Day 11 – Where are we now??? I think it’s Kuala Lumpur

Sarah stuck with blogging again tonight.  Not sure why I volunteered. If he needs to comment, Alan will do so in red.

We both forgot to add things to yesterday’s blog.  Like, for some reason, there are two Police academies on Langkawi, as well as a correctional officer training facility plus an Navy base.  We learned about the Navy base when we turned off the main road thinking we were going to a nice lookout point and came face to face with a sign with a man on it pointing a gun.  We thought we’d better leave. Also, when we were out driving yesterday, we kept coming across animals on the road. Monkeys, a big monitor lizard sort of thing, and a cow having a scratch.

So, last night was our last night on Langkawi. We kept hearing a noise coming from under our house that sounded like a cat in pain, so we went out with a torch and looked under our house but realised it was actually the hot water system making funny noises. We didn’t have our cat last night; he refused to settle and went out about 10pm.  We opened the door a few times before going to bed but he didn’t come back.  We had another ginger turn up that wanted to come in but it had a lame foot which is really weird to look at and was freaking us both out. Poor little kitty probably just wants someone to love it. Come on Alan, you were freaked out by it too.

This morning we were up about 9am, had breakfast and a swim and started to pack up.  Finally our little cat came back to say goodbye to us.  I think it gets over people and likes having new arrivals in his house every few days.

It was a very hot start to the day so by the time we had packed up the car, we were both dripping wet. And this was after an early morning swim plus a shower as well.

We dropped off our car and got our RM50 deposit for the key back, checked in for our flight and then went and had morning tea at Kenny Rogers Roasters which apparently has the best chicken in the world.  Not too sure about that as we had a ham and cheese toasted sandwich and milkshakes.

I say this again, AirAsia may have the worst reputation for arrival and departure times but we’ve been lucky again .  A flight from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur was supposed to leave at 11.30am left at 1.10pm, but our 1.45pm flight left ten minutes early and arrived in 25 minutes before its scheduled arrival time.  Oh, but I have to say, that when we got on, there appeared to be a lot of smoke on the plane.  No one else seemed concerned so we weren’t either.  It did finally disappear about 5 minutes after we took off.

We were screwed over by the taxi people at the airport.  I had read that you have to ask for a budget taxi or they automatically charge you a premium rate.  Alan asked for a budget but we got a premium car at a premium car rate. Bastards.  In all, it only cost us A$9 more.  The airport is about 50km from Kuala Lumpur so we were glad we got the taxi instead of travelling for goodness knows how long on a bus or train. Like most cities I’ve been to, the expressways and toll road network in Kuala Lumpur puts Sydney to shame. Our taxi driver reached speeds in excess of 140kmh at times.

The hotel seems nice and it has a working air conditioner so that’s a bonus.  Although, there seems to be a ghost (or inconsiderate person) in my photo.. We are on the 20th floor with a sort of view of the Petronas Towers. Alan thinks we are in a bad area but next door is the Ritz Carlton and around the corner is The Mariott.  Seems like the right place to me, except there is ONE power point in the room that can be used.  All the rest of them are silly different ones to house the lamps so no one will want to steal a lamp which doesn’t fit into anything but a Dorsett Regency Hotel plug.  Mindboggling.

We took a walk following the hotel’s really lame map on the back of a business card, looking for dinner. I think it was more a fluke than anything else that we actually found the right way to go.  I’m sure it’s printed on the back of the business card so you can hand it to the taxi driver when you get lost. The map didn’t seem to make much sense but my infallible directional skills got us through. That would be my skill, not yours.

We ended up in this little place call Secret Recipe.  Really good air conditioning and great milkshakes.  We had some nice spring rolls followed by chicken parmigiana for me and a really spicy seafood laksa for Alan.  He is not a chopstick person and I think everyone in the restaurant will leave there tonight covered in a little bit of sauce. My laksa was supposedly only mild, but I found it so hot and spicy that I needed an extra milkshake.

There are no photos of me today, even though I was having a really good hair day.  It’s amazing what a bit of shampoo and conditioner can do for the hair instead of the pool chlorine. I was having a good hair day too. Don’t forget too mention that!
We are now settled for the night in the hotel in the hope of getting up early and exploring this place tomorrow.

