Up early for a champagne breakfast and a quick glimpse of a sly monitor lizard, we excitedly waited for Heather and Ian, who thought we were on the ferry from Thailand, to arrive. As they were welcomed at reception Charlie jumped out to surprise them and there were more emotional hugs all round! Once settled into their new room, we all met on the beach where the weather wasn't being particularly welcoming with overcast skies and no appearance from the sun. We enjoyed a long lunch with beer, wine and cocktails and spent hours endlessly chatting amongst us. Later that afternoon we all had a wander along the beach to the mangrove creek where we spotted a wild boar with her piglets roaming across the sand. After a relaxing afternoon of shade bathing and napping, we enjoyed drinks in the lobby watching the giant hornbills and dusky leaf monkeys feeding in the fig tree before a delicious thai dinner in a unique restaurant located high up on stilts amongst the towering trees.
The following day was spent doing much the same, with more average weather and shade bathing with our first spot of the macaque monkeys. Heather and Charlie both spotted six cute little faces poking out of the waves which turned out to be the giant otters, a very lucky and rare sight! All six of us followed them as they moved along the shore, but our legs were no match for their speed in the water. Eventually we gave up when they were just pinpricks in the distance, gutted that not one of us had our camera with us! After another long and relaxing lunch inside the restaurant due to the rain, and a comical moment when Ian realised he had accidentally picked up another guests shoes thinking they were Heathers and had them under the table for the whole of lunch, we all headed back to our rooms. Heather enjoyed a relaxing body scrub at the peaceful spa, with open air rooms overlooking a crystal-clear river. Dinner was enjoyed by all at "The Dining Room" whilst Charlie and I had gravlax and steak for the second time that week!
Yet another relaxing day spent on the Datai beach and cooling off in the pool, spotting monkeys roaming the grounds, a couple of monitor lizards (one climbing a tree) and some giant squirrels feeding in the tree next to the pool. That afternoon Charlie and I enjoyed a long walk along the beach before getting ready to head down the bay to the Andaman Hotel for cocktails before an entertaining dinner at the Japanese tempanaki restaurant. With a tasty and colourful starter of salmon and tuna sashimi and a swirling bowl of miso soup, we were ready for our main course of duck and chicken for Robert and beef, scallops and prawns for everyone else, cooked in front of us by the charming tempanaki chef. After a few warming carafes of sake (rice wine), we were the last table to leave the restaurant and headed back to the Datai for a peaceful nights sleep.
With Robert opting to relax at the hotel, the rest of us spent the morning and early afternoon on a short tour of the island with planned stops at a couple of waterfalls (especially for Charlie!), a beautiful beach and a fruit farm. After a short drive we arrived at Langkawi's tallest waterfall, Temurun Falls, and after a short walk we reached the main tier where we took some photos and paddled in the deep, emerald-green pool. It was impossible trying to fit the whole waterfall in one photograph! The second stop was a short stroll along a beautiful white sandy beach (if you ignored the eyesore of the cement factory at the far end of the bay) with limestone rock formations jutting out of the sea. After a quick refreshing drink at a local restaurant, with the mums being shocked at the price difference of a fizzy drink compared to those at the hotel, we headed for the second waterfall. On parking the car, Heather and Kate darted straight into the nearest shop where they both purchased lovely dresses, before we all climbed up hundreds of lethal steps to the base of the second waterfall where we took yet more photographs! Our final stop was a tour of Langkawi's Agro Technology Park, learning about some of the 20+ fruit types, seasonal and non-seasonal, that they grew in their orchards. Species included starfruit, dragon fruit, jack fruit, pineapple and mangosteen with a visit to the fruit tasting corner where we sampled several different fruits, including our favourite the incredibly deep neon-purple dragon fruit. After some amusing photos with jack fruit and pineapple, we remember Robert all alone at the hotel and headed back for a late lunch at the hotel. Finally, the sun was out and blue sky was in sight! The rest of the afternoon was spent soaking in the rays on the beach before a delicious indian feast for dinner at the Gulai House, in the middle of the jungle.
Waking up extremely early, watching the monkeys feeding in the fig tree whilst eating breakfast, we headed down to the beach where we went body boarding as some sporadic waves were crashing on the shore. It was another stunning day and all six of us spent it on the beach on the sun beds. After lunch, we headed to the spa where we had full body aromatherapy massages in the couples room, another open-air room with the relaxing sound of the stream running past outside. We were, however, interrupted by the squeal of a wild pig outside, making us jump out of our skin and quickly remove the eye masks. We did manage to relax and enjoy the rest of the massage, with both of us nearly falling asleep! We had to quickly wake ourselves up for a trip to the busy local market where we browsed the stalls selling everything from smelly durian fruit to fake abercrombie clothes to local food delicacies to baby chicks and ducks. In need for an ice cold drink after walking around the market stalls in the sticky heat, we headed to a nearby italian restaurant where we were enjoying our pizzas until the waitress apologised to Charlie and Kate for not cooking their pizzas for long enough!
