Legends and roundabouts

On our last day in Langkawi, we went to Taman Lagenda. It's supposed to present all the legends of Langkawi in a park. But...it wasn't really well done, and we just walked around in a rather dirty (and ugly :s ) park, wondering what we were doing there. In some places there were stones with plaques describing the legends...but they were so faded that we couldn't read the words properly. I'll just post a few of the more interesting pieces.

the entrance

the map of Langkawi

the layout of the park

not sure what this is...

Ayer Hangat

Kuah and Belanga Pecah ("gravy" and "broken bowl/urn")
Maybe that's the legend that gave Kuah town its name...but there was no information there.

 And then...there were lots of other stuff but I kind of gave up on understanding the legends.

the is Garuda and Jentayu, though I've no idea what's the story behind it...

This one is quite funny...a recreation of the black sand beach (I wrote about it in this post)

 There was quite a large area of the park dedicated to Mahsuri (I wrote about her tomb here)

This is Pandak Mayah's spear (Pandak Mayah is Mahsuri's father, and supposedly only his spear could kill Mahsuri...or was it his keris? Anyway, that's the legend...)

the eagle can be seen from the park

To end the Langkawi posts, here are two rather pretty roundabouts that we came across while driving around the island.

That's all folks!

Before departure

At the dock, there are two boats. Maybe more. But two in particular interests you.

You reach there early, not quite sure whether you want to sail out.

After some time, you decide that you will sail.

Then you look at those two boats...you wonder which would be the better choice.

After a while you decide on the first boat. You check the next departure time...it is two hours away. It is the same for both boats.

Then while waiting for your boat to depart, you start thinking... Shouldn't I take the other boat instead?

Then you skip over to the second boat to wait.

And then you start wondering, again...shouldn't I take the first boat?

And you change boats, again and again...and between the two boats, you also wonder, should I even be taking any boat at all? Until it is closer and closer to the departure time and you start panicking...am I on the right boat?

Decisions, decisions... I guess sometimes deadlines do kill stress, because after a deadline...there is nothing else you can do. The boat has left, and there is no turning back.

Reddish-brown eagle

Langkawi got its name from "lang", as in helang (eagle) and "kawi" which means reddish-brown in old Malay. I'm not sure what happened to the original reddish-brown eagles that gave Langkawi its name, but now there is one huge eagle on Dataran Lang (Eagle Square) to keep the myth going. :P

reaching the square

the entrance arch looks better from the other side, because of the position of the sun (it was nearing sunset when we arrived there)

view of the square

Here is the eagle from a few different angles:

Next post on Langkawi will the the last!

Scraps

...that didn't quite make it to Facebook.

A hollow feeling...

- I need to talk.
- Again?

Can I tell you? Can I trust you?

Could you guess?

I'll complain about anything...anything to get my mind off... the biggest problem at hand.

Of brand power and equality

Today we had a conversation on how girls spend money on cosmetics and handbags...branded stuff. The guys were saying how it would be worth their while to provide a house and a car for their wife, and that she could take care of her food and cosmetics, etc on her own.

Somehow the talk turned to branded stuff (I'm not sure how)...and their prices.

Which leads me to write this post.

I don't know what it is about branded goods, but I wouldn't pay a few hundred bucks for a handbag. Even if it's of great quality...I mean, what are you going to use it for? Throw it from the top of the building so that you don't have to carry it downstairs? A handbag doesn't have to be that durable...

I think one of the most expensive things I've ever bought was my camera (check out this post when I had just bought it)...how much was it? Almost 200 euros, I think...together with the case (which I had to buy separately), if I'm not mistaken. (at 4.5 to 5 ringgit per euro, that makes almost a thousand ringgit...ouch!) Then there were my walking shoes when I was in France...I always bought them in Malaysia, though. I think my favourites (I went through a few pairs during those seven years, since I walked around so much) cost about 200 ringgit, and they were worth it because I wore them almost every day, and they lasted about two years (they were Reeboks, I remember)

Maybe I am biased on these things because I'm not a fan of handbags...but the same goes for shoes and clothes. Sometimes a perfectly mediocre-looking piece is so highly priced just because of a tag that carries a brand name on it. I sometimes think that prices keep going up because people are always willing to pay more. We should all stop buying expensive stuff...and then they will be forced to drop the prices! Who's with me? :P


By the way, this isn't the first time I've heard of guys buying cosmetics for their girlfriends.Some time back when I was out with a few guys, one of them asked another, "how much do you spend on your girlfriend?" In reply, he mentioned cosmetics, and I remember, SK-II. Now I don't know how much that costs, but I know that it is one expensive product. And I'm thinking, if you can't buy it for yourself...why are you using it in the first place? Maybe I'm an arrogant, over-independent female, but if we girls truly want equality, getting your boyfriend to buy cosmetics for you is NOT the way to go. A handbag, yes...it could be a gift for a special occasion. Even perfume, yes... But...skincare??

To each their own, I guess... but I do wonder, is there anyone out there who thinks like I do?

