This is by far the shortest by  of our posts because there is little to tell  – Langkawi was a rest break for us . We went there to do absolutely nothing – and that’s what we did!

We really knew nothing of Langkawi before our trip other than it is an apparently beautiful and  romantic island popular with  honeymooners. The island lies 30km off the south coast of Peninsula Malaysia, north of  one of favourite islands, Penang and is part of an archipelago of  99 islands, all but 2 uninhabited. Lots of opportunities for island boat trips including ferries to Penang which we intended to visit.

We had decided to visit  Langkawi when planning this trip because we thought it would be a good place to rest up  for an extended period after 8 months of constant travel before we moved on to Thailand. Also, we had read that the island was popular with ex-pats because of it’s laid back island life style and cheap cost of living (due in part to its duty free status) and part of our thinking was that this might be a good place to spend the British winters in the future – the Malaysian Government has an initiative said to be aimed at attracting ex-pat retirees although the reality is that what’s on offer isn’t so attractive. November was also a decent time to visit weather-wise as it was just coming out of the rainy season.

We left Bali on 31st October 2015 on a flight to Langkawi via Kuala Lumpur. We were sad to leave Bali which we had loved (mostly) but looking forward to an extended period of idleness. By now a tad weary of  moving from place every few days we had already concluded that we much preferred to stay in places for extended periods of weeks rather than days and as a result we had decided  to cut Laos and Cambodia from this trip in favour of a longer trip to Thailand as  both countries involved a lot of tedious and arduous travel if we were to do them justice. They are now on the back burner for another trip.

We had found a nice apartment to rent on the outskirts of Kuah in a residential development known as CHOGM Villa so named after the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting  held on the island in 1989. Kuah is the main town on Langkawi and the capital of the region.

The apartment turned out to be excellent , very spacious and well kitted out with a large living/dining area, two big bedrooms and bathrooms and a large balcony. We loved it from the minute we walked in. The development itself is also excellent with an absolutely fabulous and huge swimming pool, a small gym and gardens. The grounds are beautifully maintained and there is full time security with a manned security gate at the entrance.

Langkawi is a beautiful island, part of the Malaysian State of Kedah which is the state adjacent to the Thai border. Much of the landscape is the same we had seen previously in Southern Thailand with karst limestone cliffs and islands. There are lovely beaches and rivers and extensive areas of mangrove rich with wildlife; the interior is mountainous and covered in rainforest  and so there are plenty of beauty spots ,waterfalls and the like to visit.The island was declared a Geopark by UNESCO in 2007 and is known as the Jewel in the Crown of  Kedah.

The island  is small at around 18 miles by 9 miles with a circular road which mostly follows the coast. There is no public transport so the options are rental cars or taxis but as we love walking and were staying only 10 minutes walk from town we walked most of the time and took  taxis when we wanted to go places too far to walk, returning with shopping etc. We actually walked much less than we planned to – the constantly high temperatures – 30C plus and high humidity levels were definitely not conducive to walking. In fact whilst Ann spent hours by the pool each day, I couldn’t hack it and sat on the fan cooled balcony reading and writing up on this blog.

We found Kuah Town itself a very dull place. The island is predominantly muslim and the local restaurants and shops are geared at the muslim community. There is very little to attract western  tourists in the town itself. Langkawi describes itself as a duty free haven for shoppers and we had expected to find all manner of stuff at bargain prices but bizarrely the duty free shopping, apart from a couple of malls, consisted of  shop after shop  selling identical stocks of beer, wines and spirits, (cheap) luggage, chocolate and  kitchenware – pyrex galore – with a few stand alone perfume shops! All a bit weird to us westerners but ferries full of Malaysian tourists flock to the island on ferries and leave fully laden with pots and pans and boxes of cheap chocolate!

With a well equipped kitchen in the apartment we cooked most of our own meals because we enjoy cooking but dining out is so cheap here that we dined out a fair amount. Like many places in SE Asia, there is a mix of nationalities here but Malaysians predominate with  populations of Chinese, Indians and others. Most of the restaurants are pretty basic local affairs and whilst we did try one or two, hygiene is a concern. There are  a few decent restaurants, mostly chinese and indian but also some serving European food, nothing that would be regarded as fine dining but of course we were not looking for high end restaurants on our meagre travellers budget! A couple of chinese restaurants recommended to us, favourite haunts of expats, were particularly good -for example, Wonderland has very basic premises and facilities  but is clean and hugely popular with an excellent multi plate meal for two with fresh seafood  and a couple of Singhas coming  in at under a tenner.

