Continues, as the numbers suggest, from Part 1

Part 2: Langkawi

Wikipedia will tell you the following about this place:

Langkawi, a cluster of 99 islands separated from mainland Malaysia by the Straits of Malacca, is a district of the state of Kedah in Northern Malaysia and lies approximately 51 km west of Kedah. The total land mass of the islands is 47,848 hectares, while the main island of Langkawi itself has a total of 32,000 hectares. The main island spans about 25 km from north to south and slightly more for east and west. The coastal areas consist of flat, alluvial plains punctuated with limestone ridges. Two-thirds of the island is dominated by forest-covered mountains, hills and natural vegetation.

What that doesn’t mention is the sheer beauty of the place. From the window of the plane, we could see something of that, but after that the half hour drive to the resort we still weren’t half ready for the full experience.

The resort was a most excellent surprise; I’d expected a bit of luxury, but this was beyond it. The three or four restaurants took no time at all to figure out who we were, our favourite tipples (frozen banana daiquiris for the lady, whiskey sours for myself), when we would happen to be around and all that. A digest of the latest news from home was delivered with breakfast, in case we wanted it.

As part of the package¹, we got a random massage for the two of us. Now, TLW is used to such things, but I’ve never had a professional massage in my life. Let alone one in an open ‘chalet’ by the side of a stream in an actual tropical rainforest, with kingfishers and other wildlife wandering by. But I enjoyed it, and it set the tone for the rest of this stage of the trip: six days of not moving out of the resort, but being probably the most relaxed I’ve ever been.

What we did in our time there:

• Ate like kings. Not cheap food, no, but reasonable for UK prices. But excellent by any standard.
  
  

  One of the fancy restaurants

• Lazed about. Lots.
  
• Walked about a bit, especially along the private beach with excellent views of Thailand.
  
  

  That there is Thailand. Behind the pale fellow.

• Swam a bit. In a most excellent pool.
  
• Dodged the feckin’ Prime Minister when he came calling one day. Very odd.
• Drank a bit in the lobby bar, which had a very large pond in it. Containing a few of these lovely chaps:
  
  

  Our friend at the bar

• Occasionally had to chase the above lovely chaps out of the lobby area toilets before use, because someone thought that the thing that a lobby bar needed was an actual frog pond. How very odd.
• Dodged lizards while walking about.
  
• Did a couple of nature walks with the people from here, wherein we saw tarantulas, flying squirrels flying, lots of birds, random narcotic-y plants and that sort of thing.
• And most of all, watched monkeys. Because, as everyone knows, monkeys are very, very cool.
  
  

  Evil monkeys that try to break into rooms to steal from your minibar. True story.

  
  
  

  Less evil monkeys

  
  
  

  More 'less evil' monkeys; this time a mother and strangely ginger child

After six days of that, we were perfectly fed, totally relaxed and pretty happy about everything. So we upped sticks, got back in a car and headed to the ferry port to grab a boat to the next stop: Penang.

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¹ – a hint for such places: say you’re going on your honeymoon, and people throw in random things. And never actually check if you are a newly-wed or not…