Rebak Island – In The Middle of Nowhere

Am back.

After a 4 day hiatus in a tiny dollop of greenery surrounded by the turquoise blue Andaman Sea on all sides – a privately owned island called Rebak, a 20 minutes speed boat ride from Langkawi. Soothing to the eyes, a balm to a tired (over worked ?) mind, when you sit atop the black rocks beside the Marina in Rebak, the world around you seems to be a small place that everyone has forgotten – And thankfully so.

Owned by the Taj Group of Hotels, the Rebak Island Taj Resort is the only resort in the whole island and offers you 3 white beaches, 2 of which are inaccessible from anywhere other than from within the island. Corals and thunderous waves would pummel any boat to smithereens if you try to approach the beaches from the outside.

We arrived at Langkawi on a windy morning, the Langkasuka Port, a bare 5 minutes cab ride from the airport. A tiny speedboat, powered by 2 Yamaha outboard motors, tethered to the jetty and my first thought was “Shit ! And we have to ride this to the island !!” .. and I looked towards the horizon. The breakwater (a wall that was created post the Tsunami in Dec 2004, so as to prevent Langkawi from getting washed off again) could be seen far far away and nothing beyond. And I thought again “Ah not that bad, eh !”.

10 minutes into the ride and having crossed the breakwater, I was literally holding onto life, with the boat being tossed around in waves of 15 feet high, extreme winds and sleeting rain. Sitting in the front, beside the Captain’s wheel, the only thing that I could see was the steel girder in the front of the boat (speedboats are always angled upwards). I was singularly trying not to look out of the window to my left. I had done once and I had nearly thrown up. Nothing but a green curtain of waves, building up and rolling, at least 5 feet above the height of the boat and rushing towards us.

Just when I was about to ‘relieve’ myself in my jeans, the rolling suddenly stopped as if by magic. The water was deep turquoise, calm and crystal clear. We did a sharp bend and I heard a “Wow!” from my wife sitting behind me. On looking out of the window I saw a number of yachts lined up inside the Marina. Some wet and some on the dry docks, with their main masts scaling upwards. A solitary Scarlett Minivet was perched at the top of the nearest mast and was peeking down at us. Beady eyed.

We glided through and moored at the Marina jetty and from that moment on, it was sheer luxury. Each and every need was catered to even before we could spell it out. A golf cart at our disposal, we could roam around the motor-able areas of the island.

And when requested for, we were given a Quad Bike which allowed us to go a little jungle exploring. However the adventure had to be cut short when in the midst of the tropical rain forest, while sitting atop the Quad bike and trying to capture the setting sun, a Monitor Lizard (for the Bongs out here, a Monitor Lizard is called a “guui shaap” in India) suddenly decided that it quite liked Raka’s pink sneakers and wanting to taste it, flicked out its 1 foot long tongue and the result was a shriek which must have been heard all the way to Langkawi. I could not decide who was more scared. The lizard or Raka. The lizard reared back, turned around and slithered away on its fat stomach with a last furtive look at Raka before it vanished. I am sure he had a story to tell his family that night.

As for Raka, all that I could hear were “How many times did I tell you NOT to get me here for this ride ? How many times ? And yet you do not listen !! Can you imagine what would have happened ? That crocodile could have snapped off my leg in two !!!! Turn around NOW !!! We are going back !!”

Crocodile ????!! Women ! How conveniently she forgot that it was her who had cajoled me into taking her along with me for the Jungle ride.

Dreading the waves, we went out only a day to the main island to ride up the Cable Car to the bridge where SRK fought Boman Irani in Don – II (the view is just about mind blowing from the top and on a clear day you can see all the way to the southern tip of Thailand) and went shopping for some artifacts to take back home.

For the ones who want to squeeze out the max out of a holiday, you can go island hopping in a boat, mangrove tour, para sailing, jet skiing, crocodile farm, fish farm – et all.

A must visit, Rebak Island would be the perfect weekend gateway, if you are like me, if you are not planning to do much apart from lazing around and getting pampered by the typical Taj hospitality. For me, a seaside holiday should be spent in fitting my 6 feet lanky frame on an arm chair in the balcony, just a few feet away from the lapping waves and day dreaming with a book in the hand. And the Rebak Island Taj Resort offered me just that.

Am a tad boring.

I know that.