Some of the better restaurants are outside of the town and we tried a few, including a couple with Jacqui a lovely English lady and neighbour and semi-resident at CHOGM who befriended us and with whom Ann shared the swimming pool most days.

We did very little on Langkawi, as per the plan. There are plenty of man made attractions, cinemas, Underwater World, cable car rides, golf and the like (our Host Rob’s main business is organising golf trips around Malaysia) and plenty of trips  to waterfalls, beaches and beauty spots in the mountains. Certainly no shortage of things to do on a family holiday but we had done plenty of this over the past few months and so passed on most of this although we did hire a car and driver for a day on one occasion and took a tour of the island stopping off to see the highlights  including Pantai Cenang, Langkawi’s largest beach town which is an altogether  livelier and more attractive place than Kuah and much more geared up for western tourists and ex-pats lots of bars, restaurants and shops – even a modern shopping mall!

Another outing was on a boat trip arranged by Rob and his partner Ann, a lovely Dutch couple. This was a full day trip on a sail boat named Stardust, into the Geopark around the coast of Langkawi and some of the nearby islands. We were in a group of perhaps a dozen people mainly friends and family of our Hosts. The trip included opportunities for swimming, kayaking and the chance to ride in a salt-water “jacuzzi”  – also  a visit to a fish farm and to watch eagles feeding – which apparently isn’t strictly allowed!  All in all an excellent day out during which  we consumed more than enough of an excellent buffet lunch with unlimited beer and wine.

The one trip we had been looking forward to was a side trip back to Penang but in the event the reviews of the ferry trip didn’t make it sound so appealing and so we didn’t bother.

And there it is. An uneventful visit to Langkawi but our objectives had been achieved. We had enjoyed a good rest after months of constant travel and we were able to cross Langkawi off our list of possible winter retreats!

On 30th November, Rob and Ann gave us a 6.30am lift to the airport to catch the first of the three flights which would get us to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand that evening. It would be a long day…..

Penang is an island off the north west coast of Peninsula Malaysia and is often referred to as The Pearl of the Orient. Its Malay name is Pulau Pinang – Pulau means Island. George Town also known as Georgetown is also regarded as the food capital of South East Asia due in no small part to its ethnic mix.

The island has a long history with evidence of pre-historic settlements estimated at between 3,000 and 4,000 years old but Penang was founded in the 18th century. The first settlers were Minangkabau people from Sumatra followed by Arabs who intermarried with the Minangkabau giving rise to a mix of Minangkabau/Arabs that became regarded as Malay and were assimilated into the indigenous Malay community.

In 1786 Captain Francis Light, an English trader-adventurer who had served under Sir Francis Drake against the Spanish Armada, working for the East India Company (amongst others), landed on the island and took possession of it in the name of King George III and the East India Company. The island was actually part of neighbouring Kedah at the time but Light persuaded Kedah to cede the island to the East India Company in return for military protection from Siamese and Burmese armies. He established a settlement which he named George Town in honour of the King and renamed the island Prince of Wales Island in honour of the heir to the British throne.

Light is said to have fired gold coins from cannons into the surrounding jungle to induce his men to clear the land .The island was seen as being strategically important in curtailing French development in the region and monitoring activities of the Dutch in Sumatra. Penang was Britain’s first settlement in South East Asia and marked the beginning of more than a century  of British involvement in Malaysia.

The island’s location at the opening of the Straits of Malacca was also attractive to the East India Company as a natural harbour and anchorage for their ships and as a result it flourished and grew to be a major trading post for  the lucrative tea, spices, china and the cloth trades. The spice trade encouraged settlement by large numbers of Chinese immigrants and a population explosion resulted in sanitation, transport and public health problems due to lack of infrastructure. Luckily the  island had become a penal colony for Indian convicts and convict labour was used to support local labour in building roads, digging ditches, laying drains and other menial tasks such as street cleaning. Subsequently many of the Indian ex-convict population found employment in the civil service, the military and in service to the colonial officials and to wealthy private individuals.

The island remained as a British Colony until 1957 when it gained independence and became one of the states of the newly formed Federation of Malaya and later Malaysia in 1963. By now it’s one of the most highly urbanised and economically important states in the country as well as a thriving tourist destination – despite a lack of fantastic beaches !

A population of around 1.6M (including the populace of the wider State of Penang which includes a strip of land on the mainland) is roughly split Chinese 41%, Malay 41%, Indian 10%. The remainder are “foreigners” including an expat community which is growing with encouragement, it is claimed, from the Government. In truth the hurdles to be overcome to gain a retirement visa in Malaysia are pretty high!

Over the years there have been various groups of other nationals such as Thai, German and even Jewish people in Penang but these are largely gone although you do come across evidence of them here and there in street names and such.

