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.

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.

Day trip to Koh Lipe, Thailand

This past weekend we felt like going to Thailand for some island hopping, said and done. Early on Saturday morning we took a cab to Telaga Harbour. The cab driver was a little late when he picked us up so he drove it like he stole it.

When we arrived at Telaga the hassle of pass control started. We have to OFFICIALLY depart from Malaysia and then OFFICIALLY enter Thailand yada yada yada, it's the usual bureaucracy that we all love to hate. The paperwork took a while, perhaps because it involved a young school boy driving away with our passports on his moped to an unknown destination for some "very important and necessary stamps". We also had to sign a paper stating in red capital letters that we have been informed that drug smugglers are sentenced to death! That's good to know huh, made us nervous even though we only had baby food in our bags.

In the waiting room there were more Swedes than flies in an outhouse and we appreciated their company just the same. By now after a month in Malaysia we're so used to that strangers are kind and greets you like a friend. The room was packed with at least 14 Swedes, not one of them said hi to us or shared Nellys curious smile.

The speedboat lived up to its name, three 225 horsepower strong engines made sure that we arraived at Koh Lipe less than an hour after leaving Malaysia.

Koh Lipe is a lovely island, the beach is stunning! Beautiful, green-blue water with sand soft as silk, amazing. You can easily picture yourself enjoying the sun with a drink in your hand and some hot company by your side. That's when you don't have a one-year old with you, who refuses to play on the beach and needs to be carried around all the time! Our daughter is the most kind child ever to travel with, but she needs some basics which help us all get along, for example ability to use her stroller. There's no such possibility in Koh Lipe! The entire island is about the beach and the sea, there is nothing which even remotely resemblances a sidewalk.

Once we understood that, we decided to continue looking at the bright side of life and find a luxury hotel, which would compensate the no-stroller inconvenience. I guess it wasn't meant to be! We ended up in the "delux hut", smelling everything but lux, equipped with cold shower only and toilet with no possibility of flushing (there was, however, a shower-like-device providing a close enough function). We are a tough couple and it takes far more than this to break us .... until we saw a few centimeters wide holes where the walls meets the floor, big enough to welcome an entire army of insects at any time. And that was a deal breaker! We changed the date on the return ticket and speeded back to home sweet home Malaysia.

To go through the passport bureaucracy a 2nd time the same day was a bitch but the good news is we passed and didn't have to check-in at Bangkok Hilton.