Lounging in Langkawi

Lang-kawi, at least that is how the taxi driver instructed us how to say it. Guess we had been saying it wrong for the last year, OH well. 

Like many of these tourist islands, the taxis have a racket and only give fixed rates depending upon your destination. Needless to say it made it  "Southeast Asia" not cheap to travel around the island. The hotel was not close to the main strip with all the restaurants and shops so we needed to take taxis there and back. With a sunk cost before we bought or ate anything, we made the most of it every time we went to the strip. We walked up and down the main drag seeing all the shops had to offer, before settling on a Malaysian lunch. After lunch, we walked down the main beach area enjoying the bath warm water and powder white sand. 

On our lookout for a taxi back to the hotel I saw an Indian restraunt with a roti sign. We had never actually had roti, but I had read about it and had to try it. Upon reviewing the roti menu - yes there are many options from sweet to salty.. Melissa settled on the banana with chocolate sauce. Being as adventurous as I am, I asked for the anchovy thinking it would be a few fishies on the top, like a pizza. To make the roti they press a dough ball like a pancake then start flipping it until it is paper thin only then filling it with your desired filling to fold the heat on a hot surface. 

Melissa's came out first and it was really good, they even gave a condensed milk dipping sauce. Then came mine. It was thick with some egg and tons of anchovies. I tried a bite and was happy I swallowed then I called it done.

After making it back to the hotel, we went for a swim in the warm water and lounged on the balcony enjoying the sunset, until the  monkeys came out. There must have been ten of them eating leaves in peace, but our balcony was on the 2nd floor and there were tree branches mere feet from the balcony and after seeing the monkeys jump from tree to tree Melissa was really on edge. When we went back inside she kept checking the door was double locked... as if they would open the door. 

There are not many tourist sights on Langkawi but the main thing to do is take the cable car to the viewing platforms on the mountain top. At the base of the cable car there was an "asian village" with numerous shops and restaurants. Once I saw the Persian place I knew where I wanted to eat. There are a lot of Arab tourists that visit Malaysia due to the island's large Muslim population. With that being said, they had some excellent arab (persian too) food options. It was so good, I even ate the grilled pepper!

The cable car had one stop before it reached the highest platform at 700 meters which gave some incredible views of Langkawi and its outlying islands. Soon after arriving at the top, the clouds rolled in, that was how high we were. After playing in the clouds for a bit, we headed back down. The shops at the base were similar to the ones on the main street and were less than inspiring as everything was probably made in China.

For dinner we went back to the town with seafood in mind. We settled on one of those places with all the fresh seafood on an ice display up front and you point out what you fancy. We settled on red snapper, calimari, and shrimp all on the grill.. yummy but very messy! For desert Melissa had roti on the mind.

It is about to get messy up in here!