Langkawi, Malaysia

Greetings loved ones

We are coming to an end of our stay in Langkawi, heading off to Penang (georgetown) next. For those of you not familiar with Langkawi, it's a tax duty free island off the north of Malaysia, our first stay since crossing the border from Thailand. First impressions = excellent, actual pavements to walk on! Staying in the backpacker budget section of the island at a guesthouse called "Gecko" run by a no nonsense Brit, Rebecca. This place is great for meeting fellow backpackers, and taking advantage of the duty free alcohol. We have met some really cool people here, and some really not so cool people. One night in the week, after some drinking at the guesthouse, we all headed down to this place on the beach called Babylon. We chilled out chatting to people, sitting on bamboo mats and drinking beer at around 25p! We had some great conversations with people and whilst watching some fire throwers, the strange thing was that at exactly the same time, Adam and I turned to each other and said how amazing it would be if our some of our friends from home were there to share it with us.
The travellers at the guesthouse have mostly been great, including a northern lad, some french girls and a couple Americans. I must say GENERALLY i have found the Americans i have met along the way, exasperating. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt every time, and every time they fail to impress me. Including these two guys from Connecticut who must not own t-shirts because they never wear any, getting wasted every night and doing that thing where you stick your little finger and index finger up and shout "Whoooooa, yeah!" a lot. It was a funny coincidence that Adam had started playing Morrisey's "America is not the world" when they decided to come over and start a conversation. I think the lyrics "America your head's too big, Because America, Your belly is too big" sang out, they didn't seem to notice...
Anyways, i have totally loved this island, the beach is good and the sun gets very hot, it's been around 35 degrees here. So far i have found the malay people really friendly, it's just a bit bizarre being on an island where people are knocking back duty free booze and the majority of the population practice Islam.
So tomorrow afternoon we are leaving for Penang, and after that the Cameron Highlands - which i am really looking forward to some jungle trekking and cooler climate for a while.
Missing all you guys,
Stay black. xx