Pondok Keladi. My home away from home on Langkawi. It's a six bedroom guesthouse, owned by a Eurasian couple, surrounded by palm trees and rice fields. Four dogs and a cat live at the guesthouse, hens, roosters, cows, monkeys, squirrels, and what sounds like crickets and frogs share the area. For my week of doing bugger all but eat, read and explore a bit, this is just perfect.
In about 25 mins I am on the main drag, where all the restos and mini marts are. Loads of seafood and some very nice western salads. It's low season, which probably explains why quite a few places are closed. Still enough tourists tho to keep it lively. Tourists from everywhere. I hear a lot of Russian, German and Australian but also a lot of languages I do not know.
This being a predominantly moslim island, it is the first time I find myself surrounded by tourists in chadors (excluding the Arab invasion of London in summer). Quite a lot of them too. Several resorts list prayer rooms as one of their selling points. At the end of the little road that leads to my guesthouse, a mosque calls for prayer five times a day. Your regular ham and bacon have been substituted by turkey ham and beef bacon everywhere I have been so far. Some of the mini marts sell beer, but I haven't seen wine or anything stronger outside the duty free shop (which is also on the main road). It's a funny thing to see the women in chadors sitting on a beach next to scantily clad Russian women in full make up. But at the same time, it's good to see that with a bit of give and take, this beautiful island can be appreciated by all.
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