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Five weeks in Langkawi so far and we think it's official, we've gone troppo. Symptoms? Starting to think in local currency. For instance, when we did our Ramadhan Bazaar food resupply on Sunday, we overspent - 60 odd RM instead of say 50. Yes - A$18 instead of A$15. As it turns out it lasted 4 days instead of 3... so that's A$4.50/€3 each day for two adults for lunch and dinner. Obviously hideously expensive. Our other major expense here is mozzie spray - easy A$10 a week is supporting the locally produced "Off" spray cans and the utterly magical Mopiko cream. Which is worth a gazillon bucks but is actually only A$2 per tube. Comes from Japan and involves camphor. Fixes mozzie bites within a few minutes and is so good it has earned a place in our travelling pharmacy kits. Who cares if we smell like mothballs... it works! What else seems expensive once you're thinking in local currency... Jeans! Now in the shops they'd be 60-80++ RM a pair... at the Ooki bundle shop secondhand probably 5 RM each... we semi-split the difference and went to the Sewing Shop/Clothes shop at our big roundabout - 10RM each - with the bonus of being able to try them on. So we bought James a couple of pairs - a posh pair that will leave Langkawi with us and a knockabout pair for beavering away in the garden. Literally. Not 100% sure if we're thinking beavers or otters, but the sea wall's biggest challenges are now coming not from the sea, but from torrential rains - which wash the sand over the edge whilst cutting big gullies into the wall. James has taken it upon himself to dam the gullies and raise the edge a touch to stop the erosion - we are fond of the sea wall because it has a little path that means we can get down to the beach and go for morning walks before it gets too warm. Speaking of warm. That's another way you know you've gone troppo... When it gets down to 24 degrees over night and the sheet you're covered with isn't warm enough to fend off the chill of the ceiling fan. I've gone to PJs to stay warm (with the added bonus of protection from rogue mozzies who breach the mozzie net with the intent of an all night, all you can eat frenzy upon my luscious kiwi blood. Also cooling down during the day - instead of 34 feels like 44 degrees - might only be 32 feels like 38... Indeed... much cooler. The one thing however that we just can't convince ourselves is expensive is the movies. Our current weekly treat (if you can call an outing that costs A$9/€6 at treat) is going to the movies. At the beginning of the week I was still recovering from last week's tummy bug but by Thursday was well enough to head into town for a movie - Now You See Me (2). Definitely not the utter magic of the first one (but sequels never are) - still, an enjoyable watch and you can't go far wrong with any movie featuring Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. The thing that sticks in our mind however is not the content of the movie, but the experience of watching it here. Imagine a cheap pirated DVD, the really cheap sort, not copied from an original disc, rather the sort filmed with a handheld video camera in the theatre. Now think of the crazy laughing in the background and the shaking picture as the pirate videographer chortles away. That's what we had in real life with a half second delay! Anything even remotely funny then as they read the subtitles a group of 6 or so blokes hooted fit to burst. We were laughing at the laughers and it wasn't even that hilarious a movie. On the subject of laughing and movies, it's not all giggles here at the beachside tropical villa. Aside from James beavering away on his dam, Friday always sees us cleaning our pool (which is not a huge chore) and supervising our Friday gardeners (not a chore at all - they work like demons). They were unfortunately washed on on Friday this week as it rained and rained and rained. Within 30 minutes of them knocking off at lunchtime, the sun came out and stayed out all afternoon. Not fair - you can actually see stuff growing here when the rain and sun come together. The rains certainly cooled the day down a touch which was super. Other excitement as the week progressed - you betcha! We confirmed another lovely housesit in Ireland that will see us occupied right out til 28 November (Thanksgiving for our USA readers). We'll be in a very cosy looking farmhouse in County Wicklow which we've managed to miss on our previous Irish travels. Only an hour or so from Dublin so we can head up in late November and enjoy the Christmas lights and atmosphere - Dublin at its finest. From there, who knows! But that is all quite a while away. Meanwhile, we have been enjoying the wildlife here in the tropics. We have a family of long-tailed macaques (pretty much monkeys) on the property. They are well behaved and don't come near the house but provide huge entertainment when they choose to travel en masse through the grounds. We haven't named any yet... We also have Henry who is a young monitor lizard who is eating his way through grubs and bugs, growing larger every day, and who seems to have made this property his home as we see him most days. Another recent addition albeit for a very short time, was Shirley (surely you can't be serious!) Aside from bugs, ants, cockies etc, there is also a strong temptation for mice to get intimately involved with foodstuffs in the kitchen. But we don't kill them... oh no... aside from the cleanup, they're just doing what comes naturally. So the owners here have a humane trap. Carefully baited with banana (cos that's what tropical meese eat, d'oh), we scored a win on night one with a very plump and well fed mouse. Immediately christened Shirley. What next you might ask? Well it's not as though we can just unload her into the garden is it, she'd be back in 5 minutes. So the only answer is to take her for a drive. We loaded her into the car and tootled down to the municipal garbage skip and released her... have to make sure she has enough to eat. Now of course whenever we drop rubbish off, I think I'm going to see her with a little stick over her shoulder and all her worldly possesions tied in a bundle on the end, trying to hitch a lift home. Wildly