Farewell Langkawi, Terima Kasih

As well as the abundant nature, friendly people and animals, the best thing about Langkawi was our host, who went far beyond what we could have expected. He took us to places he likes to go himself and made sure we would like them too. A case in point was this morning's breakfast locale: a self-service vegetarian buffet run by a Buddhist association.

Buddhist tofu and rice

I helped myself to piles of healthy food, including spicy tofu, vegetables in a sour sauce, and Chinese stir-fried noodles. A hearty plate of rice was just what I needed to soak up last night's excesses.

To go with the self-service nature of the place, we did our own washing-up. Payment was by donation, which goes towards helping farm animals that have reached the end of their productive life (e.g. non-laying hens) and would otherwise be slaughtered. Ironically the Buddhist café seemed to be staffed entirely by Muslims.

The ferry trip from Kuah jetty to Georgetown pier on Pulau Penang was fortunately uneventful. I couldn't honestly call it a smooth journey as the 2h45 crossing was quite choppy. Thankfully I don't tend to get sea sick, so I fell into the unrewarding, head-nodding sleep that comes upon me on public transport. I came to only briefly to eat a slice of cheesecake I had picked up at Starbucks. This was more cake than (cream) cheese, but was tasty enough. I would have to wait to get to Penang - the food Mecca of Malaysia - to get lovingly baked cheesecake.

Georgetown is the main populated area on the island of Penang and much of its town centre is a UNESCO heritage zone. It is eminently walkable, but with our large and heavy bags, we took a taxi to our accommodation.

Our home for the next two weeks is more of a guesthouse than the 'homestays' we have so far preferred. However, the proprietor, Steven, greeted us and was very friendly and informative about Penang and the local area. Steven is keen on cycling - hence the guesthouse name - and actively welcomes guests with bicycles. So thoughtful is he, that he sells sanitary towels ergonomically designed for lady cyclists(!)

After a quick freshening up, we took one of the suggested spots for dinner and headed out into the streets of Georgetown. Penang is known as the food capital of Malaysia and cafés, restaurants and street hawkers' stands abound on every street. "You will get fat in Penang," warned everyone we spoke to before arriving. "Throw out your diet," suggested Steven, although once we told him of our vegetarianism, he had to scratch his head a while. Indeed, a handy pamphlet guide containing dozens of varieties of street food revealed not a single savoury dish that could be considered vegetarian. "Once you take out the shrimp paste, chicken and cuttlefish, it's just noodles really," Steven said of one dish. I can't live on dessert alone - much as I might like to - but we haven't had too much trouble thus far in finding tasty and veggie-friendly food.

Banana leaf rice and dal

Steven's proposal for dinner was banana leaf rice at Passions of Kerala. As the name suggests, served directly on the leaf were tomato rice, three kinds of curry, lime pickle, with a side of creamy dal and poppadoms. Having polished off much of the delicious tofu curry, vegetable sabzi, and one of the tastiest lime pickles I have ever tried, the waiter arrived back at the table. "More?", he asked. He replenished the leaf with those curries we had demolished. We paid the princely sum of 6.50RM (about £1.20) for each leaf including seconds.

Breakfast Finale

We woke in time to catch sunrise this morning. Langkawi, due to its longitudinal position and timezone (GMT+08:00), sees the sunrise later than places in Thailand that are the same distance east of Greenwich. This means that the sun rose this morning at a very lazy 7:39 and took a good few minutes to scale the mountains on the horizon. We made our way up the hill to a good vantage point and enjoyed the gradual shift in the colour of the sky and of the jungle sounds signalling the dawn.

Langkawi sunrise

On returning, our host had been working tirelessly on breakfast since before we left.

Breakfast finale: Teochew porridge

He had prepared Teochew rice porridge, similar to congee, with no fewer than seven toppings. The toppings are salty and often spicy to counter the bland rice porridge. From front to back in the above photo, they comprised salted skin-on peanuts, fried tofu skin with ginger and shiitake mushrooms, salted omelette, okra in soy sauce, a salad of sliced red onions with crispy shallots and fresh red chillies in a vinegar dressing, salted hardboiled eggs, and cooked grated jícama (turnip).

We piled the toppings on and stirred them into the creamy rice, declaring it a "triumphant breakfast finale" and "the best yet". It was so good we had it for lunch too.