All of the above results in an amazing colourful city with an amazing history, colonial architecture, a wonderful mix of cultures and food. A veritable multicultural melting pot and most definitely one our favourite places visited so far.

In addition to all of the above, the Indonesian Consulate in Penang is regarded as one of the best (easiest) places to obtain a 60 day visa for Indonesia which we would need later for our trip through Sumatra, Java and Bali. What’s more, George Town is only a short flight from Medan which would be the launch pad for the visit to our next destination, Pulau Weh, which is an island off Banda Aceh at the very top of the Indonesian archipelago. We managed to get our visa sorted in one day instead of the 2 or 3 days we were expecting – a great result.

Weather for our week in Penang was pretty good although we did get the odd tropical shower from time to time. The haze from Indonesia which we had suffered at Bako in Borneo was ever present although it wasn’t too bad  here and certainly didn’t mar our enjoyment of the visit.

Georgetown was declared a Unesco World Heritage city in 2008 and the increased levels of tourism has resulted in the restoration of lots of old buildings and shophouses long abandoned to dereliction.We stayed at Campbell House, one such old building, a fantastic very stylish Boutique Heritage Hotel in the heart of China Town and the city itself. The building was  restored as a labour of love to an amazing standard by the charming owners –  he Italian, she British/Malay – who happened to be around for us to meet and chat with to during our stay. They spent a long time acquiring the building and then going through red tape to enable them to reinstate period features and source the beautiful furnishings and furniture found throughout the building. As there is no lift, features include a luggage lift to move luggage by a rope and pulley system from Reception to the upper floors.

The rooms are beautifully furnished in traditional style but with all the comforts  you would expect of a modern 5* hotel. Add to all this ultra professional helpful and attentive staff and a fab Italian restaurant which serves an amazing breakfast feast and you have all the reasons why this became one of our favourite hotels.

Here are just a few of the many photos of our stay

Campbell House

Some Street Scenes

 Street Food – Penang street food is available on almost every street and is regarded as the best in south east Asia. Many (most) cook only one dish.

Street Art

There is a Street Art Trail around Penang with a map available showing locations of each image so that you can wander around the city and tick them off as you go – the following is a selection….

Our visit coincided with a Transformers Street Art Exhibition

Some interesting architecture

Pictures of a few of the many temples in George Town

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

This building is also known as the Blue Mansion for obvious reasons. It has 38 rooms, 5 courtyards, 7 staircases and 220 windows and was created by Cheong Fatt Tze from Guandong Province, China who was born into poverty but became an extremely successful entrepreneur and politician – one of the most colourful characters of the era. Referred to as “One of the last Mandarins and 1st Capitalists” he developed a vast empire of businesses as Chinese Consul.  He worked to help overseas Chinese residents through diplomatic channels with the British authorities. Dutch and British authorities ordered flags to be flown at half mast throughout their colonies when he died in 1916. He had mansions in various places but this one in Penang was the most elaborate of all, one of only two such buildings of this size outside China

Pinang Peranakan Mansion

This mansion also known as the Green Mansion houses a museum of antiques and collectibles in a building that recreates the 19th century home of the  merchant and secret society member who occupied it. The fixtures and fittings, floor coverings and screens are incredibly ornate and include English tiles, Scottish ironwork and European art and furniture.

Down by the waterfront

And some random pictures from our few days in George Town

Batu Ferringi

Batu Ferrangi is the beach resort for Penang, half an hour north of George Town. Although its beaches are not highly regarded when compared with other places, we have seen worse. Our hotel had a private beach as well as swimming pool and so the best of both worlds. Other than the beach there isn’t a great deal to do here other than water sports although there are a few shops and a big night market selling clothing, bags and all the usual tourist stuff as well as street food.

We spent two nights at the Holiday Inn and had a great stay; nice rooms with everything you could need and an excellent buffet breakfast with a gargantuan range of  Asian and Western foods. We swerved the restaurant for dinner though as the prices were way above our budget and had dinners at a local Malay/Chinese restaurant, The Living Room and at Enca a very good but inexpensive Indian restaurant. Here are a few photos – some a tad grey due to the continuing and worsening haze issue.

We left Penang to fly to Medan, Indonesia on September 2nd.

Following our tour of Flores and Lombok, our next destination was Malaysian Borneo, Sarawak and Sabbah. Since we had to pass through the Malaysian hub of Kuala Lumpur, we decided to stop off a few days to have a look.

This is our first trip to Malaysia and we were very much looking forward to it. Although Peninsular Malaysia is the biggest part of the country in terms of size we had no plans to travel any further than KL on this trip – we would save that pleasure for another time.

