Little Sweden

18-22^nd December 2010 – Langkawi or ‘Little Sweden’

How delightful it has been to have had 3 days of complete unadulterated relaxation. We read the guides, looked at the maps, heard about the tours on offer and decided that after blasting through southern Thailand we need to just chill and relax. So that is what we have done. I have even finished a book, one I exchanged in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Distance travelled has involved around 5 mins of walking to the beach, back from the beach, to a restaurant and back to Palms. Until the 21^st most days were overcast with a late glimmer of full on sun towards 5pm followed by between half an hour and an hour of rain. This is a good thing cos when the sun does come out in its full glory shade is at a premium. The sea has been so still, very warm and oh so incredibly inviting.

The food we have had deserves its own reporting as does the impact on waistlines. There is an real eclectic mix and some of the highlights are as follows. A late evening curry on day 1 was awesome, the restaurant bedecked with swathes of material from the ceiling and hanging lanterns making allowing my imagine to think of the interior of Arabian tents. Day 2 breakfast at the Red Tomato Garden Café lived up and beyond the reviews. Lunch when we heaved ourselves gracefully from the beach loungers to the main street was a chance encounter with middle eastern wraps. The chef was Palestinian but had spent most of his life in Dubai and now ran the ‘kitchen’ at this tiny little place, if you had blinked as you passed you would have missed it. These have to have been the best wraps in the universe and served with garlic mayonnaise (is that allowed SP?). They were so good that I consumed a beef and lamb one whilst G had the chicken, washed down with exceptionally good fruit shakes. That evening so me dine on Barracuda and observe chicken in mango being consumed in silence, we flushed this through with a half decent bottle of rose – oh the life of a cycle tourer…

The view from my lounger

day time = our beach

The following day saw us breakfast on our terrace with cornflakes…the first for 6 weeks for me and 10 weeks for G. That evening saw us tucking into pasta back at the German owned Red Tomato. The following evening saw me try Bomkaise fish at Chumphour Chumphour an Indian/Swedish owned restaurant. Wow the flavours and mix of ingredients meant that G and I spent most of the meal guessing at them as we knew we had had them before at some stage in our lives but darned if either of us could remember quite when and certainly not in the way that the food was inspirationally concocted. Coffee and peppermint tea to follow this meant that this would be the restaurant of choice for our next and final evening. Uma’s famous curry was indeed worth a day of taste bud activity.

I am however as I write this very concerned that if this is the experience of one Malaysian islands cuisine then I am both going to love it and turn into the size of a house. So balance will be key.

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the world go by, some of the world still believes in speedo’s and for some this is very wrong. A set of lime green pouch style were lying behind us on our last afternoon and then they would be up and standing a little too close of either of our levels of personal space comfort especially when stray escapee hairs were then twiddled with in full view. Really that is just so disgustingly wrong on every level known to mankind. Then there have been the speedo/lycra trunks on torsos that they should not be hugging, I could go on but am getting to a peckish stage and don’t want to spoil mine or any others dinners.  Lying reading, talking and laughing has been so wonderfully restoring of chi that I know I will remember my stay here for a long time to come. I am now reading the ‘Monk who sold his Ferrari’ and remembering the wise words of Nic, Simon, Bob, Clayton and Lani who have listened to my wittering and rambling over the last 6 months.

Oh and the reason for the title of little Sweden is due to the many (6000) that come over here just for Christmas.

Tomorrow we head for the port again, a different route back and then onto to our Christmas destination of Penang.