As the end of the day approached, our host took us to Cenang beach to see the sun go down.

Sunset on Pantai Cenang

We sat and ate at Yellow Café with a superb view of the orange sun silhouetting the revellers on the sand, and those still on jet-ski, banana boat or parasail.

Margarita and pizza (not margherita)

As befits the climate, the food was Mediterranean in nature. A green salad liberally doused in thousand-island dressing, and a vegetarian pizza was a perfect accompaniment to our final evening in Langkawi.

After dark, we followed dinner and wine with cocktails at nearby Ruang - a cheap and cheerful bar seemingly cobbled together from wooden packing crates outside a 7-Eleven. The bartenders know what they are doing, though, and we sipped a couple of drinks, including a fairly lethal long island iced tea, which barely saw any of the Coca-Cola mixer.

And that was where any sensible evening should have ended. However, our incorrigible host proposed we go to Sunba for a "quick drink".

The scene in the bar was similar to that which we had witnessed a week ago when visiting: TV screens showed football to glassy-eyed men and their apparently bored girlfriends while a live band played to apparently deaf ears. The atmosphere was friendly but stilted; nobody danced. We sipped a beer and watched the empty dance floor.

The following moments were like the viral video, Harlem Shake, that did the rounds on the internet a few years ago. At one moment, the room of immobile patrons sat, apparently unaware of the music playing, to which only a few lonely souls were moving. At an indistinguishable moment, the scene cut and suddenly everybody was dancing like their lives depended on it. Somehow we had joined (even instigated?) the fray and didn't stop until well gone 3AM  - a time I haven't seen from the sharp end for some years - when we left, having reached an advanced state of refreshment. It was a good night.

Lassie

Breakfast this morning was fresh sliced mango and no-flour pancakes, which contained just banana, eggs, and salt. The banana gave them natural sweetness.

Banana 'no flour' pancakes

Being an island, Langkawi suffers from the same animal population control problem as Ko Lanta. The solution has come in a very similar set-up to the Lanta Animal Welfare centre / Time for Lime restaurant partnership. On Langkawi, a foreigner, moved by the poor treatment of dogs and cats, set up Lassie, a vet service and shelter, which is attached to and part-funded by the Bon Ton resort.

Christopher

Christopher the kitten was found by a couple staying at the Bon Ton resort, but as Lassie was oversubscribed, our host agreed to take him in. He already had two cats, both named after spices - Halia (meaning ginger) and Lada (meaning pepper) - but softened to the kitten after seeing his photo. Christopher was named by the couple that found him. We returned there today to get some medication for an eye infection he had picked up.

Flirting with danger

Bon Ton is a beautiful, stylish and unique resort, as its accommodation comprises heritage houses of various styles collected from around Malaysia. These have been lovingly refurbished and appointed. We stopped in for a coffee and to enjoy the calm serenity. When constructed, the resort was directly on the beach, but since a breakwater was built, the sand washed away and the land returned to swamp. The view is none the worse (and arguably improved) for this.

Bon Ton heritage accommodation

From the resort, we took a walk all the way through Pantai Cenang to Pantai Tengah and made the very wise decision to have lunch at Sugar, directly overlooking the beach.

Linguine and arancinia at Sugar

The menu is Mediterranean, as in many of the restaurants catering to tourists. We enjoyed some freshly prepared arancini, light and fluffy with risotto balls with mozzarella and peas. I had a tasty dish of courgette and pesto linguine, while K had a grilled vegetable sandwich. The food was satisfying and full of sun in the way that only Italian-inspired cuisine can be. A chilled glass or two of Chilean white wine went especially well with the atmosphere and we felt especially indulgent rolling into the sea to cool off.

An ice cream at an Italian 'gelato' kiosk before returning home just capped off the indulgence and we resolved not to eat again. Apart from those noodles we needed to eat up. With maybe a fried egg on top...

Ukulele Serenade

Today's entry in our host's efforts to cook up 17 unique breakfasts for us during our stay was stuffed pitta breads.

The pitta was filled with a kind of turnip, often known by the Spanish name jícama, but called ubi sengkuang in Malay. This was grated and fried with garlic until soft, stuffed into pitta with tomato, lettuce, coriander leaves and a sweet chilli sauce. Tasty and filling.


