On Langkawi we stayed at the Malibest resort, recommended by Viks and Harry, my friend in KL too - it was okay, nothing special but close to the beach and 30 EUR for a night; apart from the huge amount of mozzies we had to deal with it was fine.
After a failed try to get some coffee from Viva Italia in the morning - the "Indian juice" was close to disgusting... - had some nice breakfast at the Tomato place, and then hit the roads of Langkawi on a bike... well, scooter, to be more specific. We cruised to the north side of the island, eventually found the Black Sand beach, had some coconut water at a beautiful spot further up north, ran around, cought a bit of a rainshower to cool down; and then couldnt resist a thai dinner in the eve, even though Thailand was only a day away.
My memories of how far I had to go 2 years ago failed me when planning the morning and we ended up at the pier waaaay to early before the boat departure time - it was an 8.30am departure that we arrived for at 7.45, and we didnt leave until 9.45 - rather annoying.... but then, a few hours later we reached Koh Lipe, and put a smile on both our faces that didnt disappear until we had to leave for Phuket 3 days later.
Here are the some of the photos Dave took - yes I am having my camera with me from now on, too... :) - just so that you know what I am talking about if you havent been on Koh Lipe yet..
Varin Beach resort was home for the 3 days: 1800 THB for a night including breakfast - 45 EUR, a newly built bungalow with AC, clean and sweet, the breakfast nice enough that kept us going until 3-4pm every day.
The beach on this island is exactly what I remembered: the most beautiful of all the places I have been to. Needless to say, it was the company that made these few days absolutely mindblowing, and the island was the second biggest part of it of course: just picture perfect, warm sea so clean its hard to believe, white sand, palmtrees, simply magical. After spending the whole day at the beach, had a few JDandCokes, and then hit another beachbar for a few more on Christmas eve, had a pad thai just because we could, sent a lantern to all of you with our best wishes, swam and snorkelled during the days, walked around, read a book on the porch, watched a movie as part of the afternoon nap, played frisbe on the beach with Ken, 12 year-old from Thailand, had killer longislandiceteas at Naomi's Monkeybar, laughed and laughed some more and hoped the magic would never end.... :D I was really considering just staying there until all my money ran out, but common sense won, left Koh Lipe with Tigerlinetravel.com, heading to Phuket on the 27th...
Next up is Koh Tao for NYE/day and then back to Phuket for January with all kinds of new excitements, such as cooking class and thai massage class and kitesurfing and yoga and beach and sunshine and diving..... aaaaaahhhh so very sweet... :)
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Asia baby - first stop: KL
And another Asia chapter started on the 20th of December, right on my lil brothers birthday: after the painful 18-hour trip - though without any dealys due to snow or airports being closed down etc - landed in KL, safe and sound, ready to enjoy every minute of this..... awesomeness..... :D
My neighbour on the plane this time was Edward Cullen's twin-brother, this scary but in some ways kinda beautiful guy from Ukraine, with whom I had a short, and for him - I am assuming - painful conversation: it all started about 20 minutes after I took my sleepingpill.. I was still trying very hard to make some sense but did not succeed at all... And then needless to say, I only managed a 2 hour nap while he, taking my backup pill, slept the whole way to Kuala.
Regardless of the short sleep, I was so excited to see Dave that my good energies got me out of the airport within 20 minutes, and landed at the door of that fabulous hotel room an hour after I touched ground - not a bad effort at all!
The first stroll in the afternoon took us to KLCC and the fav chickenrice shop, then, the second one to Waikiki - god that place changed so much!!! Nothing even slightly resembles to the good old Waikiki bar, its empty and sad, the stuff is ignorant, the drinks are expensive and horrible, not sure I'd want to go back there again. Speaking of empty, it was scary how dead KL was, nothing comparable to the Asian mess I was used to in the past.
The first night with the body-clock-mess was not the best and I only managed a few hours sleep, but spending half of the next day at the hotel pool cured it all.... I thought....
We went to Jln Alor for some char kway tiao and fried stingray for lunch, then to Times Square and convinced Dave to get on the indoor rollercoaster with me - that was AWESOME! I remember trying to get Bernard and everyone else to go with me but it just never happened while living in KL - glad I didnt miss out on it this time. :D it was really cool!
