Langkawi Oct-Nov 2012

Langkawi 26^th Oct 2012

This time we flew with Singapore Airlines and wow what a difference! I had enough leg room with about an inch to spare. The minute we took off, we were given hot towels and served with drinks and food. We had a video screen to ourselves in the seat in front to watch recent movies or TV episodes, and we could play games with a hand held controller.

We arrived in Singapore about 7 hours later. I have never seen so many skyscrapers before which made Adelaide look like a tiny little country town. Unfortunately, we only had 1 hour to get from terminal 1 to terminal 2 so we couldn’t dawdle and look at everything. We caught a sky rail which was so full, we couldn’t even reach any handrails so I had to grab the roof to steady myself as the train took off and moved.

The next plane was Silk Air which was smaller but also had enough leg room, and in the short 1.25 hr flight we were also served with food and drinks again. This time we flew through lightning and huge anvil shaped clouds so I decided not to eat due to the turbulence and a dose of fear.

We arrived safely and went through customs in record time. We looked for the driver who was supposed to pick us up and found that he wasn’t turning up so we caught our own taxi to the hotel. We settled into the room and then tried to get our bearings in the dark. It was about 8.30 Malaysia time and about 11.00pm Adelaide time, and we were looking for dinner after a long day.

We found a great little spot right on the beach and had a nice dinner. Just after we ate, it poured with rain and the power went off. We sat under the verandah and watched the rain by candle light – very nice!  The computer system was off so when we paid the bill, we had to remember the details of our meals and hold a torch for them to write the bill.

The Aseania Hotel was an older style hotel but the pool was great. It had a circular lap pool where you could swim against the current which was quite hard, or swim really fast with the current. The breakfast was mainly for the Asian people with lots of spicy rice dishes and strange meat dishes and weird looking cakes – not great breakfast food for me.

The beach at Cenang was stunning with lots of little basic accommodation stretched along the coast line. The humidity was high and it felt hot. Overall, th food is not quite as good as Bali, but the scenery makes up for it. It was also great not to get hassled by the street hawkers as there weren’t any.  The accommodation was not as opulent as Bali, but as I said before, it is more stunning than most islands that we have been to. The problem is lack of maintenance or bad workmanship, oh well we learnt to turn a blind eye.

We went to Kuah next to meet up with the friends we had met two years earlier in Vanuatu, who were sailing around the islands for the last six years. The hotel we were staying in was the Langkawi Seaview Hotel and we were on the eighth floor.

 It was great to see Robert and Carmen again, and we  spent a great deal of time in Starbucks over the next two days catching up, including a lovely happy hour on their boat Caminata. We had a very large lightening storm on one of the nights, which made us feel a bit insecure up so high. With so many chunks of plaster missing from the walls and exposed wires everywhere, we were wondering about the structural strength of the building.
 

After saying farewell to Robert and Carmen, we caught a taxi to our next destination, Mutiara Baru Bay Resort. This place was stunning and had monkeys and squirrels running throughout the place. Phil had a ride on the Cable Car up the mountain from the Oriental Village, but I decided to pass. When he left it was sunny, and when he came back down it was raining with thunder and lightening with a bit of wind to add to the excitement also.

The meals at Mutiara were very good and the pool was lovely to swim in. During the night you could sometimes hear a loud crashing noise, which we quickly learnt, were the monkeys jumping from roof to roof on the bungalows. In the morning, we had a big pregnant female sit on our balcony letting me take heaps of photos. I also found that my thongs had been moved and one of them had teeth marks in it.

The next place was The Lanai Resort, which was on the south eastern tip of the island. We were desperate to do a Jet ski tour which I had found on the internet, so we caught a taxi to the place and booked a tour for the following morning. The sunsets are always stunning here and we seem to have electrical storms every night – not as big as the one in Kuah though.

We got up early and had breakfast at 7.30, and turned up for our tour. Robbie was our guide and we Jet skied around eight of the small islands. It was fantastic fun and we stopped to have free time where I got to play with the jet ski too. The scenery was pure paradise. We stopped at a larger island called Dayang Bunting (Island of the pregnant maiden) where we got off the jetskis to walk to the middle of the island to a large fresh water lake. You could swim in the lake, and I can’t believe how many Asians can’t swim. The lake was full of Asians with life jackets on, and there were only a hand full of people swimming without a jacket.

On the return back to the main beach, we stopped at another island where we watched sea eagle feeding. The sea eagle is the symbol of the island of Langkawi. The tour was definitely the highlight of visiting Langkawi. We watched another gorgeous sunset on the beach, followed by lightening and it was time for bed again.

 

We slowly made our way to Starbucks, the next morning so we could stock up on duty free beer and wine to take to Rebak island as the rates there are substantially higher. After shopping, we caught a taxi to the jetty where the boat to the island leaves from. So far, we found that is was cheaper to catch taxis than to hire a car. The boat was packed full of people going to Rebak island, including the yachties which are moored at the marina there.

Rebak Resort is stunning, and run by the Taj Hotel group. It certainly is a 5 star hotel by the amount of personalised attention we get. We watch the storms come in each night and wow does it rain here. It seems to come in at about 4 or 5 each night and it absolutely chucks it down. We took the boat back to the main land to see Underwater World and to have the best crispy Thai Duck for lunch, and that was the end of our holiday in Langkawi!