We took a walk around the local area. First, we walked up the hill through the rubber plantations, where the row upon row of trees had their bark peeled back, oozing sticky white sap.

Rubber tree

We ended up at the fisherman's wharf and took a small lunch at Shin Mi.

While most Asian countries have a version of fried spring roll, Thailand has not been surpassed in our affections. The rolls we had for lunch were small and crunchy, but more roll than filling. A Thai roll is fatter and full of noodles, mushrooms and veggies, and it's hard to beat the Thai sweet chilli dip. It's also always interesting to see what passes for a salad in various countries, as few constrain themselves to the lettuce leaf. Our 'mixed salad' was shredded white cabbage, carrot, tomato, and red onion in a limey, oily dressing. Not my favourite dish. Even the bland Tiger beer was rendered acceptable by an icy chilled glass.

A one that is not cold is barely a one at all

On the main road near our homestay is a place called House of Lamb. We had previously written this off as a grill restaurant and of no interest to vegetarians. However, on closer inspection, it turned out to be an art gallery whose owner tacked on a meat café, as he "really likes lamb".

'Meat' the artist at House of Lamb

During the day the art space functions as a café, so we enjoyed a coffee before perusing the artwork, some of which was created by the same hands that prepared the drinks. The menu is indeed exclusively lamb-based and, while no doubt delicious, sadly offered no reason to return.

Char kway teow

Our host was keen to cook for us this evening, as this would give him a reason not to eat out. He prepared us a specialty from his native Penang, char kway teow. This is stir-fried flat rice noodles. Typically, the noodles are fried in pork fat, which is odd for a Muslim country, but it is a Chinese import and halal and non-halal restaurants co-exist happily. This version was vegetarian and excluded the usual seafood. Alongside was a lovingly prepared corn soup made deeply savoury with shiitake mushrooms.

A surprise serenade by our host on the ukulele rounded out the evening. We were honoured that he chose to share this passion of his and he clearly took great pleasure in playing us versions of his favourite songs. I look forward to his rendition of Fly Me to the Moon.

Duty Not Paid

Our host presented us with a basket of warm curry puffs for breakfast this morning. These were similar to the kuih we saw for sale the other day, but were the bake-at-home variety. They were delectably moreish morsels, with crispy, flaky pastry and a slightly spicy comforting curried potato inside. At the mention of yesterday evening's cake, the remainder was quickly produced for breakfast. Breakfast of champions.

Curry puffs and cake for breakfast

After a lunch of scrambled egg, left-over curry from yesterday, and fried choi sum, we were stuffed for the rest of the day, and lazed about unholistically.

This trend continued as we took advantage of Langkawi's duty-free status.

Our host had previously brought us to a Chinese supermarket that has many imported foods. Indulging our penchant for cheese, we bought a French Camembert, Irish Cheddar, and Danish blue cheese. The first two lacked much flavour but the blue was creamy and delicious.

Our host had also led us to the Aladdin's cave of the supermarket - a sealed-off room stacked floor to ceiling with imported wine. The lack of duty paid offsets the expense of importing and so many of the bottles were comparable to buying them in the UK. The exception to this was the clearance shelf, which saw bottles being given away for between 5 and 10RM (less than £2). We enjoyed the cheese with a 5RM Sicilian white.

Daytrippers

Despite not hitting the pillow until nearly 1AM last night, we were up with the sunrise this morning. Fortunately, this was still a most civilised 7AM alarm, owing to the combination of Langkawi's extreme west longitude and its timezone (GMT+8:00). However, we were set to switch timezone twice today on a daytrip across the Thai border to nearby Ko Lipe.

An odd and strangely comforting breakfast combination greeted us this morning, comprising a thin milky cereal-based soup tasting of Weetabix with chunks of warm garlic bread on the side. Nothing surprises me any more for breakfast.

We eschewed the local snorkelling experience at Pulau Payar, which involves a similar journey time but according to reports promises a far inferior experience than what awaited us in Thailand. Tourists complain of being treated like cattle, herded from bus to boat and shouted at through megaphone not to step on the coral, which has already been largely destroyed by hundreds of tourist feet.

Arriving at Ko Lipe

At Ko Lipe, crystal clear waters awaited us as we were brought by long-tailed boat from the jetty to the beach. Ko Lipe is open for only part of the year, while the remaining months are used to clean the area. While rubbish may not be generated there, it has a tendency to wash up unbidden on the shores of even the remotest uninhabited islands.

