We arrived in Langkawi on the 28th February following a train journey from KL to Butterworth, a ferry to Penang and then another ferry to Langkawi. The original plan was to stop in Penang but after speaking to various people and reading the Lonely Planet we decided to skip this island and head straight to Langkawi.

Our initial intention was to have 4 days on Langkawi but we are now on day 15 and will not be leaving until day 18!!! How plans change!

For the first 2 days we planted ourselves on the beach, swimming in the sea, and watching the brilliant thunderstorms that happened on both afternoons. On day 3 we hired a moped but again this was ended prematurely because of a spectacular rainstorm which lasted all afternoon! Fortunately we found a great place to eat right next door to our accommodation called the Red Tomato Garden Cafe where we could take refuge from the thunder and lightening storms.

On Day 4 disaster struck as Ann hurt her back whilst opening a small pack of butter on the beach. It actually was a lot worse than we initially thought. We realised that we wouldn't be able to leave the next day as planned as she could barely move so I took a taxi to the port at Kuah to rearrange the return ferry. I re-scheduled it for the Friday - it was now Tuesday and I was sure that Ann would be OK by then but I soon discovered that that was just not going to happen.

On the Wednesday morning Ann had what could best be described as a 'funny turn' losing so much water in sweat she managed to form a pool under her chair! Tanya (the owner of the Red Tomato) saw the state she was in and offered to drive her to the doctors. The Doctor informed us that Ann's body, because of the amount of pain she was suffering, had forced her to pass out. He checked her out, diagnosed a sprained back, prescribed some medication and told her to rest for a week.

So Friday was not going to be our leavig date after all and we settled into living a beach life. All I can say is we could have been in worse places!

As the days rolled on Tanya asked Ann if she had thought of having some alternative treatment to see if that would help. So Ann, Tanya and myself set off for Dr Shamsudeen who was an acupuncture/holistic specialist based in Kuah. Within 1.5 hours he had got Ann up and moving again and I've got to say I was amazed. He used needles, wired her up to a machine and sent electric pulses through her body, cupped her (see photos) and used an Indian style massage which all seemed to help. He advised us to come back the next day and as it turned out 2 of Tanya's friends were also going so she organised a lift for us with them.

At this point I've got to say that all the people we have met have been wonderful. A special thank you goes to Tanya and all the staff at the Red Tomato.

Ann was getting better day by day but I was still concerned about her ability to carry a rucksack so I managed to find her a bag with wheels that could easily convert into a backpack. So a few days later we slowly walked down to the shop to check them out. As I was showing A the bag to our absolute suprise Steve and Maja walked up to us. Steve is a friend of mine through work back home in Halifax (he used to work for Walker Singleton) we knew he was travelling and have been following each others blogs but thought we would meet up in Oz not in a duty free shop on a small Malaysian island!!! We arranged to meet later on and proceeded to purchase the bag even managing to negotiate a 50% discount!

However once we got the bag home and opened it up fully we realised it was far too big nicknaming it the body bag! So we decided to go back to the shop and see if we could swap it - fortunately they agreed and we found one very similar but smaller so now A looks like a 'trolley dolly'. But it will do the job and save A's back to boot!

As A was feeling much better we decided to go on a 3 island boat trip with steve and Maja. Whilst we were at a freshwater lake the local monkey mafia decided to join us. I think they spotted Steve's crisps and my Orio cookies it was all rather scary so we decided to make our exit and leave the monkeys to entertain the other people at the lake.

The following day we even hired a car and drove to the cable car so we could see the islands from over 700 m above sea level. One of the main reasons for hiring the car was so that we could go to the islands main post office and send home A's rucksack but absolutely typical for us we got there and it was closed on a Friday!

(Ann is now writing)

As my back was now getting better and we had sorted out the luggage issue we decided it was time to take our leave of Langkawi and book our transport off the island. So off we went to book a ferry and bus ticket to get us to Khota Bharu on Sunday - disaster - it's the school holidays and everything is booked up until Tuesday!!! David and I just looked at each other incredulously - are we ever going to get off this island? We bought the ticket anyway.

Later that evening we were discussing the situation and realised that as time was marching on we should really dispense with the Perhentian Island which would be another beach holiday instead going straight to the Taman Negara on the jungle railway. Sorted - or so we thought!!! The Lonely Planet goes on about how fantastic the jungle railway is and that whilst incredibly slow and uncomfortable it is worth it for the views - what views would they be then? When we checked the train times it turns out that it only runs at night - aaaggghhh!!!! We have now come to the conclusion that fate is telling us to get on with our travels - get out of Malaysia and move on to Singapore. We headed back to the travel agency to explain our predicament, he was very understanding and promised that he would try and sell our original ticket and if he was successful book us onto the Singapore bus - the good news is that he did manage to sell the ticket so we we're off to Singapore.

The ferry journey over to the mainland was an absolute joke - the ferry terminal was absolutely heaving and they tried to cram us all onto this small boat - people were standing and sitting everywhere. The port authoritites came on and started videoing the situation and we sat and sat and sat....people were arguing and shouting and we just sat there for about an hour crammed into this boat as the temperature rose higer and higher. Eventually we were told to move boats - all this was in Malay so at this point we didn't know what had been said - the boat erupted with people shouting but no-one moved. Then another guy came on and shouted something and suddenly everyone got up and started moving so we followed everyone and within a matter of minutes we were on a much larger ferry and off. God help anyone who was a bit slow as they were not hanging around!

Just a quick hello to all the great people we've met in Langkawi who've made our extended stay so much fun - Julieta, Eric and Phil from San Francisco (we first met Julieta in Ko Lanta in December - it's a small world!) Kevin and Heather from Cork and Bolton respectively, the lovely Will and Megan from Wales who so kindly offered to take my rucksack and daypack back to the UK for me (thank you so much for that) and of course Steve and Maja - good luck on the rest of your travels and we'll hopefully see you in Oz!