Of hot springs and political gifts

Time to continue on our Langkawi trip! This episode, we're visiting the hot springs. There is a gate leading into what they call Ayer Hangat Village.

the hot spring area

The water was rather dirty...I wonder why they don't clean it up a bit. There wasn't any information to be found anywhere either...maybe they're just starting to build up the place for tourists. There was someone cleaning one of the jacuzzis as we walked by, so we got to take a peek into it.

the jacuzzis (there are a lot more)

inside, there's a private pool (and a shower head too)

I can't remember the price, but it was per hour, and any number of people can go in.

the main hot spring source (the original Telaga Ayer Hangat), boarded up

little pools with roofs over them...there were several, but some weren't warm at all!

here we can soak our feet...again, there was no sign board ot anything

Now this one was really warm...especially when we put our feet in. Just touching it with our hands at first, it didn't feel so warm...

Inside the pool...is it algae?

The water's not very clean, huh...but maybe this is what contributes to the medicinal properties? :P

After that we went to the Perdana Gallery (which was on the way back to our hotel, actually). We weren't planning on going in, but it wasn't too expensive (RM5, RM3 for senior citizens, I think) so we went in to take a look. There were really too many things...all the stuff that Mahathir received during his stint as the Prime Minister. Looking at all those, I wonder...how much money was spent just to make yourself look good to other countries? :s Rather pointless...

If we wanted to bring our camera into the gallery, we needed to pay an extra RM2, so we didn't. So I only have photos of two ships in the parking lot outside the gallery.

Impressive...especially the first one.

More to come...you haven't seen the eagle yet! ;)

Secrets

No, I'm not telling you any.

I've always been good at keeping secrets...from when I understood what a secret was, I mean.

Agatha Christie said in one of her books (I think it was Hercule Poirot who said it) that a murderer is put in a very lonely position, because he has done something that he is unable to speak to anyone about.

Sometimes a secret is that way. When you have a secret, you are placed in a position where you are unable to share something. Sometimes it is because you do not want to share it, but sometimes you cannot share it because, well, the secret is not yours to share. So the burden is yours alone to bear.

Some people would say, why don't you tell me your secret? Don't you trust me?

But secrets are secrets for a reason... Sometimes you do not tell someone a secret not because you think they will tell other people about it, but simply because you do not want them to know about it.

Imagine the murderer...he might not want his friends to know that he has murdered someone, even if he might be sure that they would never turn him in to the police.

Once someone knows your secret, and you know that they know...instead of being in a lonely position, it might be an uncomfortable position.

Oh, if only there was a way to erase memories...then we could share our innermost secrets with trusted friends, share opinions, and wipe the slate blank, leaving your secret intact with you...and in addition, you would have shared it with your friends.

Unfortunately the world doesn't work that way... (or maybe, fortunately...because what would be a secret then?)

Thanks for the smile

Hey man. Yeah, you there in the red car, dancing at the wheel. Thanks for the smile. :)

There was this red Kancil in front of me at one point, when I was driving back from work. The driver was waving his hands around quite a bit, and after a bit I realised that he was dancing to some beat. It was rather amusing...I couldn't help but feel a little happier as I watched him shaking away.

And hopefully that just put a smile on your face too... ;)

I am so easy to please, aren't I?

Edit (15th March 2014):
Just added the MMS tag to the post. Since it didn't exist before... and I came across this post.

Like a fool

Because I am, you know. A fool.

...like a fool I keep losing my place
and I keep seeing you walk through that door

...like a fool who will never see the truth,
I keep thinking something's gonna change

Optimism is inborn, but pessimism is learned.

I guess inborn qualities are not so easy to get rid of...

Prawn mee on Pulau Aman

Time to take a break from Langkawi (I'm not done with it yet!) and hop over to Pulau Aman for a day.

Last Tuesday (Labour Day), a group of us went to Pulau Aman for a short trip. We initially wanted to go there to eat mantis prawns (or he kor in Hokkien). But the price was too expensive - RM100 per kg...and we would be getting only about 5 of them per kg. So we ended up only having the prawn mee, which is also very famous by the way.

leaving the jetty from Batu Kawan (or Batu Musang as a big rock said at the entrance)

 We had to go over to the mainland to take the boat. The boat was really quick...in about five minutes (maybe less?) we had reached the island.

the famous Restoran Terapung (floating restaurant)

a zoom-in for you to see the name of the restaurant

beside the Pulau Aman jetty

A short walk brought us to the floating restaurant
On the left is where they sell the mantis prawns and crabs

The restaurant, where we had our prawn mee

The famous prawn mee!

Actually, it wasn't that good. RM6 for a plate like this, and for a "special" one (which means a few more prawns), it would cost RM10.

If we bought any seafood (from their stall outside the restaurant, or elsewhere), they would steam it for us for a small fee. They would only steam it, no other cooking method. Anyway, that's what we heard...because we didn't buy any seafood after all. :P

After eating we walked over to a little fishing area built out into the sea. It seems that quite a lot of people go to Pulau Aman for fishing. I didn't take any photos of that because...well, it didn't look that great :P

And after that we went back to the mainland. We took the boat to the island at 9am, had our breakfast and made the return trip at around 11am. Two hours for breakfast (and a little walk), RM6 for the noodles, RM6 for the boat trip (return trip) and a bit more for drinks. How's that? Not much value for money...but I guess it was a nice experience, discovering someplace new.