Below is the day and night view from our hotel window.

Day 10 – Nothing to report

Sarah here, stuck doing the blog tonight and trying to come up with something to say.  I don’t know whether Alan will have any comments, we didn’t do much today but if he does, they will be in the usual red colour.
After resetting our air conditioning unit every 30 minutes for 5 hours last night, it was nice and cool in here so we turned it off when we went to sleep, just leaving the ceiling fan on.  It was a very pleasant night.

We were up at a decent hour this morning, enjoyed our breakfast and headed out on the road again. We returned to the waterfall we skipped yesterday and were happy to find that the guy hanging around in his car out front was no longer there. There was some other dude and his dog hanging around this morning but I was feeling brave.

The trek to the waterfall wasn’t too far or bad.  There was a bad last section up to see the top section pool but I decided to skip it but Alan went up.  There wasn’t much to see anyway.

On the left is what it looks like during the wet season and on the right is what we saw (or didn’t see) today. We would have liked to have taken a swim in the cold water coming off the mountain, that is if the water hadn’t been ankle deep.





We drove along to find the next waterfall but failed to see the sign for the turnoff.  We decided not to go back as we suspected the lack of water would have continued.  Everything is fairly dry here. There was no sign. I would have seen it.

Before long we made it to Kuah which is like the shopping district of Langkawi. So this was where they have been hiding all the people.  There were cars everywhere, some double and triple parked.  The place seemed fairly dirty too and we are happy to be staying in the area we are in.

By this time Alan was feeling a bit hungry so we headed down to the point where there is a nice resort .,,. or so we thought.  We had seen a sign for Eagle Rock Cafe, which would appear to be Langkawi’s answer to the Hard Rock Cafe.  However, the place was closed and most of the shops around the resort were vacant, the place was pretty much deserted.

We had seen a sign for an Australian Deli so we headed back there. Well, this was laughable, they had almost nothing in the place.  There was a magazine rack and boxes of fruit flown in direct from Australia, or so they say. We ended up at the little shop a few doors up and got some nibblies.

We came back to the room to eat and enjoyed a lovely breeze that was flowing through the house.  Then we went to the adjoining hotel for a swim in their pool and arrived in time to get glasses of iced water and a plate of fruit (banana, honeydew and watermelon).  Nice!

The pools here are very nice and well maintained but they are lacking in stairs.  You have to take a large step down or up to get in and out and they are too high for my short little legs. 

We came back and had a swim in our pool and then Alan retired for a nap with the cat while I sat around the pool in the shade reading my book. Do I really have to leave this place tomorrow? Yes! I don't think there's much left for us to do here.

We had dinner at the hotel tonight.  They have tapas from 5-7pm and we arrived at happy hour and got half priced drinks.  Dinner was lovely; satay skewers, bolognaise meat on bread rolls covered in cheese, prawn cakes, beef & peanut rendang with pita bread and deep fried calamari with lemon aioli.  Nice!! Plus chocolate milkshakes.

After dinner we walked around to play with the cats.  They are all extremely friendly, and pretty good with each other.  They have their territory and don’t tend to invade others.  However, if you stop and pat one, it will then start to follow you.  At one stage tonight Alan had three running after him as he moved to his fourth.

So this is it for us and Langkawi Island.  Tomorrow we embark on our 5 nights in Kuala Lumpur.  It should be interesting, that is if we ever find out way out of the airport.

Day 9 - Don’t look down

Alan is writing the blog tonight. Sarah is commenting in red.

Our first night on Langkawi Island was spent in extreme heat as our air conditioner wasn’t blowing any cool air at all. But we managed to get some sleep anyway. We reported the problem to reception and they said that you have to pull the plug out at the wall and plug it in again and it will work.  Yes, it does, but for only 30 minutes so I guess one of us isn’t going to get much sleep tonight. We will tell them about this again tomorrow.  We are paying enough money … the air con should work.

Muffin Head, the cat who calls our hut home, spent the night sleeping on a chair and didn’t disturb us until she heard us talking in the morning at which point she joined us on the bed. We found out later in the day that she is actually a he and his name is Mr T. We’re still calling him Muffin Head though. We ate our breakfast which the staff had put in our fridge the evening before while we were out at dinner, before we headed out at about 11am.

