So on Sunday we went into the Central Market for lunch. This is a well-organised market for arts and crafts – of course there are plenty of tacky souvenir shops, but there are some nice things. However, I am having a bit of trouble getting motivated to buy local products – there’s not a hell of a lot of extra space in my suitcase. So don’t expect too many presents! But I did manage to pick up a nice hand-painted batik top, although I imagine once I get home it will make me look like Eddie off Ab Fab. That is if I manage to get it home without spilling laksa all over it.
We started though with a trip to the rufa fish pedicure tank. This has recently hit Paris and London so I’m sure it will turn up in Auckland any day now. These small fish don’t actually have teeth, but they nibble away at dead skin with what feel like sandpaper lips. It is quite a strange sensation, and for the first few minutes I couldn’t look! It was like being attacked by friendly piranhas. But you get used to it, and bits of my feet were surprisingly smooth afterwards.
We had lunch in the food court, which was great value and very tasty. I had some stingray in a spicy sauce (well it was the strangest thing on the menu so I had to order it). After lunch I took the hop-on hop off bus around the city centre. This was good value at RM 38 – about $17 or 10 euros. It takes in all of the major sights, and above all it is air conditioned! At some of the stops you might want to get off but not necessarily spend half an hour. So they thoughtfully do a five minute photo stop.
The old Royal Palace (new one currently under construction
Merkeda (Independence) Square
View across the lake from the Titiwangsa gardens
We got to the telecomms tower (local equivalent of the Sky Tower) and I spontaneously decided to go up it, hoping that it would help me get a better sense of the layout of KL. It was the worst possible day for views, as the city was overcast and drowned in haze. And I think that the layout of KL is actually based on an Escher sketch, with motorway flyovers going in all directions. Of course, I can find my way around Auckland with my eyes shut, but the waterfront helps. But it had to be done.
On Monday I got in one more swim before I had to pack up and head to the airport again. But this time I was heading for the KL low-cost terminal, or LCCT. Rather than getting the smart new express train, I had to go down to the hot, fume-laden bus terminal and get in a rather warm bus.
The terminal itself is an old converted cargo terminal, while they put up a purpose-built terminal. So the facilities now are reminiscent of Wellington airport circa 1980. The shops and cafes looked ok, but I didn’t really have time to check them out. Once I got past security there wasn’t much choice, but in the one convenience shop, I was flabbergasted to find an entire shelf of Whittaker’s chocolate! Even though I touch down in Auckland in less than a week, I was overwhelmed by a sudden attack of homesickness, and paid RM 20 for a family sized slab of kiwifruit chocolate.
AirAsia is like the local version of Easyjet – with the big difference that they actually run on time! You can order meals in advance, too, which is clever. I booked myself a nasi lemak (rice, chicken in a spicy sauce, small anchovies, peanuts), and it was really pretty decent. The plane was about the same size as the ones on the Auckland – Wellington route, so not a tiny little fear-inducing pencil. And the flight takes an hour. There wasn’t much to see on takeoff, and my seat gave me a great view of the Andaman Sea, but then as we banked and descended into Langkawi, I caught sight of the island. Green hills dropping into a turquoise sea, blah blah blah. Yep, coming up here was the right move.
Langkawi is about the size of Waiheke, but has a large number of high-end resorts. However they have avoided the whole hideous Gold Coast high-density building, and the focus is on nature tourism and integration with the landscape. The airport is tiny, but modern. I got a very friendly taxi driver over to the resort, who gave me a running commentary on local landmarks. He also said it’s been raining for the last five days, but it was brilliantly sunny today – so I guess I got lucky.
The Andaman resort is gorgeous. I’m not going to make you ill with the details, but it’s the perfect place for me to unwind from the last eight months of hard work. The rooms are very unobtrusive, all set back from the beach about 50 metres behind tall trees. I have a “rainforest room”, which means all I can see are trees. But I know the sea is out there – and that’s good enough for me. And the beach is perfect. Long sweeping crescent of pale sand, plenty of shade, and the water is like stepping into a warm bath.
Monday afternoon I just spent a couple of hours on the beach, before having a light dinner at the Beach Bar, with tables right in the sand, watching the sunset. A young wild boar comes down to the water and snuffles around the deckchairs, watched over by a benign majordomo. The resort seems really quiet – apparently it’s not the busy season until November/December, so they have closed one wing for renovations. In the background a guitar trio transform cheesy hits into Spanish ballads – The Eye of the Tiger, The Pink Panther Theme, I Will Survive. Then they segue into Oye Como Va, which was strangely tasteful. Perfect for the holiday mood, anyway.
I headed back to the room to put my feet up for a while, and came across this clip of a flash mob haka in Sylvia Park. This made me massively homesick (yes I know it's a recurring theme) so I put on my compilation of Kiwi classics - Poi E, Pokarekare Ana... Taumaranui on the Main Trunk Line... and somewhere in the mix was John Rowles' cover of Island in the Sun. Seemed appropriate.
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