After a very busy and tiring time settling and having a whirlwind of experiences we arrived at a 4 day long weekend…hurray! Then to our amazement it got extended to a 5 day weekend!!! Only in Malaysia… Alice and I decided to celebrate this by booking flights to Langkawi for an island to island mini vacay. 

Saturday came and I was feeling out of sorts. Mercury is in retrogade people. It’s not a good time for decisions, communication… life. Alice and I were both feeling the influence of this astrological period so we decided to flee our island for a slightly more tropical, less busy and more beautiful one. We boarded the plane  (I kicked some wishful thinking woman out of my window seat) and prayed for sun. 

We arrived, dumped our bags and went to the beach with our 1.90rm beers!! Langkawi alcohol prices are extremely exciting. We took photos and we congratulated the hostel woman. We debated whether we could do handstands against a palm tree. Anyone who knows me knows I’m literally the clumsiest girl in the world so obviously I stacked mine because I completely misread where the palm tree ended. We laughed and laughed and I got absolutely covered in sand. Alice pulled hers off cos she’s not a disaster like  me.

It was bliss. I felt my tensions melting away into the sun. We had one of those travel sunset chats about how we need to be less nice to people and more #girlpower and I felt better already.

In the evening we went to Yellow cafe and listened to some live music played by homeless looking Malaysian guys. They played some excellent song choices – Hoobastank being my fave. Forever emo <\3 

On Sunday we awoke to sun HURRAY and decided why not rent a motorbike? I’m so sorry mother. Alice rode a bike some 6 years ago so we felt this was all the knowledge and experience we needed to pull this off. For a while we could only drive straight. Eventually we could turn and I could navigate from the back and it was all swell. Only one car asked us if we were okay because when at traffic lights Alice had to mentally prepare so I had to usher cars past us with swooping arm movements until it was “the right time” for us to move off.

We drove to the North to Tanjung Rhu. This is the most beautiful beach I’ve seen in a long while.

When the tide goes out you can walk down a sand strip to the little islands. It was so hot. Beyond hot. We had to buy a travel suncream so liberal times with the suncream application. A man on the beach drew us a map on the sand to illustrate how the tide goes out.

We lay down all day only being interrupted once by a group of men who asked to take a photo of us.  This seems to happen most of the time we go to the beach. Around half 2 it started spitting (IT’S SPITTING EVERYBODY IN- never gets old) so we retreated to “Scarborough” fish n chips. YORKSHIRE IN LANGKAWI? I was excited. Sadly there was not a Yorkshire folk in sight. However they did do a good chicken schnitzel so you win some you lose some. 

On the way home we saw a man who had just been through the windscreen of a car getting glass picked out of him. We rode back vvvv vvvv slowly. We arrived home in one piece and celebrated by sending a photo to those who were worried about our safety (not you mother because I never informed you about the bike).

We realised we had missed a storm and the roads were flooded.  Trees had fallen down. We were blissfully unaware. When we asked the hostel woman about the weather she thrust a weather forecast into my hands. Clearly tensions were high over the lack of sun. I think she was pretty happy to see us back alive on the bike. We tried to catch the last of the sun by illegally lying on the sunbeds owned by a hotel. One security man came and told us to move so Alice pleaded with him and then he went away. We thought we got away with it until a different man on a scooter zoomed over and told us to get off. I tried ignoring him but eventually we had to accept that lying there with your eyes closed whilst someone speaks at you isn’t really going to make them disappear.

In the evening we went to Fat Cupids for tea. We had a candle lit, cocktail dinner. 

We moaned about having to leave Langkawi for work and then decided to go back and have a reading session whilst listening to Harry Styles (that was just me- the album is so good I’m not even sorry) 

Monday we got up, went to cactus for breakfast, ate pancakes and went home very reluctantly. Reluctantly like we were the last ones on the plane reluctant. Alice you’re my number one Libra, my soul sister and I appreciate your patience with me when I am being kind of needy/emotional and I need to rant. You’re now my main support network in Penang congrats and good luck.

When we arrived home I took an hour to decide whether to go to laser tag (Mercury retrogade) and then went and had a lot of fun running around in the dark shooting Tom, Andreas and Jess with a laser gun. Jen doubled everyone’s scores and clearly her American roots have made her an insanely accurate and trigger happy shooter. She was on my team, winning. 

To conclude Langkawi is awesome and super cheap. Motorbikes are fun but should be taken seriously. You will get sun burnt if you go in the sea. Laser tag is not for children.