Holidays are coming....Holidays are coming

Trip Start Jun 11, 2008

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Trip End May 14, 2009

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Flag of Malaysia Langkawi, Malaysia
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

We got up about 11am this morning and took a stroll along Cenang Beach. The weather was a bit unpredictable again, but it was still warm. I think that this is the first time since China that we have had consecutive days of cloudy weather. It's amazing really because we have been travelling through the supposedly "wet season"! I think we have been really lucky so far as we have had hot sunny weather nearly every day. When it has rained, it's usually only been for an hour at most, then the sun comes out again!

We went over to the Red Tomato for a baguette lunch and this is when we got the news about everywhere being closed. Basically, the 1st & 2nd of October are a Muslim holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan - it is called "Hari Raya Puasa". Now I'm not fully educated on Muslim, but from what I have read Muslims do not eat, drink, smoke or have sex from sunrise to sunset for 30 days

AB Motel Bedroom

. I can see why there is a big celebration at the end. Apparently this year, due to it falling midweek, it is expected to continue right through until Sunday. This is the major holiday in the Muslim calendar - I suppose it's like our Christmas - I wonder if there will be a James Bond movie on the tv?

Anyway, all Muslims tend to make their way home to their families for this celebration, which means even places that aren't owned by Muslims, may have to close due to lack of staff! This is what was going to happen to the Red Tomato - owned by a German, but her employees were Muslim. It all sort of made sense now and respecting the Muslim face, we still knew we could have a good time here just chilling on the beach.

Then we were given a minor bombshell. Apparently all transportation would also be booked up until Sunday - we wanted to leave on Friday!! We checked out the one travel agent who was open and he confirmed that all buses to Kuala Lumpur were full! Our only option was to fly, if there were any spaces and if it didn't cost a fortune!! We logged onto T'internet and managed to find a flight with Air Asia, although it was on Thursday instead. Amazingly, the flight was only �20 each, including taxes! We got it booked whilst we could. Due to this holiday, we also decided to book our Kuala Lumpur accommodation in advance as well - just in case

1-AB Motel Bedroom

. So we are going to be in KL from the 2nd to the 6th of October now. All is well - I hope.

After all the dust had settled, we decided to go to the big Duty Free store just up from our motel. As most shops were going to be closed tomorrow, we thought we ought to stock up on booze - Lol. We just got a 1 litre bottle of vodka for �3.60 and 12 cans of Tiger for �2.90! This place was cheap. Even cigarettes were 20p a packet! Lorna also got herself a new waterproof watch which cost about �6.

We then headed back to our beach veranda to consume some of the freshly purchased produce whilst enjoying a leisurely game of cards and some tunes. After a couple of hours, we got showered & changed and headed off out for some grub.

We found a place called the Oasis Beach Restaurant, which was, well, right on the beach. It had Indian Curries on the menu! We spent the evening scoffing curry whilst overlooking the ocean - grand. The chef came over and had a chat with us as well. He was Malaysian and was trying to guess our nationality. He went through every Mediterranean Country & Australia etc but took ages to finally say "well you can't be English, you're not white enough"! That's 4 months travelling in the sun for you!

Back to the veranda for a late night tipple - Lorna was pretty tipsy by now - before calling it a night.