Langkawi Holiday

we bought the tickets during the airasia promotion last year. we targetted the date to be during my maternity leave. the downside of booking too early is you dont know what will happen on the date that you're supposed to be travelling. amir wasnt feeling well, he had high fever after his birthday party. hubby too had the flu, so he wasnt in the mood for a holiday. but the tickets bought and the hotel's been booked so we had to go.

the first thing that went wrong was the airport limo did not show up. i called the night before to book a taxi. i repeated (and he repeated) around 3 times each that the taxi should be at our house by 9am (even said pagi, in case the "a" in am wasnt clear enough). come 9am, the taxi was no where to be seen. i called up the company, and the person who picked up the call said the booking is for 9pm. they apologised and offered a backup car. we accepted. unfortunately there was no back up car, and they had to call a cab for us. it doesnt matter, as long as we get there. they quoted the price at $66. what??!! in the website, it stated $47. when i booked the person said, i cant rely on the internet price (??) and told me it was $52. ok fine...when i called again to enquire about the cab in the morning, it went up to $56, using the excuse of "itu harga dalam system" (how many systems do they have anyway??). and now, because they put the wrong time, i'm supposed to pay even higher?

hubby called a normal taxi, who charged us $55. we got there in time. our flight was at 11:25am. we looked at the departure screen. our flight wasnt on the list. we searched for the counter, luckily it was still open. we had a light breaksfast and went in to the departure hall. outside was too crowded. then we heard the announcement. our flight is delayed to 12:20pm. great. so we sat there. amir was tired but wanted to play, asyraf was sleeping in the baby carrier, thank god. then another announcement came on...our flight is delayed further to 1:10pm. double great!

after 2 trips to the toilet, a loaf of potato bread and 2 bottles of milk later, we were on the plane. asyraf fell asleep immediately. amir stayed up long enough to watch the plane take off. hubby and i talked for a bit, and then we were in langkawi. a short taxi ride later, we were at the hotel. the hotel itself was nice. not too big but not too small.the beach behind the hotel was nice, the pool was huge. unfortunately the room was not up to my satisfaction. the furniture was old and needed to be changed. the bed was far too soft. the carpet was really gross. and the toilet...well, it was bearable. we stayed in pelangi beach resort 3 years ago, that was far, far better.

hubby slept with asyraf, while i took amir for a walk. we went to the beach, the pool, we surveyed the hotel and found the kiddies room. i let amir play for a bit, before taking him for a swim. hubby went across the road to rent a car. after shower and maghrib prayers, we went out in search of food. the boys slept in the car, so hubby drove around for a bit and we discussed where to go the next day.

on our second day there, we took a long drive towards kuah town. the boys slept as soon as we got into the car, maybe because it was hot. there were new roads constructed so hubby took his time familiarising himself with the new roads. we had mcdonalds for lunch at langkawi fair. we drove around some more, and returned to the hotel around 4pm. hubby took amir for a swim while i looked after asyraf. that night we went out again to look for ikan bakar. i wanted udang bakar but it was quite expensive so i settled for ikan pari bakar, instead.

on the third day, hubby wanted to look for the high point where we can get a nice view of langkawi island. we drove around for quite a while before finding the place. its entrance was somewhat hidden, and hubby couldnt find it from the new highway. amir liked the view and could see planes landing and taking off. then we drove to the jetty to look at boats. we thought of going to dataran helang but it was too hot.

we went back to the hotel around 3pm and i took amir for another swim. hubby returned the car before dinner. the hotel has a themed dinner every night and that night was mixed barbeque. i was waiting for that, and booked the babysitter to take care of asyraf so that we can enjoy our dinner.

on our last day there, i took amir around the hotel again. had to distract him from the pool. he wanted to jump in and was not happy with just 3 swims. around 12pm we checked out and left for the airport. we were early but we wanted the boys to sleep. i was afraid that the plane would be delayed again, but surprisingly it was on time, earlier by 10 minutes in fact.

the boys slept on the plane. we wanted to sleep too but the ride wasnt smooth.

after getting our luggage hubby went to buy the taxi coupon and the ticketing person quoted $76 for the journey. hubby flipped. earlier it was $52, then it became $56, and now its $76. what kind of system does the airport limo have anyway? the taxi was more expensive than the flight ticket we paid.

we got home, switched on the telly for amir (he's been asking for 'bear' for 3 days), i unpacked and did the laundry, while hubby read the news of the spurs-arsenal game. it was a restful but tiring trip. the next time, it wont be air asia and it wont be holiday villa...