It’s nice having our own car for a change instead of having to rely on taxis. We drove north, trying our best to understand the Malaysian signposts and the very inadequate and not to scale map that we have. With not too much trouble we found our way to the Langkawi cable car, one of the islands premier attractions. The cost was less than $A10 each and there was no wait to get on it. The trip up the mountain gave us spectacular views back down over the Oriental Village and out over the water. Sarah hates looking down and I hate looking up. We arrived at the first viewing platform and took a few photos before getting back on the cable car to the top. It’s 705 metres above the sea below us, and the cable car was on a 42 degree grade at it’s steepest point.

  

We took more photos from the top and then began to walk down to the bridge, which you’ll see in a photo or two.

Part of the way down Sarah decided that the climb back up would be too difficult so she waited for me at the top while I went down to the bridge by myself. The views weren’t really any better from there and the walk back up the broken and uneven concrete/stone stairs was not easy, plus the concrete slabs on the bridge moved whenever you stepped on them so it was probably a good thing that Sarah stayed up top. Brilliant decision I say.

When we got back down to the Oriental Village it was time for a drink because we both had sweat pouring out of us.

There was a sign for free entry to their animal farm so we went and had a look around there. The sum total of their animals was 5 deer and 1 rabbit. Best zoo ever! A couple more photos around the place and then we headed back to the car. We did see some more rabbits and a few ducks on the way out. I was feeling rather sick by this time; probably a combination of the heat and having drunk 600ml of Groovy Grape soft drink too quickly. The air conditioning in the car made me feel a lot better.

We continued our journey toward the northern coast of the island and passed by the Crocodile Farm. We had been warned that it’s the worst tourist attraction ever, so we went straight on by. There was not a single car in the car park. We found a couple of nice looking beaches and stopped to take some photos. Unfortunately some of them are spoiled by  rubbish which either washes up on the beach or gets left there by tourists. There were a number of people at Pasir Tengkorak Beach, many of whom were having bbqs. Is that what they were having?  Smelt like burnt plastic to me.

     
We drove back down the road a little way until we saw the turn off for Temurun Waterfall. We pulled into the car park but thought better of getting out to hike an unknown distance to the waterfall as the place was completely deserted apart from one guy just sitting there in his car watching. Better to be safe. We’ll go back there tomorrow.

We followed the road northeast, passing by the cement factory. We didn’t stop despite it being marked as a place of interest on our map. We drove to the end of the road when we came to the Tanjung Rhu Resort. It’s very secluded and pretty and we walked through the woods next to the resort until we reached the beach to take some more photos. The resort pool looked very inviting indeed but we thought there were probably a few too many guests lazing around there to risk a quick dip.

It was mid afternoon by now so we came back to the hotel to cool off in the pool for a while before going out to dinner. Dip in the pool for Alan, after his nap with the cat. 

There were no satay skewers or ice water on offer for us today. They must be for new arrivals only. The plan was to find a nice Thai restaurant for dinner but that is easier said than done around here so we ended up at an Italian restaurant instead. Obviously Malaysians are good Italian cooks because the food really was delicious.

Back to the hotel and time for one last dip in the pool while the sun was setting and now we’ve retired to our room for the night. Muffin Head is somewhere in here with us.

And I took some photos of the sunset at the hotel, as well as some photos of the other residents here.

One thing we failed to mention is the bathroom here.  The shower is in a shower room which also houses the toilet.  The water flows directly from the shower through the floorboards to a section of rocks piled up under the floor,  Also, the toilet seems to be just sitting there and it moves every time you sit down on it.  I’m afraid to lean too far to one side in case it falls over.

Tomorrow we’ll explore the rest of the island.

 

Day 8 – Kitty Heaven

Sarah here again today folks and that’s not because I’m the cat crazy one.  If you could just see Alan here you’d think he was part feline.
We had a plan this morning and we stuck to it; up at 8am, down to breakfast by 8.30am and then to the pool for a final swim at 9am. We swam the entire length and Alan had a final play on the waterslides.  By 9.50am we were back in our room and packed and on our way to the airport at 10.30am. We organised for James, our chauffeur from 2 days ago, to drive us to the airport.