Private long-tailed boat

Having passed immigration - a one-man hut on the beach - we were escorted onto our own private long-tailed boat. For the rest of the day we didn't see more than a handful of other couples.

Clear waters

Ko Lipe itself is rather small, but is part of a cluster of islands around which corals and tropical fish abound. The corals were stunning, all different shapes and colours, ranging from brown and orange to vibrant purple, some shaped like bracket fungus (or the ear-shaped wood fungus beloved of Chinese), some shaped like giant brains or enormous underwater blob creatures.

While the sea bed threatened razor-sharp corals and black spiny sea urchins, nestled like unexploded bombs, the surface boasted a tropical dance of fish. Clown fish, neon fish, and many more colourful varieties we could not put names to swam curiously towards our masks until we were part of the shoal.

Lunch at the beach

Our boat driver pulled up at a perfect strip of sand along the coast of Adang island. We ate a packed lunch of fried rice and a skillfully carved pineapple.

The water along the coast was calm, but quickly became choppy farther out into the open sea. Our first drop left us drifting from the boat and corals in the strong current, with the result that we exercised greater care on subsequent attempts.

Returning to the landing point, the boat sailed clear over the waves,  landing with a thud after each one, and had us gripping on at the prow.

Lighthouse at Telaga Harbour

Returning to Langkawi's Telega harbour and once again resetting our watches to the new timezone, we were met by our host.

Veggie barbecue

Back at home, he had been preparing a barbecue for the evening. Vegetable skewers, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes were all staples of a vegetarian BBQ, normally the preserve of meat-eaters. A curry and rice (not cooked on the barbecue) gave an Asian twist to the food.

After the barbecue, a cake appeared, which is odd as there was absolutely nothing special about today. It was our host's first attempt at baking a cake - orange sponge with fresh fruit on top - and went down a treat.

Jungle Trekking and Flaming Lamborghinis

Chinese culture and food has influenced a lot of Malaysian cooking. A direct import is dim sum, and people the world over can now be found tucking into shumai dumplings, har gow, and bao buns as part of yum cha (drinking tea), much as cucumber sandwiches and scones accompany a pot of Earl grey.

Bao bun

Finding vegetarian versions of these dim sum classics is difficult, and it is usually the sweet varieties that are veggie-friendly. However, even these are often traditionally made with pork fat, but with a large halal market in Malaysia, vegetable fat tends to be used in its place. Our host had picked us up two kinds of bao this morning - one containing sweetened red bean paste and another with a Malaysian coconut jam known as kaya.

For lunch, I reprised a recipe common to Vietnam and Cambodia, but which I haven't seen in evidence in Malaysia: lok lak. Cubes of tofu and aubergine are fried and coated in a chilli, peppery sauce, and served with red onions, rice and a fried egg.

Tofu lok lak

A hearty lunch was needed for an evening guided jungle walk through the Geopark at the west end of the island. While the Geopark in the north east comprises mangroves, this side is more straightforward jungle.

Starting from the Berjaya hotel, which offers guests the chance to stay in the jungle or on the water's edge, we walked through the hotel grounds to the jungle edge.

Berjaya hotel

Ironically, most of the wildlife can be found nestled among the human accommodation, rather than in the dense forest.

Bats hanging around

Dog-faced fruit bats were glimpsed nesting under some overhanging palm tree leaves. This is because there are few caves on Langkawi and those that do exist are presumably noisy with the sound of invading tourists shining lights into the creatures' sleeping faces.

Our walk began in the light and the bats weren't the only creatures still asleep. Flying lemurs are also nocturnal and were to be found, motionless, with their claws hooked into the tree, apparently asleep but with their eyes open. This is because they have no eyelids in order to appear alert to predators. At around 7:15PM, they wake up, lick their dry eyeballs to moisten them into motion, and then poo prolifically in order to lighten the load for heroic 70m leaps from tree to tree. They glide using extra skin between legs and arms, and between arms and neck.

