When I first considered visiting Langkawi, my Malaysian-American friend Niran insisted that I had to stay at the Datai. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Some quick research showed that the Datai was a sustainably-focused resort located on Datai Bay, which National Geographic has rated as one of the top ten beaches in the world. Well, okay. The Datai it was.

Technically an archipelago of 100ish islands, Langkawi’s tourism industry is concentrated on the main island of – what else? – Langkawi. While the island features a number of tourist attractions to appeal to both families and couples (aquarium, cable car, sky bridge, museums, waterfalls, boat tours, hikes, etc.), I was looking for a calm respite before a crazy week of partying (more on that later). The luxurious Datai seemed like just the place.

Langkawi’s dry season typically falls between December and mid-April. While it was hot and humid during my trip in mid-March (as is to be expected at any time of the year in this part of the world), I experienced sunny weather every day. Oh, and I should also mention that my visit occurred in March 2020. Spoiler alert, but the timing would end up to be a defining characteristic of my stay in Langkawi.

Getting to Langkawi and The Datai

After doing my best to maximize my one night in Kuala Lumpur, I headed back to the airport to catch the one-hour-and-five-minute flight to the island of Langkawi. From the local airport, the drive was approximately 35 minutes north to the lush rainforest that the Datai calls home. Since I honestly had no plans to leave the resort until I checked out, I opted to take a Grab rather than rent a car.

Easy enough. But then my driver was clearly ill. His eyes were watering, he was sniffling and he kept coughing. This would be off-putting in normal times, but the world was just starting to realize that COVID-19 could be a major threat, even if we didn’t really understand what the exact threat was. I immediately became convinced that my driver had the coronavirus and did my best to not panic. It was just like the flu… right?

At this point in time, we all believed that the virus was transmitted via surfaces, so I sat rock-still in the car, doing my best to not touch anything. When we arrived at the Datai, I was happy to have the porter open the car door for me and take my luggage. And thankfully the payment for the car was all handled through the Grab app. Needless to say, I scrubbed my hands multiple times after that car ride and wiped down my luggage as thoroughly as possible. Little did I (or anybody else) yet know that the virus was airborne. Fortunately, I did not get COVID (or maybe I did, but had an asymptomatic case? Unlikely, but I’ll never know for sure).

The Property

I stayed in an entry-level Canopy Deluxe room that offered a private balcony, spacious seating area and views of the rainforest. At 63 square meters (just under 700 square feet), the room was bigger than my studio apartment in New York City.

The hotel had three swimming pools (one adult pool, one family pool, one wading pool for kids) as well as a white sand beach. I planned to take advantage of it all – well, except for the kiddie pool, of course.

There were five different dining options onsite, so I was able to try a number of different restaurants during my three night stay.

It was approximately a fifteen minute walk from my room, the lobby and the adult pool down to the beach and the family pool. The hotel offered golf carts (or buggies, as they called them) to transport guests, but I enjoyed the walk through the dense foliage. I also never minded an extra workout.

Because I booked through my friends Kathy and Justin at Cartology Travel, the Datai offered two complimentary massages during my stay. And because I was traveling solo, I got to enjoy both of the massages. Yes, please!

I am a sucker for a great hotel gym, and the Datai did not disappoint on this front. Decently sized for a 121 room property, the gym boasted terrific views of the beach and was never crowded. Regardless, I was quite unnerved during my workout on the penultimate morning of my stay. Precisely 27:30 into my run on the treadmill, my playlist was interrupted by an incoming call from my friend/former colleague David. He would be turning 40 the next week and was flying to Singapore with ten of his closest friends to meet me the following day. I had planned an epic bash for him that included three nights partying it up in Singapore before flying to a private island in the Philippines for five nights – hence the reason I needed three days to chill on my own and prepare for the raucous event.

Well, recall that I was traveling during March 2020? David did not call me often, so I figured it must be something important. I slowed my pace and answered my phone. “Did you see the news?” David asked me. Um, no. I was working out and admiring a view of the beach. It turned out that I had missed a few things in the last almost half hour. Tom Hanks had tested positive for the coronavirus, the NBA has suspended its season, and Trump had just enacted a travel ban on visitors from Europe to the US. Damn. Shit was really starting to get real.

David and his friends were understandably freaking out. None of them wanted to get stuck in Southeast Asia, as they all had jobs and/or families to return to. It looked like the birthday celebration was going to get canceled. Damn again.

While I was visiting the Datai during an unprecedented time of turmoil and it seemed very likely that my future travel plans were about to become completely upended, I felt fortunate that I had been able to get to Langkawi safely and experience this magical part of the world. It hadn’t exactly been the relaxing stay I had expected, but there were definitely worse places that I could be! Next I would fly to Singapore as originally scheduled, even if I wouldn’t be meeting David and ten other people there. And after that? I suddenly had no idea what was going to happen…