The Welcoming Sea Eagle on the end of the wharf where the ferry from Malaysia's mainland arrives in Langkawi's main township. Very impressive.

An award we received from Zac and Holly and their human frends Thank you very much, it is a lovely award. :-) Also from Stephanie V, thanks very much. Do check out their excellent blogs.

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1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link..............
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Sorry but I am cheating again, if you are reading this post then thank you for visiting my blog. Please accept this award if you would like it. :-)

I like these photos of the two monkeys, that sat grooming themselves almost at our feet in the middle of the walking track. Langkawi is the only country we have been in that we could get so close to monkeys, and reasonably safely. I have to admit I was chased by monkeys twice while I was there, but they were after my icecream not intending to harm me. These two were quite peaceful.

The boat Harbourwith its lighthouse, this is where the second small town is situated.

The Grand Welcome.

The Grand Welcome to Berjaya Resort and Spa Hotel, a very impressive place, built on about 50 acres of jungle mountian side. There are 500 chalets scattered through the jungle all the way up the mountain, on the beach front and even out over the ocean, built on stilts right out in the ocean, these are the most expensive executive suites, larger and more luxuriously appointed with their own restaurant out there over the water.






Most of the chalets are built single or double - side by side, ours was a single one built about three quarters of the way up the mountainside, surounded by all the animals,birds and insects of the jungle, reached easily by the 24hour shuttle service, the small vehicles race up and down the narrow mountain tracks, wecould often just flag one down like a taxi or you could phone and order one, when we wanted to go to the lobby, the beach to one of the 6 restaurants or to the near by Oriental village.






I forgot to mention, that when booked our accommadation, we as we always do, requested a basket of fresh local fruit for our room. Sometimes we get it sometimes not, we are quite prepared to pay for the fruit, but seldom have to, it is so nice to have something to nibble on when you arrive in a strange new country often late at night.






We had just settled in to our lovely chalet, when the door bell rang. There stood a little malaysian girl with a nice basket of apples oranges and nashi pears, we were delighted, she then told us to have a look in the fridge as she had already put a lovely cream cake there for us. We looked and were amazed to find a heart shaped cream cake there with the words 'Happy Honeymoon" iced on top! Oh dear and heres us married already for 12 years! A bit embarrassing, but we decided to hug rather publicly now and again! The cream cake it has to be said was one of the nicest softest squishiest cakes we have ever eaten, and didn't last very long. How I wish I had taken a photo of it.


Dragonfruit
Shortly after another lady rang the bell and gave us a Dragon fruit, a strange red fruit withcreamy white fleash that is full of tiny black seeds, it tastes quite nice and sweet, this is getting embarrasing but we were efusive with our thanks.

Quickly following on her heel was yet another older lady, the most amazing of all, she had cradled in her hands like it was a precious jewel, a frsh mango. It blew us away when she told us; Yesterday, when she was home in her own garden she saw this mango fall from her tree, and she thought of the couple coming from New Zealand tomorrow who had probably never ever tried a fresh off the tree mango (and she was right.) So she brought it in to work with her and gave it to us.


Wow, to think that the Malaysian lady, bless her was thinking of us, whom she had never met, total strangers, when she was in her own home the day before we were even to arrive in her country, its positively mindblowing. Boy did we enjoy that precious mango it was so tangy and flavoursome. What a kind thoughtful lady.


We were almost scared in case the doorbell rang again. But fortunately that was it, but what a grand welcome we had, so we settled down to enjoy a second honemoon or should that be the 12th honeymoon as we go away at this time every year on these wonderful trips.

Me on Tanjong Rhu Beach with the islands and Fishing boats unloading their catch at the wharf.

A $light Problem of the Monetary type.

