Travel log part 3

   On this lovely morning, we set sail (or rather, fired up engines) for Malaysia. What began as a trip of convenience, to avoid buses and a possibly problematic Thai/Malaysian border, proved to be a trip highlight. Nine hours of relaxing on the open air roof of a speed ferry, cruising on the Andaman sea, skirting tropical islands was nothing short of spectacular. The final leg from Koh Lipe to Langkawi, Malaysia was in a small speedboat with an incredible sunset, just to polish off a perfect day.

Sea gypsy house, mostly they live out of their boats.

Bisecting Koh Lanta

Note the longtail in front of the island for scale.

Pulling up to a tiny fishing village for lunch. 

Lunch was great. It was hot enough out for me to make this face. Remember, it's the cold season.

Langkawi, our first glimpse of Malaysia.

   The immigration into Malaysia was easy as pie. That guy in the boat was Bernie, from Austria, a guy that reminded me of my old friend Ian, was working on a PhD in biophysics, and got a mean drink on with us that evening. As Langkawi is a tax haven in a Muslim nation, this was the last vestige of cheap drinks we were to see in weeks, so we took advantage of the German imports for 3-5 ringgit each (~ $0.66 - $1.66).