Thursday 2 June - Cenang Beach via aqua-planing drive, Night Market, Tourist Strip, Car seemingly on last legs, Scorpion Scare

We have been here over two weeks and are yet to make it to tourist-central - Pantai Cenang or Cenang Beach. We tried waiting out a torrential downpour but eventually gave in and puttered along at 40 kms before getting to the Cenang Night Market. Ended up waiting out the rain at that point instead. After a stroll around the market, we headed to the tourist strip behind the beach - very touristy indeed - so "Asia". Took a walk up and down and found a cute bar and jewellery store that bears further investigation. Almost panicked on the way home as the car started a particularly funny knocking sound which proceeded into a shaking apart sound and barely able to do 20 kms an hour. Turned the hazard lights on and limped home at 20kms. Then turned off the air conditioning to give the motor a bit more limping power. Fixed the problem. Must have got too much water into the works during the torrential rain driving. Won't do that again. Came home to find a scorpion in the bedroom (Aaaargh! James has seen them before but I certainly hadn't.) Of 1750 species of scorpion in the world, only 25 have venom strong enough to kill a human. Still. Not reassuring. Watching where we put our feet. Have since heard from the owner that it's the first they've ever had in the house though they've seen them in the garden. That must be our magnetic effect on animals...

Friday 3 June - Oriental Village, Gunung Raya, X-Men at the movies in Kuah, Friday Night Market

The Oriental Village is about as oriental as Disneyworld, but we can see the attraction. Lots of souvenir shops set up around the base station of the Cable Car (which it seems every visitor to Langkawi is honour bound to do). They did have a variety of good souvenirs and it was a nice drive. We headed back for lunch at a new and better Ikan Bakar - even had our current fave pineapple curry. It was only 16.50 RM for 2 lunches and a fresh orange juice - love it when inexpensive keeps getting cheaper. We then pointed the car in the direction of Gunung Raya which is Langkawi's highest peak at 881 m - nice views along the drive up, but not much at the top unless you climb a tower. Which was not going to happen. Drove down via cows, monkeys etc and on to Kuah - where we saw X Men Apocalypse at an actual big screen movie theatre (usually we see our movies on planes!) Last time I was in Sydney, two years ago, it was around A$22 each / A$44 for a couple at a movie theatre - and we never bothered going. Here it was 26 Ringgit - that's A$9 or around 6 euros for two adult movie tickets. Aside from anything else the theatre was air-conditioned like a fridge - wonderful! We already have a couple more movies coming soon that we want to see - "Now You See Me 2" and the sequel to Independence Day. We followed the movie with a drive up north to the Friday night market. We couldn't resist as it's probably the best on the island. Having Saturday off the night markets - using our frozen meals and thinking ahead for Ramadan. Hard to believe but in just over 3 weeks we are going to nip over to Satun, Thailand on the fast ferry - only an hour and 15 minutes - will stay there for 3 days then come back and get a new Malaysia visa stamp. We are hoping they have good Thai food... there are Thai/Malay restaurants here... but not a patch on Thailand or Sydney Thai food unfortunately.

Saturday 4 June - Batik Village, Groceries

We had our final lunch at our new favourite ikan bakar - Gamat Bay. Lucky we went in today as she's about to shut for the whole month of Ramadan for her own holiday - not back until 5 July! From there it was on to the Atma Alam Batik Art Village which was much better than either of us expected. Stunning art, wall hangings, clothes, glass, and also inexpensive souvenirs in stunning colours. Staff either very helpful or getting thefts taken out of their wages as one woman trailed us around the entire store reading out the word "promotion" repeatedly as we came to the sale racks. Will definitely be heading back in due course for a couple of souvenirs. Onwards to the grocery store. We were taken to this particular shop on on our first day in Langkawi, but were so exhausted from the trip it was an utter waste of time. This time we puttered up and down the aisles and found all sorts of nifty stuff. Then home, and fans and cooling...Only 32 degrees outside, but, and it's a big but, the Weather Underground reliably informs us it "feels like" 42 degrees (and in our opinion, possibly hotter).

Sunday 5 June - Got Gas and did a whole lot more - Telaga Harbour/Perdana Quay, Locals "step" beach, Black Sand Beach, Craft Complex, Tanjung Rhu Beach and Boat Tour Research, Skull Beach and Padang Matsirat Night Market

