Trying to book accommodation online in Langkawi seemed to be troublesome so we arrived with nowhere to sleep, something we had not left this late before. Whilst in Melaka we were recommended to stay at a hostel called Gecko in the area of Pantai Chenang. We asked the taxi driver to take us straight there and then the trouble (by me) began.
We found Gecko and there were barely any rooms left. There were no dorms, only double's/privates and at the cost of 50RM, now in my head I was either thinking 50GBP or 25 GBP each for the double. 50RM for a double room is actually only 10GBP - so 5GBP each. In my head I was like, wooaahhh that's expensive when in real terms, it was a bargain. I stormed off and everyone seemed to follow thinking what planet I was on and to not say anything to me as I had my 'grump face' on. I wish they had attacked grump face. To try and redeem myself, Ben and I went off to try and find ourselves some accommodation. This shouldn't have seemed too difficult as there were around 10 other hostels on the same stretch of dirt track.
Ben managed to find himself and Michael a dorm room down the road and I, found us girls a lovely little placed called the 'Amani'. We had to climb a spiral staircase for 2 floors, deal with the fact we had no sink, and just deal with the fact in general, the place was disgusting. However, it was only 15RM, 3GBP a night so who can really moan at that? We can! We decided we couldn't bare another night in the Amani so we tried our luck at Gecko and we were just told to go back in the morning.
We spent our first afternoon on the beach and it didn't take long for the 'beach games' to start. Jumping shots, silly poses, who can handstand/cartwheel best on the beach. This was our first time really in Malaysia on the beach and the water was so warm and clear, it was definately, one of those moments!
In the morning we re packed and raced to Gecko and Ben and Michael had already got themselves in, and luckily, we managed to get a private room (with a mattress cat bed for me) for only 8GBP for 3 nights. I think I had redeemed myself at this point as everyone got cheaper accommodation in the end!
Sunday 20th, was a very bad day! I am going to describe in quite some detail.
It was actually quite the miracle to start with, we were all up, fed, dressed, showered and all on the beach by 12. In hindsight, nothing can come good from being up and ready so early.. and now you will know why.
We hadn't been on the beach that long and we had been in the sea several times due to the heat and the fact the water was so nice and refreshing.
Caroline, Becky and Ben went into the water and I stayed on the beach trying to get my pasty skin to turn a little darker other than the shade of pale. They came back out, and I decided to go back in. 2 minutes later, they all re joined me as it was still too hot.
We were all having a nice chat in the sea discussing what we were going to do the next day, hire a car or hire mopeds, and bang.......... jellyfish gate started. Caroline suddenly yelled 'jellyfish' and I just thought she meant she had seen one, but this was repeated several times and as she tried to scramble from the water, we all knew she had been stung. I was furthest away from Caroline, then Ben and Becky and we couldn't get out of the water quick enough.
As I tried to escape the waist high sea, I saw something white, huge and jellyfish esque coming towards me and obviously, in this instance, you try and think the best way to escape. For me, it was either attempt to run out of the sea which proved to be difficult as I tried it for about 4 seconds.. front crawl.. or breast stoke. So obviously, the best way to escape the sea from a jellyfish, is to do breast stoke. NOT.
Caroline gets out of the sea and it is clear from then she is in great pain. Becky suggests we rub wet sand all over her to try and ease the sting but this doesn't work. Ben runs off to try and get some help and leads us to a little hut where a man just simply pours vinegar all over her.
At this stage, we can now start to clearly see the severity of the stings. Caroline's wrist, stomach, and legs had been badly affected and the stings were coming up as massive blisters. (Now at this point I actually wanted to take photo's just to show her what they looked like but obviously thought this was majorly inappropriate at this stage).
As I was holding her hands as she squeezed, I squeezed back, and the man was still dousing her with vinegar but with no affect. It was so difficult to see someone in such pain and to not be able to do anything about it.
Now, we all remember that episode of Friends which is probably the most educational episode.. the one where Chandler pee'd on Monica. I think for everyone who has seen this, will remember that golden shower tip. The ammonia in urine subsides the itch of the stings. This was our next course of action.
Obviously, me and Becky don't exactly have the correct tools for being able to openly wee on someone as much as a boy, so we turn to Ben. His first response is 'I don't need to go'.... Me and Becky find the nearest empty water bottle, hide round a corner (where I think was very much on show) and wee in a bottle. Poor Becky for having to hold it after me. We run back over to Caroline so we can pour our lovely wee on her and the first thing Ben say's is 'you must be dehydrated', yeh, thanks Ben. Becky pours the wee on Caroline and it seems to do something (cringe) and we race her over top the front of the beach, onto the road to wait for the ambulance. Caroline is still in a massive amount of pain but there really isn't much we can do. The waiters from the restaurant suggest we squeeze fresh limes on her, so what's what we do. We request more and they bring over a full plate. So by this point, she stinks (she won't mind me saying this) of wee, limes and vinegar.. not a good combo!
As the ambulance arrives, even the paramedic pulls the face of 'wow', this looks bad. They don't even help a weak Caroline into the ambulance, we have to do it.
They continue to douse her in vinegar and inappropriate as ever, as they go to put the cannula into her hand for the drip, I go.. Oooh that looks like it hurts! As is she isn't in enough pain already.
We arrive at the hospital and 3 hours later, a saline drip and 3 injections, we are able to leave!
To make light of the situation I 'plank' the opposite hospital bed and find joy in the spare wheelchair whilst waiting for a taxi doing some rather cool spinneys!
The rest of our time in Langkawi was spent being rather scared of the sea and for good reason!
We later find out that Pantai Chenang has the highest jellyfish rate on the whole of Langkawi and the fact that it was high season! Nowhere on the beach or guide books does it tell you this. Also, to make a matters just that little bit more, not funny.. we google jellyfish in the area and discover that some of them are actually a form of Box jellyfish... the ones that kill!
Our last day with Michael (day after jellyfish gate) we hire a car and see the entire island which was lovely. We visit Seven Wells waterfall which was right at the top of around 300 steps.... and nearly killed us all... Black Sands Beach and Durian Perangin Waterfall. The weather wasn't exactly spectacular so we didn't go into any of the waterfalls other than for a quick paddle but if it had been a really sunny day, those waterfalls would have been amazing to dip into!
The last day in Langkawi was spent in fear. As the weather was so bloody hot and the heat was near enough unbearable, me and Becky had a little paddle in the sea and were that scared we got terrified by.... a chocolate wrapper. We only went ankle deep and sat down just so we could see anything coming at us! The sea is not to be trusted!
Overall, our time in Langkawi had been an experience, it's not often you get to visit A&E on a Sunday afternoon but it's something I definately do not want to be doing again.. as I am sure Caroline feels the same.
(pictures to be added soon..... damn slow wi-fi.. and next stop.. Borneo and the 20 hour travel day.. bet you can't wait to read that!).
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