Langkawi, Some Luxury for the Flashpacker

I ended up in Langkawi, a little island (or rather on the biggest of an archipelago of 99 little islands) in Malaysia, just at the border with Thailand, following the suggestion of Kathryn, a girl I met on one of those wild nights in Singapore.


When I arrive in a new place, especially if late at night, I like to have already a place to stay. But I always end up booking the accommodation one or two days before. In Langkawi almost every hotel has a very basic website, with no instant confirmation booking form. If you're lucky they have an inquiry form and they promise to get back to you within a day. That was not good for a last minute person like me, searching for a place to stay just a day before going there. So I ended up booking 3 nights at the Berjaya Hotel resort. Very expensive for Malaysian standards, but not crazy for European ones considering what you get. 60 Euros a night for a place that looked spectacular, excellent reviews, free internet. The Flashpacker in me was satisfied.


And the place is spectacular indeed. You get your own little wooden house so far from the hotel lobby that you need to be brought back and forth in one of those golf-like carts. When I checked in the guy told me to make sure to close doors and windows well. Thefts I asked? Monkeys! And in fact my little wooden house was in the very middle of a jungle, and every time I was walking around I always bumped into monkeys, and at night huge geckos and flying squirrel flying in front of my face.


An excellent stay, but at the end I was glad I only spent 3 days there. Being a resort it caters for couples and few groups; I was becoming an attraction as a single traveller. The friendly (and inquisitive) Malay staff just couldn't get the concept of travelling on your own, so after being asked from the 10th different person where my wife was I started telling them that she's at home, cooking and waiting for me while I am on business on this island.

Moreover I discovered in my first expedition outside the resort that the rest of the island has way cheaper prices for basically everything, from postcards to bottled water (so hot here that you have 600ml instead of the classic 500ml) and of course hotel rooms. So nice to have experienced the honeymoon luxury for a bit, but after the 3 days I moved to a little beach village, Pantai Cenang. But more on this on the next chapter.