Getting to Langkawi

The Trials and Tribulations of Getting to Langkawi Malaysia.

Way back in March we had a lovely holiday all booked to Langkawi, Malaysia. While I was at my Bohally School Jubilee Reunion I fall and broke my leg. While jumping over an imaginary creek! ( see the previous blog )
We had to cancel our lovely holiday, only the day before we were due to pay for the travel, we were lucky not to lose any money for cancellations.
Now 4 months later my leg all better we decided to try and rebook, there was only 3 weeks notice but the travel agents assured us that was plenty of time.
We were quickly emailed back the next day to say the flights over and the accommodation were all ok but we were wait-listed for our return flights. Not a problem, we simply waited a week before another email to say we were booked on that flight too. Great, all set we thought!
So in we went and booked and paid for the NZ content of flights from Christchurch to Auckland and a deposit on the Malaysian content $1000.00. Unfortunately we had to fly from Christchurch because it was going to cost us an extra $600.00 to fly out from Blenheim!
Then only one week before departure we received an email from the young lady at the travel agents to say “ the accommodation is no longer available, sorry. And I am off on holiday now, will be back the day before you leave.”
This threw us into a major panic, seems we only had any arrangements for flying to Auckland!
We went to the travel agents and saw another young lady who went to work on our travel arrangements. We spent 5 hours in that travel agents sorting out the mess. We told the new lady we did intend to travel somewhere, anywhere for 10 days just get us a booking where ever. This lady really knew her job and by the time we left all our holiday in Langkawi was booked and paid for and we were all set. The tickets would be ready to pick up on the day before we were due to leave. Cutting it very fine indeed.
Took our old cat Raisin to the vets for a vaccination prior to going to the Cattery, only to find he was a very sick cat, his mouth was all infected and he required anti-biotic and possibly an operation to remove teeth. It was decided he could wait till after our travel to have any operations.
The tickets were all ready and we were able to go pick them up. Thank Goodness. We also were given a lovely box of chocolates and an apology from the original young lady who messed up our travel arrangements who it turned out was only new; just a trainee. We just smiled and said we all make mistakes, its all a learning curve.
During the night I received a phone call from my daughter telling me her Grand father, my ex father-in-law, had died during the night, and could she come stay in our house. Yes she could and she did. I should have attended the funeral but it was not possible.
The alarm was set for 3 am so we could have a leisurely breakfast and drive to Christchurch, however there had been a power cut earlier in the day that had reset our alarm clock for PM instead of AM, so ofcause the alarm did not go off. We awoke at 3.40 am, dived out of bed in a panic had a hasty cup of coffee to wake up grabbed a banana, to eat on the way, threw our suitcases in the car and were away on a very fast trip. Now I am not a very good traveller I get carsick from fast cornering and swift manoeuvrings, and that is what happened. I was car sick all the way to Christchurch and arrived feeling most unwell, but still just in time to drop the car at the car storage place and get to the airport on time.
So finally we did board the plane on route to Langkawi, though many times we didn’t think we would, it felt like we were not meant to go to Malaysia, so we decide to have just the best holiday.