Malaysia holiday

I’m back! Man, that was a good holiday! When we landed in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night last week it rained quite heavily, making us scared that that would be the weather situation every day (seeing that the rain season starts around this time in Malaysia) and our taxi driver told us that “yes, very well, it rains a lot on Malaysia at the moment.” Yikes.

But the following day, which we spend shopping/eating/walking around/getting lost in Kuala Lumpur was rain-free and pretty fabulous. I loved Kuala Lumpur: full of restaurants and cafes, bars, shops and malls, and at night time the streets were still buzzing with life. We spent the day shopping (KL has TOPSHOP!!!! Say no more. I think I spent 2 hours in there? Bought myself the most gorgeous dress from the Kate Moss collection) and the night eating and drinking. It was a really good day until we woke up super early the next morning and needed to catch a flight to Langkawi Island.

We were not as lucky with the weather at Langkawi. It rained 2 out of 5 days, but we still had a great time. We didn’t do too much: ate (got to love Malaysian food –especially served at those small, locally-run restaurants that are nothing when it comes to fancy but cheap and good), walked around, swam, caught some sun, swam some more, and did some island hopping. When it rained I went to a mini market, bought the biggest Baskin and Robins (my fave ice cream, I wish Shanghai or Suzhou had it too) tub I could find and dam ta daaaaam –that’s how a rainy day turns into a good day!

I found locals to be friendly, easy-going, and happy to help out. Also, not a single person came to sell us things when we were at the beach (or anywhere else actually) –ah, heaven! I’ve been to Indonesia and Thailand before (and Hainan) and I felt that Malaysia was maybe a bit calmer than those places (or maybe it’s because it wasn’t tourist season on Langkawi? Loads of Aussies on the island though). The resort where we stayed, Frangapani resort, was great: clean, no bugs in the rooms, and a good breakfast buffet –that’s about what it takes to make me happy! 

(Speaking of sweets though, as one blog reader had already told me: there were tonnes of duty free chocolate on the island. Seriously, I’ve never seen so much chocolate in my life? First it felt like a choco-holic’s paradise: I could spend hours just walking around looking at all the delicious looking stuff, but then, when we actually bought some to try it didn’t taste that good. Dunno what was the deal, counterfeit chocolate maybe? Shame though. Although I guess that did wonders for my figure seeing that after that one chocolate-spree I kept away from the chocolate shops)

We went back to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday afternoon and spent the last night at the Pan Pacific airport hotel next to KLIA since our return flight to Shanghai was an early one. We had obviously booked the cheapest, most standard room, so imagine my surprise when the lady at check in counter suddenly asked us:

-Hey, are the 2 of you on a honeymoon? 

-Hahahaha, I wish! I laughed, and she laughed with me.

Three minutes later she said:

-Well, I just upgraded you guys to a suite anyways! Enjoy!

Cheers!

The flight back to Shanghai was slow and once we landed we couldn’t get off the plane for 30 minutes because we were told they were going to do a health check on everybody on the plane (oh no, not AGAIN?! All this H1N1 fear?!), however, in the end no white-masked-health-inspectors came and we were let off the plane.

The first message I got when I turned my mobile on was: “Hey Jonna, are you coming to class tomorrow? Don’t forget to bring your essay!”

Reality check, cheers for that, teacher. So now I’m off to class, bringing in an essay I wrote late last night and that surely does not qualify as my best piece of work ever…. 

(Ps. I didn't spend much time in front of the computer during this week in Malaysia, so all of you that are waiting for comments/email replies, bare with me... I'll reply in the near future!) 

Some pictures from the week: 

The pool 


Chill-out cafe at another beach on the island 


One of the best things about a beach holiday: reading! Went through 3 books during one week!

Pink lady cocktail, ocean, sunset -I could get used to this lifestyle

Brekkie -mmmm, pancakes and fruit
Swimming in a freshwater lake
Island hopping


Terrace 
Turned to banana smoothies after my bad chocolate experience