Blogs from Langkawi, Malaysia, Asia - page 5

Love it when Steve comes to visit... here we are hanging out in Cenang Beach followed by a sun downer at the local beach bar.... read more

Friday 26th February - Tuesday 29th February 2016 We were departing Penang today after spending a great few days exploring the UNESCO area. After a very short 20min flight from Penang airport (we barely had the chance to take our seat belts off!!), we landed in our last Malaysian destination; Langkawi. The plan was simple, 3 days of gloriously relaxing beach time. On arriving at our hotel, we dropped our bags and headed off to get a glimpse of the beach. We had been in two minds as to whether to come to Langkawi as it was billed as 'overly touristy', but with the season being wrong to visit the eastern islands and a last minute recommendation from 2 girls in our last hostel, we decided to chance it. We found ourselves pleasantly surprised, as we ... read more

Monday 1 Feb Today we leave Malaysia, flying into Bangkok for a sleepover before an early afternoon flight to Chiang Mai. Everything was going to plan until,having gained our 30 day tourist visa on arrival at Bangkok's Don Mueong airport, there was only Leo's rucksack on the baggage carousel. We stared helplessly as the belt went round and round, finally accepting the unacceptable. Paula's was nowhere in sight. Filing a lost luggage report simple but time consuming, meant we ditched the bus idea and grabbed a taxi to our hotel in downtown Bangkok. Buying a toothbrush and toothpaste in a local 7/11 shop, we shared a seafood pizza and supped a cold Singha beer on the hotel's rooftop terrace, admiring the dazzling high rise views across town, retiring to bed to dream about missing luggage.... read more

Sunday 31 January Up early and driving across the Island to visit the GeoForest at Kilim. The park is mainly Mangrove Forest covering part of the coastline, where several spectacular green cladded and limestone Islands rise sharply from the Sea. We decide to take a tour by fast motorboat, firstly to visit the large Bat nesting caves, these are literally full of hundreds and hundreds of Bats, two different species, one insect-eating, the other preferring a diet of fruit. We were given torches as the caves are not lit and we guess the bats get used to the torch beams as despite everyone shining them directly at the Creatures, very few seemed bothered and chose to ignore the intrusion. After this a very fast and hairy trip between the islands brought us to a lagoon full ... read more

Friday 29 January We finally escaped the horrors of Penang, and were relieved to do so. What if we didn't shop for silks and souvenirs, we were alive and free. 30 minute Taxi ride to the Airport, easy embarkation and 35 minute Air Asia flight found us in clean, warm and hospitable Langkawi. We expected problems with our hire car (delayed from yesterday), thankfully no such problem, people from security to airport officials help us sort it out and the car hire guy even showed us the way to our lovely little forrested retreat, just off the main Pentai Cenang beach road, perfect. Unpacked, shopped for basic provisions, locate a laundry and dumped all our smelly sweaty clothes (well it had been a very stressful two days), then Paula drove the little hire car to Kuah ... read more