Langkawi Bonanza

Theme of the past week and a half has been basic relaxation - which after CC490 feels well deserved. Langkawi, made up of 99 islands, of which only 4 are inhabited (thanks Jo!), can only be described as a tourist resort. If you want to claim to have been to Malaysia, without losing out on home comfort's, Langkawi is probably the place for you. Otherwise...no.

Our journey there required a 6 hour bus drive, 1 hour ferry and 40 minute taxi to Pantai Cenang, the most famous beach area. In total, it came to 61RM or just over 12 pounds, giving you a true glimpse into how cheap Malaysia can be. Our first night was spent integrating - by this, I refer to getting to know the drinking scene, Geordam's favourite activity. As Adam is a Scot, you can imagine what he wanted to accomplish. Beer is not my thing, so Malibu and Coke became the drink of choice. By one, search for Shisha commenced (do not fear, it was not found) leading to us stumbling upon the 'Sports Bistro'.

It appeared fine. I was moving on to drunk by this time, but am surprisingly still not happy with spending money, so George bought me a drink, in an attempt to worsen my condition no doubt, before Lesley moved into the proceedings. He seemed drunk (he wasn't), challenged George to pool, claiming to be bad (he wasn't) and then tried to get us to return to his house with him (we didn't). George received a number of odd phone calls over the week, but that section of town was avoided for the rest of the week.

Langkawi is only recommended for short breaks. By the time 4 days had gone by, we were ready to leave. Geordam had rented a car, George driving us to the Cable Car (spectacular views), I'd gone to a Spa, caught up on Supernatural (I know, but what did you expect?), we'd eaten our body weight in burgers and ice cream, met some Glaswegian's at our hangout 'The Yellow Cafe', and oddly enough, I was missing proper Malaysian food badly.

The return journey was just as easy, though for some reason the same bus now took 8 1/2 hours, Taufik picking us up at midnight. The weekend was devoted to basically nothing, as training officially starts today. MJ, the programme coordinator, went through admin with us, then took us out to lunch with Shuq and Douse, before giving us the afternoon off.

Yeah, not what I expected either. Plus, despite the fact there are no Hindu OB instructors, we get Deepavali off. So the holiday continues!

Jumpa Lagi kiddies.

Emily