Skull beach

We had much easier access to the north end of the island from our new hostel so this beach was a quick 5-minute drive from where we stayed. We arrived at high tide pretty early in the day, but by the time we left it had withdrawn so much that 50m of beach was exposed.

The beach gets its name from prisoners who were held on the island in the background of the first photo. It's called Turatao and it's actually part of Thailand, about 5km from Langkawi. The waters used to have crocodiles and sharks so whoever tried to escape and actually could swim the 5km sometimes ended up as a snack anyhow. Their bodies would wash ashore and the beach earned a creepy reputation.