia. I so enjoyed the laid back pace, the locals I met, bicycle rides around the paddy fields and the breathtaking countryside. This stay was a great reminder that the best rewards in traveling are most often the ones off the beaten, tourist paths.
Get Busy Living!
Anna
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