Langkawi Festivities

So it appears the stresses and strains of the beach proved too taxing to fit in a blog entry, so instead we're writing this from the warmth of our apartment back in Shanghai, where the outside temp is a cool 30 degrees lower than we were enjoying this time last week!

Langkawi was a lovely respite from what has been a pretty hectic couple of months - moving to a new country, finding/starting new jobs and settling into a very different way of life is very tiring! We had a beachside villa, private beach and cocktails on tap - what more do you need?! Well, actually a lot more to make it a proper Christmas.... we really missed sharing all the traditions and excitement with our families and Skyping them from the beach after they had just opened stockings/were about to sit down for lunch just didn't cut it...


The place where we stayed was run by a German couple, so on Christmas Eve Santa Claus arrived with a sack full of presents. We were also delivered a Weihnachtsteller (Christmas plate full of nuts, fruit and sweet treats) in the middle of the night, which is a tradition often upheld at home in Chandler's Ford too - a little bit of home from home. Our Christmas meal consisted of fish/steak, with a side of brussel sprouts - didn't want to miss out on those treats!


I won't pretend that our days were particularly active while we were away, but we did do a bit of exploring by way of a trek in the jungle. Seeing a flying lemur was apparently 100% guaranteed - a pretty big claim... but on arrival at the 'base camp' there was one clinging to a tree. Not 'flying', but a flying lemur none the less. We also saw brown and black monkeys, a monitor lizard, a tree lizard, a frog, a giant flying squirrel, some fish and a millipede! 

The rest of our days were spent eating foot long tiger prawns, having massages and swimming in the sea. Langkawi isn't the prettiest of the south east Asian islands, but for a bit of Christmas sun that was easily accessible from Shanghai, it definitely served its purpose. 

Now, we're really excited to be back in Shanghai and ready to explore more of the city. The weather is very similar to home at the moment (in temperature, not rainfall), but as soon as it warms up we have a long list of places to visit outside of the city too. Plus, there's a trip home and Chinese New Year (another week long holiday) coming up in the next six weeks too.


Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Chinese lessons are also progressing well..!)