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Published: January 23rd 2009
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So after finding ourselves back in Kuala Lumpur we headed straight back to the hostel we had stayed at previously and tried to figure out what to do and where to go for Christmas.
We spent a day or so going back around KL seeing the parts we had missed before and also taking time out to sort out our Indian visa knowing that it would be far to expensive in Singapore. Great day and managed to get some really good shots of the city.
CHRISTMAS
We had heard of the island Langkawi from Lucy and so decided to head up there and have a beachside festive season for a change!
It was a 5 hour overnight bus ride followed by a short ferry to the island and then off on the hunt to find accommodation, again…! The hunt was quite hard as a lot of the places were fully booked due to the holidays (again!) but we found a disgusting grotty shack practically on the beach, and although the lady had said we could only have it that night as there were other bookings, but everyday there seemed to be cancellations which meant we could stay! Whoopee,
a stroke of luck finally!
So we had the accommodation sorted, next we had to sort out the festive cheer! So off we went to the duty free shops and found every alcoholic drink under the sun, at a fraction of the normal cost! So Gareth got a crate of larger and I decided to go for something a bit more classy… a five litre bag of red wine! For a tenner! Cant beat it!
We rented a scooter to go around the island and check out the cheap malls and perhaps see about getting a new zoom lens for the SLR camera but they were all more expensive than in KL.
We met a really nice American couple and spent Christmas eve with them, drinking my cheap wine at this reggae bar right next to our crappy hotel and treating ourselves to a nice Indian meal. Followed by more drinking on the beach! Some local kids set off some fireworks at midnight, marking Christmas day, so we stayed up an watched out for Santa for a while but finally went to bed quite late, looking forward to finding a roast the next day.
I finally
reared my very sore head well after midday and thought some parecetamol and a refreshing dip would soothe my brain. So I headed down to the beach leaving Gareth in bed. To my relief my amazing plan worked and my headache disappeared, so I killed time by writing a Christmas message in the sand with some shells!
By the time I finished my art it was after 3 and still no Gareth and my belly was grumbling… time for lunch! I rose Gareth from the dead and we checked out the reggae bar and were very happy to find that we didn’t have to crawl any further to find our Xmas lunch as they had a roast turkey with all the trimmings and free drink of your choice for ₤8. Excellent!
So after lunch we were both feeling pretty much back to normal and thought that it would be a great idea to rent a jet ski to celebrate Christmas in true beach style!
I’m pretty sure that Gareth was on a mission to kill me… but I made it back alive and spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach. What a lovely Christmas!
The rest of the week was more of the same… beach, food, beach, drink, sleep.
We had decided that we would go back to KL for new years eve, assuming that it would be much better than staying on Langkawi. So we grabbed the next ferry out and went to the main bus terminal in Alorstar and got ourselves an overnighter back to the city just in time for the celebrations.
When the 31st arrived we had high expectations for the celebrations and the ensuing fireworks display at the Petronas towers. So we headed down to KLCC (city centre) pretty early (8.30pm) to try and suss out the show etc. We were pretty disappointed to find absolutely nothing on and when we tried to find out from the security or the army people there no one had an answer as to what was happening! Completely clueless! I had the good sense to go the light and sound rig and ask one of the officials, who dutifully informed us that there was a ‘fantastic dancing fountain show’ then the fireworks at midnight as we assumed. Dancing fountains? These people really knew how to put on a party!
The
music to the fountains was shocking, like the kind of music they play in massage parlours to get you to go to sleep. What a disappointment. The fountains were pretty, but we were expecting some upbeat or dance music to get everyone in the part mood. But no such luck, they continued with the drab tunes until midnight but at least we had a great spot to view the fireworks. BOOM BOOM BOOM! Where are the fireworks… not in front of us… behind us! What!?! So where had a great view of the towers and where we, and the whole crowd, thought that we had a great view we now had a great big building in front of our view! Bloody typical! Well, we managed to get around the obstruction and catch the rest of the show, but we were too pissed off with the ridiculousness of the fiasco they called a show so we didn’t really enjoy the fireworks. After they ended everyone was leaving and as we were exiting we heard some music playing and they fountains started… here we go again with the drab music, or so we thought… no this is when they decided to play
some dance!! Talk about backwards! We were in no mood for asian stupidity so we walked back to the hostel fuming at the gills!
The next week or so was just wasting time until we went to Singapore to get the flight to India. The only thing to report from this time is a lot of searching, and eventual purchase of the zoom lens, and a run in with some urban monkeys!
Next stop Singapore. Keep watching.
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binayherenz
non-member comment
very nice place
i like langkawi, this is beutiful place, beach