LANGKAWI ISLAND

I left Penang for Langkawi Island on an 8:15 AM ferry and arrived a little before noon. Langkawi is on the very north western coast of Malaysia, very close to Thailand. It's a pretty big island with some mountains, a lot of nice beaches, and not very many big towns. Once I got there I took off for Cenang Beach, a little beach along the west side of the island with some cheap places to stay. I found a little guesthouse just a stones throw from the beach and checked in for the night. The beach was nice, there weren't many people out, I went for a long swim and then wandered down the beach for a ways. Right on the beach just down from my guesthouse was Cenang Beach's reggae bar, called Babylon. A reggae bar called Babylon? Nice try. Being that 'Babylon' in Rasta terms refers to all bad things in society, the oppressor, corruption, basically 'the man'... I'm not quite sure it's the best choice of names for a reggae bar. But whatever, I still hung out there and drank beers. The beach, which was pretty empty during the day, began to fill up with people as the evening approached and the daytime heat began to fade. All of the sunbathing western tourists left the beach and the Malaysian tourists came out to enjoy the evening weather. I had an early night that night, the next day I was going to explore the island...