Malaysia is another Asian country with a colourful history due in no small part to its geographical location, easy access by sea from the rest of the world, proximity of the Spice Islands etc. The Portuguese, then Dutch and then the British have all played their parts in the history of Malacca and the Peninsula and the development of modern Malaysia. Four states which were ruled by the British combined to become the Federated Malay States in 1895  but became independent of Britain in 1957. In the 1960’s Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore joined the Federation with Singapore later withdrawing in 1965.

The country is a mix of indigenous Malays 60%, Chinese 25% and Indian 7% of the total population and inevitably from time to time, there have been tensions, religious and political conflict between the different groups with the most  recent serious conflict taking place in 2001 when Malays and Indians clashed.

We arrived K L after an uneventful flight from Lombok late afternoon on August 13th. We collected our bags, bought new Malaysian sim cards for our phones and took a taxi to our hotel downtown. The journey started in daylight but no sooner had we left the airport when the sky became black with rain clouds and the heavens opened; the journey to the hotel took around an hour in torrential rain, tropical and spectacular electrical storm. It didn’t look too promising but in the event we were fortunate to see no further rain during our visit.

Malaysia is not a poor country by Asian standards and the infrastucture, roads, bridges, telecoms etc etc are good, a legacy of British rule. Inevitably there is a lot of evidence of the British connection and not only in terms of infrastructure; Malaysia uses standard business practices as used in the UK  and the legal system is largely based on the British common law system.

Our hotel, Hotel Transit, is on one of the main drags through the city and thus easy to find. It’s  fairly central being only a few minutes from Merdeka Square (Independence Square), China Town and Little India and less than 10 minutes walk to Bukit Bintang, the main area for shopping and entertainment. The famous Petronas Towers are a 5 minute cab ride or half hour walk away.

The Hotel was luxurious in comparison to our previous  homestay accommodation with all the mod cons we could wish for. It’s a budget end hotel but its fairly new and our first impressions were favourable with bell boys aplenty opening our taxi doors and getting our bags out of the car within seconds of us pulling up outside. The excellent service continued throughout our stay with exceptionally friendly and helpful reception staff. Friendly people and great service has already become a common theme for us in Asia.

After unpacking our bags, we headed out to have a wander round. Blimey it was hot and after an hour os so we were pleased to find ourselves in the air conditioned comfort of the Pavilion Shopping Mall. The mall has a food court covering 6 themed  floors with a “food street” at ground floor level. We had a cold beer but couldn’t decide on where to eat at the mall and so we went wandering Bukit Bintang and eventually settled on some Western comfort food  at the Outback Steakhouse .

We had two full days in KL and would happily have stayed longer if we had time. We liked the place a lot but we actually saw few of the city’s  main attractions due largely to the oppressive heat and humidity which were such that it was physically impossible to rush around from attraction to attraction as we might do in more temperate climes. So we would sightsee for an hour or two maximum and then return to the hotel or wander around a mall to enjoy the air conditioning.

During our couple of days here we visited the Petronas twin towers although we were unable to go up the towers as the day was fully booked out – it was also very cloudy and with some haze and so we consoled ourselves in the knowledge that conditions weren’t great for great photos! The Towers are certainly impressive at 378 metres  linked by a skybridge, 170 metres above street level. These were the tallest buildings in the world for 6 years  following completion in 1996 but has been overtaken by several other buildings since then.

Whilst we didn’t get to go up the towers, we did get to visit its impressive theatre to see the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra playing the music of Queen supported by a very good American singer and band. A jolly good show indeed !

Our days otherwise were spent wandering the city including the extensive China Town, Little India and Merdeka Square. We also spent some time mooching around the Bukit Bintang area which is mad busy both day and night. This includes the  Pavilion Mall with a large  range of shops including the high end fashion houses of Chanel, Gucci etc., jewellers such as Tiffanys and and Harrods. This is the only mall we visited in KL. It was very smart and a nice place to visit and shop (or window shop in our case) and enjoy a grab a meal – we had our first TGI Friday dinner for donkey’s years  here !
Here are some photos. In many cases, photos are a tad grey due in part to cloudy conditions but also, although we didn’t appreciate it at the time, due to haze pollution resulting from illegal burning in forests and peatland in Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo. This problem goes back decades but 2015 was particularly bad – more later.

Petronas Towers and the KL Convention Centre Development area

KL Street Scenes, including Bukit Bintang and the Pavilion

Little India

China Town

There is so much to see here in KL and the area around it that there was no way we would do more than scratch the surface in a couple of days. Definitely a place to re-visit if we get the chance.

In the meantime, next stop Borneo!