The business end of a flying lemur

We left the still sleeping lemurs, and proceeded into the jungle. Our guides were expert on the flora and fauna, showing us the rastafarian palm tree - so called because its fruit resembles a head full of dreadlocks, and whose berries are poisonous to humans but not to the other jungle creatures - and the ladies palm tree - so named because only ladies know how to navigate thorny stems and use the leaves used to wrap bundles of sticky rice, thereby providing men an excuse not to learn how.

Rasta tree

Other dangerous plants we encountered include rattan. It grows tall in order to break through the canopy and absorb some of the precious sunshine. Rattan leaves are dried and used in furniture, as I suspect anyone who has been to Ikea will be familiar with, but its thorny stalks were apparently used for punishment in schools and prisons until recently - albeit, I'm told, with thorns removed.

Some trees had the misfortune to be entirely hollowed out by termites, whose nests we trod gingerly around. Apparently, they can deliver a nasty bite to the ankles. With the jungle providing them such a feast, I wondered why the termites bothered to venture into houses to munch the rafters and floorboards, and how the Berjaya hotel remained standing. Weekly fumigation is apparently the answer.

While the cicadas took up their shrill song, one of our small party could hear ringing of a different sort in her ears. Complaining of light headedness, an older lady, who had taken the beginning of the walk at a stately pace, lay down on the jungle floor. Ants and termites were the least of our guides' worries, as we were out of range of any form of communication. Having brought the lady round, the group resolved to turn back and see her to safety.

The hotel porters took the lady to be checked out and the rest of the group resumed the evening walk back through the hotel grounds. By now dusk was upon us, signalling the awakening of nocturnal creatures. Sure enough, bats circled overhead, while out at sea boats turned on their green lights to attract squid.

As we were walking, we heard the tell-tale pitter-patter, not of falling rain but of excrement hitting the foliage beneath a tree. This signalled to us that a flying lemur was jettisoning its load in preparation for flight. Soon the creatures arced silently through the air above our heads, while others clawed their way up tree trunks and eerily rotated their heads 180° to spot their target.

Our host met us after the walk and took us to Fat Mum for what I can honestly say is the best Chinese food I have every eaten.

While normally specialising in seafood, the Chinese chef - the eponymous 'fat mum' - loves the challenge of cooking. Given advanced warning of our arrival, she had prepared a vegetarian feast comprising entirely off-menu dishes.

Yam cake nest at Fat Mum

A healthful soup of sweet longan and jujube had been simmered for 4.5 hours and promised us a good night's sleep. A yam cake of steamed yam fried and filled with baby corn, soy meat and red chillies was deliciously savoury and a mixture of textures. Tofu and nori fish pieces in a sauce sweet from honey and sharp from rice wine vinegar with finely sliced cucumber was easily the best mock fish to grace my taste buds.

Tofu skin vegetable parcel

On hearing that we enjoy spicy food, which is apparently unusual for foreigners, fat mum produced a sambal of chilli with vegetarian shrimp, which was delightfully chewy and hot. Afterwards, an annual guest from Austria, called Hans, who seems to have entered into a work-for-lodgings agreement with the restaurant, offered us a brandy. We enjoyed a snifter with fat mum and some Austrian chocolate pralines. Talking to someone who clearly has a passion and flair for cooking was inspiring.

The next time I saw a brandy glass, it was up the street at Lepak bar, balanced precariously in a tower of glassware, while flaming sambuca ran down its sides.

Behold! The Flaming Lamborghini

This one-of-a-kind cocktail was offered by the bar proprietor, Frankie, and was one-and-a-half beers in the preparation. The ostentatiously named 'Flaming Lamborghini' was constructed from two brandy glasses atop a wide margarita glass with a shot glass on top. The clear sambuca was carefully flowed down the outside and lit. I braved singed eyebrows and gingerly supped the liquor - a mixture of Kahlua and Blue Curaçao - with a straw from the bottom, while the bartender extinguished the flames with a pour of Bailey's Irish cream. It was quite an end to the evening.

SkyCab and the Seven Wells

Our host has taken up the challenge of serving us a different dish for each day's breakfast. This morning he took great delight in serving us the English favourite: scrambled eggs and beans on toast. The familiar flavours were comforting, but by now I would much rather tuck into fried noodles of a morning.

One of the main attractions of Langkawi is the cable car that runs 750m up to the second highest peak on the island, Gunung Matcincang.

SkyCab!

