my journey to langkawi

i forgot to tell about my journey here. i took the bus from ankara to istanbul which was from kamilkoc and was quite comfortable. than i stayed in my friend mighty babafingorn's, oops i mean lord aragorn's house. than last night i stayed with my brother in kemerburgaz. we had some very good time in maria's garden in istanbul. wonderful place with wonderful food. their food service is slow but it's worth the wait beause, when you ask for a soup they make it from the beginning, they don't keep it ready. same goes for the salads and greens coming with the main orders. they just keep them whole than when you order a salad they just slice and dice and bring it to you. the taste was wonderful.

whatever.

i took the flight from istanbul to kuala lumpur by gulfair (airbus a320). first we landed on bahrain and it was such a beautiful view to see bahrain during the night. we waited in bahrain international airport for 3.5 hours. when you are there and intend to use a prepaid internet card, check the connection first. because i've bought the card, scratched it, than their connection went down. i've tried to connect from different places but connection always failed. than i had to explain them why they have to pay me my $10 back (yes, 3 hours internet is $10 in the airport).

after 3.5 hours we flew to muscat (airbus a340) and stayed there for another hour. than our long journey has began through kuala lumpur international airport. it was quite comfortable actually, i had a very good travelmate from germany , iols (hey iols!) also the middle seats were quite empty, so i got a couple of pillows and a blanket and slept till our arrival to klia. these flights didn't have personal tv s like the one i took via malaysia airlines. so you have watch the movie lake house. it helps you sleep you know.

after arrival in klia, i took a mercedes taxi to lcct (low cost carrier terminal) to take my flight to langkawi international airport with air asia. i've paid 60 rm (~$16) for this trip, but it was very comfortable and the taxi driver was really helpful. guess what happened; flight was delayed for 45 minutes.

than i've arrived in langkawi. flight was really nice, we flew over penang and i saw my old apartment. upon arrival i took a cab to cenang beach which cost me 16 rm (~$4,5). taxi driver was babbling about me wasting his time so i had to shut him off till my friend came to show us the way to his home.

my italian food in cenang beach

there are a couple of places in langkawi which has very good italian food. i'm lucky that my friend tolga became friends with the owner of l'osteria; lorenzo. he is italian, came to langkawi some time ago as a chef, than opened his own place which is very classy and has the best italian food in town. his pizzas (pizza l'osteria and pizza diavola especially) are wonderful. since i like to try different stuff i've asked for something carpaccio beef. i guess it was a salad, but with raw meat. so if you don't like raw meet don't order anything "carpaccio". also he has a very good selection of wines and liqueurs. i don't have a photo of the place but i'll shoot one when i have the chance and put it here.

another place is t-jay's (jezebel's) restaurant. they also have a good choice of pizzas , pastas and some italian dishes. their beef pepperoni pizza is also good but not as good as lorenzo's.

for fettucine and cream sauce lovers like me; you can ask for it specially at l'osteria because they don't have that kind of pasta in the menu. generally menus here are quite simple, not like the ones back in turkey. but don't be mistaken, food quality is very good.

by the way both these places are in cenang beach.

my small suv

perodua kembara is a good car. first car i've rented here was a proton wire. it was something like our tofas cars back in turkey. local, cheap car. but for an island like this you don't need much. this is where kembara comes into play; it's cheap (for rent), it's a jeep, it's comfortable and it's fuel efficient for a 4x4 suv. i've asked for a nissan terrano here but the rental services don't rent them anymore because of the high maintenance cost. also they are not fuel-efficien, they just drink it. one ride from airport to kuah town is 10 rm (~$2,7) which is too much for malaysia standarts. so i'll be driving from kuah to cenang beach everyday; it's not such a good idea. (oil is 1,9 rm / litre here which is something like $0,52)

here is a photo of the first kembara i've found. i've paid 1000 rm (~$277) for a one month. next one will be newer model in good condition. this one is making too much noice on the front axe (or whatever it's called) and back spare tire.

my temporary space

and my days in Langkawi has started. since I've arrived I've been helping my friends with their house. The former owners left the house in a very bad condition. I wonder who would live in a place like that. But after lots of construction, cleaning etc. now the house looks much better. My friend Tolga is trying to grow vegetables in the garden. They are in small plastic bottles for now. I think he is gonna be successful on them; he is checking them everyday.

after some construction here how the house works now:



so it seems to be going well for now. I think in one month this house will be like the others here.

my little constructive test

this is a test post for this new blog from southeast asia. and here is a test image which is actually the current situation. it explains the status of this blog ::