Langkawi

For our last few days with Vicky and Dave we decided to visit the Malaysian island of Langkawi. The island is pretty close to the Thai border and we were able to get a ferry directly from the Thai town of Satun. So after a bright and early start, we caught a minibus to Satun and then the morning ferry to Langkawi, which gave us a little bit of the afternoon to spare for chilling by the pool!!

We headed to Cenang beach, as this is where the cheaper accommodation and most of the restaurants are. We checked in to our first hotel the ‘Langkawi Boutique Hotel’; we are still trying to figure out what was boutique about the place!! The huge lobby area was like a ballroom from the 1950s with strange old music piping through! As we checked in, we felt pretty sure there weren’t that many other guests, yet it still took about 5 reception staff to get us processed! The four of us, plus all our bags, were then squeezed into a tiny minibus and driven the 50 metres up to our doors! The rooms were huge and would have been pretty luxurious back in the day! The next day we managed to find a cheaper and more modern place, right on the beach front and moved on.

We spent lots of time soaking up the last of the sun (well, last for Vicky and Dave before they headed back to work) and playing in the very warm sea.

The selection of restaurants in the town was vast; Indian, Malay, Arabic, Italian and even an Irish bar!! In the evenings we worked our way through the different cuisines on offer, even finding one place that allowed us to bring our own beer! Of course, eventually we found our way to the Irish bar for drinks. Much to James’ delight he was able to say his favourite line ‘I am the only Irish person in here!’ while we all sighed, yet again!

Friday was the sad day when we had to take the 6 hour bus journey down to Kuala Lumpur, ready for Vic and Dave to catch their flight back on Saturday. We spent the evening in Nando’s eating chicken and chips - just like we always used to do in London before it was time for James and me to return to Shanghai – so our little tradition can carry on for another year!