Another beautiful morning of sunshine and we were up early, enjoyed another delicious breakfast and headed straight to the beach where we soaked up the sun before before deciding it would be a good idea to kayak out to the island just offshore for a snorkel. Whilst Robert stayed on the beach enjoying his kindle, Charlie (professional paddler) led the trio of kayaks across to the quiet island where we dragged the boats ashore and unloaded our towels, sunglasses and other belongings. All kitted up, we swam around the corner where the first coral appeared and had a short snorkel spotting various marine life including a scorpionfish, a great barracuda that stared daggers at Laura and thousands of sparkly silver fish that surrounded us. As we swam back to shore, with Kate remembering that she had read the 2004 Tsunami had obliterated the reef here and that snorkelling wasn't particularly great, we suddenly heard Heather shouting behind us. A large clan of evil macaque monkeys were eyeing up Ian and Heathers kayak and belongings, and seemed particularly interested in Heathers sunglasses. With Ian running to the rescue and shooing the creatures away, we slowly crept closer to watch the hilarious characters sifting through the rubbish on the beach with our favourite being a little monkey that couldn't take the lid off a bottled drink so bit a hole in the bottom and sucked the remains out! The rest of the afternoon was spent sunbathing, reading magazines (luxury) and going for a walk along the beach. In the evening we all went on a rather hot and sticky nature walk with Wendy, a very excitable naturalist, who knew the answer to any question you had about the wildlife here like the back of her hand. In search of colugos we didn't manage to spot any and Wendy's highlight seemed to be the woodpeckers that flew overhead, causing her to hyperventilate with excitement. She also particularly loved spiders, showing us a tarantulas nest with a mother hiding inside and several tiny baby tarantulas, not too far from Kate and Roberts villa! For dinner we had a light meal in the lobby next to the oversized frog pond dotted with fuchsia pink lilies whilst listening to a fascinating duo "singing" in the background.
On our final day we had arranged to go on a mangroves tours and after yet another champagne breakfast we spotted about ten of the dusky leaf monkeys sitting in a line along the railings surrounding the pool. We watched them as they groomed each other before jumping off, running across the patio to a clump of trees, climbing the first tree and jumping right in front of Robert (who was upstairs in reception looking over the balcony) from one tree to the next. We met in reception and were driven down to the Andaman hotel to meet Wendy. After no success with colugos the night before, she led us through the Andaman grounds where she had spotted a colugo earlier resting in one of their favourite spots. A few photographs later of the fascinating gliding mammal, we walked further along the path and spotted a kingfisher and a great view of a giant squirrel. On our way back to the car, an extremely excited Wendy whispered as loud as she would let herself that the colugo had a baby and that it was poking its head out! After gazing at the adorable yet bizzare, piglet-looking animal we were melting and had been attacked by mosquitoes so headed back to the welcoming air-con of the car.
After a short car journey we were greeted by our boat driver and as he navigated through the maze of mangrove trees, submerged underwater due to the high tide, Wendy educated us on the life-cycle of the mangroves. We then drove further inland where we passed another boat feeding the local white-bellied sea eagles and brahminy kites. There must have been fifteen of the beautifully gracious birds of prey, swooping down to catch the chicken fat that tourists were throwing out and, despite us all disapproving of feeding the wild birds, Charlie managed to get some great shots and it was lovely such amazing views of them. Further along the journey, after passing some naughty macaques, the boat driven turned off the engine and we floated up next to an angry-looking mangrove pit viper who had been curled up in the same tree for a couple of days digesting his most recent meal. After getting more fantastic photos and frighteningly close to the poisonous reptile which has a striking distance on 1m, we carried on towards the mangroves fish farm. As it started to rain we spotted three giant otters playing on a floating pontoon and watched the sleek acrobatic creatures until the rain became so heavily that they slipped into the water. Once at the fish farm we watched them feed the giant trevally, with their dorsal fins slicing through the waters surface, and then hand fed the gentle giant stingray which Heather seemed to be particularly fond of! Moving on from the fish rain once the torrential rain eventually subsided, our last stop was visiting a bat cave where 1000 bats were resting. Having been told to keep our mouths shut when we look up, we eventually made it out of the cave and back into the light, spotting the tiniest macaque babies. One even stuck his tongue out at us!
We had a late lunch back at the beach club, where we spotted a troop of the dusky leaf monkeys who look as they have had clown make-up applied to their comical yet sweet faces. One even had a tiny baby, bright orange in colour meaning that he was less than one month old, clinging to the mothers tummy as she lept from branch to branch. The afternoon was spent packing, relaxing in the villa and sorting out what to give our parents to take back to England. Our final dinner was at "The Dinign Room" where, for the third time that week, we both had gravlax three ways and steak, followed by a mouth-watering chocolate fondant. After seeing neither flying colugos or flying squirrels during the whole week, both species surprised us with a acrobatic after-dinner show in the trees with a flying squirrel chasing a colugo which made an unbelievably long and fast glide right above our heads into the distance. A few flying squirrels then spent a while glide from different spots in the trees, feasting on the figs. With Laura's parents refusing to get up early to wave us off (thanks!) she said goodbye to them after dinner, but not before Kate, Charlie and Laura wandered through to jungle to have a last look at the tarantulas nest to see whether the monster had come out of the hole. With several mini-tarantulas surrounding the nest, we decided the mother must have gone hunting until Charlie said "oh WOW" and spotted her on the other side of the tree. Relieved that this nest was nowhere near our room, but worried about how many there were surrounding us, we headed back to a final nights sleep in the comfiest bed in the world!
With our alarm set very early, we finished packing the following morning and said goodbye to Heather and Ian who weren't leaving until later that evening. Saying a sad farewell to an incredible week at the magical Datai, we were driven to the airport where we waited for our flight to Singapore.
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