March 3,

By 0700, we were up and about. We leave Koh Lipe and Thailand, so we readied and packed. At 0810, I went to the clinic, as Jeff finished. My foot check up was great!!  But better yet… the visit and wound cleaning was no charge! I walked to the pier slowly, even sat a spell in the shade. At around 0900, I arrived at the pier and met Jeff as he just arrived in a scooter cart with our luggage. That was timing! We got in line for confirmation of our ferry tickets and to go through Thai Immigration. They kept our passports – we are to get them back once onboard. We “stickered” ourselves and our luggage. Now we wait. I was able to WhatsApp with my sister on the beach there.

At 1015, we all boarded awaiting long-tail boats. We were given numbered cards, and we actually got on the long-tails in numerical fashion! When our number was called, we handed the cards back, and walked the floating pier to the boats. Then the long-tails took us out to the ferry boat. We were booked on Bundhaya speed boat, but we boarded a speed boat called Langkawi Ferry Services. We were in seats and settled by 1025. At 1036, all were onboard and we set off – nine minutes early! Unprecedented organization for a second time!!

Once underway, the staff go through the process of returning passports back to everyone! This was a bit chaotic. The staff yell out a country and you acknowledge if that is your country. Then he hands you passports – as many as he has in his stack from that country! You find yours and hand back what is not yours!! We were the only US passports, which made it easy. The fact we were the only Americans did surprise me at first, but once I thought about it – I wasn’t as surprised.  Anyway, this ferry has seating for 122 people, plus however many people the VIP room holds. I never saw anyone go up there, except staff. The ride was smooth, especially compared to our last ferry venture. The only noticeable movement was occasional rocking from side to side.

The ferry arrived around 1220. Welcome to Langkawi, Malaysia!!

While docking an announcement was made that we had to off load our own luggage. This was the proverbial zoo! It went better than I thought, but really was a mess. There were three heaping piles of luggage. Of course our two bags were in different piles and at the bottom. But we had them and got off the ferry. Next we went through Malaysia’s Immigration, had our bags scanned and then the gauntlet of men shouting, “Taxi?” We do need one. The cabbie walks us to his vehicle, an SUV-type. We load up and he gets us ten minutes away, making a wrong turn. He was going to another Seaview place – ours is Paretta Seaview. Jeff was able to straighten it out with him. Langkawi Island is much, much bigger than Koh Lipe and the drive took 30 minutes. Google says it 18 miles long and 10 miles wide!

While checking in we remembered we are in a new time zone. It’s one hour later, making it about 1420. We arrived in our spacious place. We have a living space with a dining area; a balcony, from which we have our sea-view; a bedroom; and a wet bathroom. Jeff went back out in search of some food, while I blogged with my foot propped up. Jeff returned with “lunner” of Fish & Chips, and Chicken Shawarma. Then we relaxed.

At 1915 we went to the beach – basically across the street – and took in sunset, which was beautiful! The beach was very active with walkers, still some sunbathing, and others like us to see the sunset. The water was also busy with jet skiers, para-sailors, and swimmers! It was fun to see the hubbub. I saw a lady with a foot dressing, like me. She was Russian and had a pool mishap (we conversed through Google translate).

We slowly went back to our place, and enjoyed the evening.