This is the first country we've been to where filling up the car is a form of entertainment - amazing! a whole tank of petrol for about A$16 (for our friends in Europe, say €11). Yes. We know!!! The entertainment continued with a walk around Telaga Harbour and Perdana Quay. This is one of Langkawi's very upmarket spots where people with a) boats and b) money can spend a fortune on posh restaurants and pizza and beer. From there it was back to Taman Awam Teluk Yu. For convenience we've christened this "The Locals' Step Beach". A super place where huge amounts of money have been spent, but in parts the ocean is taking it all back. Still, perfect - able to go for a swim without actually going far or getting sandy - simply step out of car and walk down steps into the ocean - it was high tide mind you. Might have to re-re-christen it "Vivienne's Beach". From there we tootled further along the coast to Black Sand Beach/Pasir Hitam. Not as much black sand as there once was apparently and as it was high tide, not a lot of actual beach either, but having a grand day in the car with the air-conditioning blasting. Next stop was the Langkawi Craft Complex. We need to check but this must have been built pre financial crisis of 2008 and probably in honour of an ASEAN summit or something similar. Beautiful pavilions and lovely crafts and really, very good prices as everything we looked at appeared to be 50% off. Keen vendors too. Again, wonderful spot for the air conditioning. Being limited to our bags and always moving on, we love looking at the crafts but very rarely buy much. Where to now? Ahhh - more exploration. We've looked at Tanjung Rhu beach where the Fish & Chippie and watersports crowds are and it's nice enough (very good at sunset). But our mission is to get to the really flash end of Tanjung Rhu Beach - home to the Four Seasons Hotel and the Tanjung Rhu Resort. This is where things get tricky. The Four Seasons is not welcoming at all so we didn't bother heading up the driveway. We kept going in the direction of Tanjung Rhu Resort and saw a security barrier and guard on the beach road. Hmmm. OK. Went to the resort road instead. Another man with a beret and a smile. Are you guests? Nope - just looking to hold a small event at the resort... that gave us entree... but he did follow us up the driveway to Reception to make sure we didn't go traipsing about unsupervised. We met the lovely manager fellow and said we were looking at various resorts with a view to a small event... We were in! The trick is being able to talk one's way into and out of a paper bag. Or having 'more front than Macy's' as they say in the USA. Very, very nice resort and the beach was perfection. It's one of those cleaned, graded, raked expanses of spun-sugar white sand that features in brochures. Number 1 beach on the island and, as it turns out, there is in fact a 'public' section up the end with food stands and so forth. We should have braved the security barrier on the other road and did so after touring about the resort. It turns out part of the beach is 'public' but can only be reached via private property - the road. So they take your license plate number and have you sign a page of terms and conditions including 'leave by 7 pm'. We also found the jumping off point for the mangrove sightseeing tours up the end of the road. We went into the main building and looked at the big imposing price list. The went to the shack where the boat drivers hang out and met Skipper Sam who told us all about his special prices for folks like us (prefaced with the question... How you get here? car or bus?) As soon as we said car and he knew no-one was putting their hand out for commission, the price for a private boat for 2 hours went from 350 RM to 200 RM. Now we're talking. We'll be back for that! After waving goodbye to all our new security guard friends on the private roads, we headed along the top coast road of Langkawi and on to Pantai Pasir Tengkorak - AKA: Skull Beach. Cool name but no skulls, but we knew that coming in. Couldn't be more different than poshy-posh Tanjung Rhu. No raked sand here but then no security guards either. It's a cute little sheltered bay, lots of locals, and it looks like there was once a bit of a resort there, but now, not so much. Being a Sunday, it was busy, but it will merit another visit as it's apparently quiet during the week. Once underway again, we stopped at a roadside fruit stall for a kilo of mangoes (A$3) then onwards to our final night market location - Padang Matsirat, which is the area we're living right now. Hmmmm. Certainly not one of the best, but enough there to grab some noodles and rice and make up a good dinner at home. That's it for Sunday. Monday has been gazetted as an official rest day - 6 hours tripping about today was a huge day out in the heat so tomorrow will be home, shade and fans.

Monday 6 June, Rest Day and First Night of Ramadan Night Market

We were both a bit drained by yesterdays excursions into the heat so today was devoted to lounging, reading, sorting out photos, keeping up with correspondence and the odd short nap. As day turned into night, about 6.30 pm, we headed out in search of the two Ramadan night markets. Apparently, for the month of Ramadan, all the night markets stop and two massive markets happen near the airport and in Kuah. We say apparently because we searched high and low and found very little info, even some dis-info saying the Monday night market was in its usual spot. Suffice to say there was a stunning sunset on Monday night and we enjoyed most of it whilst having a lovely drive around the island. Eventually found the airport market at 8.15 pm... but it looked very small, dark and, well, closed. A bit more research when we got home and we discovered the magic word was "bazaar" and in Malaysia they spell Ramadan as Ramadhan... from there it was easy-peasy.... Ramadan Bazaars are in fact held from 4 pm to 7 pm every night during Ramadan and people buy all their food and drink... then take it home to break their fast (have breakfast) with their families. Our trouble is we've experienced Ramadan in four countries now and it's always different. In Cairo for instance, life is very quiet during the day but everyone comes out about 7 pm and all the restaurants/cafes/takeaway joints put tables out on the pavement and you all sit down together to eat around 7.30 pm sunset...and then the tables go away (within an hour) and shisha pipes come out and it's phenomenally social to walk around during the evening. So. Tomorrow. We will be going into Kuah and we will find this bazaar if it's the last thing we do.

