I’m back from spending a week kayaking around Langkawi. I didn’t bring a camera, though I will get photos from somebody who did later on. We kayaked in total about 50 kilometers halfway around the island as shown in the map below.

(Note: Tuesday we kayaked through the mangroves and caves – a very interesting experience) This little expedition marks the end of my Gold Award in the Duke of Edinburgh Award (aka International Award), something I began a good 3 years or so ago. Now I’ve just got to get the paperwork complete.

It was really something. Not like previous trips where we would spend a good 7 hours or so trekking in deep jungle pestered constantly by leeches, various bugs and the most aggressive of greenery. There’s something about the sudden drop in your stomach as your kayak falls from the peak of a wave to the choppy waters below – the splash as the water streams through you, the occasional jellyfish or regular fish that your paddle lacerates, the heavy, the light, the splat-splat-splat of the raindrops running through your forehead and tangled, clumpy hair – the salt, sand and grime in between your fingers and the sunburn around midday. There was a lot more planning this one instead of mindless plundering in the forest – tides, currents, weather and wind.

As usual we were introduced to the regular share of retarded animals that we consistently encounter on every trip. We’ve seen the vegetarian cats that refuse fish, the chickens that kick sand in their chick’s faces, the rooster that crows at the completely wrong time, the overweight leech that moves in circles, the crabs that thinks it’s a spider and the claustrophobic hermits.

Anyways, I just woke up from an amazing sleep on my bed and not on a root that cuts into your back, nuked my inbox as per protocol, listening to some fair trade music, and skimmed through RSS feeds with a disrespect to people’s posts that should never be. My parents are back from Canada with the most heavenly President’s Choice The Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies and a great breakfast. My computer’s just synced to the portage tree and various overlays and ready to do an update, and I’m setting up an rsync backup solution I shall post in more detail about later. Meanwhile I’m going to start catching up on the work I’ve missed.

As a welcome surprise I also found out that I got top in the world for AS Business Studies from CIE (Cambridge International Examinations). Hooray

Related posts:

1. Kayaking in Langkawi!
2. Langkawi Photos
3. Back from the Jungle
4. Happy Birthday to me!