Date: 21-22 December 2007
Venue: Langkawi Islands, Kedah
It was the Raya Haji weekend. Somehow or another, i managed to slip away from having my name up in the On-call List for the next 4 days. Thus, it was promptly decided that i would be going to Langkawi to join some old friends for some adventure.
Fresh from being on-call on Wednesday, I hitch-hiked a ride to Alor Star on my colleague’s courtesy, and met up with my partner-in-crime, none other than your friendly neighborhood Uncle Gila Pancing aka Lapala. But bad news was to be announced. His father’s place had just been flooded. I was told that his piano was already half submerged. He was recruited by the Jitra Bomba to help with the rescues. so much for that…
But i had to go on. i was then dumped at the jetty to continue the rest of my journey alone. lining up for the ride wasn’t that traumatic as it used to be anymore, thanks to the just concluded LIMA’07. one and a half hours into the ride, and the duty-free island was already in sight. Without much hassle, i found myself at ease with the air already. the smell of salty breeze, ahhhh…city-dwellers can only dream about it!(psst…vince, are u still stuck in a jam?). after some duty-free shopping for some air haram, i met up with my other partner Lucky Samurai and headed to our lodge. we were soon introduced to the boss of Crystal Yatch Holidays, Jamie, and soon, eagerly, we hopped on to our speedboat and sped off into the nearby islands for some recce. plenty of ‘Bilis Boils’ around, but chucking our hardbaits wasn’t enticing enough for them fishies! it was almost sunset already, and we only managed a 2kg Grouper on the troll which gave a decent fight(pic on another guy’s cam, mine was charging its batteries). well, we called that a day and headed back to shore.
The next day started at 8am where we loaded our stuffs unto the twin 55hp fibre speedboat. We were all geared for some picnic and fun by the beach…a private beach in one of the 99 islands. We were heading to Crystal Island finally…and the rest is history…well, nuff said, let the pics talk.
checked with weather forecast before i went, and it was forecasted to rain for the whole weekend while i was there. pure bullcrap…
we were welcomed by this freakin hot sun, and got ourselves grilled instead!
meet Jamie Scott, owner of Crystal Yacht Holidays! friggin cool dude
off we go from Awana Porto Malai
wish i had a home like this…this is TM’s Resort
we headed towards Pulau Dayang Bunting, passing the heavily vegetated fjords and the emerald-green, limestone-rich waters of the southerly islands. spots like these are home to groupers…just park near the dropoffs and spinfly/jig.
tried some saltwater flying and was duely rewarded with this juvy queenie!
some of the bilis flies i tied the night before which proved to be killer flies in Langkawi waters
soon the waves were picking up and became a tad bit uncomfortable for us to fish. we proceeded to Crystal Island for lunch. freshly caught fish and squids were the menu of the day…nothings tastes as great as drunken squids and drunken fish! heheheh
the most important part of the whole trip…we had 2 cartons to pass around! from quenching thirst to marinating seafood…heheheh
the weather became more forgiving later…here’s the view from the custom landscaped picnic area…the sun, sea, sand and hills…priceless! truly a paradise! i guess the pics don’t give much judgement when seen with ur own eyes
found a ‘longkang’ by the rocks which kept producing groupers <500g sizes…knocking on the nursery perhaps?
beautiful lightning grouper…tastes good too hehehehehhe. caught them by he ****loads, kept a few for snack!
magnificent rock structures from molten lava, carved by the rain. the islands here were remnants from an inactive volcano…the beauty about langkawi is, that there are thousands of landscapes made up of different rocks, from lava to granite to limestone and marble…truly amazing!
we fished till the tide washed out, revealing the the rocky bottom, thus proving to be a grouper playground. from time to time, bilis boils can be seen in the bay, leaping for life from predator attack?barracudas…we had more than 5 episodes of line cut at the leader(80lb mono) after a massive take. clean cuts i tell u…
i then proceeded with kayak-trolling around the bay…to burn up some calories from the heavy lunch we had earlier heheheh…i was paddling from the back end of the boat, with the rod shoved between my butt. had a few more groupers to add to the tally but one take really hurt my bum. i felt a smack right to my tailbone when my rod bend double, and reel screaming…at the end of what felt like an eternity, i managed to pull this up! 2.5kgs of pure muscle! LKG rulezz!~! yeah!
posing with my co-pilot…heheheh
freakin great reel! didn’t shiver a bit under pressure
soon, we had to pack and head back. on our way back, we docked with the motherboat, a yacht known as ‘TIKI’. went up for a leak and to check out the cabin…really cool watercraft!
welcoming us aboard
titanic? nahhhh…
speeding back to the jetty…leaving the landscape behind. really sad moment…
night view at Awana…we were fishing for archerfish at the jetty using really small flies…really fun…(battery died henceforth)
met up with philmuscle(if u guys still remember him) for dinner…nice food, nice place…at Laman Padi
checking out the toilet of Sunbar/SunKarma/SunSutra building…unisex toilets…with glass walls and doors…if u look hard enough, and i mean really hard enough…u might be shocked to find what u can see behind those tinted glass doors!
to wrap things up, it was a great time we had in langkawi this time round…really nice weather, atmosphere, food…the list keeps populating. (still got pics in other ppl’s cam lah…) thanx again for the wonderful hospitality of Jamie & Ryoko from Crystal Yacht Holidays Langkawi for a weekend well spent. There’s really lotsa potential around these waters! we’ll be back for more…soon!
till then, this is FT signing out…
