(BTW it is not even 50 degrees here in Cheesecake City, so I’d love just a little of those hot Malaysian days to keep my toes warm. Plus, wearing socks is not as exciting as I’d remembered)
So, Langkawi Island. Langkawi is an island (really?) off the west coast of Peninisular Malaysia. The flight from KL to Langkawi took less than an hour and was wonderful (compared to the 13 hour flights we’d become accustomed to). We arrived in Langkawi and instantly we felt like we’d found paradise. This is an example of our hotel room, except that the picture doesn’t do it justice because our view was the ocean! Yea, upgrade! Basically, Gene and I spent 11/14 and 11/15 in our bathing suits, hanging out in either the ocean or the pools (there were two pools! whee, such riches!). If you are wondering why we bothered with the pool, let me introduce you to my friend the Jellyfish. Langkawi has ’em.
We did try our luck with a jet ski rental. We made it into the water about 40 feet before we managed to recreate The Poseidon Adventure. We laughed our asses off and even the guy at the jet ski rental hut laughed. That’s the secret to a free jet ski rental – screw it up 2 minutes into it and make the rental guy laugh.
So basically, ocean, pool, swim up bar, dinner (where I was served an entire red snapper, fish head and all – did not eat fish head) and I was asleep by 8:30 both nights. The second night we ate dinner under the stars (had planned to eat dinner while watching the sun set but the sunset is really early, so no dice). The food was delicious.
One thing that was really cool about Langkawi is that we were the only Americans on the property. Even the staff said that Americans never go to Langkawi. The part of me with the big ego is pleased about that.
But, a weekend never lasts forever. Since our flight TO Langkawi was cancelled, Gene and I were scared that our flight FROM Langkawi would be cancelled as well, so we left for the airport hours and hours before our flight just in case. We ended up getting on the 12:30 flight (instead of the 5:30 flight), which gave us…oh, 11 hours to kill at the airport in Kuala Lumpur. Frankly, the airport there is NOT that exciting but we got the idea to buy our way into a lounge. For both of us for 6 hours it was $80 or so and totally worth it based upon the insane amount of food we packed in. And the chair massage wasn’t bad either. And the wi-fi internet access – great!
The flight from KL to Frankfort wasn’t too bad other than it was ridiculously long at over 13 hours. I watched a few episodes of sitcoms I don’t normally watch and played a lot of Bejeweled and nagged the flight attendants for as much liquid as they’d give me. (Seriously: Malaysian Airlines was wonderful but they doled out water and juice in hand two ounce increments – at one point I had three glasses in front of me just to make sure I’d have something).
We got to Frankfort at around 6:30 Frankfort time and spent some time trying to find the best restaurant in the airport for beer and sausages – the sausages were good and the beer was ech, but at least I can cross “have never had beer” off my list of stuff I’ve never done. We also giggled about the sex toy shop in the airport. (Well, there were two locations, actually, and no we didn’t buy anything). The flight from Frankfort to Cheesecake City was nice because we knew that our final destination was HOME, HOME HOOOOOOME. And also because the flight attendant gave us a row of four seats to share with each other. (Neither flight was very full, actually, but Malaysian Airlines didn’t let us hog a row). I am sure you can understand how having four seats to sit in was more comfortable than 2 seats. I watched Wall-E (very cute!) and Baby Mama (I’d seen it before but I really wanted to see something I’d enjoyed) and I am sure I napped. Oh, and I finished book #6. And left the book on the plane because it was terrible.
And then we got home to Cheesecake City. And even though the lines in customs and immigration were annoying and kinda long, it was okay. Because when we walked outside the airport walls, we were home in Cheesecake City, where it is easy to find pork products (who knew bacon was so important to me?). For dinner, we had IHOP. Tuesday was a blur of unpacking, laundry and doctor appointments. And napping. Mmm. One last vacation naptime.
And here I am. And here I stay.