Langkawi Weekend

After five amazing days in Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, on Thursday, Brian, Sam, Cody and I flew to Vientiane. During the short 30 minute flight I believe that I had some sort of an epiphany. I was just reflecting on my travels so far, and after a fairly introspective experience in Laos, I realized the significance of what I am doing right now and more or less decided that I'd like to write a book. So I had this idea, and then we arrived in Vientiane with 2 hours to kill before our flight back to KL at 5:00. Brian and Cody had a rest at the airport while Sam and I took a tuk-tuk into town to explore for a bit. Immediately, we entered a schoolyard full of Laotian children who were playing with us and running around dancing and just having a blast. Then we stumbled upon a temple where a monk blessed us and gave us wristbands for good luck. Having just had my "epiphany" on the airplane, this was all kind of surreal...I once again can't properly describe the feeling I had. Anyway, we went back to the airport and flew to KL where we had a sleepover in the LCCT terminal of the airport so that we would already be there for our flight to Langkawi at 7:30 AM Friday.

We took full advantage of the duty-free shop's beverage selection and wound up sleeping in some booths at a 24 hour Asian restaurant in the airport. I was shaken awake by a Malaysian, and as I slowly recalled where I was, I looked at my watch to see that it was 5:20 AM and the restaurant was full of early morning travelers eating their breakfast. Woops. Anyway, we got to the Langkawi airport, and the Starbucks barista there may or may not have laced my coffee with something because apparently I would not shut up in the taxi on the way to AB Motel. To the extent that Cody bet me 100 ringit (33 USD) that I could not remain silent for the next 45 minutes. So I did the whole silent meditation thing for a little while and collected some easy money. For the record: silent meditation = completely underrated.

Once I could speak again, Cody, Sam and I went banana boating, where a speedboat drags you around and tries to make you capsize. Brian was feeling a bit sick so he rested in the guesthouse all day. After winning at banana boating, I went para-sailing with Sam, and the aerial views of Langkawi were pretty stunning. Unfortunately, I fail at life and once again lost my brand new digital camera that night. I really am not so good at the whole not-losing-or-breaking-my-electronics thing. Two lost cameras and a water-damaged iPod Touch in a 5 day span...that must be some sort of record. I couldn't care less about the cameras themselves, but losing so many photos and videos crushes me. All of my photos from everything that I just explained - the Laotian kids, the temple, banana boating, parasailing...just gone. I am so thankful that I backed up all of my photos from Luang Prabang, and that I was able to get a bunch of photos from Brian and Cody's cameras.

Our weekend turned out to be unforgettable. I've been on sort of natural high ever since our experience in Laos, and I guess I was just talking to everybody, because before I knew it seemed as if we had made friends with everyone on the island. We met a bunch of guys from around the world who study in KL, some local Langkawians, and loads of other travelers, all of whom were amazing. I met my twin brother from another mother, George (think about it, it makes no sense), and some of the chillest people in the world...Moe, Kudzi, Abdul, everybody. On Friday night, we all went out to Babylon, a reggae bar on the beach, and Sunba, a dance club with great house music and a live band playing as well. We were trying to have a beach party at the end of the night but everyone was pretty worn out from the long day and we just crashed after the club.

So I woke up Saturday and couldn't find my camera, which is becoming quite a familiar feeling. I spent a little bit of time searching but I quickly decided I'd rather just enjoy paradise. As always: Dopeness > Wackness. And enjoy paradise I did. We all hung out on the beach, just having a great time, telling about our lives, swimming in the Andaman, etc. At sunset we we played some beach football and although I have absolutely zero ability it was still pretty fun.

Saturday night was awesome. I know I've been saying that about basically every day lately...I'm a fan of hyperbole, leave me alone. But the whole night was just hilarious. We all piled into Moe's room before going out, everybody bought fake Ray-Bans on the way to Babylon and wore them the entire night, and eventually we all made it back to Sunba. By the time the place closed at 4 AM, we had recruited a group of 20 people to come back to AB Motel for the beach party that hadn't happened the night before. Before I knew it, it was fully light out and the 7 or 8 of us remaining were just having a great time in the sun.

George, Sam and I were the last three standing and went for some breakfast at around 9 AM, then Sam and I met Brian and Cody back at the rooms so we could head to the airport. Brian's blackberry had been stolen during the night...apparently we are all awesome at not losing things. Anyway, back at the KL airport I said goodbye to everybody as they boarded a flight for Hong Kong and then to New York. It's sad to see them go; the last two weeks have been incredible. I've been awake for 33 hours straight and I am starting to hear voices and hallucinate, but I wouldn't change a minute of the experience that I've been having. I'm about to go drop another $200 for my 4th camera in 8 days and do my best to immediately lose it. My flight to Mumbai is at 9 AM tomorrow so tonight I'm having another sleepover in the KL airport tonight...can't argue with free accommodation. I love Malaysia.