Languid in Malaysian Langkawi

Another two days of travel brought us to this charming island off the coast of mainland Malaysia.
We were up at 5 and out by sixas we were the first to be picked up and the ferry was at 8am. The mini bus transferred us to the ferry after one and a half hours of riding around trying to find the accommodation of the other 9 travellers! We were up and down tracks and tumbled about before the driver parked at the jetty car-park at 7.30 and disappeared. He reappeared 20 minutes later then told we were too late for the eight-o'clock ferry. Shame that he had taken 20 minutes to get the tickets!!! We all got off, loaded the bags on to our backs and marched, not towards the jetty but towards a waiting coach!!. We clambered on and waited, feeling confused. About 30 minutes later we started the next stage of the journey to a different jetty. This took us a short while, about 10 minutes!!!! We all had to pile off the bus again and walk onto the ferry. This time our bags stayed put. The ferry set sail ten minutes later, much to our relief. We had an hour and a half before landing. The television was on so we looked for seats as far away as possible and ate our breakfast of cheese and a cup-a-soup each, as the shop only sold pot noodles!!
As we disembarked at the port and waited for the coach to reappear, I had the presence of mind to get near the coach doors, which was just as well because we had acquired two extra passengers. This meant that two of the original passengers were now without seats for the drive up to Surat Thani. I was appalled. They sat on the stairs and on the steps. About half hour into the journey the young male host put both televisions and we were subjected to rather awkward young Thai girls gyrating in little, quite decent bikini's. There were lingering shots on non-existant bosoms, and crutch shots. I wanted to shout, "Oh pleeeeaaaase! Get a room, or a girlfriend!" I toyed with the idea of turning our television off, as no-one seemed to be watching it,and we had an elderly Buddhist monk with his bongo drums justn behind us, (I liked to think that he found this quite disgusting but I am not sure, however, I was not quite brave enough. Maybe the monk had prayed because there was a kind of divine intervention when, a rather solid father-of two-teenaged-girls said something to the young man about 15 minutes later and the television was clicked off immediately! Lee cheered loudly. It was like being in some adolescents dream!!! Yuk!!! For once it was good to be aged.
After the remaining hour on this coach we watched, amazed as the coach was driven down a very narrow side street. Washing and two tuk-tuks had to be moved and a tuk-tuk driver who came down hoping to turn left at the bottom had to turn around and go back the way that he had come. We had wondered why the coach was going down such a narrow street but it transpired that the travel company office, toilets and restaurant were down there. It began to rain a little. We were all asked to get off. When we all asked why we were told that another coach would come for us. We still did not budge but they began off-loading the bags!!! Eventually we were all unceremoniously dumped in the street., where about 50 other people were waiting with stickers stating their destination written on theen, like evacuees.
During the next hour everyone was collected by tuk-tuks or mini-buses. I went to the loo where they had the cheek to charge 5 dong. I was disgusted so said there was no way I was going to pay and told the youngsters to do the same. No-one paid but no-one seemed to mind either. We grabbed a fried rice before we we hustled onto a mini-bus by a rather rude driver muttering, "Felang blah, blah, blah," under his breath. We treated him with equal disregard when he tried to put the bags by our feet. He shoved it in, I shoved it away with a firm, "No!" Twice. I argued that Lee had to have somewhere to put his feet. I was not going to back down either. I thought I had won until Lee clambered in and my bag was chucked onto his knees before the door was slammed shut. Ah well, I felt better, and Lee squashed the bag between him and the guy next to him where it acted as an arm rest.
We travelled on quite fast up wide roads heading for Satoon, on the coast, where we were to spend the night. We would then cross the border, out of Thailand and into the muslim country of Malaysia. After 3 and a half hours our driver had stopped, shouted Satoon and begun off-loading bags again. So, in the middle of a torrential downpour we had to run to the waiting mini-bus in front where the driver was waiting to take the five of us to Satoon. The journey was much more pleasant then. There was more space, a gentler driver and pace. This is when we met the wonderful Matt and Vicky, who were also heading to Satoon and then on to Langkawi. As they had not chosen a hotel, and ours was a reasonable price, they followed us and we shared a taxi/truck to the hotel. We went out for an evening meal and found a delightful little bar that had locals and a type of folk club at 9.30. It was a brilliant evening and quite unexpected. We even had a few English songs too-The Young Ones and Imagine. These were such lovely Thai's with very little English but their little bar Binhla, named after a local bird, was an absolute delight.
We met Matt and Vickki after the non-existant breakfast, listed but, as the hotel had no bread it did not happen!! They flagged a tuk-tuk to the ferry port. This time we shared with them. It was 200 baht (67 to the pound!) for all of us to the port. It took 20 minutes too!! Value for money or what?
At the port the paperwork was simple and we crossed another border, and gained another visa. We were soon speeding along in an enclosed boat, along with at least 3 small cockroaches that were wandering among the life jackets above our heads! Two televisions, showing the local sit-com, were in full blare. One in each compartment. No-one was watching. An older English gentleman had switched it off but it had been put back on. He sat there with his head down!Never-the-less the journey passed pleasantly. Lee offered a cold alcoholic drink to Matt and Vickki and we chatted happily.
We disembarked at a jetty on Langkawi where we could see a beautiful square containing a huge brown eagle statue with wings outspread. It is called Eagle square and the island is named after this beautiful bird that6 resides here amongst the karst pillars between the islands. We walked through a shopping mall and bought a fabulous cake each then headed for the taxi rank. We shared a taxi for 20 ringotts, (6 and a half to the pound) as we were heading to the same part of the island.
We travelled for 20 minutes and each went off to view our respective accommodations. Ours was full for two days and their was rank so we booked into a hotel across the road. Now to investigate Langkawi ....Christmas homesickness fading fast.