One Stitch

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

south-east asia → malaysia → kedah → langkawi

Welcome to 2011. This is my first post for the brand new year, and I know I’m almost a month late. I tried to post something sooner but several things get in the way. One of them, well, as you have probably guessed from the picture above, is the newest excitement. There are actually a lot of things to say beginning with the Langkawi trip for the year-end which was really a great escape from city life and work and all things Singaporish.

Langkawi is a fine Malaysian island lying on the northwest of the country, just below Thailand. We spent a total of 4 days for the holiday including a night in the bus, 3 nights and 4 days in Langkawi, and several hours in Penang. Getting there is pretty simple as I’ve booked bus seats from Johor Bahru (Larkin) to Kuala Perlis, a journey of about 10 hours. Getting to Johor Bahru from Singapore is not that bad as well considering it was still in the middle of the holidays. From Kuala Perlis’ drop-off, it takes about an hour by ferry to the island of Langkawi. All in all, Singapore to Langkawi is separated by 13 hours, more or less. (For my Singaporean readers, that’s not a question, don’t answer ‘More..’ That’s just stupid.)

There’s no public transportation in the island and we have to rely on cabs to get around, which is not exactly good as we are all in a tight budget. Then again, this is a self-expense holiday and not some trip-for-8-to-mysterious-island grand prize, so, cash outflow is expected. We stayed in a place called Nadia’s Inn, several kilometers by cab from the jetty point, but it was actually in a good spot with short walking distances to Pantai Cenang beach, the Underwater World, lots of souvenir shops and restaurants. We had to take a cab for island hopping, go-kart, sky-bridge, and Tanjung Rhu.

The first thing I noticed about Langkawi beach is that it’s no-Boracay. This is not really to discourage you because the place itself is really worth the hassle of getting there. I know the beach is the biggest attraction to many, but there’s so much more than that. I would honestly even say that I prefer something like this than Station 1’s powdery white sand beach with a wall climb and a Ferris wheel side by side.

We haven’t done really much on our first day apart from booking an island hopping with snorkeling package for the next day, strolling around, walking along the beach, burger dinner (which became the official food of the trip), and rounds of Pinoy Henyo back in our room while waiting for 12 midnight. We availed of 2 rooms (there were 8 of us) with some extra mattresses (i stayed on the floor). The nice thing about the rooms is that it has an adjacent door going through to the other, so we basically just leave that open. The door lock in our bathroom fall short though. You really get what you pay for, but it’s no big deal really as long as you don’t get caught releasing some human litter or worse, doing something else.

The Pinoy Henyo was worth-telling because it was extraordinarily hard. For the most part, nobody gets a point (but we ended up being the winner, yey!) From my recollection, words include: entablado, ticket, magic, cufflings, annulment, patak, tubero, latigo, air asia, cowboy, fire dancers, ninja, sagwan and other words you barely have a clue. Most of them can’t be categorized plainly among: TAO, HAYOP, BAGAY, LUGAR, PANGYAYARI, and PAGKAIN. The reason why it was so hard is because we have a bet in the form of 4 cups of cheap instant noodles. That is how economically challenged we are.

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The first day of 2011 started with a complimentary breakfast in the hostel. In the morning, I stuffed myself completely as I know we’re not bringing any food packs for the half day island hopping, and I even managed to sneak out 2 sandwiches with sausages (i guess this is becoming too humiliating to narrate). We took a land transport from hostel to a strip of shore where boats are lined up. I stayed in the uncovered part of the boat so it was quite sunny, but it’s all good. We stopped on 3 islands and the first one is Dayang Bunting with troop of monkeys around stealing from inattentive tourists. After walking upstairs and then descending, there is a massive freshwater lake surrounded by mountains. 3 among us tried the water and jumped from the plank. It was about 30 feet deep, completely safe as long as you know how to tread. I jumped in different fashions including the normal jump, head first ala competition swimmer (which I can’t really do properly), a dive like I’m superman, and a backdive.

There’s a quick stop in a calmer cul-de-sac where herds of Langkawi (that’s where the place got its name) fly around, some making a quick dive closer to the water surface to get something to eat. The last stop is where we stayed longest. Some did snorkeling, took some jump shots, me practicing handstand, and just getting roasted, basking under the heat (and we shared the sandwiches). After a while, we get back to the shore and instead of heading back to the hostel, we decided to head to a waterfalls with fresh water to rinse off the saltiness of seawater. It was just a quick detour, but I really liked the waterfalls, and I like it how the strong water pressure drop against me starting from my head. It reminded me a lot of Daranak Falls, in the Philippines, where I went with some friends. The pool of water below the falls is mostly of slippery smooth rocks, and the water is shallow but surprisingly, there’s a part with depth that is about one and a half as tall as myself and it is bounded around a circumference of only 3 or 4 feet! Pretty cool. Then, we head back to camp.

