For the first time ever we spent Christmas at the beach and stayed on Langkawi one of Malaysia's most beautiful islands. To get there we took the ferry from Penang on Christmas Eve, relieved to actually have a ticket - in true backpacker style we booked it the day before. It was a pretty smooth transit and took almost four hours.
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| "Le beach, so chic!" |
Our first impressions of Langkawi were this island is huge and very modern, there's even a mega duty free shopping complex at the ferry port - not quite what we had imagined. Langkawi is not a rustic kind of place, more of a luxury holiday destination as there are many top star resorts dotted along the coast and almost everything is catered toward the tourists who flock here from Europe, Russia, Japan and Korea. Tourism has really taken over in the last ten years. Having said all that Langkawi has many pristine white beaches and lush green mountains covered in tropical forest. You can also venture to more remote and untouched islands on day trips.
We checked in to our luxury chalet at the Five Star Berjaya Resort on the north east tip of the island and settled in for three days R&R. As it was our first 'destination' Christmas we were curious as to who else would be away from home and were relieved it wasn't just the over 60's but young families and couples too. Not that we mingled much, we drifted from swimming pool to bar to beach to restaurant etc in a cocktail fuelled haze to the jolly Christmas soundtrack!
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| "Did you sunbathe in a pair of antlers on Christmas Day?" |
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| "Or a Santa beard and hat?!" |
Christmas Day itself was pretty un-Christmassy but we brought along some props purchased in Penang - the beard didn't stay on long in the Malaysian humidity though. It was lovely just to relax and not have to rush to do anything we lazed by the pool or on the beach sipping Pina Coladas and beer most of the day. Christmas dinner was in fact a buffet in the evening - normally we hate buffets but this one blew us away. The fresh seafood on offer was delicious - we had giant king prawns, smoked salmon and oysters. We munched our way through about four courses including pumpkin and salmon soup, roast turkey (no pigs in blankets as Langkawi is mostly Muslim) and homemade chocolate truffles.
We loved our Christmas at the beach mainly because we were away from the drama and commercialisation you get suffocated with in the UK, the downside was we missed our family, friends and of course our gorgeous Poppy.
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| A Delicious Malaysian Lunch |
After three days total relaxation in luxury surroundings we were ready for somewhere a little more lively and headed down to Pantai Cenang, Langkawi's busiest tourist spot.
We hope everybody had a fantastic Christmas. Would you ever spend Christmas on holiday away from home?
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