From Shangri-La to Heaven

After visiting three cities, it was time to hit the beach – and what a place to do it! The Malaysian island of Langkawi is a tropical nirvana of unspoilt rainforest filled with wildlife, enhanced by the fact that the place where we were staying (I’m typing this in the airport) is, in our opinion at any rate, the best hotel in the world: The Datai.

Every morning, after having breakfast delivered to our private and luxurious villa (on stilts, in the rainforest – yes, not your average beach hotel, we know) we had our morning walk along the long and beautiful beach of Datai Bay. After that, some time lazing by the pool before a leisurely lunch at the beach club bar. Perhaps another stroll to follow before some more relaxing… a hard life, but someone’s got to do it, and it might as well be us! In the evening we had three fabulous restaurants to choose from (I’m quickly running out of adjectives, the place is so good).

We managed to drag ourselves away from all this for a couple of half-day jaunts around the island and to the main town, Kuah, for a bit of shopping (I went a bit native and bought myself some traditional Malaysian clothes, amongst other things) and to visit the yacht club for a drink (we’ve been to Langkawi a few times before so we’ve already seen most of the sights: the cable car up the mountain, waterfalls, museums, cultural centres and jungle walks, to name a few).

All in all, a very good week – and a good way to recharge the batteries before heading onto the next busy period visiting South Korea and Japan.