Tuesday 7 June, De'Zone Jewellery, Kiku Kiku Natural Products, Eagle Square, Langkawi Fair Mall, Ramadhan Bazaar in Kuah (wow!)

It often seems the days we have just one destination in mind are the days we end up enjoyably jaunting about the most. We had seen De'Zone advertised in a few different places but not actually seen the shop in our travels. Finally saw an address and 'lo and behold it's at the end of our street - where we turn left, we just had to turn right and voila! There it was. Ended up looking around for about an hour. Not only a spacious, air conditioned shop - but more like a gallery in parts. Excellent jewellery across a wide price spectrum as well as Asian antiques, carvings, clothes, food products, pewter... pretty much a one stop shop. Suspect we might be visiting again later in our trip. We picked up a brochure for Riku Riku Natural Products and it was 'on the way' to Kuah so nipped in there for a look. We finally discovered that Gamat is Sea Cucumber! (We've seen the word in lots of places, including our Gamat Bay food stall - so good to know its meaning). This joint also stocks kopi luwak - that's the coffee beans that have passed through a furry animal prior to being collected and ground - like in the movie Bucket List or "crap coffee" as I usually call it. Have also learned in our travels that kopi is the Malay word for coffee - so saying Kopi Luwak Coffee is like saying ATM Machine... From Riku Riku we headed to Eagle Square. This is another of Langkawi's big projects that look like a lot of money was invested. Once. It does however do what it says on the tin and has a massive, huge, amazing eagle sculpture. We will probably appreciate it all the more when we've gone to Thailand and seen it as we return on the ferry. After our quick stop at Eagle Square we checked out Langkawi Fair Mall. Average at best. No need to go back there, then it was off to the Ramadhan Bazaar in central Kuah. Yowser! This is what we've been waiting for! Far from feeling hard done by that the night markets stop for Ramadan, we now feel blessed to be here at this time. The food was amazing - all sorts of whole fish grilled over open coals, chicken, curries, dessert stands (3 pieces for 1 RM - that's A$0.30 cents or €0.20 cents), tofu snacks, juices - the works. The big challenge for us, sweating our everythings off, was not eating or drinking anything as we wandered around the 100+ stalls. Obviously not as difficult as not having eaten or drunk anything since sunrise of course. Pretty sure we were the only non-locals there though that's bound to change as word leaks out to the tourist contingent on the island. We splurged almost 30 RM or A$10 and took home a bounty of different things to try. Wednesday is currently gazetted as left overs day for both lunch and dinner...

Wednesday 8 June, Turkish & Arabic Market, Pantai Tengah to watch Para-sailing, Zon Duty Free, Pantai Cenang

As we've been tripping around Langkawi we've often seen a sign for the Turkish & Arabic Market. We realised we wouldn't be looking for something like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul - but thought it sounded interesting. Even read a write-up/advertorial in the Langkawi Gazette Online. We tracked it to a street back from Pantai Tengah ('Middle Beach') and made it our target for todays outing. We would have to say it's the best Turkish shop on the island of Langkawi... but given it's the only Turkish shop on Langkawi... you get my drift? Good though - because then we explored Pantai Tengah which is probably the nicest beach down that side of the island. Deep water for swimming, short sand for walking over and constant entertainment in the form of shore parasailing. We'd been told about this, but not too clearly, as I thought they'd have to be running jolly fast and have strong winds every day to make a go of it. (Duffer!) As it turns out they are using a boat, but basically hook the punter up whilst he's standing on the sand, then the parasail 'pilot' jumps on a sling seat behind the punter and as the boat pulls away, they both run, catch the breeze and woo hoo! They're away. Starting price is 300 RM or about A$100... for only 3 minutes! Somebody is making crazy money out of this game - we saw around 10 guys have a parasail between the two boats in the 15 minutes we were there. From there we moved the car and took a look in Zon Duty-Free (we've not asked a local yet... but kinda think it's pronounced Zone. As in Duty Free Zone, but who knows). Very big, very shiny. Feels strange (but good) that everything on the island is tax and duty free. Kind of like walking around an open air airport shopping plaza - only cheaper. From Zon we cut through and popped out onto the start of Cenang Beach itself. Busy and buzzy and didn't look like that great a spot for a swim - but hordes of people can't be wrong. It was a nice walk and we confirmed once and for all that the only tax on the island is for people staying at Cenang without transport - as the prices for food and drink were a lot higher than everywhere else we've been. Home eventually for a stir fry and a feet up. The end of week 3 in Langkawi is upon us and we're already making plans for housesits in November. Amazing!