When we checked into the Berjaya Resort in Langkawi, we made a discovery, not of the joyous type, more of the, oh, oh now-we-are-in-trouble type.
When you book into these 5 star resorts they always request your credit card to make an impression, just to cover themselves in case of guests booking up masses of drinks and food to their rooms, then having no money. We don’t charge to our rooms, but many others do, in fact almost everybody at the resort was doing this.
Anyway when they asked for my credit card, that is when I discovered that my credit card had not been lucky enough to have a nice tropical holiday and was still at home in New Zealand in my best going-to-town handbag! I never bring my ordinary handbag when I travel instead I use a banana shaped soft vinyl shoulder bag with short straps so it hangs comfortably just under my arm, it has a zip that goes from strap to strap sealing it completely, making it extremely difficult to pick pocket. Langkawi is a safe place but many places we go to are not. With this purse I feel quite safe going anywhere knowing my money and cameras etc are quite safe.
So, no credit card, Erle quickly stepped in and offered a quantity of money to cover this problem, the manager readily accepted NZ$200.00 and we were all sweet again. Except for the fact that we didn’t have the card to backup any of our spending, it’s just nice to have the assurance behind you. We actually hadn’t brought that much actual cash with us, we had been led to believe that there would be no other food available in the area except for the 6 restaurants attached to the resort, so had expected to be spending heaps on meals, this brought a slight change of plans. We would have to be cautious in our spending watch our pennies.
We don’t go overseas as tourists anyway, we go as travellers immersing ourselves as much as possible into the culture as we can.
So after we had enjoyed the previously mentioned Grand Welcome by the ladies with fruit and goodies, we walked down to the security post at the gates and I asked them just where they ate, as obviously they wouldn’t eat in the resort. The security men said they just walk down the road half a mile to the food court at the Oriental Village on the right., but, they said its all Malaysian food – hot and spicy! No problem. I told them, we didn’t come to Malaysia to eat Western food we can do that at home. We set off immediately in the very hot sun and were fortunate

This is the Oriental Village.

to be picked up by the resort shuttle and taken to the Oriental Village. There we found the Food Court with about 7 different small shops selling all kinds of interesting foods – most of which we didn’t recognise, but the people were happy to explain what the dish was and to make them not too spicy. We dined like kings for RM$11 which is about NZ$5.50, and vowed to continue doing this most evenings.It would remain to be seen whether we would end up having a major problem, by having no credit card

Boats from the Eagles Landing wharf with the town in background.

Erle below 7 Wells waterfall.

A lovely waterfall.

Black Sands Bay.

Rain Drops keep falling on my Head.

We decided to get a rental car; first we asked around to check how much others had paid. Seemed like most were RM $100 a day but one person had got their car for RM $50 so I decided to try my bargaining skills once again.
Took a taxi to the airport as there was no chance of a cheap rental at the resort, we had spoken to some of the rental agencies as we went through the Airport several days earlier, so we bowled up to one of them and I started my bargaining pitch, I quickly got them down to RM$40 a day for 4 days, and I am sure I could of gone lower but I had Erle next to me jumping up and down yelling ‘We’ll take it we’ll take it!’ so that had to be it. Still a very good deal as that is only NZ$20 a day, couldn’t do that well in New Zealand.
So Erle drove away from the A/P and I tried to navigate, after a few false starts we were away and drove in the sunshine to Kuah the big town on Langkawi Island. Went first to Eagle Landing where there is a huge sculpture of a beautiful Eagle, took its photo then down came a tropical downpour of torrential rain with lightning bolts and loud claps of thunder. We had to take shelter in a KFC, as that was all there was to get inside. Waited half an hour then we made a run for it to the car, just a tiny wee little baby car but big enough for us, as we ran two different lots of people stopped and offered us a lift! Nice people these Langkawi folk but we ran on.
We then drove right around the Island in rain, the worst rain we have ever seen, it was like there was a grey curtain right around the car, it was just solid rain bucketing down from the sky, flooding all the streets and bringing down a few trees, quite dangerous driving as there was no visibility on roads we didn’t know, could gone under water any time, but Erle made it safely back to our Resort, but we saw nothing much, and never did go back to Kuah town.
The worry with having a rental and no credit card was what would happen if we accidentally smashed it up, we were very conscious of this and took extra care all the way the whole time.
It was so good being able to go driving every day to most parts of the island, we saw all four of the waterfalls and bathed out feet in the hot springs, looked at all the best beaches, bought lots of things like banana fritters, jack fruit crisps even crab cakes from tiny stalls along the way, plus masses of bananas and rambutans a delicious fruit we have tried in may tropical countries. They have red spiky outer skin and a soft white berry inside, all soft and sweet and juicy.
Most days after this it seemed be pouring with rain for short bursts with thunder and lightning, all very tropical monsoon like, at least you soon dry out as it is still very hot even when raining. But the rain didn't stop us from touring all around the island, visiting all the best beaches, all the waterfalls and through the road tunnels.
Was a sad day when we had to return the cute wee car and start walking again!