Beach Paradise

View South East Asia in a larger map

So after two big cities, I took off for an island called Langkawi located off the North West Coast of Malaysia.

the taxi ride from the ferry to my hostel was mental. My 60+ year old taxi driver pulled up to a sports car and proceeded to engage him in a race which found us zooming at 140km/h on small local roads while I was clutched my seat for dear life and tried to avoid soiling myself.

I checked into a hostel called Gecko and was lucky enough to meet some really cool people... Gus from Sweden and Arnold from Holland.... Arnold actually looks like the real governator.

For the next two days, we rented motorcycles for $8 a day and the three of us took off exploring the island. it was my first true motorcycle experience and i found it to be incredibly liberating. we found waterfalls, monkeys, gorgeous beaches, sunsets... and ripped those roads apart.

At night we partied at bars along the beach and met lots of backpackers... our group of friends grew. the parties were not crazy, it was a pretty low key island which was nice, not overly touristy.

I met my first ever Maldivians (people from The Maldives, islands off the south coast of India that are expected to disappear over the next decades due to climate change). They were 3 sisters who were on a vacation and they were awesome fun! i must visit those islands some day.

After several days on the island of Langkawi, Arnold along with an Aussie named Toni and myself took off for Thailand, more specifically Koh Phi Phi, the island where they shot The Beach.

The 3 of us are currently splitting a hotel room so its dirrrt cheap the way i like it. This island is much more touristy and party crazy than Langkawi. It is also much more naturally beautiful... the beach scene is gorgeous, with amazing rock formations jutting out of the sea and gorgeous white sand... it truly feels like paradise.. when i thought of SE Asia, this is what i pictured.

The first few nights here was party central... one popular tradition they seem to have here is to play with fire at the bars... alcohol and fire, genius... right. The first event was a huge jump rope that was lit on fire and anyone can go and skip rope. I had to try it.... no major damage. Then later on in the night, several drinks later they bring out a big ring of fire that you can jump through. i had met a fellow Canadian from Ottawa and had the brilliant idea to jump through it with her...bad idea. the hole wasn't quite meant for 2 people so i ended up kicking over the ring and it fell on my fellow Canadian and burnt her leg....i felt terrible but thank god only minor burn. I bought my Canadian friend a drink and put myself in a time-out. That's the last of my fire experiences for now.

Arnold, Toni and I will leave for Phucket tomorrow. I heard snow has already arrived in Canada.... suckers.