Two weeks to relax and top up our tan

  Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia Friday, December 5, 2014

It was a bit of an epic journey to get here; we first took a taxi to the harbour at 7:15am, then the ferry to the mainland. Then a bus to the town of Satun (Stoon) arriving at 5:30pm. We had to spend a night here as the last ferry timings meant we arrived too late to cross today. So next morning it was a taxi to the harbour again, then the 9:30 sailing to Langkawi. Phew - it took us 27 hours in total but was it worth it??? Actually, for us the travelling through countries is a big part of the trip. Time is of little consequence to us really and the buses and trains take you through parts of the country you wouldn't normally get to see. We stop at service stations for food which can be pretty much off the tourist trail so you are getting local food for local people mainly. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's not but it's all part of the experience for us.The travel side of it is where you get to meet people too. You find yourself on a bus with other whiteys and you tend to naturally gravitate towards each other and have a conversation. Whilst we were waiting for the ferry to Langkawi Island, Jody got chatting to a man who was on his own. He was about 60-70 years old. Turns out he was from Middlesborough and he tends to live on Langkawi for 6-8 months of the year, then go back to Middlesborough to "cut the grass" he says. British people automatically get a 3 month visa to stay in Malaysia on entry. His visa was up so he had just done a border run into Thailand to get another 3 months on entry into Malaysia. Fabulous! The border controls to come here were so easy too. We barely noticed we were going through immigration, it was more like just getting a ticket. It is definitely one of the easiest border crossings we have ever done. And we have done a few!When we were on the boat, we were joined by another whitey; Hugh from Glasgow. He was heading to Sydney for Christmas with his son and was taking the scenic route to get there. He had arrived at the Satun ferry port intending to go to another Thailand island - Koh Tarutao. However, when he got to the ferry port, he realised he was at the wrong ferry port but thought "what the heck - I'm here now so I'll go to Langkawi instead!" We love the attitude that travelling brings out in you. How many people would have stressed about getting to the correct ferry port rather than just go with the flow. We shared a taxi with Hugh to the main drag on the island - Cenang Beach, as our research told us this is where we would find cheaper accommodation. So when we arrived we parted from Hugh and stopped for lunch, then Bryan left Jody with the bags whilst he went to find somewhere to stay. Two minutes later he was back and said he had found somewhere for just £17 a night and it was right on the beach. Perfect! So we checked in at Mali Mali Beach Resort (we had to take a family room for the first night but got the beach room from then onwards)and don't let the name 'resort' fool you - it was just a room and a tiny pool, no restaurant or anything else. Our room is the only one here that opens out onto the sand. How lucky are we again?We have managed to find a full English breakfast for Bryan too. Portuguese Steve this time, at The English Tea Shop is the only place we have found in this whole stretch of beach serving it, so he has ensured custom from us whilst we are here. On one day we took a trip on a catamaran around some of the islands to the south of the main island. But you can read all about what a fabulous day we had there, on a separate entry. We hired mopeds on one particular day and headed off to the very north of the island, our destination - The Andaman. A very nice hotel where Bryan's parents had stayed earlier on this year. They had posted photos on FaceBook from the hotel and we thought it would be very funny to go and take the same photos and post them on Facebook ourselves ;-) If only the hotel agreed. Well no worries there. As soon as we showed them the originals, they were extremely helpful in pointing out all the places we should go to take the photos. When we got to the poolside bar (and very nice it was too) the restaurant manager got on his radio to call all the same staff for a photo shoot. It was very funny as they remembered Hannah & Dave from the photo we showed them.So back on our bikes and we stopped at some lovely waterfalls. They were very high and had a lovely natural pool at the base ideal for swimming. So naturally Bryan was in there. Back to our own neighbourhood. We stopped and did some shopping as we had decided full English breakfast was getting too expensive for us and by utilising our whisky buckets from Thailand, we could have cornflakes for breakfast much more cheaply instead. The majority of holiday makers in this part of Langkawi are Malaysian and Chinese with Russians coming in third. There are a lot of muslims here and it took us a while to really understand how different their holidays were compare to the western world. In the morning the beaches are empty. A smattering of whiteys and no muslims to be seen anywhere. It stays like this all day and it's great, then at about 5pm, suddenly the beaches would be filled with a thousand muslim families all in the water, on the jet skis and everyone else armed with cameras waiting for the sunsets. We know they were muslim families as all the women go in the water fully clothed and most have their heads covered too. Apparently they don't like being out in the heat of the day so we assumed they all stay in their rooms until it cools down later.Most days whilst we were here in Langkawi, we spent hanging around the Cenang area. Anyone who knows Bryan especially, will know he is not much one for sitting still. He constantly needs to be doing something so lounging by the minuscule pool or on the beach doesn't happen very often. Jody likes to when she can as it gives her the chance to get her head in a book. Then one day, Bryan sprang a surprise on Jody and we went back out on the Rampant Catamaran cruise. Wonderful! The day went pretty much the same as the first time except we were with a family from Perth in Australia and a couple from Hamberg in Germany. Once again we had a fabulous day with Carl and Bea and if they are ever in the same part of the world as us again, we would definitely go out with them again. Don't worry though we won't bore you with all the pictures from day two!We did manage to get the bikes out again and we eventually made it to the top of the cable car. Its funny how when you are high up you can see just how small the island really is. The cable car is at the Oriental Village and both times we have been there it has had thousands of muslim families as they seem to have lots of things for the children to do. So this is why the beaches are empty all day!!! We also took the bikes across the island to the ferry port town of Kedah. It was here we found the huge eagle statue and again took some more replicas of the ones Dave and Hannah had taken but we think the joke had worn out by then. Langkawi has been a great place for us to just stop and sit still for a bit. Its very rare that we stay in the same accommodation as long as we have here also. Our needs are few though and when we find it all together in one place, we can appreciate it and just stop to soak it up. [gallery columns="4" ids="9435,9442,9453,9466,9469,9482,9494,9508,9518,9525,9534,9545,9558,9570,9580,9589,9596,9604,9622,9633,9640,9652,9663,9684,9696,9710,9730,9742,9755,9764,9771,9777,9782,9791,9802,9808,9820,9827,9835,9843,9846,9853,9865,9872"]