Langkawi

After an active time in Penang which is a fascinating mix of cultures and heritage we made our way to the airport for a very short flight of less than thirty-thirty five minutes....I know not a very green way to travel but I had heard  the ferry ride can be very rough and the sea and I are not the best of mixtures...I can probably lay claim to be the only person to be seasick on a pedalo!Oh and it cost £2.65
but in true Ryanair fashion there were the add-ons...booking our seat for express loading cost £6 but did mean we got 1A and 1B on both inbound and outbound flights(Impressed with that AC?).We were expecting a Cesna but were pleased with an airbus320.The only flight I've been on when the flight attendants remained seated all flight too.


We had met a guy called John Khoo who was acting as a tour consultant and had arranged a taxi for us to the airport.John was in his sixties and claimed to come from Nottingham!We chatted with him for quite awhile covering his opinions on local government and the various contentious changes that had been made to street names and education etc since independence .
He was also a Khoo clan member and had very interesting opinions on the need for keeping together the geneology for future generations.

Anyway instead of a taxi turning up it was John himself who turned up to take us on a scenic drive to the airport which gave us a view of the whole of the east coast down as far as the airport.A nice man indeed.

Langkawi is an Andaman island , one of 140 such islands , and is considered the Jewel of Kedah, traditionally thought to be cursed, by naming it the jewel it might actually improve tourism to the island and hence the state.

90% of the population are Malay with some Indian and Chinese but certainly not as many as in Penang.

From the air the island really did look very beautiful and on the ground it did not disappoint either.
Our hotel was next to the airport and we actually walked our cases round to the hotel thereby saving on a fortune on taxi fares!!

The hotel which also serves the island's exhibition centre next door had seen better days and was being repainted.The service in it was shall we say uncertain......uncertain if they understood.....how long it would take...whether they had forgotten but hey we were here for some R&R so no worry.

The room over looked the pool and the runway and the airport fire station so no shortage of entertainment then!The firemen seemed to spend most of their time playing football since most planes arrive early and leave late.
Since we were not that close to the beach the hotel has an arrangement with the Four Seasons hotel nearby, with a shuttle bus to use the beach there.Day One there saw us around the the pool and making use of the early happy hour to settle down a couple of rather flat Tiger beers before dinner, which was a rather disappointing affair.

The following morning we caught the 12 o'clock shuttle to the beach....see getting up is still a problem for us but the beach was the best!