It's one thing never to have sampled an ingredient, quite another never to have even heard of it. Yet here, spread out on the chef's table among the more familiar limes and lemongrass, is something called galangal. Next to it is a bowl of buah keras or candle nuts and next to that is a pink ginger flower.
I've barely had time to marvel at how a knobbly old ginger root can produce a bloom of such sculptural beauty before we're told to put on our hats and aprons and get chopping. Over the next half hour we create spicy Malay-style salads and curries which we then eat in an explosion of flavours. This is my kind of cookery demonstration.
There's then just time for a snooze in the hammock at the edge of the Andaman Sea before a sunset cruise to take in some of the islands that comprise the Langkawi archipelago.
It's a day that could sum up the place: a mixture of chilies and chilling.
There are 99 islands - 104 at low tide - but only three of them are inhabited and most people, around 65,000, live on Palau Langkawi. The 25-mile-long island, less than 20 miles off the North West coast of Malaysia across the Straits of Malacca was once thought to be cursed by the dying words of a beautiful maiden executed for adultery. Langkawi, she vowed, would not prosper for seven generations so everything from crop failures to an invasion by Siam was blamed on it.
Getting there
STAY: Chic locations offer six nights at the Danna for £1,628 pp. The equivalent at the Pelangi Beach would be £1488.
FLY: London to Langkawi return with Singapore Airlines start from £800, www.singaporeair.com, www.thedanna.com, www.meritushotels.com
The curse was said to be lifted by the birth of her seventh descendant which, rather pragmatically, coincided with the place being given tax-free status in 1987. Visitor numbers have been growing ever since but, even with the advent of a few big swanky hotels, the island is determined not to go the way of some other South East Asian resorts and allow itself to be over-developed.
So this is why rain forest still covers most of its dramatic mountains and hills and why UNESCO granted it Geopark status in 2007. To immerse ourselves in these surroundings, we take a four-hour trip down the Kilim river to spot birds such as kingfishers and the huge brown and white Brahminy kites which are unique to the island, vipers lounging on the low branches of the mangrove trees and, as we reach the sea, a pod of dolphins.
Earlier, we stopped off to walk through the jungle to a bat cave where hundreds, insect eating and fruit eating, dangled from the walls and roof. The adults sleep higher than the babies in the "nursery" which is much nearer the ground so that if they fall they won't be hurt. Khirien, our guide, tells us that mothers recognise their offspring by urinating on them before they go off to search for food.
Khirien picks a leaf from a plant called babuta which means blindness. Not only can the sap make you blind, but just two drops can be a powerful laxative. He tells us to beware of the long-tailed macaque monkeys, who although undoubtedly appealing, especially the mothers with babies, can rapidly turn aggressive if they spot visitors with food and drink - there's a strict injunction not to carry any. We're also told to talk in low voices and not to smile at them: bared teeth are a sign of aggression.
On another afternoon we view the place from on high via what's claimed to be the world's steepest cable car ride, climbing in six-seater cars over the jungle, waterfalls and dramatic cliff faces to the 2,322ft summit of Mount Machincang. The Skybridge, which offers a thrilling walk out into space 300 feet above the landscape, was closed for maintenance and the weather was hazy, preventing us seeing any views but making the trip into the clouds seem magical. Those who don't feel comfortable in cable cars can drive to the highest point on the island, the 2,625ft Gunung Raya, which was the first mountain in South East Asia to rise from the seabed half a billion years ago.
A great way to relax after all this is with a massage. I try one at each of the places we stay - an Indonesian themed one at the Meritus Pelangi Beach resort and spa and a traditional Malay deep pressure one at the Danna Hotel - and a local one. The Indonesian one claims to be based on techniques dating back 4,000 years; the Malay, where I can choose which scented oil I want, similarly uses techniques passed down the generations. Both are lovely - relaxing and invigorating - but then so is the local one which also involves some foot massage. The surroundings are less sumptuous, of course, but the effects are pretty much the same and the price is a fraction.
Langkawi similarly offers a wide variety of eating and drinking. So we have five star dining in the hotels but we also sample street food in the night market in the capital Kuah where there are delicious titbits for pennies: ten little satay sticks will cost a pound, five pieces of sticky rice wrapped in palm leaf envelopes 40p. In between we have a wonderful seven course taster menu with paired wines for around £50 a head at the Privilege restaurant.
Before we start, we try a mojito made with their house infused Bacardi featuring black pepper, star anise, ginger and the inevitable chilli.
Langkawi is a long way away - 13 hours to Singapore, a further hour and a half to the island - perhaps that's why it's relatively unknown in the UK and that's a shame, as I think one morning, when as part of a yoga class I stretch out on the white sand, hear the sea lapping at its edge, contemplate a soaring eagle high above and realise that my hardest decision will be whether it's too decadent to treat myself to a glass of champagne at breakfast. This is serious battery recharging.
