I left Penang early one morning and caught my first ferry of the trip over to Langkawi, after 3 extremely bumpy hours on an oversized speed boat, land finally came into view and as the sun broke the clouds the boat pulled into Langkawi harbor.The first view you see when approaching Langkawi is a palm tree fringed island with white sand and blue sea, I think the eagle is the emblem of Langkawi mainly because the second thing you notice is the massive 2 storey high bird which marks the entrance to port, its huge and its most definitely eye catching, I actually did a double take when I first noticed it as my eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing.Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No wait yes it is a bird, a huge mutant bird about to swoop down, pick up my boat and fly us away from this beautiful island (if it wasn't for the fact its made out of cemement)

The next thing I must note about Langkawi is the awesome point that the whole island is for some unexplainable reason DUTY FREE! I think its because its used as an access point to Thailand or something but regardless it meant that booze is cheap and therefore good times were most definitely on the cards.The first day I spent with Kim on the beach, the sun was ridiculously hot in fact I think it's the hottest sun I have experienced on my whole trip so far, literally like sitting under a grill and baking yourself, there were some uber brown people on this beach believe me and a lot of sweaty bodies.After chatting with some English holiday makers the illusion that Langkawi might actually be perfect was all but shattered around me when the girl informed me to be care full going into the sea as it was swarming with jelly fish - anyone who knows me knows how much I detest (and to be honest am scared) of anything with tentacles so the idea of cooling down in the ocean was not on the cards for me, luckily we had a beach bungalow with an extremely chilly shower so cooling down after sitting in the sun wasn't too much hassle. I still don't see my fear of octopus and jellyfish as irrational I mean they are practically aliens, they have no spines and most of them don't have brains!! They just have an instinct to hunt - so to me, octopus= totally unnatural weird freaky thing of nature = me no where near it!

On my first night on Langkawi there was a storm, everyone could see it slowly approaching during the afternoon and when it finally hit at sunset it hit hard.The rain was pelting and through the dim light I could see people leggin it to find shelter - Me and Kim sat under a bamboo parasol and after some very short debate I ran and got some rum and Kimberley ran and got ice, coke and glasses.Before long we joined 3 English lads who had had the exact same idea and so me, Kimberley, Matt, Ash and Pete chilled out on the beach under our parasol, drinking, chatting and watching the storm torment the dark sea ahead.Before long the rain died off and so did our devotion to an early night, we all got changed and headed down the beach to have a night involving, YMCA (the start of a running theme for mine and Kimberley's travels) a very drunken guess who, 2 lovely Mexicans, a reggae band with dreadlocks down to their shins and all of us having a brilliant night.

The following day I woke to a knock at the door, apparently I had promised Matt and Ash I would go on the hunt for a waterfall, so I left Kimberley passed out in bed and with a heavy head got on a moped and started the windy drive up the mountain.The drive would have been ok but I wasn't feeling too fabulous so I took it steady - with Matt keeping a watchful eye on me as Ash all too happily lapped us, a grin on his face and a 100 km an hour needle wobbling on his speedometer. We arrived into the national park and after a short but steep walk we found our selves at the bottom of an impressive looking waterfall - although not the prettiest it still looked cool to me and seen as it was so hot that day I wasn't complaining when confronted by a large cold body of water (which isn't infested with sodding jelly fish). I was dumping my bag in a dry spot when I heard Matt and Ash discussing that someone had told them that the waterfall had created natural tubes of smooth stone that you could slide down, I watched with curiosity as the men surveyed the area and after a muffled discussion then decided the water was too shallow to attempt to slide down the rocks today.We were taking some pictures next to the waterfall when I turned around and realized Ash had disappeared? Me and matt started looking for him when he appeared at the bottom of the flow of water, I shouted down and asked how the hell he had got down there and with a confused smile he looked at the water slide and replied "aw guys I wouldn't try that if I was you"it was at that point I saw the blood pooring down his shins - I couldn't stop laughing.

The rest of my days on Langkawi was spent hanging out on the beach, Langkawi's main beach is made so much more relaxing by the live reggae bands that play in the beach bars during the afternoon, they did reggae covers of classics such as Lady Gaga, The Backstreet Boys and Britney lol but they were the best covers I have ever heard - don't worry the band also did bob and Damien as well as others.I have never been on a beach with perfect weather, cocktail in hand whilst a brilliant reggae band made my island beach paradise just perfect before.

My second to last night on Langkawi was very well spent, all 5 of us decided to have a quiet night and only go for one or two drinks and then retreat to bed but as we approached one of the beach bars it quickly became apparent that no one was going home early.It turned out that there was a beach party organized on the uninhabited island opposite our beach and people were already starting to get boats across - it was an opportunity I couldn't resist, my first beach party, so I paid for my wrist band and hopped on a boat with everyone else to the island.The boat ride over there was quiet dodgy as we were on a tiny boat shooting through the water whilst a boy stood at the front waving his lighter so that other boats knew that he was approaching but obviously the wind whipping up because the boat was moving so quickly was blowing out his lighter every two seconds making us invisible and possibly leading to death - or so I drunkenly believed.The beach was far from a party when we arrived apparently we were eager bunnies and were one of the first boats to arrive, but by the time we had drank a few buckets, the DJ arrived as did other party people and it all kicked off.We were joined by tones of random people all chatting, then dancing then disappearing.The party organizers promised a beach party with fire show and bonfire - well all the wood for the bonfire was wet so that wasn't going to happen however in the end Matt stepped up and put his manly skills (which I reckon he learnt in the scouts) to work and before long - Matt make fire.And as for the fire show the guys dropped the sticks burning on each end more than they twizzled them however there was one highlight when one of the fire guys did fire blowing and asked if any idiot in the audience would be stupid enough to have a go? Guess who the idiot was … Me. Of course in my drunken state it made perfect sense to fill my mouth with lighter fluid hold a flaming torch in front of my face and then blow - it wasn't until after that a couple came up to me and asked if I was insane? They said that a lot of people get it wrong and the flames goes backwards and burns their face off!! My reply was simply - "bloody hell … good job I got it right then aye?!" and I danced away into the night.

At one point I was sat on the beach with god knows who talking obviously very intellectual conversation about wether dolphins can smile or some crap like that when a very wet looking kim comes running over to me and says that she has discovered something incredible! She grabbed my hand and I followed her to see what this astonishing occurance was, but as soon as she got me to the waters edge I froze - there was no way I was getting into the water with all them jelly fish.Kim promised me it was safe and on this island there was no jelly fish - but I didn't believe her and I stood my ground until out of no where kim, pete and god knows who else picked me up, carried me and then dumped me in the sea.Mid panick attack I was on the verge of tears until Kim calmed me down and told me to look at the water, I have never seen anything like it - the sea was filled with plancturn which when you swished the water lit up bright neon green.It was pitch black as the 5 of us splashed around in the water lighting up the sea around us like something out of a movie, it reminded me of that scissor scissors music video, it was so magical in my eyes .All in all it was an awesome awesome beach party!

I loved everything about Langkawi and I would most definitely go back if I could, but sadly we had people to see and places we most definitely had to be and so onto a bus, boat, bus and into Phuket to see Kimberley's dad and his wife - but that's a whole different blog.