Despite AirAsia’s bad reputation, we were boarded and on our way early again. I won't go into details, but Penang airport was an absolute shambles. Nobody seemed to have a clue. The flight to Langkawi is all of 35 minutes long. It's schedules for 35 but took more like 20. There wasn’t even time for the seat belt sign to come off.  It almost took the same amount of time to get our luggage after the flight.

We had toyed with the idea of hiring a car and priced it last night on the internet and for three days it would be RM350 (A$115) and then decided we’d just get it for one day, probably Sunday.  However, at the airport, there were counters after counter of rental car companies, all thrusting signs saying 60%, 65% or 70% off.  The first guy offered us a car for RM300 and a couple more the same price.  Then the first guy said RM240 for the three days and we took it (A$78). The rental company didn't even want to see my license or passport and they only take cash so they don't have our credit card on file either. It's a Nissan Latio and according to them it's brand new, even though the odometer has 57,000 kms on it.

We had to put petrol in it, a whole A$10 got us half a tank.  Petrol is the same price everywhere RM1.90 a litre or A$0,62 a litre!!!!

After a few wrong turns we found it the 10kms to our hotel. Driving around here seems quite easy. Whereas the drivers in Singapore were intent on breaking the land speed record, Malaysian drivers rarely break 40kmh. The only worry is that nobody ever stays in their lane or looks before pulling out in front of you. If we thought our Penang hotel was paradise, this place must be heaven.  The Bon Ton Resort is 8 traditional Malay houses. Ours is the White Frangipani, right across from the pool.  Temple Trees, which is the property next door and owned by the same people has two pools that we can use as well (and we will).

The house is huge, which you’ll see below. The houses are all between 80 and 120 years old.

      
Also, the place is a cat refuge and there are cats everywhere, all beautifully cared for. We’d been in our room for about 2 minutes when “our” cat came and introduced herself. We don’t know her name so we are calling her Muffin Head.  She’s so affectionate and loves to chat. She went out for dinner before we did tonight and when we came back, she was waiting for us under our front steps.  Right now she’s asleep under the chair next to Alan.  I suspect we may be sharing our bed with her tonight. I hope she doesn't take up too much room.

The only problem with the place is the heat.  I have the fan on high and the air conditioning set to 16c and it’s still quite warm in here. I like the heat, but it's really boiling in here. We might end up having a midnight swim but we've been warned the frogs might join us.

Anyway, I digress. When we arrived they sat us down and gave us an orientation of the place and a really nice drink of pineapple juice, ginger ale and mint.  It was really really good.  After settling,  we took a walk around the place, where Alan proceeded to introduce himself to every kitty we met (and there are heaps),.  One even took a tour with us of Temple Trees. They're all so friendly. They all come from the animal hospital next door when people bring in sick or injured cats which they can no longer look after. We've seen a few around the place with only 3 legs and a lot of them are missing their tails or ears.

Here are some photos of another one of the Malay houses and the Temple Trees pools.  Also, we saw a water buffalo living in the field next door.

  

We went for a swim about 4.30pm for about 30 minutes.  The second we got out of the pool a waiter arrived with ice water for us both and six complimentary chicken satay skewers.  Nice!!!!

We took a drive down to the next main part of the shopping area and had Mexican food for dinner. They asked us if we wanted spicy or not spicy.  I went not spicy which was a good call.  I had one mouthful of Alan’s food and it burned for the next 30 minutes. Hottest Mexican food I've ever had. My mouth was on fire. But we also had a banana split for dessert which was delicious.

We stopped by the beach at sunset.  We had been warned that this place is notorious for the watersports trying to kill people in the water, and I can see why.  It was 7.45pm and I could see at least 20 jetskis within 50 metres, plus all the boats.


Tomorrow we are off to drive and explore the Island.  Can’t wait.  Apparently there are some really beautiful beaches to the north. And some waterfalls. There's also a crocodile farm but apparently it's the lamest tourist attraction ever so I think we'll give that one a miss.