Langkawi – A new room and an old friend

14th February, 2019

Well Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. All is well here in Langkawi (well, mostly all is well), but let me update you.

I think I left you last with a tour of our hotel including our gloomy and rather pongy room. Well, I can report that that has changed and we have been moved into the next block where a bright and sunny (and fragrant) room awaited us – so I am delighted to share with you another photo of our room!! (I know how much you love these!).

Val and I dug up a doctor to visit about Val’s groin strain and the diagnosis is tendonitis though it may be a muscle strain or possibly both (?). More pills and patches and rest have been prescribed and Val is following orders as best she can, but it still seems to be painful even to get into and out of the car, so we will have to wait and see. Unfortunately this does not look like it will be something that will sort itself out in a few days.

Also last Monday we met up with a very long-time friend of Val’s (some 40+ years ago), the wonderful Shukri, who lives on Langkawi. It was fun watching both of them see each other for the first time in getting on for half a century. Of course, neither of them had aged a bit!!!! Shukri had a stroke 5 years ago and is also on dialysis, but is sharp as a button and looked after by an old friend of his, Johnny (Johannes) and his son Zairul and they all live in the most wonderful house on a hill in the jungle that Shukri built some 30 years ago in the style of the old Malaysian kampong or village houses, though admittedly on a rather grand scale. No nails!

On the way there we stopped by a project they are working on of a sort of jungle homestay villas sort of thing, which gave us the opportunity for a photo.

Shukri is pretty well known in Malaysia as a chef, though he and Val knew each other from before that when they both worked in advertising. He opened and owned several restaurants including Rive Gauche in KL, the first real French restaurant there, which was right next to my office when I was working in KL, though it was a bit above my budget then for regular visits.

We dropped by the house first before venturing out for a lovely meal down the bustling Pantai Cenang (Chenang Beach). And we were also invited to come round for breakfast on Thursday (ie today). So a taxi picked us up from the hotel and dropped us off at the house for a wonderful breakfast with all sorts of Malaysian dishes, which you would have to consult Val to get the names of, though I know there was rice (I can do that!), sambal and ikan bilis with peanuts (small dried fish) and, I think, some rendang. The easiest way to demonstrate all this is for you to pop around to our house one day!! It reminded me of many a pleasant get-together in my days in KL where friends would drop by on an open-house sort of arrangement and there would be great food and good chat.

We were allowed to have a look upstairs in the house, which is very unique (can you be ‘very’ unique???). There are very few panes of glass and virtually all the windows are fretwork, which makes the house very airy and bright.

And that is that so far for Langkawi, though I will share a photo of Val enjoying salt and pepper crabs as it is lovely watching an expert at work and enjoying themselves so much. I would add that salt and pepper crabs are not ones that are slightly maturing – it describes how they are cooked!

I am planning a bit of golf for tomorrow, so watch this space!