February 24
How time flies. Our last post was Feb 11, now its Feb 24. We spent 2 weeks on Adang Resort. We’ll blame the missing blog posts on relaxation and island internet. Their internet is slower than rural Saskatchewan turtle net.
Feb 23 we checked out of Adang Resort. We took the long tail boat across to Koh Lipe managing to get only partly wet from the heavy waves. We landed on Sunset Beach and the boatmen from the resort carried our suitcases up the 200 metres of sidewalk to the road where the tuk tuk was waiting for us. We gave them a tip and we were on our way in a flash. We arrived at the ferry port at 9 am. We were passengers 112 and 113 to register. About half of the total. Our boat was to leave at 10:30 am, by the time we pissed around loading luggage onto long tail boats, and getting everyone moved out to the ferry by long tail boat it was well after 11 am. After we sat in the ferry for quite some time we started on our rough voyage. It was after 11:30 am. It was rough with 2 metre seas. Weren’t we the lucky ones to be sitting in the squishy seats up in the bow. The triangle shaped bow didn’t allow either of us to sit up straight. We both ended up with sore necks from the trip. It took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to Telaga Harbour in Langkawi. Probably another half hour to get the luggage off and for all the passengers to disembark. Remember we were at the front of the boat. We were almost last to get off.
We walked up a gang plank and as we entered the building, having our forms and passports inspected we also had our temperature taken by the customs officer. We were hot, but not feverish. Gary had a fever about a week before after we were in Koh Lipe and ate something that gave him food poisoning. By the time we got to the exit of the tiny customs inspection building we were well over an hour on the shore.
Some guy was arranging taxis, and we were told 30 Ringit for 2 to get to the airport. It was a fairly long journey, at least longer than we were expecting. When we arrived we got unloaded and Gary paid with a 50 Ringit bill. The guy was going to keep the change. Gary had an OMG moment and a few words were spoken. Finally the driver (not Gary) agreed on 40 Ringit. Gary, the patient guy that he is just walked away and cursed under his breath. After we got into the airport, had lunch, got checked in and consumed a cafe mocha, we talked about the taxi rip-off. Gary phoned the taxi company and reported it. The guy took the information, including the taxi number which Gary had photographed inside the car. The taxi company a few minutes later called back and said the taxi driver operating that taxi was never at the Telaga Harbour. Gary said, really? I have a picture of his taxi number on the plaque from inside the car. The taxi official was speechless. Gary said, guess what, he could SMS message a picture to prove this event happened. That’s exactly what happened. Later, a few messages from the taxi company by SMS. They were going to look into the situation and take action . Thank you!
Our flight was likely one of the shortest flights we’ve ever taken. Basically we got up to cruising altitude, Gary was the only passenger to have time to run to the washroom and the seatbelt sign was back on for us to descend and land! We caught a Grab from the airport to our hotel where we were greeted with an ice cold beer! Best welcome drink of the trip so far!! By the time we got settled we ended up having a very late supper at a nearby Indian restaurant. The food was ok but no where near as good as our favourite Indian restaurant, The Bombay, in Koh Lipe.
We are staying at the Coffee Atelier hotel in historic George Town. The main floor used to be shops and the upstairs was residences. It has been restored with rooms on the main level and upstairs. Ours is upstairs – it is up a narrow steep flight of stairs and has skinny high double doors. The bed is amazing and the best bed on the entire trip. It’s a four poster bed with a mosquito net. The net is great as there are a few mosquitos around. We had the best sleep in ages as the a/c and bed were all good! Breakfast is included and is very nice. Fresh squeezed orange juice, americano coffee, cereal, yogurt, bacon and eggs if you wanted, a fruit bowl and basket of bread. A great start for the day.
We got ourselves organized and headed out to check out a fabric store that we saw last night. From there we walked to the post office to get rates to ship fabric home if we could find a good deal. A wonderful woman at the tailor shop across from the post office told us of a good fabric store for batiks that was at a nearby mall. We ended up catching a Grab and checking it out. Linda has yet to find some batik that is priced reasonably enough to warrant the additional shipping costs. We’ll keep our eyes open but don’t think we’ll find anything. From there we wandered around looking at all the street art in the area.
We had another fresh orange juice and a bowl of fruit at one of the street restaurants and then had a passion fruit soft ice cream. We also encountered another quick change artist, the guy short changed Gary with his change from the ice cream order. Its 33º, in the hot sun, Gary is counting his change looking confused, then “hey, hey, MONEY”. Gary holds up his short changed cash and says “more money”. Problem solved. We were so hot by then that we walked back to the hotel and cranked on the air. It was time to cool down. After a bit Gary walked down to the 7-11 not far from our hotel and picked up some beer. A few beer and a few hours later we headed out for supper at Holy Guacamole a little Mexican restaurant only a few blocks from the hotel. The food was good but quite a bit pricer then last nights meal. We shared nachos and guacamole and an order of chicken fajitas along with 2 beer each. Total bill was around $37 CDN.
On our stroll back to the hotel we stopped at a massage place. Linda had a 30 minute neck and shoulder massage as her neck is still so sore from the boat she could hardly turn her head all day. Gary had a 30 minute foot massage. Both were great. Then it was back to the hotel to shower and cool off before calling it a night.