Langkawi

...and so to Langkawi. Don't get us wrong, and bear with us, but somehow it all seems and feels a bit like, well a bit like a holiday!
As nobody will be reading this anymore, there's seems little point carrying on - but we'll persevere! We stayed in a couple of different places, including a nice cabin right next to the beach for a couple of nights.
We also managed to stay in a place for a whole week - it almost seemed like we'd settled down and had stopped travelling - when we arrived at this particular place we were told there was a slight 'problem' caused by the previous occupant. Whatever the 'problem' was it required the purchase of a new mattress. Although we really didn't need the intimate details when we were lying on the brand new mattress a few hours later and enjoying the fresh smell of bleach coming from the bathroom and in fact the whole room, we couldn't help but muse at what had actually happened in that room during the previous 24 hours: We moved to another room the following day.
Our other accommodation included an interesting little place, a way back from the beach where the crack between the walls in the corner of the bathroom wall was so big you could see daylight through it!

Very welcoming place though and the owner even brought a brand new fridge for the few nights we were staying there. The last place we stayed in was a little apartment again set back from the beach but owned by one of the resorts.
Being a bit further back from the beach resulted in us being entertained by the sound of frogs in the fields next to the road to the Langkawi nightlife. Talking of the Langkawi nightlife, the very same road was crossed one night by several water buffalo as we were on our way out in the dusk. As soon as they had crossed the road, they couldn't wait to get a little closer to each other and seemed to playing piggy back, or that's what it looked like in the dark.
When we could drag ourselves away from the beach and the gorgeous sunsets, we hired a car for a couple of days. We had asked for a big car as Margaret & Lloyd were coming to join us on our trip, er holiday and we wanted to pick them up at the airport. It still looked a little Mr Magoo car to us though.

We had been in the car for about half an hour when we stopped at a waterfall where we learned the meaning of Forest.

When we got back in the car it seemed to struggle to start, but when we stopped in Kuah it wouldn't start at all. However, after about an hours walk around a strange public park we managed to fire it up and head back to the rental shop to swap it.

The new car really was another Mr Magoo car though – so small in fact that Helen stayed at the accommodation when David went to pick up Margaret, Lloyd and the suitcases – it was a sensible and necessary decision.
In Mr Magoo 2 we did get out and about on the island and visited a couple of other places of interest, but the most staggering was the cable car and suspension bridge. These are true feats of engineering and give amazing views of the island. We did also catch a glimpse of mainland Thailand from the tower at the top of Langkawi's highest mountain too.


When we dropped the car back off with Margaret & Lloyd there really wasn't much more to do than relax on the beach, catch up and socialise. It really was an odd, but brilliant experience welcoming familiar faces onto our trip – the socialising was big – in fact there appeared to be several 'tired' faces the following morning (and afternoon).

We also saw another familiar, welcome face when we were just wandering down the strip on our last afternoon – fellow overlander to Oz, Natalie Fitzgerald.

It was then great to catch up and exchange travelling gossip for an hour or so.
We also thought Debbie Ruddy had made an appearance when we patronised Debbies Irish Bar – not sure what the 'one hand wonder' by-line is though Debbie?

The nightlife was good and we managed to become regulars in a few places, but one of our favourites was on the beach, watching all the para gliders as the sun set and served the odd beer or several from a local who was the spitting image of one of the band members of Run DMC – if you ever get to Langkawi check out Rafii's for yourself and see if you agree.