Day 17 - Langkawi to Bangkok

So, time to say goodbye to Malaysia today and to move on to the 3rd country in our South East Asia itinerary.  I must admit I did have a bit of an "end of the holiday" feeling last night and this morning, more than a little reluctant to leave our paradise island and head off to another big city.  Sad too, to be saying goodbye to Malaysia and wondering how long it will be before we return, and if we will ever go back to KL now that any last vestiges of fond feelings I had towards the place I lived for so many years have more or less disappeared.  

We were talking to a Malay woman on our Langkawi boat-trip the other day - she lives in KL - and I was expressing my sadness at the place it has become.  She was quite taken aback by my apparent negativity about her home town.  In her eyes (and I guess in the eyes of many Malaysians), KL's soaring skyscrapers and non-stop building development, its superhighways full of trillions of cars, its general 24/7 full-on in-your-faceness are all positives - signs of the country's successful economy and growing prosperity.  Her view (I think) is that we ex-colonial types have no place criticising Malaysia for becoming a fully-developed, major player on the world stage, or to be getting all misty-eyed about the Malaysia of the past and sad that it seems to have put progress and prosperity firmly at the top of its agenda over such secondary considerations as heritage, culture, etc.  And of course she would be right (up to a point) I guess, and I did feel somewhat chastened by her point of view, though I do still think it a shame that KL has lost so much of its past in the pursuit of so-called progress. 

I won't however apologise for much preferring the jungle covered mountains and kampongs and coconut trees and water-buffalo-filled padi fields of Langkawi, the Malaysia I remember from my youth, and a place I would definitely like to revisit before the jungle-covered mountains get studded with too many Holiday Inns and condominiums and observation wheels.  

We arrived in Bangkok early afternoon after an uneventful flight back down to KL to swap planes and head back north to Thailand.  First time here for all of us and first impressions are - it's another hustly-bustly city, perhaps more KL than Singapore - but we shall no doubt have a more accurate impression when we get out and about tomorrow and visit some of the sights.  We're staying at the Ibis which is right on the river and we're looking forward to venturing out later and boarding a river boat for our first Thai dinner...

(Unwinding at the Ibis pool before dinner)

After dinner (last night now) we came back to the hotel and I wrote up the experience and then spent the usual agonising hour trying to get online and post the damned thing only to give up with exhaustion.  As you can see, the bit about dinner didn't save so here is the abridged version: yum.  See pix for more details.

(nb: it was too dark on board to get a good iPad pic of the food, hence the above - that was dessert)

 

Off for my morning shower and breakfast now in preparation for some full-on sightseeing.

TTFN

Maria