Branded as the 'SkyCab', this makes the most of what Langkawi has to offer, which is unparalleled views over the surrounding tree-covered islands and out to the Andaman Sea.

Oriental Village

A rather unnecessary and bizarre theme park town, called Oriental Village, has sprung up at the base of the cable car. The accompanying cross-selling attempts to supersize the already naturally awesome (lit.) sight with other attractions including a 5-minute 'cine 180' experience in which our inner ears are tantalised by vertigo-inducing images of upside-down rollercoasters streaming through our optical nerves.

SkyBridge

To complete the Disneyland feel, there is a genuine if, I suspect, not wholly endorsed walking Minnie Mouse with which we were encouraged to have our picture taken. At another stage of the ascent, we were photographed in front a green screen, over which the actual view behind the screen was composited and presented to us to purchase. I presume this is to guard against the elements, which may conspire to ruin a natural photograph. Still, it seemed a little superfluous on the cloudless day when no amount of Photoshop magic could rival the actual view.

Langkawi islands viewed from Ginung Matcingcang

Gunung Matcincang is named after a legend about two giants, Matcincang and Matraya, who fought and were turned into the two tallest mountains on Langkawi. With the peaks forming a clear face, it is easy to see how this legend originated.

The face of Mat Cincang

From the foot of the mountain, it was a short walk to Telaga Tujuh, the Seven Wells waterfall, so named for the seven pools that have formed there.

Seven Wells waterfall

So attractive is the environment there that it is said that fairies used it as their bathing place. For this reason, the water us believed to have healing properties. I cannot ratify either of these claims, but a dip in the cool waters and a rinse under the waterfall was most welcome after the hot walk.

A climb of 638 steps to the top of the waterfall rewarded us with an area where the fairies must have had some fun splashing about.

Rock slide

A natural path worn smooth along the surface of the rocks provides a perfect slide into a deep pool of water. Luckily the water was flowing after a few recent spells of rain and we happily tobogganed along the rocks like big children. Oddly no actual children were there.

At home, I took the opportunity to cook dinner. Although we have access to a kitchen, a combination of remote markets, good local restaurants, and our host's enthusiasm for cooking and eating out, means I haven't been behind the stove for a while.

Mee kari (kind of)

I attempted a version of mee kari, curry noodles, using egg noodles and a yellow curry of aubergine, fried tempeh, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, and coconut milk. I adore aubergine cooked slowly until it melts in my mouth. Tempeh is a local product to Indonesia and Malaysia, made with whole soya beans that have been inoculated with a bacteria that causes a mould to grow and turn the loose beans into a cake or brick. The concept sounds disgusting, but the mould is a good mould, like in blue cheese, and the result, when sliced and fried, is nutty and meaty. Finding it in the UK is expensive, and my attempts to produce it at home have met with mixed success. Tempeh needs a warm environment in which to grow the mould, and so can be produced in the natural heat of SE Asian countries.

Bananas and Cheese

Roti canai was on the breakfast menu this morning. The preparation of the roti flatbread is labour intensive and so many people tend to eat it at a dedicated stall. As is the wont of many stallholders in Malaysia, the first place we tried this morning was inexplicably closed. Our host knew of another good spot in Padang Matsirat, which was busy with local people breakfasting before work, some in uniform ready to go on shift.

Roti canai and teh tarik

This roti was different again to the versions we have tried before. We tucked into a double portion of crispy, flaky pieces of the fried dough, which were soft and fluffy on the inside. Creamy dal mixed with a spicy and oily red sambal was served into which to dip the roti. It was pure comfort food. We had it with teh tarik - 'pulled' tea, so called because it is poured from a great height into the cup creating a foam.

As we discovered in Thailand, breakfast stalls sell out before 9am, and this place was no exception. The dough was all used up and we left a crowd of happy faces.

On the way back home, we stopped at a small stall on the corner of the road in Kuala Teriang selling kuih - Malaysian snacks. Many of these were sweet, and so we loaded up pick 'n' mix-style, paying 1RM for every four.

Kuih and coffee

While some of the treats were familiar - tiny iced doughnuts - many defied description, being sweetened shredded coconut rolled inside a pandan-flavoured pancake, or a red sago jelly sweet. They went well with a pot of coffee as a post-massage snack.

