Kirsten Captures

Two Fridays ago we packed our bags and headed to the airport for some domestic travel within Malaysia. Peter’s coworker is leaving Penang in a couple of weeks so she invited a group of us to spend a weekend on the beach. A short flight later, we were in Langkawi! Langkawi is cluster of 104 islands off the coast of northwestern Malaysia and is close to the Thai border. The island is a designated World Geopark by UNESCO and is known for its conservation areas.

Once we landed in Langkawi we grabbed our bags and hopped into a taxi. We had a quick pitstop at a convenience store for some ridiculously cheap beer, liquor, and snacks. So cheap!

30 minutes latter we arrived at the Berjaya Langkawi Resort. The hotel was incredible and sheltered nicely in the rainforest. We rode a crazy shuttle to our room which turned out to be a little hut in the thick of the rainforest. We were warned several times to lock our windows and doors or else the monkeys would get in and steal our stuff!

Noted…

Our thoughts were on the ocean so we immediately changed into our bathings suits and made our way to the main hotel. I loved the open air lobby, even though it was really humid.

We walked by the amazing pool which we would definitely visit later. Doesn’t it look amazing??

But first things first…. the beach!!! Ahhh… I love the beach. It reminds me of home. Peter and I were so excited! We walked through the warm sand while people around us lounged on beach chairs, played beach volleyball, enjoyed drinks at the bar, and partook in a variety of water sports.

Already sweltering, we stripped down to our bathing suits and plunged into the cool ocean. It felt amazing. The swimming area was netted off from the rest of the ocean because of jellyfish! A little scary… but we didn’t care because the water was deliciously cool. It felt so surreal swimming in our own tropical paradise. Palm trees, mountains, rainforest, monkeys, and a beach? What more could you ask for? Maybe some coral?

Soon enough the rest of our group met us down at the beach armed with drinks and games. One couple actually brought an inflatable beer pong table which we immediately blew up to start playing. Playing 3 vs. 3, I dominated the game even with the table swaying in the ocean. I guess all that practice in college payed off!! We played for hours until it became dark.

Needing a shower and food, we returned to our rooms to get ready for dinner. By the time we got in a taxi for dinner it was almost 9 o’clock. The 15 minute ride to the restaurant was dominated by hysterical laughter after our friend Marco got into the driver’s seat of the taxi, not noticing that he was sitting on the wrong side. We were all a little hungry and hysterical which led to belly-aching laughter.

Dinner did not disappoint at a pretty little restaurant down the road as we ordered endless dishes of seafood, rice, noodles, and more seafood. Oh my lord so much seafood.

The big surprise of the night was when they brought out the king of all lobster dishes. Say hello to the largest lobster in the world.. and we didn’t even order it! Our waitress mistook our inquiry about curry dishes for an ordering of the curry lobster. It was delicious but ended up costing as much as the rest of our food combined!! Yikes. I still enjoyed it though, I am certainly a Maine girl at heart.

We spent a couple of hours eating, laughing, eating, and eating some more. Below are the ladies of Langkawi including me, Trisha, Krishma, and Mayra. I am so non-ethnic. Why do I seem to always surround myself with brunettes? Hmm…

I think the camera setting was “soft-focus”‘ which is why these pictures look so dreamy. Or it could potentially be the crazy humidity steaming up the lens. That is very possible.

And this is our entire group! We are from America, Malaysia, England, Mexico, and Honduras but have become friends in Penang. Living abroad really does bring people together and we expats stick together!

Despite only arriving a few hours ago, it felt like we had been in Langkawi for days. Tomorrow would be our first and only full day in Langkawi and we intended to take advantage of it. We got back to the hotel at almost midnight and immediately passed out in our rainforest cabin to the sounds of monkeys whooping in the trees.

Stay tuned for the final chapter of our short but sweet vacation!