Our secondhand bodyboards served us well in the reliable surf of Kuta beach but sadly have now been passed on to the new owner.
We have spent the evenings enjoying many live bands from local 'pop' groups to Irish fiddlers. We have mixed music with dance and have seen Balinese traditional dances but also the latest street dances too!
Our regular lunch and dinner stops will be sorely missed and we have met some really friendly people. We have even spent some time learning how to weave plastic coffee sachets into a variety of different hand bags!
Our last morning and the alarm rang out for our 3.30 am start. We were grateful that we could easily walk to the airport and didn't need to organise a taxi. Our flight to Kuala Lumpur left on time. We did a 4 hour transit at the airport, which was extended to 5 because our plane had 'technical difficulties'. We read the same Air Asia magazines as our first flight but this one only lasted an hour and we arrived on the island of Langkawi, Malaysia!
We needed to arrange a taxi as there are no local buses on Langkawi. It is a duty free 'holiday' island. The airport taxi was double the price of our Grab taxi. Grab is the Asian version of Uber and is all done through a mobile App. However, the airport wifi wasn't working. We hardly use mobile data on a sim, so that seemed a little expensive. Behind the information desk, a friendly Malay helped us and ordered the Grab taxi using their phone. Thank you!
Our ride to the beach resort was fine and we arrived at our hostel. Most of the time in Malaysia we will be staying in dorms. If you book a double room... the Malaysian Government add a room tax. For us staying in cheaper hotels, this often adds 25% to the price!
The hostel was clean, we dropped off our bags and hit the beach. Langkawi has 99 islands, most covered in dense trees. You could see many from our walk along Cenang Beach.
The weather was a little overcast which reminded us of home. It has been a long time since we have seen such dense cloud cover. As we walked around the area it was very flooded. It turns out that the rainy season has turned up rather earlier than expected. This means we could be in for a lot of downpours over the next month!
There is one main street here lined with duty free shops, selling alcohol and chocolate, just like at every airport. We resisted and drank Teh Tarik at a small local food market. It was so good. We also ordered Nasi Lemak. One with chicken and the other with small dry fish and egg. Both really delicious.
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