12/4/18 - Day 75 (Continued)

After a very short flight from Penang to Langkawi (25 mins), we jump in a taxi and are at our hotel in under 10 mins, very close to the airport. The hotel is quirky, we’re staying at Temple Tree which is right next door to another hotel called Bon Ton and sandwiched in between both is the Lassie Animal Sanctuary. The staff are very friendly and welcoming, there’s about eight rooms but buildings are all huge Malaysian / Colonial buildings which have been transported from the far flung parts of Malaysia and reassembled here so each room is different. They have upgraded us to a large room which had a resident cat (who I shall name Fat Cat, more on him / her later) but when we check it out it’s beautiful but baking hot and very open to the elements so we ask if we can take our original room which is in a cooler spot and there are less exposed parts. I’ve arrived covered in very raised, angry mosquito bites from the previous day so I think they can understand but they probably still think we’re crazy for not taking the upgrade. After settling in and leaving the a/c on full pelt to do its thing we head over to check out Bon Ton, we can use facilities at both places. Bon Ton is also lovely and quirky, it sits with a view looking out over the bird sanctuary so we order a couple of drinks and watch the birds whilst the sun sets. We decide to stay and have dinner and we share a small selection of curries, delicious but pricey before heading back. We sleep under the mosquito net just in case.

13/4/18 - Day 76

Not much to report as a very lazy day by the pool, we grab some nibbles for lunch at the Temple Tree Restaurant and I spend most of the day reading ‘When God was a Rabbit’, great book. We appear to have been adopted by Fat Cat who camps out by our door. After we’d found F.C. in the other hotel room yesterday J gave it loads of water because it looked like it had been trapped in the room for a while, plus we thought she might be pregnant. We later find out that she / he is not pregnant, just fat, hence the name. In the late afternoon we walk into Pantai Cenang which is the nearest beach resort area which is about a 20 min walk away. The beach is nice, still packed with people. We eventually walk to the end of the beach and find the Yellow Beach Bar and settle in here to watch the sun set. Find an air conditioned Restaurant on our way back but the food is shocking, I’m so traumatised I can’t even recall the name. We hire a scooter and drive back to the hotel.

14/4/18 - Day 77

More of the same, lounging and reading. FC is still camped outside our room. J made the mistake of giving F.C. some milk in a saucer. We were going to venture out on the scooter but by late afternoon a storm is brewing so I do a lovely afternoon yoga session in our room whilst listening to the thunder storm. The rain doesn’t let up so we decide to eat at the hotel. The food and service is great but you have to be prepared for cats face-planting on your table which we witnessed with much amusement, not funny for the diners because the lady in question clearly was also frightened of cats! We return to our room and then have the worse nights sleep as we have incredibly noisy neighbours who decide to party until 3am! I guess that’s karma for laughing about the cat face-planting itself into someone’s dinner earlier.

15/4/18 - Day 78

No signs of last night’s storm. F.C. still outside our room. J woke up well before me and set up breakfast (they deliver continental breakfast to our rooms the night before). F.C. has been joined by his friend Ginger Cat, both our now stationed outside the door. Both clearly want to come in. J gets out of the window to pop into town on the scooter to sort out a hair cut and dropping off our laundry somewhere, I’m going to find a way to get out of the room and retreat to the pool. He comes back looking like a new man! I almost didn’t recognise him...


16/4/18 - Day 79

Despite no longer having noisy neighbours (they’ve checked out thankfully) I slept really badly. Get up and do some yoga and breakfast, we decide to go and do some volunteer work for Lassie (Langkawi Animal Sanctuary...) which is located next door. We get there and bump into one of the long standing volunteers, Dorothy. Dorothy and I walk a number of dogs, I walk Charlie (who’s very scared of men). J walks some other dogs with another lady volunteer. I then walk Peaches who is blind but soon gets used to hearing my voice and finally the lovely Tigger. J, I and another English lady who has come along to help then have the great job of supervising and playing with six 3 month old puppies, and then the not so fun part of picking up dog sh*t, hey the good and the bad. Dorothy tells me the puppies are destined for adoption in Belgium, otherwise they would have been put to sleep, which is a terrible thought.

It’s tough, no where near as professional as the operations back home or the Koh Lanta set up and leaves me feeling very sad. It clearly needs investment and organisation. It’s tough because the population on the Island are mainly Muslim and therefore unlikely to adopt any dogs, so the dogs are being boarded here but rarely successfully rehomed. The real star though is Dorothy who has been a volunteer at the centre for over 12 years, she comes everyday and spends whatever time she can doing what we’ve done today. Thank the universe for the Dorothy’s of this world! I also hope that Bon Ton and Temple Tree do well despite being quirky, ageing resorts because they are the source of funding for Lassie...

We both feel a bit upset and out of sorts, it’s like that when you feel a problem needs solving and you can’t fix it I guess. We head back to our room to grab a shower and we don’t even try and resist F.C. coming into our room, so she promptly makes herself comfy. We head into Pantai Cheong and have a low key lunch, pick up our laundry and then get back to our hotel. We finally track down the Korean restaurant, Haroo, that we’ve been reading about but couldn’t find and decide to go back to this eve.

We decide to spend a few hours by the pool relaxing and reading, the last chance we’ll get to be together for a while as we part company tomorrow...we head to Haroo, have food and then realise that we don’t have enough cash to pay the bill. J heads off to take the moped back and collect our deposit. He leaves me at the restaurant where spookily two things happen; the table next to us don’t have enough money to pay their bill so I help them out and then I spot Dorothy leaving the restaurant with a tall, blond guy, she looks very happy and I’m happy for her. J gets back and I tell him we have even less cash now. We manage to pay and get a grab car back to the hotel. F.C. is still in our room. Final bit of packing and then set the alarm for an early start.