When 2 became 4

So we two are now four ... hurray!!! Emma Penelope Lewins and Andrew Bernard Davies are now in our travelling posse. They arrived several days ago, looking rather pasty, on the island of Langkawi. An emotional airport reunion preceeded a VERY drunken night, involving a bottle of Bombay Saphire drunk on the beach and midnight-sandcastles. The following day was a bit of a write-off. Largely due to the weather, I might add, but Andrew took the opportunity to sleep off his gin/jetlag. A few days of sunning under their belts, they are now a bit pink and mozzie-bitten, but hey kids, lookin' good! Langkawi was nice for the fact it had an amazing beach - Tanjung Rue. Beautiful white sand and an even more gorgeous hotel whose facilities we used more than once. Other than that, there's not much there. Except did I mention the cable car?

We were introduced to the idea by Lila, our lovely hotellier. She was great for many reasons; she loved football, was genuinely lovely and kind, oh and she had a vastly entertaining way of pronouncing "no." It sort of came out as a very exaggerated "Nieuyyyewwww!!!" I digress. We decided to visit the cable car on our last day, imagining it to be a tame affair.

We couldn't have been more wrong. As Em & Andrew farted about in a pharmacy, Andy was strangely absent from the procedure which saw them being coated in herbal oil. The man informed them it was for "sunburn and insect bites" and so they bought a bottle (turned out to be muscle-rub). I went in to see what was taking so long, at which point the man became very excited. He produced a bar of soap temptingly named "De-Fat," claiming it would knock off at least 10 pounds. As if to emphasise the point he prodded Andrew's belly. I really think if I'm expected to be culturally sensitive whilst I'm away (i.e. covering my arms, legs, and chest whilst staving off combustion and not holding Andy's hand / showing him any affection etc. etc.) I really think they should mind it aswell.

Anyway, I'm off again - the cable car!! Andy was nowhere to be seen because he was busy building up a palm-sweat looking at the mountain we were to climb. At 700 metres, the pharmacy three hadn't taken much notice. That is, until we had boarded the car. Our worry steadily grew in to a mild panic as we ascended. The mild panic became a generalised feeling of sincere consternation as we swung above treetops and waterfalls. The consternation bit swiftly descended into mass hysteria as we actually stopped on the cable, an eery silence aside from the howl of the wind outside. After a while it re-started and we took the final ascent up the sheer rock-face at a gradient of not less than 45 degrees.

That said, the views at the top were amazing. But all we could think about whilst gazing out over the whole island, was our impending descent. We bravely took a few photos from a viewing platform suspended above the valley and Andy ensured he stood a good distance from the edge. Em was quite eager to "get back." I reasoned that Malaysia surely had higher safety standards than anywhere else we'd visited, but Andrew was quietly remembering the cable-car disaster in Austria of several years ago. At least he kept that to himself until we had landed. By the way, I'm not sure what I'm doing in that photo there - I seem to be raving, in little world of my own. Heights can do funny things to some people.

I could go on. We caught the ferry from Langkawi to Penang, a large island 3 hours south. We weren't quite prepared for the unpleasantness of the exerience. The sea was extremely choppy and it wasn't long before we were surrounded by pukers. There seemed to be plenty of lifejackets, but I didn't enjoy being in the downstairs bit. It wasn't helpful that I kept remembering bits from the Poseidon Adventure, in particular, Kurt Russell drowning.