A.S.I.A.: Langkawi or Bust

May 2 and May 3, 2010

Langkawi, Malaysia

May 2, 2010

Our First View of Langkawi

Breakfast was nothing to write home about with cold hot dogs and some traditional Malyasian dishes which were a bit salty and fishy in flavor.  A plus, however, was that our hotel was within walking distance of the pier where we were to catch our ferry to Langkawi.  Whilst we were waiting for our boat to arrive we were met by yet another overly friendly man who took a liking to Mom; we thought Sue's Iranian man (who offered her a tour) was funny, but hs guy took the cake.  He had one arm and knack for talking.  You have to give him credit for his confidence, but I think what made us have to bite our lips from laughing was the fact that he kept talking about his arm and how due to his situation he had a special pass (laminated around his neck) that allowed him to ride the bus and other modes of transportation for free.  He even used the pass as a pick up line for Mom saying he could get her free rides too; at this point Sue and I couldn't even watch for fear of bursting out laughing. 

Jacuzzi, Pool and Swim Up Bar

The ferry finally came and we made our way to some seats only to be found once again by our new friend.  I think he realized Mom wasn't going to be travelling to Langkawi with him and he moved on a little bit into the ride.  We got of the ferry and were greeted by lightning blue water and warm tropical sun.  We walked through the duty free shops (which are a huge deal, because as a Muslim country, certain goods are heavily taxed on the Malaysian mainland) and made our way to a travel agent counter to book a hotel.  Malaysia is known as one of the countries with the most and cheapest 4- and 5-star resorts in the world, so we had a fairly large selection of very nice places.  We opted for a 4-star recommended to us by the agent and, man, were we happy about that!

Our Own White Sand Beach

We were driven from the port to the Holiday Villa Resort by an extremely nice man named At who helped us bring our bags inside and taught us some basic phrases to practice during our stay on the island.  The resort was absolutely beautiful with wonderfully cool rooms, and an incredible series of pools/jacuzzis, beautiful gardens and it's own private white sand beach.  Paradise.  After a quick bite to eat a Chinese restaurant up the road we grabbed our gear and headed to the pool.  It was exactly what the doctor ordered after our bus fiasco the day before.  We made our way to the swim up bar for a nice happy hour (how can you not be happy when you can have whatever you want without having to even get out of the pool!) and then to the beach for a perfect sunset over the water.  After some great pictures and washing the sand from our well-rested feet we showered and went do dinner at one of the resort's restaurants.  It's amazing how one day you can be so tired and exhausted and the next day you are in a state of complete relaxtion and everything seems to move calmly--if you hadn't guessed it that's how we felt that night and went to bed some very happy travellers.

 

May 3, 2010

Perfect Langkawi Sunset

Today was our full on, no plans, relaxation day.  We ate a nice breakfast after which we immediately claimed some prime real estate next to the pool for late morning/early afternoon ray soakage.  It got a bit cloudy around lunch time so we decided to do a bit of exploration near the hotel (a.k.a. Mom and Sue were ready to get some shopping in.)  There some really nice strips of shops featuring a cool mix of local and tourist-oriented goods and being the curious shoppers they are, Mom and Sue were actually able to get a store to unlock it's doors to let us in because they said they liked something in the window.  The people were really friendly and told us about their restaurant that was going to be opening for dinner later and were so happy and excited about us being there that we naturally said we'd come back later to eat dinner.

Traditional Malay Dinner

Continuing on with our theme for the day we headed back to the hotel for some more pool time and then some room time.  Don't you wish every day could be like this?  When hunger struck we kept our promise and headed back to the Sunday Bistro from excellent food and wine.  We were even treated with some dinner entertainment as an extremely rude and vocal group of Russians wouldn't stop complaining about their food.  Our waiter kept apologizing for them and how much time he had to spend with them (he said that groups of Russians and tourists alike come in all the time and order the expensive fish and then continue to send it back to the kitchen and moan about the service in hopes of getting the meal free.)  Who does that?!  The food was extremely good--I indulged in a traditional Malaysian multi-course meal--and the service was the same if not better, so were more than happy to sympathize with the staff.  In a state of food coma we waddled back to the resort for another night's sleeep.