Last Laze in Langkawi

The pre-booked motel turned out to be a winner. It was basic and a bit rough round the edges, but when we told them we'd be staying for 2 weeks they gave us an a/c self contained apartment with mini kitchen and lounge for just a bit more than we'd usually pay. It worked out well as the expected torrential rain fell relentlessly for the first 3 days. They gave us a DVD player and free access to all their DVDs, so the rain wasn't all bad. In fact getting up at midday, watching films all day eating crisps on the sofa was Greg's ideal holiday. We must have seen 30+ films since being in Malaysia, not sure what that says about the country! We knew we were going to be hard pushed to find Gili like sun in Malaysia or Thailand this time of year, but our effort to wait out the rain paid off, and we got a few half days of sun, followed by a final four glorious days of it. I messed up slightly by being a bit eager on the first sign of sun and managed to completely burn my eyelids, lips and chin, despite wearing factor 20! The sun was so much more intense than Indonesia, maybe the ozone has gone from above Malaysia too. It was sweltering day and night, even when it was raining.  Langkawi is a very lush island, with jungle covered hills and peaks, and the white sand beach at Pantai Cenang where we were staying was long, wide, clean and good for swimming. It was pretty deserted too, perhaps as many of the other tourists were fully clothed burka wearing Muslims who were there mainly for the duty free shopping rather than hanging out at the beach. Despite not agreeing to our western swimwear or sun bathing routines the men certainly love staring and photographing it - it's pretty annoying and pervy. Luckily after the first few days they mostly disappeared as the Ramadan celebration holiday ended. It was funny how during that time all the westerners seemed to congregate on the same bit of the mile or so beach, as if from protection from pervy eyes. It's a bit disconcerting when you see fully clothed men and women wearing jeans, jumpers and burkas walking down the beach while you're there sweating it out in a bikini. I nearly let off steam a couple of times when I caught creepy looking men with zoom lensed cameras hiding in the bushes behind the beach trying to get some sneaky shots of me or other westerners in their swimwear. We were guilty of not really exploring the island at all. It's not a cheap place, and with no public transport day trips would have eaten into our last bit of money. So we enjoyed lazy days at the beach and even lazier nights watching DVDs.  While we were there we decided to end our world trip with a bit of luxury. We booked a smart hotel in Bangkok (the cheapest city to stay 5*) near to the shopping area to pick up some bargains and to replace our skanky travellers wardrobe. We were both very excited at the prospect of a comfortable king size bed, hot water, a cleaner every day and free shower gel (we'd been on cheap and lighter soap for the last 6 months). It's amazing the things you realise you take for granted when you're travelling.  For the last 3 nights in Langkawi I don't think I slept more than a few hours, I was just so excited about going home and seeing friends and parents. I lay awake at night imagining it. It's strange, and I know it will wear off after a week at home, but I think it can only be a good thing that we don't feel like we wish our trip were longer.  We did have one more long and arduous journey to make though, from Langkawi to Satun to Bangkok, but at least the prospect of the luxury hotel in Bangkok made it easier. It was mostly uneventful and went fairly smoothly, despite me being sure that something was going to go wrong being our last overland journey. But a 40 minute taxi, 1 hour ferry, 10 minute tuk tuk, 15 hour bus, 5 minute bus, 20 minute metro and 20 minute walk later and we arrived at our destination in one peice.  THIS IS IT.  Our last stop before home, the growing on me capitol of Thailand - Bangkok...