I'm back in Malaysia for one last beach with Cords, and we are making the most of the sun. Right on the equator, Lankawi is the hottest place I've been to yet. Bring on the suntan!

I knew that it would be a dog-leg to get Southwards to the Malaysian island of Lankawi all the way from Koh Tao, but it was The Official Worst Journey Ever. I left on the night boat, which Amy had warned me was 'pretty horrible'. It was like a slave ship! Rows of bodies stretched along either side of the boat, which was made of wood and held together with string from what I could tell. Assigned a number, I crawled along the upper deck (the ceiling was too low to stand up) and found my tiny space to spent the night, sandwiched in between a tall Swedish guy and a load of unfriendly Russian girls. Admittedly I'd had a couple of drinks before leaving Koh Tao, but the horrible-ness of the boat, and trepidation at the long journey ahead made me well up... Thankfully, two lovely English girls, Kim and Laura, came to my rescue - we were mutually appaulled at the thought of spending 9 hours on this sardine tin and bonded over a shared dislike of all our fellow ship-mates (all very unfriendly indeed!). The journey went from bad to worse; 20 hours in total I faced choppy seas, squat toilets, a 2 hour wait in the rain for the minibus, no English speakers on either of the next 2 buses, no food stops all day, a quite anxious wait at the local bus terminal in border town Haad Yao (which is as horrible as I'd imagined) and then another ferry over to Lankawi - by the time I arrived I was delirious and very hungry! I'd really missed Cords so it was great to see her, and meet her lovely band of travelling buddies.

Lankawi is very pretty, quite different to the Thai islands (considering how close it is), not nearly so many palm trees, but very bright white (and hot!) sand, and a chilled-out atmosphere. Cords is horrified at my new-found love of reggae, purely influenced by recent weeks spent listening to it at lots of beach bars! We had a lovely last night meeting at our friend's guesthouse, enjoying the free BBQ and who did I bump into but Kim and Laura - small world! A few cocktails on the beach later and we were all firm friends.

Next stop, and my last stop in South East Asia... Singapore.

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