Here are Dave's pics from KL and Langkawi:
Missing out on meeting Sharm and the boys due to their busy schedules, then Nong, my lovely Indonesian massage lady due to some major miscommunication - I was verymuch looking forward to see Jit and meet his son and wife finally. We grabbed some wine and chocolate and took a taxi from KL Sentral to Sunway Pyramids - funny enough, I havent been to that place until now. Jit picked us up with Rahul, had a crazy drive with the 6 year-old wrestling Dave on the back seat, and after some drinks at their lovely home we went for this HUGE chinese dinner: gingeronionchicken, meehoon, sweetandsourpork, friedporkribs, rice, friedveg, x huge bottles of beer and god knows what else - I was ready to die by 11pm when we got back to the hotel.
Well, dieing came a few hours later.... After all the beer and the whiskey at Jit's we finished a bottle fizz and I honestly thought at 4am that I was just having the hangover kicking in... but then the travellers nightmare became reality: the next 5 hours I spent on/around/by the toilet in complete misery... Then, when the antibiotics came back after only 2 sec of contemplating staying within the stomach in the morning, I decided to do pack, get to LCCT, on the plane and find a doc on Langkawi if I didnt get any better. I was in agony. Weak from the "toilet-excercise", lack of sleep and food plus the flying - oh man I was no happy chicken. Survived though, Dave was sweet and patient and took good care of me, and so all the sickness was gone by the morning - lucky enough, had a full day to spend on Langkawi! :)
My neighbour on the plane this time was Edward Cullen's twin-brother, this scary but in some ways kinda beautiful guy from Ukraine, with whom I had a short, and for him - I am assuming - painful conversation: it all started about 20 minutes after I took my sleepingpill.. I was still trying very hard to make some sense but did not succeed at all... And then needless to say, I only managed a 2 hour nap while he, taking my backup pill, slept the whole way to Kuala.
Regardless of the short sleep, I was so excited to see Dave that my good energies got me out of the airport within 20 minutes, and landed at the door of that fabulous hotel room an hour after I touched ground - not a bad effort at all!
The first stroll in the afternoon took us to KLCC and the fav chickenrice shop, then, the second one to Waikiki - god that place changed so much!!! Nothing even slightly resembles to the good old Waikiki bar, its empty and sad, the stuff is ignorant, the drinks are expensive and horrible, not sure I'd want to go back there again. Speaking of empty, it was scary how dead KL was, nothing comparable to the Asian mess I was used to in the past.
The first night with the body-clock-mess was not the best and I only managed a few hours sleep, but spending half of the next day at the hotel pool cured it all.... I thought....
We went to Jln Alor for some char kway tiao and fried stingray for lunch, then to Times Square and convinced Dave to get on the indoor rollercoaster with me - that was AWESOME! I remember trying to get Bernard and everyone else to go with me but it just never happened while living in KL - glad I didnt miss out on it this time. :D it was really cool!
Here are Dave's pics from KL and Langkawi:
Missing out on meeting Sharm and the boys due to their busy schedules, then Nong, my lovely Indonesian massage lady due to some major miscommunication - I was verymuch looking forward to see Jit and meet his son and wife finally. We grabbed some wine and chocolate and took a taxi from KL Sentral to Sunway Pyramids - funny enough, I havent been to that place until now. Jit picked us up with Rahul, had a crazy drive with the 6 year-old wrestling Dave on the back seat, and after some drinks at their lovely home we went for this HUGE chinese dinner: gingeronionchicken, meehoon, sweetandsourpork, friedporkribs, rice, friedveg, x huge bottles of beer and god knows what else - I was ready to die by 11pm when we got back to the hotel.
