Langkawi, Satay and Heavy Metal: Together at Last!
…Uh, which way is the beach? Considering the relatively small size of Lankawi, you wouldn’t think that getting lost on the way to something as big as the beach was possible. But for the heroes of the Malaysia.com team, nothing is impossible. After a few wrong turns, we were well off the beaten path and found ourselves cruising through a tiny village. When we pulled over to get our bearings, we found ourselves at the edge of an enticing looking neighbourhood market that was just getting underway.
Dozens of stalls were set up offering all manner of food, and locals were busy picking out their favourite dishes. Ian caught the aroma of some satay sticks cooking nearby, and was out of the car and heading towards them before anyone could stop him. We decided to make the most of our unintentional detour and grab some grub.
Here’s a neat way of preparing kueh, a simple flour cake:
We chowed down on a bunch of mid-day snacks: Ian got his daily quotient of satay and I had a cooling drink of limeade to fight off the tropical heat. We also grabbed loads of food to eat for dinner back at the resort. All told, a meal and a half for three people totaled out to about 14rm – under $5 Canadian. Not too shabby.
At the edge of the market I noticed one of the many t-shirt stalls I’d seen at markets during our trip. A couple of the designs caught my eye, so I began browsing through the racks. Suddenly, one of the shirts practically leaped into my arms. Could my eyes be deceiving me? No, it was indeed a shirt proudly displaying the logo of Venom, one of the most foundational and influential extreme metal bands ever (not everyone’s cup of tea, I realise). Finding such an odd bit of pop culture ephemera in the midst of a rural market in the middle of South East Asia was downright surreal. I paid 10rm for the shirt, not even bothering to haggle. Seriously, folks, you can’t put a price this sort of thing.
We didn’t catch any glimpses of the native eagles for which Langkawi is named during our time on the island, but we did see plenty of roosters and chickens milling about at the market, including one Ian excitedly claimed was missing its head (turns out it was just ducking down).
After some quick reorientation with the map, we figured out which wrong turns had led us to satay, limeade, headless chickens and metal shirts, retraced our path, and headed for Langkawi’s sunny beaches.
Tags: Langkawi, malaysia, malaysian food, markets, Travel
bruceandian