Scenic Route

While on Langkawi Island we signed up for a Mangrove Boat Trip. What a trip! It was sooo cool! Our guide, Dev, was amazing in himself. Dev was raised in Singapore by a UK naval officer who trained British troops in jungle warfare. He is just so passionate about the rain forests and recently got Langkawi declared a national park after the mangroves saved the island from the tsunami. You'll see a great pic of him showing us one of the island's charcoal kilns. We made some new friends on the trip! Represented on the boat is the UK, Finland, Australia and the good ol' USA. That day we saw mud walkers (little fish that live in mud and walk!), some deadly snakes (too close for me), a huge bat cave (again, too close for comfort), and Monitor lizards that get to 3 meters in length ! I was the only volunteer brave enough to feed a stingray! He had a big wet smiley mouth and it was hard to keep my fingers free! We stopped to swim (and kiss :) in a lagoon that was like bath water. Bef...

We just spent our quarterly time out (thank you Joe Wagner :) at Langkawi Island in Malaysia. Amazing . On these trips it's our habit to do "best of" comparisons of all the beaches we've been to in Asia --done while sipping our umbrella drinks at sunset; i.e., best of... sand/ best of... pool/room/food--you get the idea. This was best all around . We booked a boutique resort, the Casa Del Mar, with only 34 rooms--each about 30 yards from the ocean. The room was exquisite--complete with cinnamon soap and turn down service! Every mid morning, carts went around to all the poolside & seaside loungers delivering pitchers of ice water (with lemon). A bit later came cold wash cloths (it was hot & humid you know :) only to be followed later with plates of sliced watermelon. We made new friends. We gorged on lobster & crab morning, noon & night. We swam in the sea at all hours. We walked the sleepy beach town of Cenang most every day. Oh! And we had massa...