The morning after New Years, we woke up hung over to a very rain day on the island, lucky for us because we had no energy to even get out of bed to lay on the beach. Later in the afternoon, we decided to head out for a bit of shopping. I was also on a mission to find a burger because that is all I want the day after drinking. While we were walking and reminiscing about our night, we started talking about all of the people that we have met thus far and realized that we have only met guys in sets of two. Really it wasn’t a probably because we were just all hanging out, but we decided that day that we wanted to met a single group of three guys, when low and behold, we spotted three single guys sitting in front of the burger joint we were headed to. Of course they were also eyeing us as we walked up (we were three beautiful hung over women that were unshowered and wet from the rain). We ordered our food and within minutes one of the guys approached us with a silly question about a magazine that we were reading. He invited us to sit with him and his friends.
Well these guys ended up being great. They were three guys from Jordan and living in Kuala Lumpur (KL) on vacation. We all forget their names within seconds of meeting them so we called them Curly, Moe and Larry (appropriately). It is unfortunate that I am so bad with names, but let’s be honest, their names were not Mike, John and Steve… they were Middle Eastern names. Well I will tell you that their real names were Omar, Tamer and Ahmad even though we did not actually know that until we were back in KL on our last night before heading back to Shanghai. Anyway, Ahmad went to college in the US and lived in Indiana for years which kind of gave him an edge. The thing about meeting people overseas is that even if they speak English, they usually do not get any of our English idioms, jokes or sarcasm which makes conversing with them a little difficult. Ahmad and I got along really well though because I could joke and laugh with him.
(our new Jordanian friends - Omar [curly], me, Tamer [moe], Amy and Ahmad [larry])
So anyways, we had lunch with these guys, then after lunch we went to the beach – it wasn’t rainy anymore but still cooler and cloudy. Now I should mention that for the last couple days I had been talking about how much I wanted to ride on a jet ski, so imagine my excitement when Ahmad decided that he wanted to rent a jet ski for the afternoon and take me for a ride. I’m not going to lie, it was the scariest ride of my life, and I was on the back of a jet ski with a stranger who could have dropped me in the middle of the sea to be eaten by sharks if he wanted to. I made him promise me over and over that he would not do anything crazy enough to make me fly off. He held true to his promise and returned me back to the shore in one piece but not before scaring me to death! At one point during the ride, he was doing 360s and stopped suddenly which made the jet ski go underwater. It was super scary and I screamed, “Holy shit, I think I just peed a little!” Once we were back on shore, he said, “Wait, did you really pee on the jet ski!” I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud!
After the beach, we made plans to meet up again after dinner and they wanted to take us out to a club. We dressed up, had some dinner and drinks and headed to the party beach back to Lil’ Lylia’s while we waited for them. This was the second time that we ran into Armin. Ok, so let me tell you about Armin, the first night that I met him, he was nice enough, we danced and had a fun. He was Persian, spent a bit of time in California but was now living in KL. He made it clear that he was interested in me, but I was not in to him so when he went to the bathroom, my friends and I totally bolted out. So of course we ran into him again the next day. He was so excited to see me and called me out on leaving him the night before. Well anyway, he invited us to sit with him and his friends at their table and smoke some shisha. He bought a couple rounds of drinks for us and he was nice enough (I really like his girl friend that was with him), but once the three guys came to meet up with us, he turned into a douche and started acting kind of competitive. I thought he kind of acted like an ass when he left with the guys to go to a club, but Amy insisted that I was reading him wrong and that he was a good guy.
(♥ love this photo... Amy, me, Ahmad, Anna, Omar and Tamer)
So we left, went to the Sunba Reggae club and danced and drank the night away with our new Jordanian friends. I think Ahmad was showing off a bit because he was buying bottles of Absolute for us to drink all night. The six of us had so much fun and we all got along so well! When we were finished with the club, he bought another bottle and we headed back to our beach and stayed up late enough to watch the sunrise. The next day was even more rough. I wouldn’t even get out of bed to eat breakfast before 10, but I did at least drag myself out of bed to relocate to the beach (it was a beautiful day). I remember being thankful that we had not decided to drink like this throughout our entire vacation. I am way too old for that, and it was becoming increasingly more difficult to bounce back after an all night drinking session. While lying of the beach, I was trying to figure out why my body felt that I wrestled a gorilla who kicked my ass… then I remember holding on for dear left on the back of a jet ski with every muscle of my body, mixed with a whole lot of dancing at the club – not a good combination (I should have done some yoga before bed). Than night, we did nothing but lie on the beach, eat and sleep.
The next day was our last day in Langkawi. We rented motor bikes one last time and set out. We decided to take a different route than before to explore a different area of the island. This time, we hiked a bit into the mountains to a beautiful waterfall, then to the seven wells… the wells were pretty cool, they were like little pools created by rock formations. When there was a lot of rain, the wells filled up with water, but also created little waterfalls that allowed you to slide down the rocks between the wells. At the end of the last well was a huge drop off to a really large waterfall. We did a little swimming and enjoyed the scenery, but I must admit that that hike was a bit of a challenge after doing nothing but lying on the beach for a week. Afterwards, we rode around more and found some other mountain areas and deserted beaches. By mid afternoon, our backs were fried (because we had neglected to put on any sun block) and we had to stop to by some “I Love Langkawi” shirts (but really, we do love Langkawi).
(the waterfall)
(seven wells)
We also had any interesting meal that afternoon. We were starving, but a long ways away from a fine dining area, so Amy pointed to a local restaurant in the middle of nowhere and we pulled off the road to eat. It was like a buffet style lunch. We got a plate and they showed us the row of prepared food that we could choose from. Although the food was covered, it looked like it had been sitting there for days. Nonetheless, we dug in… we had some rice and curry chicken, fish that still had eyes and skin, veggies with anchovies, and fried chicken (my dad would have been proud for me even considering eating at this place, let alone almost finishing my plate). Before digging in, I prayed to God, Please let this food bring nourishment to our bodies and not kill us. About half way through our meal, Amy found a bug in her food. I assured her it was probably a delicacy, so she pushed it aside and ate the rest of her food like a champ! You will probably be surprised to hear that none of us ended up sick from his meal!
(yummmm)
That night, we watched one last sunset while having dinner at Oasis, taking in the beautifully painted sky, the sound of the waves crashing, the sway of the palm trees and the warmth on our faces. I honestly could have stayed there forever! My favorite parts – the beach, the mountains, the coffee and the people!
After dinner, we headed to the airport. Unfortunately, that was where my money was stolen out of my wallet. I don’t like making assumptions and I hate to think the worst of people, but I am pretty sure that the security people at the airport stole about 1000 RMB out of my wallet. While rearranging some stuff from my carry on to my checked bag, my wallet must have fallen out onto the table right in front of the security check area. If they actually would have been paying attention, they would have seen it right away and given it back to me immediately. However, when they called my name over the loud speaker to give it back to me, they smirked and laughed when they asked me if there was any money it is… like it was some kind of funny game! Well that sure put a damper on my plans because that was my spending money for KL. Thank God for my mom putting some money into my account so that I didn’t just have to sit in my hotel room during our last three days of vacation!
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