Jerad's Birthday and Weekend in Langkawi

Van's first long weekend started out with a birthday party for one of his co-workers. Jerad turned 30 and his wife, Jamie, who also works with Van, had appetizers and drinks at their condo in his honor. It was nice to meet the people who work with Van that I hadn't met previously. It was also fun to go out on the town with such a fun-loving group. Jerad is pictured above and below with the members of Bangkok Connexion who helped him celebrate in a "big way." Unfortunately, the photos of Van swing dancing with the girls in the band did not turn out well. He must have been swinging too fast! We went to bed in the early morning and woke up a few hours later to drive the 5 hours to the ferry landing (Kuala Kedar) for the trip to Langkawi Island. We were almost as far north as you can go in Malaysia before hitting the Thailand border. The drive was beautiful, but the roads were a little crowded, probably due to the Malaysian holiday traffic. The ferry ride was 1.5 hours and they really do pack you in. Unfortunately, the seats are made for the typical Malaysian traveler who is much shorter and thinner than Van or I. Considering they have assigned seating, it was lucky that Van got an isle seat on the way there. We stayed at the Meritus Beach Resort and Hotel that was done in the old Malaysian style of architecture with lots of teak. It was very nice. Langkawi is a large island and the taxi ride from the ferry to the hotel was about 20 minutes.

On our only whole day to do something (Sunday) we signed up for the all day snorkeling adventure. They picked us up at 8:00 a.m., drove us to the ferry harbor, and we had a 45 minute boat ride out to the marine preserve to spend the day snorkeling. The first two hours were beautiful with clear water and about 20 people snorkeling, then about noon a ferry load (75 people) arrived and took over the place. Shortly after that, a tide of garbage rolled in from the mainland and the water turned murky so you couldn't even see the fish (let alone two feet in front of you). It was depressing. So, we stayed out of the water. I worked on my tan and Van worked on his sunburn. Van hasn't been out as much as I have. He says he'll be a "bronze God" in a few days! Below are some photos of our snorkeling adventure.

Sandy sporting the new snorkeling equipment Van bought her before we left the US and Van looking good as ever! He said it's hard to get a good seal on his mask with his mustache!

One of the very colorful fish you could see in the water. They were beautiful to watch and some of their colors were awesome!
Patterns were incredible, too. I wish we knew what the names of the fish are, but we haven't a clue.
This one was by far the most colorful one we saw. Van's new underwater camera did a pretty nice job once we got the hang of it!
The sunset at from the beach at our hotel was really nice on our last night there. We walked on the beach, held hands, and watched the sun set. It was so relaxing and romantic - woo, woo!

The little love birds with Van's now famous "hand cam." What did we ever do without it?

All and all, we were a little disappointed with Langkawi. I was expecting the same beautiful beaches that Laine and I had on Tioman Island, but they weren't as pristine. The water is murky around the hotel beach just like it was on Penang Island. Due to our short stay, we really didn't get a chance to see all Langkawi has to offer, but I'm not sure we'll go back. We were checking it out for Christmas when the kids come and I think we are back to the drawing board. We'd like more of what we had at Tioman. The only problem is we've heard conflicting stories about the seas and when to go to the east side islands versus the west side islands. Definitely some more research is needed.