We had a great time exploring the chilled out Ko Lanta and spending the evening with super friendly Neng and Californian Mike at the Chill Out Bar. We played a few games of Jenga (not so easy after a few beers) and met some of Neng's expat friends, including a rather brash American transvestite.
To get off the island we had to take the two barges back to the mainland and retrace our steps until we hit the road to Trang. Our first ride in tropical rain! We, the bike and our paniers were covered from head to toe in mud and drenched. We looked very intreped when we pulled up to our guesthouse in Trang and tried our best not to spread the mud around. Trang is a transit hub with not much to do, but we found some local eats and colourful night market to keep us entertained.
The next morning we set out for Songkla. We had a few days to kill in southern Thailand so we could meet up with Kate's family in Langkawi, Malaysia. Rowan decided he wanted to head to the deep south - he
isn't entierly stupid so he wasn't intending to go to the deep south where they kill someone / there is a terrorist attack once a day, but he did want to visit the province just above the declared danger zone, which had a 'usually its ok' reputation. Kate wasn't so keen but as per usual Rowan put his foot down and they were heading Southeast. After 20km Kate told Rowan that she just didn't feel right about it - women's intuition and all that. Rowan told Kate she was being silly and then a spoke broke - not that much of an event now days - it is our eighth broken spoke of the trip. After fixing it we continued on and then Kate said to Rowan that she would rather go the other way to the islands off the West coast and then our tire blew out! Tandems are crazy - these tires are meant to last for years, but after only 2,300km it was done for. The side wall was under too much load with both of us and our stuff. I think it all just got too hard for Rowan and we turned around to go to the islands. Turns out there was a big round of violence in the deep south that week in the lead up to the PMs visit.
On our way to Pak Bara - the departure point for Ko Lipe, being he tropical island Kate was so keen to visit, we met Kathi and Sandra who 1 year ago left there home in Austria, rode through Eastern Europe, Iran, Central Asia (the stans) China and South East Asia! WOW! We all rode together to Pak Bara, found a cheap place to stay (another one of those hourly places) and talked about bicycles over dinner. They have done 22,000km - amazing! The more cyclists we meet the more ideas we get about riding in the future.
The next morning we all jumped on the cargo boat heading to Ko Lipe with our bicycles. It was so unevenly loaded and overloaded that it was listing drastically and sitting way to low in the water! So safe we thoght. After 5 hours we had to transfer all the bikes onto a long tail to take us to shore, which wasn't easy. Luckely nothing went in the drink! Ko Lipe is absolutely picture postcard stunning - the purest white sand beached and clear blue water. It was touristy, but being in the far south, it's not as bad as the other hotspots in Thailand. It's on the verge, however, and we felt that we got there just in time. They are calling it the 'new Ko Pipi'. We had such a great 'holiday' for two days, relaxing on the beach, swimming, exploring the island, reading, drinking Changs while swinging in hammocks, going on a snorkal
trip and getting 2 massages (Rowan is a spoiler!). 
We left Thailand on a boat heading the short distance to Langkawi, Malaysia. Well it wouldn't be travelling if we didn't make at least one very costly and stupid mistake - like umm not realising that we only had a month visa for Thailand and overstaying for 9 days = $300 fine and a stern talking to by an immigration official - ooooppppsssiiie. Sammy (my best friend and frequent travel buddy knows this - forgeting plane tickets anyone -hehe). Needless to say Rowan was super grumpy and annoyed but after an hour we were laughing at how stupid we were!
At Langkawi we rode to Pentai Cenang to meet my Uncle Andew, (Auntie) Julie ;), and their
firends Gee, Jerry and Patto. These party animals were already pissed but were happy to have a few more beers and wines with us! The next day after a scrumptious Malaysian interpretation of our fave breakfasts we went exploring - the 'oldies' (haha) in a car and the 'kids' on a moto. After driving down every street and past the same petrol station 4 times the car eventually found the right road. We arrived at Langkawi's cable cars and ascended to 700m to view the beautiful islands. Another grand tour of the island (some neavigation skills hey) and we arrived at a waterfall. Upon the reccomendation of another Aussie family we went to another series of waterfalls - a massive steep climb to get there and then natural waterslides - it was so fun sliding so unelegantly down moss covered rocks! I especially liked my Uncles inpersonation of a seal - this one is going up on You Tube. After some beach lounging and eating the next morning we rode to the other side of the island to catch a boat to the mainland and ride the short way to Alor Setar.We are now in Penang after a pretty non-eventful ride except for Rowan's overly confident but entierly uninformed navigation! It feels very Hong Kong esk here. We love the fusion of Malay, Chinese, Indian. We have already overindulged on the food, so much so that Kate doenst think she can eat again!
Not long to go - miss you all xx
Crab 1, Rowan 0, there is always next time crab! 
Glad you met up with Andy and Julie, We were in kuala Lumpar when we were small and I have fond memories of jungle treks from school....It's freezing here and we had 6" of snow!
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