It's the final countdown

After being on the road for 62 days, visiting 6 city's in 4 countries it's now time to travel back home to Europe and Stockholm.

Top 4 things we will miss when back in Stockholm (in no particular order)

• Restaurant prices - there is no problem going from starving to full for 8 SEK (3 PLN).
• Laundry service - so cheap you almost feel ashamed when paying.
• Service minded and genuinely nice Malaysian people.
• Freshly squeezed orange juice - from 5 SEK (2 PLN) a glass.

Top 4 things we now love about Sweden (in no particular order)

• Drinkable tap water.
• Right-side traffic without the jams.
• Fast Internet connection.
• Tunnbrödrulle

Top 4 things we won't miss about Malaysia (in no particular order)

• Being followed around in stores by sales clerks
• The traffic jams
• The lizards
• The Absolute Music 5 CD (or whatever was hot 25 years ago) that all stores insists on repeating over and over again.
  

Most useless thing we packed
Socks. Last time we wore socks it was still January.

Best restaurant we found in Malaysia
La Sal at Pantai Cenang, Langkawi. We have been there 3 times and between the two of us we must have tried half of the dishes on the menu. So it feels safe to say that you can't go wrong at this place. Don't miss out on the drinks either!

Leaving Langkawi

Bags are packed, postcards sent, rental car returned, hate to say it but we're leaving Langkawi. We've been here for more than 6 weeks now and it has been fantastic! This is the island were we got married and where our daughter celebrated her first birthday so it feels emotional to leave. But like the song says, "It's easier to leave than to be left behind". Plus we're on our way to a new exciting place, tomorrow we'll be in Singapore!

Our last night in Langkawi we spent at Bar Rhu. Nelly stayed home with her kind nanny Gaya, we're gonna miss her a lot. She is the reason that parts of our stay here felt like a real honeymoon.

Bar Rhu is another must visit if you've ever in Langkawi, great drinks, good food, stunning view. What more can you wish for really? Pool table? Well they have that too. Yesterday they also had a live band performing covers. The highlight for us was when they played "(they long to be) close to you" one of our personal favorites.

"Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you"

Meanwhile back in our apartment at Chogm Villa.





Bar Rhu at Tanjung Rhu beach.






















And a glass of wine later...

Beer and Loafing in Langkawi

We found yet another great restaurant in the 11th hour. It's called The Loaf and you will find it in the picturesque Telaga Harbour. The restaurant overlooks the beautiful marina with the Andaman Sea on one side and Mount Mat Cincang proudly towering 700 meters behind.

No stay in Langkawi should be considered complete without at least one visit to The Loaf. But do yourself a favor and visit the place twice because they serve both a delicious dinner and a great steady breakfast. We've been there two times now and we do not regret it. The Loaf gives our other favorite restaurant here in Langkawi a run for the money, we are not even sure which one's our fav anymore.

La Sal vs. The Loaf

Round 1: The view
Tough one, both have beautiful view, at The Loaf you can see the mountains and the marina, while at La Sal you can admire the beach and the stunning sunset.

Winner: La Sal

Round 2: Food
At La Sal the entire dinner is top notch. The Loaf serves fantastic starters and main courses, however the Tiramisu failed to impress us.

Winner: La Sal

Round 3: Money, money, money...
Knockout victory by The Loaf, ding, ding, ding!

Dinner Friday evening @ The Loaf.

















Breakfast Saturday morning @ The Loaf.

Getting sentimental

This afternoon we went to the small marina Awana Porto Malai Langkawi. It's a charming place with a few small restaurants and shops, as well as a terminal for ocean going cruise ships. We stayed there for a few hours chilling and admiring the beauty of the Andaman Sea and its magnificent islands.

Since we are about to leave Langkawi soon, we get easyily sentimental these days. It's a really peaceful island and we have had a wonderful time here. When we got back home to Chogm Villa we said good bye to our host Rob who had to fly to the Netherlands. He is such a kind guy who works hard to make his guests' holiday as great as possible. It doesn't matter what kind of problems you might face here, he fixes it for you right away, always with a big smile.

Tomorrow we are off to George Town (Penang) for two days and then we will be back to Langkawi for our final three days here. Next week we're getting into city mood again, starting with six exciting days in Singapore, followed by Kuala Lumpur again.

Don't go chasing waterfalls...

"...Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to..."

Remember that song by TLC? We should have taken their advice. But we wanted to see the waterfall that was described in the guide book as a geological marvel, so we drove to Telaga Tujuh which is about as far away as you can drive on this island. Once there we found out that it's dry season (no shit Sherlock!) so the only geological marvel left to see was dust and dry mud. Luckily for us we were at least told before we attempted to climb the umpteen steps. Plus we got to see a really cute monkey so the trip wasn't a complete waste.

We had to think fast and come up with a new plan, but if there's one thing we've learned on this trip it's that plan B can sometimes outshine plan A, and this proved to be true again.

With nothing to loose really we decided to stop at the Perdana Quay in Telaga Harbour. Our host Rob had described it as a nice place with a Mediterranean flavor. Usually we try to keep it local when we are abroad, a "when in Rome..." mindset you could say. But we've been in Malaysia for so long now that European food sounded very tempting, and that's how we ended up at a Spanish tapas joint.

The harbor was dominated by a gigantic super yacht named Moecca Douglas. It was the biggest god damn boat we've ever seen and the closest we've ever gotten to filthy rich people. We were so curious about the boats owner that we almost forgot to eat our tapas. Tom Cruise? Kylie Minogue? Nicole Kidman? We hopped to get a small glance of someone famous but all we saw was the seven man strong cleaning team, polishing their asses off. Some of us (no names mentioned) were even considering to go through the boats garbage that was bagged on the dock cause apparently "that's were you find information". While "the other some of us" went on a spy mission with our Nikon D90 and made friends with an Australian sailer. He didn't reveal anything but it's always nice to talk to people from Australia. Overall the day turned out really great and we didn't miss the waterfalls much, we just wish we would have spotted the rich bastard but he stayed incognito.