3) the main lobby; 4) the lobby bar

5) cool drinks and towels upon our arrival; 6) moi at the lobby bar

7) a week of do-nothing goodness

8 & 9) the beach restaurant

10) staff always available with a glass of water or cool towel

11) entrance to our suite; 12) the bed

13 & 14) the washroom

15) note from Anne, the General Manager upon our arrival, with; 16) gift fruit basket (which the macaques got!

17) the living room; 18) Anne gave us bubbly the first night

19) along with the bubbly was a selection of snacks; 20) me doing the honours opening the bubbly – thanks Anne!

21 & 22) every night, the Andaman staff left us goodies

23) G searches for something or other

24) the games room; 25) me at billiards

26 & 27) Malaysia is a muslim nation but Singapore Tiger beer was available

28) the resort had very good, interesting, cocktails like this (though I was horrified they’d use orchids as garnish: orchids are so hard to grow here at home)

 

29) G washes his feet after returning from the beach; 30) sunset from our room

31) the main building with the main restaurant on the ground floor and lobby bar on second floor

32) on the beach – looking up to the Spa

33) the Andaman hallways

Before venturing to the Andaman, we had a lively exchange with their new General Manager, Anne Scott. Anne originally ran the Sheraton in London, UK and after – by her own admission – a love affair that went sour, requested a transfer to Langkawi to get away from it all. She has done much to build the team and is busy implementing a coral reef reclamation project. We were delighted to return one evening after touring the island to find an invite to a cocktail party hosted by her. This party was held right on the beach in a corralled area lit with lanterns.

Anne is simply a wonderful women, built in the Shirley Valentine-vein, engaging, funny, to-the-point and clearly a people person. Anne, her Irish sidekick Darren, G and I opened the party and many hours later, with the sun long set, closed the party. There was endless appetizers courtesy of Aussie Chef Chris and free-flowing drinks for us and the 20 or so special guests.

Anne suggested we wander the beach afterwards to see the setup for romantic beach dinners. We did and were instantly hooked – though probably more piled with beer and wine – and booked our own secluded beach dinner. You’ll see that in a coming post.

 
34) our invitation; 35) moi getting started at the cocktail party

36) the beach; 37) getting into it

38) the local fisherman: everyday at 4:30 a local fisherman would arrive with his day’s catch which you could then choose and have Chef prepare

39) the pool taken from the restaurant