Langkawi - Malaysia

Scott is officially back 'on the road' again. Its been a long absence, of over 13 months, but I finally have a backpack full of dirty clothes and useless items which I'm hauling around the idyllic beaches and temples of south east Asia.... only this time I have company. My lovely lady has decided to forgo her usual high accommodation and food standards to rough it with me for 5 weeks.

Of course, some people might say I've never really been 'off' the road, as in the months since I last contributed to the blogosphere I've been teaching English in Seoul. However, that has become the norm for me now, and hence I feel any writings on the subject would be somewhat dull and strained. I'm pretty sure no one wants to hear whether I had porridge or toast in the morning, leading on to another uneventful day of work, a quick pint and a bit of telly.

Once again, I find myself with some interesting (to me alone probably) subject matter to fill my prose. And unfortunately, I find myself with some dead time with which to fill these pages with my words of wisdom. This is entirely due to an intense tropical storm raging around me, enabling the paradise island in Thailand on which I now sit, to conduct a fair impression of The End of Days.

Fortunately, it hasn't all been like this. The first four days on Langkawi were literally blistering hot. I say 'literally' because of the effect said sun had on my lady's nose! I enjoyed Langkawi thoroughly. It's location just on the Malaysian side of the Thai border affords it the status of a duty free island. This means it is a little more liberal than the rest of Malaysia, which is already pretty liberal for a Muslim country. It is also blessed with the aforementioned weather, and some stunning beaches.

We chose to stay on Pantai Cenang, which is the busiest beach on the island, and even that is quite a relaxed affair, although it is equipped with all the amenities you might need, and quite a lot that you don't! Its slightly more expensive than the rest of South East Asia here, but still very reasonable to a European or North American mindset. We were able to secure a spacious bungalow with aircon, fan, and a clean, hot shower for 80 ringgit ($27) a night between us. It really is much cheaper travelling with a partner, as most prices are per room, not based on occupancy.

The only let down has been that as neither of us were carrying our driving licences, we were unable to rent a scooter. They are very unbendable on this, there are no exceptions and police checks are common. As one local waiter informed us "it is strict, this is not Thailand!". Every cloud has its silver lining though, and this particular one enabled us to spend more time hanging out at the beach, sunbathing, relaxing and letting the grime and echo of screaming Korean schoolchildren wash away further with every tiny wave hitting the glistening white sand. After a few days somehow managed to race by and feel like a lifetime simultaneously, we were almost ready to move on. However, one last challenge remained.

Pantai Cenang has more parasailing activity than I've seen anywhere else in the World. The people taking part ranged from athletic young Scandanavians, to middle-aged Indian women in full traditional garb! In fact, seeing the latter do it is what really pushed us on to have a go ourselves. If she can do it....

We got a good deal from one of the guys for a tandem ride, and before we knew it we were strapped to a parachute and a motorboat. At this point all that was left was to pray we wouldn't fall flat on our faces. The motorboat engine roared, the parachute billowed, and after a few quick steps we were gracefully ascending above the Andaman Sea. CA (my aforementioned 'lovely lady') chose this point to try and wiggle her arse into the seat harness, which made us rock all over the place. A few high-pitched screams from yours truly both made her stop, and shattered all illusions of me being calm and collected in the face of danger!

Actually, I exaggerate somewhat. The ride was surprisingly calm considering we were about 100 feet in the air, hovering over the beach or only 5 feet of water most of the time. The only slightly hairy part was the landing. We had seen very different standards from the various punters. Think a humming bird to a baby hippo with no legs and you get the idea. After the first bout of screams and whistles from below, it was my job to pull as hard as I could on the rope. After narrowly avoiding umbrella tops and sunbathers we let go and prepared for the moment of truth. And it I don't think I'd seen a better landing all week! A 5.0 - 5.0 - 5.0 surely! Unfortunately, you'll never know just how excellent it was, because our camera chose to run out of battery while we were in the air!

Unable to top our little display of our aeronautics, there was nothing much to do other than pack up our belongings and move on. Thailand next.