After over a week of staying at a spa retreat, I have only just got round to having a massage myself. Such is the demand for our host's services that he has barely had a spare slot in his schedule. Today, however, I bagged 90 minutes of his time to work over the knots in my back and shoulders with the pointy end of his elbows. It was billed as a traditional Malaysian massage and was quite the most painful version I have experienced, with Vietnamese and Thai versions to choose from. This may have had more to do with the practitioner than the style.

In the evening, we took a stroll to the night market, which is at its nearest location on Sundays. It was there that we stumbled on a lady selling fried bananas and cheese as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Unholy combination

Sure enough, sliced and frittered bananas were presented with grated cheese melting on the top and mixing with chocolate sauce and hundreds-and-thousands.

Yum(?)

While I applaud the concept, which fits the Malaysian penchant for pairing savoury and sweet, the cheese didn't really deliver enough flavour to balance out the sugary sweetness. I suspect a good parmesan would have worked well and, indeed, does bring a new dimension when eaten with honey.

Apam balik 'pancakes'

Alongside the bananas and cheese, we assembled a ridiculous smörgåsbord of food, including nasi kerabu, fried noodles, a thick folded pancake stuffed with sugar, peanuts and corn (called apam balik), and some sticky rice with pandan-flavoured coconut cream topping. The apam balik was like a large English crumpet, the spongy side covered in condensed milk, creamy corn and crunchy peanuts, then folded in half, sliced and eaten warm.

Gunung Raya

With few 'must see' or 'must do' items on our list for Langkawi, we were content today to see where life took us.

Life, and a ten-minute walk, took us initially to a souvenir handicraft place called De'Zone. An online article dedicated an extensive write-up to this shop, relating an intriguing story about a pair of brothers bringing home artefacts from the four corners of the world, each one hiding a story of discovery they would be willing to share with you. The reality was a little more prosaic and neither the brothers nor the fascinating back-story to the unique 'objets' were apparent. In fact many of the pieces looked distinctly like any of the array of gewgaws found at all other souvenir resellers. Hand-made, perhaps, but certainly not one-of-a-kind antiquities sourced from distant lands.

On the opposite side of the road, coaches disgorged tourists into 'Chocoffee', which promised tastings of chocolate and coffee. I had low expectations and it failed to meet even these. Both products were of poor quality. The coffee was little more than instant powder full of sugar and flavourings. The chocolate was little better, being mostly vegetable fat and whey powder, with a similar array of flavour enhancers.

Our visit to these retailers, clearly set up to sell to tourists on one-day island tours, made me feel uncharitable. I want to see people with passion in their craft. Even if the result is not to my taste, I can appreciate the effort that has gone into it and the joy it has brought the creator.

I decided to enjoy what Langkawi does best: nature. After a self-guided session of yoga in the garden, I ensconced myself in my favourite position in the hammock. Brahminy kites circled high overhead, while closer to the tree-line, racket-tailed drongos hopped from branch to branch. It wasn't long before some macaques crept up to the edge of the garden and peered in. The puppies, if they were even aware, were uninterested.

Our host spontaneously proposed a trip to the summit of Gunung Raya - the highest peak on Pulau Langkawi - for sunset.

Kuah town

It took quite a while to drive the winding path up to the highest point at 800m above sea level, which gave us a good view over the whole island. Our host told us he cycled, once, to the top in two hours. For those who like a challenge, there are even steps all the way up one side of the mountain. There is a hotel at the peak, but few people stay there as it takes such a long time to ascend and descend the mountain each day.

Pulau Dayang

The view from the top was magnificent, looking out over nearby islands Pulau Tuba and Pulau Dayang to the south and Ko Tarutao (in Thailand) to the north. We sipped a beer that our host had thoughtfully packed into a cooler while the sun set.

Sunset from Gunung Raya

Having recently met an old school friend, our host suggested we eat at her small pop-up Italian restaurant that serves bars on Pantai Tengah. Although Chinese, she has spent several years in Italy and hand-makes fresh pasta. The tagliatelle was rich and flavoursome.

The atmosphere on Tengah beach is laid back and live music at nearby Wood's Bar by three guys on guitar and one on a djembe drum fitted in perfectly. They played covers of classics, which included an oddly jaunty rendition of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.

Our host was eager to show us Samba bar, where the atmosphere was a little livelier, but apparently we left shortly after midnight before it really heated up.