I feel a little rusty writing this but need to get back in the habit of posting regularly. It's now been over 3 months since our last post and that is far too long.
This always seems to happen when we are staying in one place for a long time. Time seems to slip by and you think that nothing of interest has happened. Then you look back on it all and start to remember random silly things. Like coming second in an eating contest at a bar where I devoured two chicken burgers in 2 minutes that were covered in chili sauce hot enough to make Chuck Norris cry. All of this after sinking a bottle of whiskey and some Long Island Iced Tea's. There are probably another 50 equally as stupid things like this that I've now forgotten about but hey, it's time to crack on and get back in the routine of blogging.
Our last entry was all the way back in November when we were leaving Indonesia to head back to the animal shelter in Langkawi Malaysia so I'll pick things up from there.
The more seasoned followers of our adventures will know that the shelter in Langkawi is a place we have visited and helped out at many times before. Over the last 6 1/2 years I have probably spent at least 1 year of that time helping to care for the cats and dogs that live at the shelter on the island.
Langkawi and the dog shelter itself is somewhat of a time warp. You can be here for 2 weeks and it feels like months....on the other hand you can be here for 3 months and it flies past in the blink of an eye....I also believe that may be old age but hey. Working at the shelter is great. Hard work for sure, but good rewarding work. In return for our efforts we get a great deal while staying on the island. We get a roof over our heads and 2 meals a day, pretty much everything we need. In return the cats and dogs get some consistency in the care and attention they receive and the shelter gets two experienced volunteers who understand how the shelter works and what is required. Everyone benefits and it certainly works for us and the animals.
So I guess that's where we are right now, but aside from cats and dogs what else have we been up to for 3 months?The main thing I guess is that we spent Christmas away from home. I was away for Christmas a few years ago but this was Dani's first Christmas not spent at home with her family and she found it hard. It's always that time of year when your traveling that is going to be the toughest and make you feel a little home sick. That said Christmas day was spent enjoying many drinks at Dash resorts beach front hotel pool that we had snuck into so it wasn't that bad a day at all really. We are now highly skilled in the art of sneaking into fancy hotel pools and it's been a nice way to spend our days off from the shelter, taking things easy and cooling off.
Over Christmas and New Year we took a break from working at the shelter and stayed at the quiet beach area of Pantai Tengah. It was certainly a great escape for the festive season. We stayed at a cheap guesthouse but Dash resort was only a 5 minute walk away and nobody really seemed to care when we used the pool on Christmas day so we continued to go for a dip, it would be rude not to make use of their facilities right? We read books, drank copious amounts of beer and Bourbon and cooled off in the swanky beach-side pool most days.For New Year, Hayley and Sander, the couple we met at the shelter in September were back in town as they were adopting one of the shelter dogs Nabby and flying him home to Holland with them. It was nice to have some company for New Year and we had more than our share of festive cheer that night on the beach before we all seemed to lose our way as well as each other in the drunken haze of New Year.
Among all the good times though there have also been sad times. Two of the dogs that have been at the shelter for many years passed away. Moiselle and more recently Gizzy who lived at the front of our room eventually gave up and headed to that big doggy graveyard in the sky.
I really miss Gizzy. He was one hell of a whinny, yappy, viscous little shit but he also had a sweet side when you got to know him. They both passed with old age more than anything else. Moiselle had recently had a lump removed from her leg and Gizzy had liver problems, both fairly standard age related illnesses with dogs.
With Gizzy living just outside our room it was particularly hard. You could see him deteriorating every day. Hardly eating, unable to go out on his usual walks and then one morning you could tell it was his time. His breathing was very shallow and he could hardly move. He passed quietly as I stroked him and gave him some love. I miss you Gizzmeister.
You get a 90 day Visa for Malaysia which is great and towards the end of our 3 months we were very lucky to be asked by friends Billy and Jane to house sit for them for a couple of weeks while they went on their visa run to Thailand. Don't get me wrong the shelter accommodation is fine but it's very basic to say the least. When you've traveled a lot you get used to staying in all sorts of places and it's certainly not the worst place we have ever stayed at but it was nice to enjoy a bit of luxury while helping out our friends.
We were around 10 days into our house sitting and had our own visa run to Thailand all sorted when tragedy struck from out of nowhere.
We woke up one morning and were just about to ride off to the shelter on our motorbike when we bumped into Bryan, Billy and Jane's neighbour. "Bad news about Frankie eh?" ....."I'm sorry what about Frankie?" ..."Frankie, he was killed last night". It didn't seem real, like some kind of bizarre joke. Frankie is the charismatic guy who ran Lepak bar along at Pantai Tengah. Our local. If we were ever headed on a night out it would always end up at Frankie's, in fact many a time our whole night out was spent just at his bar and nowhere else. We didn't even call it Lepak anymore it was just Frankie's bar.
We scrambled to check our phones and sure enough there were small snippets of news coming in from the local community that Frankie had passed away in the early hours of the morning while out on his motorbike. Unfortunately the news appeared to be true and it slowly started to sink in that we would never see Frankie again and enjoy his wonderful company.
Frankie was one if not 'the' biggest characters in Langkawi. He was dearly loved by many. Locals and ex-pats alike. He was the heart and soul of any night out and if not for meeting him over 4 years ago at his bar we would never have met and got to know the numerous wonderful people that we now know in Langkawi. This was devastating news and news that was not expected. We had never envisaged a night out in Langkawi that wouldn't involve the company of Frankie. The thought of not seeing his big wide smile and sharp cutting sarcasm was hard to comprehend.
In the space of just 2 days we were attending his funeral at the Buddhist temple in Kuah in shock at the loss. Lepak was more like a family than a bar and Frankie was the head of that family. His young team of staff adored him like a father and he looked after each and every one of them. He is a huge loss to all who knew him and he certainly will not be forgotten. He touched many peoples lives and our time in Langkawi will not be the same without him.
R.I.P. Frankie, we miss you dearly.
