Lounging in Langkawi
For my birthday, Ryan planned for us to spend a week in paradise. Langkawi, Malaysia is an island off the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, VERY close to the Thailand border. It is a popular tourist destination for locals and internationals alike and is even designated as a Duty Free Island which means there are no taxes on alcohol and other goods (part of what makes it such a tourist hotspot).
Our time there was filled with pure relaxation and enjoyment. Our days were spent reading, embroidering (for me), hanging in and by the pool, or on the beach and just enjoying ourselves and the abundance of nature.
Some quick notable things:
Our accommodations. We debated at length where to stay in Langkawi as we had a few very different options. There were more resort style options close to or on popular beaches, then there was a more remote bungalow style lodge more in the mountains and jungle. After much consideration we opted for the mountain bungalow for a variety of reasons and we were NOT disappointed. We visited the beach at our leisure but were able to experience nature and peace at a much greater level at the Lodge.
Side Note We also had a travel day that required us to stay one night in another accommodation and we actually stayed in our first real Hostel! It was a particularly cool place with rooms made from concrete drainage tubes and the rooms overlooking the ocean. It was a fun experience but definitely not something we would do all the time.
Mangrove Tour. We took a tour of the UNESCO world heritage Mangrove forest which allowed us to explore this protected region more intimately. Overall the island (and even the mangrove tour) really reminded us of Costa Rica in the best ways possible as it shared similar scenery and vibes.
Reading. I was so happy to get back into reading. I even purchased an actual tangible book in KL to prepare. I was able to comfortably read daily and fully enjoy and finish a book. The Lodge also had a library of others left behind books so I traded in my book for a new one that I would take to Penang next. I am really hoping I can keep up my reading as we continue to slow our travels more.
Monkeys! One day we were on our patio enjoying some wine and sunset when all of a sudden we heard a loud thud and then footsteps on our bungalow roof. We had no idea what was going on at first until a monkey poked its head off the edge of the roof and then proceeded to LEAP from our roof to the tree. A full troupe of monkeys wound up passing from our roof to the next and down and around the trees outside our balcony. This wasn’t our first or only encounter with Monkeys but they were very undomesticated and natural which was EXTRA cool.
The newest experience we had that’s worth highlighting is how we spent the week riding around on a motor bike (and on the left side of the road no less)! The bike (and helmets) were included with our rental unit and really came in handy once we overcame our hesitations, which came from never having been on one before.
We knew Asia was going to present us with new and exciting opportunities. One that I (Viv) was most apprehensive about was the inevitable motorbike riding. We saw motorbikes in virtually every location in Europe (I swear every group of riders looked like a gang of villains from a Tom Cruise movie). Our closest encounter to motorbikes really came with them whizzing past us in the Marrakech medina. We didn’t ride but got used to their crazy and erratic nature.
Since the lodge (and the island as a whole) was pretty remote, it made for a much less stressful intro to riding a motorbike (compared to Marrakech or some of the other stops we have been to thus far in Asia). While there were some (literal) mountains to climb, we were scooting around the entire island in no time.
Some takeaways from this experience:
Trust: The epitome of trust is riding on the back of a motorbike while someone else is driving. As the control freak (Viv) this started off scary as hell for me, but by the end it was much more enjoyable as we experienced the freedom of biking around the island with the wind in our hair.
Teamwork: This being both of our first times on a bike we quickly established a groove with communication and teamwork. Everything from communicating directions, passing cars, reminding about lights and blinkers, or hey look at those monkeys, communication and teamwork was a strength.
Left side driving: Before we got to Asia, the only place that we had seen left side driving was the UK. While watching the traffic in London and Manchester we wondered how it would be driving on the left side (we guessed it would be hard). Well.. we got to find out on the motorbike. It wasn’t tooo terrible. Again, glad we were in a rural area with limited traffic. There were some things that felt unnatural, particularly with turning right, across traffic. But, all in all, not bad. Now to see if we can do left side driving with the right side driver (in a car).
Side note: We have since moved on to Thailand and cannot see us getting back on a bike in the bigger cities any time soon…These riders are next level crazy and everything we would hate about riding. We will sit in traffic and safety, and stick to the rural riding!
Planning a trip to Malaysia? We don’t cover every detail in our blog posts but we often put together google maps where we aggregate much of our research on sights, restaurants, and things to do. You can see our Malaysia map here.