By luck, I met a few cool people in the minivan to the harbour, who were taking the same boat to Langkawi. The mega-violent movies they showed on the morning ferry were a bit disturbing, given the number of kids, but we arrived and managed to grab the last three beds at the http://www.journeymalaysia.com/islandlangkawigecko.htm" rel="nofollow">Gecko Guesthouse near the beach. Well, actually there were only two beds; Gareth drew the short straw and spent the night on the floor. Not that myself and Shani got a good night's sleep; I was woken first to find grotty cats on top of me, and then later when our Turkish roomy decided to douse himself with tiger balm before sleeping – it was enough to make my eyes water and throat burn. It was only one night of pain, though, as we lucked into getting a beach-side chalet the next day, which set us up for a great couple of weeks on the island.


Together with an English couple, Jade and James (who are now engaged, after James proposed in Thailand just after New Year – congratulations guys!), we had a great time exploring the island. We found a couple of stunning beaches, beautiful waterfalls and a few exhibitionist monkeys who put on an impromptu sex show for our cameras – apparently this wasn't Jade and James' first animal sex encounter, but was less disturbing than listening to shagging koalas... The cable car up the mountain on Langkawi is far better than Penang's, and the steel and glass viewing platform at the top has some stunning views (including straight downwards!) if you're not too scared of heights.


New Year on Langkawi was cool, with fire-dancers and lanterns on the beach, and a beach party at a nearby club. Don't remember too much, but nothing too messy. The same couldn't be said for Gareth, who was in fine form (see photos!) before fading away early. We managed to get him and his possessions all the way up the beach back to our chalet, but somehow left his bag on the table a foot outside the door. Losing his camera and some other possessions (they even took a half-empty bottle of some rot-gut warm bourbon and cola and a 2 dollar pair of sunnies) wasn't the best start to 2007. Insurance is great, but he lost a lot of irreplaceable photos...