Langkawi

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We arrived at the main island of Langkawi (out of 98 other islands) on Friday the 28th of March after a very busy 3 hour ferry crossing from Penang. The ferry thought it appropriate to put on Captain Philip, a film about modern sea pirates to the amusement of us passengers!! Langkawi is a very beautiful island north of Penang, just up near the Thai border. I decided I'd like my birthday here as we'd heard good things about it from other travellers and it seemed like the perfect weekend beach break. We stayed in a hostel recommended to us by Peter the Irish cyclist when we'd bumped into him again in Penang, called Zachary guest house. It was nice and had a large social area, so we met quite a few other travellers whilst staying here. We went on a morning of island hopping on Saturday, around the... geopark, which was amazing. We went over to one of the smaller islands and walked over to its beautiful blue lake, 'the pregnant maiden lake' which is surrounded by mountains, one of which looked like a pregnant women's body, which is where the lake's name comes from and hence why there is a legend connecting the lake and its fertile powers. To this day women come and bathe in its waters for help with conceiving. We had a swim in the lake - no not for that reason!! Then the boat took us to another island, with crystal clear waters and white sand. We had a swim here too then it took us back to the main island. After an afternoon on Lamai beach, 5 minute walk from our hostel, we had a few card games and drinks in the hostel bar area with some other travellers. We then went out to one of the main bars of the island with Sam, one of the owners of our hostel. We had a brilliant night out for my birthday and I was lucky enough to have the live band sing me happy birthday and received a birthday card from Sam the hostel owner 😊 needless to say we were very hungover on Sunday but managed to book our ferry over to Satun on the coast of Thailand, for the next day. Langkawi was a brilliant place and we'd like to go back and explore a bit more of the main island if we get a chance. Now to head to Thailand and to meet Penny and Chris, Mj's mum and dad!

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