We're back on the beach! Getting some serious sun again in Langkawi. Serious sun during the day then two out of our four nights we've had some serious rain, thunder and lightining!!

We arrived here on Thursday 11th November, got the 'ferry' from Penang with a couple from Belguim that we'd met in our Guesthouse. I say ferry but it was an old looking boot with rows and rows of seats. They couldn't have crammed any more people on if they tried! The journey was three hours, could have definitely been done with having a fast boat like we did going to Gili! It was a early start so got a wee snooze to help pass the time.

We hadn't arranged any accommodation (had we not learned from our mistake in Georgetown!?) so we shared a taxi with the Belguim couple to their Hostel/Guesthouse to check if they had any rooms available. Nope none so off we went with our backpacks. We found somewhere on our third or fourth attempt so didn't take too long. Basic room, clean, it'll do for a few nights! As usual we ditched our bags and went to explore our new surroundings. These ended up being one street and one beach! Fine for a few days. Had lunch in a cool bar/restaurant on the beach, beer was only 1 pound something!! Oh did I forget to mention that Langkawi is a duty free island so all the alcohol is mega cheap compaired to the rest of Malaysia! :oD I've been drinking beer everywhere we've been and I've really been missing my vodka and wine! Imagine how chuffed I was when I got a bottle of apple vodka for under 5 pound and can get a glass of wine for 2!

Our first night we had an amazing meal in a lovely Thai restuarant, very posh for us backpackers!! The food was excellent, I had a whole red snapper done in Thai spices and Dean had black bean beef. We decided to go wild and treat ourselves to a bottle of wine and some cocktails - yummy! This got us in party mood so we stopped off at a bar/cafe place called the Red Tomato Garden and had a few more vinos. You've got to remember I've pretty much had no wine for a month and a half....my body had been missing it!! We bumped into a Irish couple we'd met in Cameron Highlands, it's so weird how you bump into the same people, doing pretty much the same route. By the back of midnight it was home time, or so we thought! On route to our Motel Dean spotted what looked like a juice bar - they have these dotted about everywhere, little stands/shops that sell fresh juice out of big dispensers. We were a bit thirsty after our wine and the guy told us to help ourselves for free. We got talking to a group of young locals who were off to a club, I thought it'd be a good idea for us to go so we jumped into their done up Protons and took off to the Eagle Cafe Club. I felt like we were in a budget Fast & Furious!! The club was good, we left ourselves and hailed a taxi. The fun didn't end there though, we then couldn't find our way back to our room even though we were pretty much right outside! Far too drunk and it was far to dark and rainy!! Due to the rain we both slipped on our butts numerous times and have plenty of bumps and bruises to prove it!!

Next day we hired a Harley look a like, so much better than the scooters we've had the last few times! Cruised about the island all day, although we did have to change the Harley twice. Good job each time we were close by or we'd have been screwed! One bike had a drained battery and the second the throttle cable snapped so Dean had to steer with one hand and accelerate with his hand in amongst the engine. We even managed to carry our backpacks to our new Guesthouse whilst on the bike, saved a hot walk and totally fit in with the locals!

We're now living in Zackrys Guesthouse. It was recommended to us by Ben & Ben, the two Aussies we met in Cameron Highalnds. Really nice place, loads of people to talk to and really clean rooms. You get towels and toilet roll, thats a huge bonus when your backpacking!! It's on a quieter road and beach, think this is the more upmarket end of town. It's a shame not everything is upmarket though! We had the most disgusting meal last night. Like I said before we've had a few nights with thunder storms, and last night was one of them. We couldn't venture far so grabbed two umbrellas and went to the Chinese next door. Yuck! I have no idea what they served us but we don't think it was chicken!! Needless to say we didn't eat it but still had to pay 15 pound.....thats a VERY expensive meal in Malaysia.

The weather yesterday during the day was gorgeous, definitely over 40 deg's c. We had a hour or so on the beach then we carried out our plan of Pool Crashing!! We'd spotted a five star resort, with a beautiful pool, that looks onto the beach. We sauntered in as though we lived there and grabbed two of the comfy loungers and jumped into their pool. It did help that our Guesthouse towels were the same colour as theirs! Sunbathed there for a few hours then headed back to our backpackers accommodation. Ah such a relaxing day!

It's our last night here tonight, just sitting outside our room with a 0.60p beer and some apple vodka. Bliss.

Lots of Love

Chelle & Dean