Well, dieing came a few hours later.... After all the beer and the whiskey at Jit's we finished a bottle fizz and I honestly thought at 4am that I was just having the hangover kicking in... but then the travellers nightmare became reality: the next 5 hours I spent on/around/by the toilet in complete misery... Then, when the antibiotics came back after only 2 sec of contemplating staying within the stomach in the morning, I decided to do pack, get to LCCT, on the plane and find a doc on Langkawi if I didnt get any better. I was in agony. Weak from the "toilet-excercise", lack of sleep and food plus the flying - oh man I was no happy chicken. Survived though, Dave was sweet and patient and took good care of me, and so all the sickness was gone by the morning - lucky enough, had a full day to spend on Langkawi! :)
Thursday, December 09, 2010
happy happy
Last night I was sitting by the beach in a little cafe, watching the sun setting above the sea, enjoying the 18C and fine air - it was magical on its own. I was reading my book, sipping my cafe con leche, and was thinking, how amazingly lucky I am, having everything in my life that makes one happy: the location, the cafe, the huge crepe con nutella, my book, the great past few days of kitesurfing and getting to know some great people; the fact that by now I can have a Spanish conversation without any issues..... Then just now after deciding to skip the last class due to the amazing weather, mi madre espanola bringing me a glass of wine to the terrace while I am waiting for lunch to be ready, enjoying my cigarette and the sunshine (23C, should I mention it); my family and friends looking forward to see me back at home - or to be more specific, a few places around the world - and vica versa; the prospect of having to see Peti, my parents and grandparents, having my mom in Budapest for the coming weekend; Mags and her happiest news; and of course the plans for the next months: to start with, in less than 2 weeks and I will be in paradise, with the best person to be in paradise with... :) QUE BIEN!?! I did have some difficult days with hangovers and way too much than necessary thinking, but I made some decisions that already make my life easier, and I am sure, more than ever before that all will work out perfectly fine, exactly the way it should. There is simply no other option. And either the way is, it will be the best for all of us. :)
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Tarifa
Saturday night, 10pm, in a hostel, Melting Pot in Tarifa - friendly, clean, great location, no complains -, after having some chinese takeaway, among a bunch of OZs, Brits and French, the latter playing instuments in the kitchen, the open fireplace and liter bottles of Cruzcampo keeping us warm, outside wind is blowing with 35knots - its even stronger than it was during the day, when I gave kitesurfing the first try.. :) The morning was particularly painful again - not sure what was I expecing from a Saturday morning, but the 'yeah lets go for one drink, just one' last night, that ended up being about 10, at 4am, dancing in a nearby club like maniacs with Ms England, Rob and Anthony, without any dinner, didnt help at all.
So, what I started saying is, I was just looking at my picasa site and found about 20 pervert fuckers who added me as their favorite, god knows doing what with my pictures. Its disgusting! So, watch out people!
Anyway, looking forward to a whole day on the beach tomorrow, and have to admit, my bed tonight too.... It seems I am indeed getting old!
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
3rd of the Malasemanas
3rd week in Malaga and I dont even have time to do my homework anymore.
As bad as the weekend started off, I was considering flying over to Amsterdam for this coming weekend, just to get out of here. I went out with my lil friends on Friday - needless to say, the hangover that followed was ridiculous... I guess I am getting old too.. I spent most of Saturday in bed in misery, crazy headache, shitty weather, then Justin, my friend who showed up on my doorstep with Dave back in August, called and cancelled our plans for Granada for the Sunday eve, leaving nothing much to look forward to - ajjjj I wasnt happy. Then in the afternoon I put myself together, got on the bus and went to visit Salva and Lorraine who live about an hour away from here. By the time I got there i was ready to die but they had a little surprise for me: an invitation to Salva's sisters house to a proper Spanish family get together. When we arrived at 10.30 (pm), there were still no signes of dinner, but 4 kids were running around like crazy chicken - made me have second thoughts about ever wanting to have kids -, with 6 adults making more noise than a whole school of kids at home, but it was awesome in the end, had such a great time, I was really greatful that I didnt stay in.
Sunday was yoga day: a 5 hour workshop where Marjan, my Dutch friend invited me. I met some great people there: Lori, the instructor with energies out of this universe, Ingrid the hairdresser I am going to pay a visit to tomorrow, Lota the Sweedesh lady living in paradise, and 8 others - it was SO good to be among people with compeltely different origins and lifes and ages but having the similar interests and somewhat the same goals in life...; self realization, love and happyness, ultimately.. Finally the weather cleared up too, after lunch we took Marjan's dogs for a walk to the hills, and then came the best part of the day: the massage therapist angel Marjan offered to treat me before me leaving: I got a 2-hour-long massage. Yaaaaay!! What a lovely day! Topped it off with another nice meal and then Marjan even drove me home - the happy smiling Zsofi was back by the time I got to bed, with absolutely nothing to complain about.
Monday afternoon, after considering the options for the coming long weekend, i decided against Amsterdam and instead, booked a kitesurf course in Tarifa.. woohoo! Then Justin called that they ended up in Malaga with his folks so, I met him in the eve after my salsa class; went dancing again yesterday; arranged a movie and tapas night for tonight; got invited for a salsa eve for tomorrow and finally booked tickets for the Alhambra for the 11th - I literally dont have more than 2 hours free in a row until I leave Spain. Thats how I like things to be. :)
Most exciting of all of course is, the kitesurfing this weekend - though it is not warm at all, I am so much looking forward to it!!! While looking for accomodation I realized how similar it is to when I was working: you have to be at a place at a certain time, so you pull up googlemap, and instead of major airline websites you search on skyscanner, and instead of looking for rooms in the Hilton or Marriott, you go for hostelworld and couchsuring......... - and you can easily take a 0 off from the end of the total costs.. Awesome! :)
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