For the 2nd day of the year, we decided to negotiate a cab to show us around. Since there were 8 of us, we had 2 red cars with 5 passengers each (including one driver for each). The first stop was the Sky-Bridge, and we had to ride on a cable car to get to the top. It was still something different despite riding cable cars before as this one is travelling more vertically. The view from the bridge was nice even it was a bit cloudy. I can’t clearly spot any Thai island though because I read that from this vantage point, Thailand can be seen.

The next stop was a bit farther inside the island called Tanjung Rhu, arguably the most beautiful beach in Langkawi. We stayed for awhile but nobody really tried the water any more than dipping up to knee length. We played a game here, we lost, but the opponent cheated. It was recorded in video, and I’ll include that part when I finish a music video out of it (which I haven’t really started any at all). Hehe.

As for the final stop, we headed to the go kart facility. Originally, we rented the cab for 4 hours only for 100RM each car, but we had to pay extra because we were with it for about 5 hours. As we are paying while it waits, and I know go karting would take time, we paid for the cab and then we were carless again, but we had race karts instead. Four of us karted in the first batch so the other half can take pictures and videos, and vice-versa. I raced (if I did really kart) in the second batch. I really really enjoy karting and this was my 3rd time to kart (6th if you include the mechanical kart called luge). I was about to turn the very first sharp curve when I got stuck, I know I was a little bit fast that’s why when I hit the brake, my kar skidded to the sides of the track. All of a sudden, I see one of the other racers directly coming towards me. In a split-second, I know it will collide against me, but I underestimated how powerful the impact would be. It was an all, full impact of an 80cc kart. The maximum speed of this car is around 80km per hour, the minimum speed in express ways, and 20 km shy of the maximum speed. Certainly it did not hit me at that full speed (I’m long dead if that’s the case), but the point is, is that these machines are no bump cars.

Recovering from the impact, I see a hole on the sides of my left knee.  A screw about 1cm long smashed right on it. It punctured intensely ripping off my skin. From the sight of it, I know I couldn’t continue. The track is more than 1200m long, and maybe I just passed by some 300 or 400 meters at most. It’s a long way to go with an open knee, and I can barely move the whole of my left leg anyway. My slippers’ strap (an original Reef, lol) was pulled out of its sole from the crash. It took moments for my knee to realize there’s a cavity on it. It’s just open. I can clearly see some flesh and no blood gushing out. Seconds later, some oil-like clear substance flowed, and then blood started to drain out of it. I removed my helmet and waved. It took a while before they see me and 2 men came in motorcycle. They did some first aid, applied antiseptic on it, and covered the hole with some gauze and tape. I still can’t walk, so I rode at the back of the motorcycle to the starting point. Since we dismissed our cabs earlier and I know I had to go to the hospital, some friends tried to call a cab from the road. Before they could get one, one of the staff offered to bring me to the hospital. There’s only one hospital in the island of Langkawi, and good thing it was not very far. I was accompanied by Mike, but the rest of the group followed.

I got a shot of anti-tetanus and anesthesia, and single stitch. I had to take several meds including antibiotic, mefenamic acid and magnesium trisilicate. This particular knee is the one that hurts sharply after I do hiking or marathon.

I drive a manual car back home. I drove an automatic on the spot without proper training, and I drove a manual right-hand drive car (which is opposite to the one I’m used to) continuously for some 250km each back and forth. I recorded zero accidents in all of these

What I’m trying to say is that no matter how careful you are, accidents happen.

Originally, I plan to do more things but obviously I was limping. Blood continue to drip even after they stitched it close. I stayed back in the room. Early the next day, half of the group flew straight from Langkawi to Singapore, but I originally arranged for the other half to have a stint of about 6 hours in Penang, then back to Singapore. In the morning, I was trying to find out if I can walk but the pain is even more intense, perhaps because of the anesthesia withering. Our flight to Penang is after lunch, and I had no choice but to just wait for it. In Penang, my intention is to run ala-Amazing-Race and see and go as much we can in the span of couple of hours we have. But of course with my condition, I told them to go ahead and I’ll just wait in the airport. My knee cooperated and it doesn’t hurt as much as before (or it’s just in my head because I wanted to get out and see Penang as well). Then, we decided to get a cab and see just one temple and then back in the airport.

I never took a single shot of photo in Penang using my camera, and the last picture my camera took was the first batch of go karters the day before.

And that also explains why my room has been in complete chaos. I make it a routine to clean up my room because, well, as hard as it is to believe, I’m an organized person. I haven’t been cooking my meals too and just buy a take-away on my way home. I had to do a lot of things the past 2 weeks and walking has been a great inconvenience. Today, 17 days after the crash I still can’t bend it completely.

Okay, I apologize if this post has been long, well I just thought you might have missed me so here’s something to keep 10 or 15 minutes of your time.

Later.