langkawi

langkawi is an island that was described to me as the stuff of dreams. to be honest, i was expecting a more upscale version of ko phi phi but with it's waters (after all, it is in the same sea). langkawi is beautiful and much bigger than phi phi. it has nice limestone mountains, although not as dramatic as on phi phi simply because they are further away. langkawi also offers rice fields, waterfalls and island-hopping, although i did only the last one. what disappointed me though about langkawi was the water. the water is like in penang: murky. although it is of a nicer shade and doesn't taste funky as in penang, you can't really see past a foot in the water and that's quite uninteresting after having seen thailand (or the caribbeans or mexico).

but langkawi has really nice, long beaches. beautiful soft sand, sea stars and nice shells. island-hopping was nice, and we got to see a lake, a beach and some eagle feeding. langkawi has a huge population of eagles, different types of them even and they are quite beautiful birds. some of them are huge!

i guess i didn't stay long on the island because it was pricey and because it wasn't absolutely incredible. it had a nice atmosphere though, with a cool reggae bar with live music. anyhow, there's still so much left to see in malaysia and i want to head to australia early, so i have to pick up the pace! because of this, i am back in georgetown to get a few sights left scratched-off my list and then i am off to two other spots before heading down to singapore, the final asian destination.

for some reason, perhaps because i will be done asia soon, i feel as though my trip is about to end soon. this is crazy though, because i still have 2.5 months left really... that's a lot of time! but regardless, i feel a little sad, and i often dream about going back to some of the places that i've visited so far. breakfast in dali. a tube ride in vang vien. snorkeling in phi phi. phosphorescence in halong bay... so many things... i guess that i just don't want to let go of them just yet.