To the music of the waves lapping the moonlit sands and Bruce Springsteen trying to keep time with them (from a stereo system), a lean and curly-haired, bare footed waiter is zigzagging his way towards our candlelit beachside table. One can tell he is a little tipsy. And not just from the way his Bermudas flap around his wobbling knees but also how he points his free hand at us in pistol shoot mode. “Hey man, here’s all ten of your chicken satay!” he says, bringing down the laden platter with a dramatic flourish to appreciative sniffing all around.
**
“Let me count them for you,” he insists, lowering himself into an empty chair, “rund…muna…nala (he is a Tamil immigrant!). When he reaches the Tamil numerical equivalent of nine, his voice has shrilled uncomfortably. The tenth satay is missing. There is a barely audible gulp from a fellow diner who is staring nonchalantly into space with a bare skewer lying at her feet, reflecting the white of the moonlight. Since frizzy hair is no James Bond, he is badly affected and we watch him mumbling his way back to the kitchen – more shaken than stirred. He certainly needs another drink.
**
For friendly waiters, warm sands, lapping waves and, yes, of course, irresistible local cuisine and knock-kneed waiters in Bermudas that count in Tamil, visit Langkawi, the island the Malaysians named after the brown eagle. A magnificent bird, wings spread out, perches on a star shaped projection into the sea at Dataran Lang, an area scattered with fascinating souvenir shops and ice cream shacks ensuring that you don’t forget what Langkawi means. Peering down into the water, the kids spot a baby hammerhead or at least a fish that is remarkably close in appearance. Wind chimes with sea horses and crabs dangle invitingly from shops where pretty looking blue eye-shadowed shop assistants refuse bargains with endearing smiles and the confusing “no, can do”.
**
So what do you do in Langkawi besides shopping, drinking beer at the beachside cafes and hearing the waves splashing the shores? You take water scooter and banana boat rides that invariably end with a dunking in the shallow salty waters. If you’re adventurous you hang glide over the sea, your legs dangling in space with the blue water far below. If you’re exploratory, you take the motor boat to do some island hopping and watch the passing green hills take on the shape of the reclining pregnant maiden, on way meeting monkeys of various eccentricities and sizes. You wade through the waves, you chase the fish shoals, you collect sea shells for a necklace that you promise yourself will get made once you get home and you gasp at finding an open oyster shell that only needs a pearl to be perfect. If you are a bird freak you feed the eagles at Singa Besar Island. If you are with kids, you visit the water world and gasp at the fascinating creatures of the sea.
**
Langkawi is the perfect place to shop for exotic gifts. It could be brilliantly hued swimming costumes, beach hats, string bags, the angry looking puffer fish cut in stone, brilliantly coloured plaster chameleons that glare from wooden branches. Or even clattering jewellery made from sea shells, ferocious looking wall masks and door chimes from which hang strange sea animals. It is also the perfect place for adventure. Where else do you get dropped and picked up from a private island that is yours for four hours or more. Or enter bats and crocodile caves. Or let your boat drift along the twisted roots of a mangrove forest. Or trek along a jungle and have a deserted white beach with transparent blue water all to yourself. Pulao (island) Langkawi guarantees many goose pimple moments. What’s better? Even the waiters don’t dress for dinner!
**
“Let me count them for you,” he insists, lowering himself into an empty chair, “rund…muna…nala (he is a Tamil immigrant!). When he reaches the Tamil numerical equivalent of nine, his voice has shrilled uncomfortably. The tenth satay is missing. There is a barely audible gulp from a fellow diner who is staring nonchalantly into space with a bare skewer lying at her feet, reflecting the white of the moonlight. Since frizzy hair is no James Bond, he is badly affected and we watch him mumbling his way back to the kitchen – more shaken than stirred. He certainly needs another drink.
**
For friendly waiters, warm sands, lapping waves and, yes, of course, irresistible local cuisine and knock-kneed waiters in Bermudas that count in Tamil, visit Langkawi, the island the Malaysians named after the brown eagle. A magnificent bird, wings spread out, perches on a star shaped projection into the sea at Dataran Lang, an area scattered with fascinating souvenir shops and ice cream shacks ensuring that you don’t forget what Langkawi means. Peering down into the water, the kids spot a baby hammerhead or at least a fish that is remarkably close in appearance. Wind chimes with sea horses and crabs dangle invitingly from shops where pretty looking blue eye-shadowed shop assistants refuse bargains with endearing smiles and the confusing “no, can do”.
**
So what do you do in Langkawi besides shopping, drinking beer at the beachside cafes and hearing the waves splashing the shores? You take water scooter and banana boat rides that invariably end with a dunking in the shallow salty waters. If you’re adventurous you hang glide over the sea, your legs dangling in space with the blue water far below. If you’re exploratory, you take the motor boat to do some island hopping and watch the passing green hills take on the shape of the reclining pregnant maiden, on way meeting monkeys of various eccentricities and sizes. You wade through the waves, you chase the fish shoals, you collect sea shells for a necklace that you promise yourself will get made once you get home and you gasp at finding an open oyster shell that only needs a pearl to be perfect. If you are a bird freak you feed the eagles at Singa Besar Island. If you are with kids, you visit the water world and gasp at the fascinating creatures of the sea.
**
Langkawi is the perfect place to shop for exotic gifts. It could be brilliantly hued swimming costumes, beach hats, string bags, the angry looking puffer fish cut in stone, brilliantly coloured plaster chameleons that glare from wooden branches. Or even clattering jewellery made from sea shells, ferocious looking wall masks and door chimes from which hang strange sea animals. It is also the perfect place for adventure. Where else do you get dropped and picked up from a private island that is yours for four hours or more. Or enter bats and crocodile caves. Or let your boat drift along the twisted roots of a mangrove forest. Or trek along a jungle and have a deserted white beach with transparent blue water all to yourself. Pulao (island) Langkawi guarantees many goose pimple moments. What’s better? Even the waiters don’t dress for dinner!
**
Rachna Bisht-Rawat is a journalist and writer but mostly she is mom to an 11 year old and gypsy wife to an Army officer whose work takes the Rawats across the length and width of India. She blogs at http://www.rachnabisht.com/