Thurs 10th - Wed 16th July (Week 42-43)

Thurs 10th - Left our resort at 8:30 for a quick longtail transfer to the pontoon. Seems strange to be leaving after 10 days - longest we've stayed anywhere on our whole trip. Caught the speed boat back to Pakbara at 9:30, arriving at 11am, hung around for 30mins, then got a minibus transfer to Satun. Another 2 hr wait, then took the ferry back to Langkawi, arriving at 4:30/5:30 Malaysian time. Taxi to Pantai Cenang beach and checked back into our motel - with a lovely warm welcome from the receptionist who recognised us and was very pleased to see us again ! What a long, phaff of a day just to get back to Langkawi - which should be a quick 60min direct by boat in high season - but instead takes the entire day during low season. But at least we could make it in one whole day, unlike the way going to Koh Lipe. Very tired and hungry as we hadn't had lunch so ordered a massive but cheap Indian meal and were in bed by 9pm !

Fri 11th - Rainy start to the day so just used the wifi in the morning. Went out for a few hours in the afternoon to look around the shops and duty free. Cleared up at 4 so headed to the beach for a couple of hours and it was still baking hot even at 5 and 6pm. Sunset with our newly purchased JD and Gin, followed by a great Chinese dinner.

Sat 12th - Much nicer day today so hired a moped at 11am and headed north. Drove across the island to Tanjung Rhu beach which had a lovely outlook of a limestone karst bay, but the beach was fairly small and was surprisingly busy seeing as its quite a way to get to. Sunbathed there for a few hours, then as we drove back to the main road, we came across a fish n chips restaurant, and had possibly the best fish and chips we've ever had - and thats saying something seeing as our parents live on the coast in the UK ! Drove down to the cable car and enjoyed the spectacular scenery as we rode on "The longest free span rope cable car" as well as one of the steepest gradients at 42 degrees. You can practically see the entire island from up there as well as the interesting shapes of the karst mountains all around. As we were driving home, we spotted a group of Dusky Leaf Monkeys (black monkeys with big round white circles around their eyes) - really cute and stood watching them for a while. As lovely as it is to chill out on a stunning beach, its also nice to head off and explore a bit more and see what the island has to offer for a change.

Sun 13th - Another lazy beach day with a few quick dips to cool off. Spent a couple of hours in the evening wandering around the tourist shops and bought a few cheap items of clothing.

Mon 14th - Lazy morning as were kept awake in the early hours by the World Cup Final on the TV in the communal area with lots of cheering and shouting ! Headed to the beach at 11, but the black sky that had been in the distance quickly swept towards us and we had to run in at 12:45 as it started to rain. More rain and thunder all afternoon so just surfed the wifi. Pretty dismal final sunset, but we persevered with our G&T and JD&Coke before our final Indian dinner.

Tues 15th - Final few hours on the beach this morning before leaving Langkawi on the 3:20 flight to KL (flight no. 41). Its nice to come back to a place we are so familiar with, even to the same hotel, and same room ! Looked around the brand new KL Sentral shopping mall, then headed over to the Twin Towers for the Sound & Light fountain show at 9pm. We've seen it a few times now, but thought we should make the effort to do something other than wifi etc whilst in KL again !

Wed 16th - KL = Practical day today, making the most of a nice room and excellent wifi to get loads of stuff sorted and uploaded to the Cloud. Found our favourite Curry Puff lady again (she's not been there the last few visits), so had curry puffs and other snacks for lunch. Were going to head out to do some shopping in the afternoon, but there had been a landslide at one of the monorail stations we needed to go through, so the line was closed. So we gave it a miss and had an early night ready for our hideously early start tomorrow.