Langkawi Day3/4

Starting to settle in to the time difference now, ie not waking up at 2.30 am thinking its time to get up.

Spent an afternoon in the main attraction of this stretch of beach - Underwater World - an aquarium. To be honest I have been to better in both Brest and Cape Town, but it was interesting enough in its own way. Although just a touch incongruous coming to the tropics to see a tank full of penguins. Seemed more popular with the locals than tourists, and even then so many seemed just to want to take photos of themselves next to a fish (albeit maybe the fish was a shark).

More exciting was the jungle trek I undertook last night. There is a morning or evening option for this. The heat and humidity explain why midday is not a choice. By about halfway round I was hallucinating about a cold shower. Mildly disappointed that our guide, having warned us about snakes, and that only a couple of days earler a group had come across a python in the middle of eating a lemur, didn't arrange an encounter with even one, feeding or not. But we did see both flying squirrels and flying lemurs, doing the flying (well, gliding) bit. Very impressive. Sorry no photos - they are fast moving objects in the dark. Not a chance. Also came across a sea cucumber for the first time (we started down on the shore-line and moved up.) If you have never encountered one before, think large black slug, a foot long and as thick as your arm. A delicacy in Chinese restaurants, but I think I will give it a miss. As much as I like to think of myself as adventurous on the cuisine front, I am not a kamikaze.

Sadly, despite long trousers and copious quantities of insect repellant I am scratching away at a couple of mosquito bites. Well, knew it was too good to last and frankly one trip on Mauritius left me with two bites per sqaure inch so feel I got off lightly. And as the guide said, at least there are no leeches, just mozzies, spiders, (non-poisonous), snakes and termites. And thorns with tiny leaves attached. Anyway, great trip, though I guzzled two bottles of mineral water in no time and just couldn't wait to hit the shower.

But nice to get back and be able to watch the Premier League - double dose of Blackburn v Arsenal and Chelsea v Stoke. Clearly our greatest export.

Otherwise its really just a case of lazing by the pool or the beach and then taking  few shots of the spectacular sunsets. I am still coming to grips with how quiet the place is. There are just so few tourists but they are catering for I don't know, 5 -10 times the number here. I am not complaining, its not like I want Butlins on a Bank Holiday. But it just seems a shame to have these vast swimming pools (with swim up bar for those occasions when getting out of the water for a drink is just too much effort) wth hardly anyone in them. They are all set up for volleyball and all sorts of water sports, but really no takers. I know its supposed to be the wet season (ie after 4 days here we had about 15 minutes of rain this morning), but it is still school-holidays. Surely not everyone has decided its Skegness this year.