Day 13 - Penang to Langkawi

Take 2

We were awoken (awakened, if you prefer) at 7.30am by the dulcet tones of the headmaster of the local school conducting an open air assembley over the PA, rendering his every wise word loudly and clearly to us sleepy heads on the 12th floor of the Bayview, meaning we were wide awake by the time of our morning alarm at 8am

It didn't really matter as we had planned an early(ish) start to make the most of our remaining hours in Penang and to make up for the debacle of the previous day's "car-hire-return-from-hell".  So we dashed from the hotel (breakfast-less once more) into a cab and set off for more temples - The Temple of the Reclining Buddha and The Temple of the Standing Buddha with the Temple of the Sitting Buddha thrown in for free.  In fact all these temples are free to visit which is, perhaps, why we have visited so many of them - that and the fact that they are so fascinating and bizarre.  Lily (who is a lapsed Buddhist, having taken to the faith for a few days in her earlier years) was full of questions about  the subject and why there are so many different types of Buddhas - fat ones, long ones,  tall ones with disproportionately large hands, ones that look like a Mr Bean / Boy George hybrid - but I found myself quite woefully ignorant on the subject and unable to answer most of her questions.  (Note to self: research Buddhism more thoroughly at the earliest opportunity).  Why Buddha comes in so many shapes and sizes, and why each one seems to have its own set of devotees I do not know.   I must admit I do find it  strange to see just ordinary, sensible-looking people fervently praying and paying homage of food and money before these statues, but that said, I think we all felt a bit touched by the spiritual vibes in these places.

(Mr Bean / Boy George Buddha)

My favourite of the temples was the Temple Of the Reclining Buddha which I used to visit as a child.  I wondered if I would be disappointed on seeing him again as I remembered his as being enormous and often things seem much smaller than when you remembered them as a child.  But no, he's still as impressively massive as ever, with his sparkly pedicured toenails and mystical symbols on the soles of his feet.  I had also remembered seeing a real dead, mummified monk at the temple covered in gold leaf that devotees had rubbed onto his body and so was pleased to see he was still there - and now joined by a couple of new mates, both similarly resplendent in suits of gold.

All templed-out by this stage we left by way of the merchandise stall for Lily to purchase some more gifts for her pals, and then back to the hotel to squeeze the last few bits of our newly acquired schmutter into our already bulging bags, and for a last minute dip in the pool.  Lunch followed at the cafe round the corner (well it had been two hours since pretzels) and then we hopped into our pre-booked cab which whisked us off to the airport for the next leg of our journey.  When I say whisked, I mean we crawled along the haze-ridden, smogged-up, car-clogged, noisy, mental three-lane George Town superhighway at 5mph until we got past the jam at Penang bridge.   By now I think we would all admit to having developed a certain weariness of big, noisy, dirty Asian cities and were certainly ready for a change of scene. 

So, on to Langkawi.  We had a comedy moment in the plane when, not more than 5 minutes after take off, the pilot instructed us to get ready for landing.  We really should have swum it, it's very close to Penang!  And so, as the plane descendeed, we all got our first glimpse of the first place on our itinerary that none of us has ever visited before - little jungle-covered islands dotted about the calm blue sea, with no Sumatran haze dimming the sunshine - hurrah!

We arrived at Berjaya Hotel not 45 minutes after landing and were very pleased to be informed by the receptionist that we were to receive a free upgrade.  That will do nicely thank you!  We then piled into an open-air mini bus thing which ferried us and our luggage a few hundred yards up the path to our little Malay-style chalets, nestled twixt jungly vegetation and the sea.  Oh my.  We have finally arrived at the place I was born to spend the rest of my life in - cool, understated luxury accomodation with a verandah and marble floors and a ceiling fan AND air-con and a walk in shower AND a bath and a ginormous bed and a TV almost the same size as the bed and an amazing view and monkeys that come in and steal your stuff if you don't close AND lock the doors.  I'm leaving ours unlocked in the hope that a troop of Jungle Book style simians stroll through the patio doors and start jiving around the bedroom...

Paradise was put momentarily on hold however when it transpired that the bags of nuts and crisps and various exotic lotions and potions atop the mini bar and which I'd given the green light to the kids to scoff and/or smear themselves in, were not complimentary as I had thought but actually cost approximately one million pounds each.  Or so you would think from the way the bill-payer carried on about it.  Even now I am self-flagellating (ooo-err!) as I write this, in the hope that I can make amends for this uncharacteristic lapse in judgement, however I think I may be reminded of my faux-pas at regular intervals for the rest of our stay...

Paradise was then further interrupted by the arrival of dark clouds, a sudden drop in temperature and then a torrent of big splashy drops of rain - a portent of doom perhaps?  No, just a brief tropical downpour.  Our moods soon lifted once the sun returned, all reproachments re: the nuts / crisps / lotions fiasco put on the backburner, and a jump in the beautiful pool had us all smiling again.

We rounded off the evening with a lovely dinner in one of the restaurants here and then back to our chalet where, for the second time this evening I have slaved over a hot iPad to bring you our daily travel bulletin.  If I lose this post again I am throwing myself off the verandah and that's no idle threat.

Maria