inventive imagination or just troppo-itis. You be the judge. Reminds us of the penguin joke... A Polish bloke is driving a dozen penguins across Europe, destined for the Amsterdam Zoo. His truck breaks down and the penguins are suffering from a lack of food and water. He flags down another truck and asks the Swedish driver if his truck is empty. It is and he gives him €500 to take the penguins to the Zoo. His truck is fixed the next day and he continues on to Amsterdam. He is shocked to see the Swedish driver walking down the street hand in wing, wing in wing with the dozen penguins. He runs up and says "I told you to take them to the zoo!" The Swedish driver answers - "I did that yesterday - there was money left over, so today we go to the movies!" Of course you can put in any country or zoo you like... but it's generally used to comment on the cradle-to-grave care/high taxing nations. Having driven Shirley to her buffet lunch at the garbage skip, we took ourselves off for a jolly and a visit to Chocoffee - logically enough a shop off the beaten track that flogs chocolate and coffee. Huge fun as it turns out. The second we pulled up there was a girl at the door ready to open it for us, admitting us to a world of air-conditioned comfort. Another girl put stickers on us for the free tastings. We then walked around the shop with 3-4 girls leapfrogging each other with containers of flavoured chocolate to buy. It almost turned into lunch. Out of all the flavours (mango, coconut, durian, etc), we stuck with our old faves - dark choclate coated coffee beans... yummo. A luxury product in Sydney where 200gms will set you back about A$11. Here 500gms was about A$20. So not a huge, huge saving, but a very luxurious product here... remember A$20 is a full tank of petrol. We now have them after lunch each day with a coffee. Very enjoyable splurge indeed. When of course you can fill the kettle and actually make a coffee. As of Tuesday morning, we could not do so. Shock. Horror. Referred to the house book and discovered sometimes the mains water can go off for 4-5 hours. So nothing to worry about then... Tootled into Cenang Beach for a long beach walk and a look in the shops. Nothing really to grab our fancy in the souvenir shops as 80% seems to come from Thailand (and we'll be there in a week's time), 15% seems to be made in China and the other 5% is a bit woeful. We came home mid-afternoon and still no water in the house. We checked the mains tap at the gate in case some numpty had turned it off (it has, apparently, happened). Nope. But oddly the water meter was clicking. Which was very odd given there was no jolly water. After much investigation, pipe following and trial and error we discovered a bit had flown off the filter/standpipe which is hidden away in the forest behind the house (there live dragon-sized mozzies by the millions). The water was definitely flowing there and leaving pools on the forest floor. Hadn't been noticeable at all in the morning as torrential rains meant the whole property was covered in massive pools. Anyway - with the mains switched off we had a hugely entertaining chat on the mobile phone with the Malay plumber. Eventually we confirmed 10 am visit the next day, Wednesday. Now he speaks a lot better English than either of us do Malay, but still it was an interesting experience. He spent about an hour and half here. He had his toolbox with him on his scooter, ascertained the pipe and glue he needed, scooted to the hardware shop 10 minutes away, came back, fixed everything and departed once the water was flowing out of the taps... and the grand total of all this service was 60 RM. We actually asked if that was enough (and we never, ever ask anyone that). That's about A$18. That would be about 10 minutes of "travel time" for a Sydney plumber... and they take an hour to get to your place before they get into the business of doing anything. With the dishes finally washed, the laundry on and showers had we drove to Kuah for the afternoon and ticked a few things off the to-do list. On the prior-preparation front we parked at Jetty Point shops and investigated where to buy the ferry tickets for Satun, Thailand and saw where everything was - departures, immigration, etc. From there we drove home to one of our last tourist sites that needed investigating, Langkawi's orchid farm. It looks like it would be great in orchid season, but that, it would seem, is not June. Only about 5% in flower. So no need to pay for a visit there when Joan arrives in less than 3 weeks. Well there you have it. All the news and views after 5 weeks in Langkawi. Tune in next Thursday as we prepare to say farewell Malaysia and head to Thailand on our first ever visa-run.
- comments
Annie Atkinson I am so happy for you !You seemed to be in Paradise !Be happy We love you Annie and Lee
Viv How lovely! I think this will have to be on our next agenda! xx
Ishbel Looks like you are having a wonderful and colourful time. We have been away on the boat for 3 weeks visiting many islands on the west coast. Have come home to vote and are now facing the worrying prospect of Brexit!!My daughter has moved to near Dublin so is within Wicklow she is working for Savilles property in Dublin. Bob and I return to Madeira 22 September then head for SA in February, touring for 6 weeks to include Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia so looking forward to this very much,keep in touch and continue to enjoy your travels and pet sitting
Annie Atkinson I am so happy for you !You seemed to be in Paradise !Be happy We love you Annie and Lee
Viv How lovely! I think this will have to be on our next agenda! xx
Ishbel Looks like you are having a wonderful and colourful time. We have been away on the boat for 3 weeks visiting many islands on the west coast. Have come home to vote and are now facing the worrying prospect of Brexit!!My daughter has moved to near Dublin so is within Wicklow she is working for Savilles property in Dublin. Bob and I return to Madeira 22 September then head for SA in February, touring for 6 weeks to include Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia so looking forward to this very much,keep in touch and continue to enjoy your travels and pet sitting