life in Langkawi...

...is very slow. The day usually starts around 1:30 in the afternoon and ends at about 5:00am. This schedule has completely got me in it's embrace. It seems to be the way of island life. We have made very many friends. I am sure that most of you have read Brent's blog, so you know that we live with a local artist named Lan and his girlfriend from Poland named Joanna. The two of them together own an art gallery on the main beach road. We now have another roommate from France who's name is Sergio. He has been on Langkawi for about five months. Sometimes I feel like MTV (or any other network that banks on "reality" television) should put cameras in our house because thier would be some entertainment to view. The whole five total strangers living together thing. It's pretty interesting sometimes. But a worthwhile and positive experience.

I have adapted to the beach with a guitar that I bought while we were in Penang. On a sidenote, when writing about islands it feels much more natural to describe it by saying on rather than in...anyways. Paying such cheap rent has really been beneficial for us. I have spent less than $200 in the last month. And it is also very refreshing to live in a place once again. My bed is a Lielo. Which is an inflatable raft that one would use for lounging in the water. It is actually pretty comfortable though a little small compared to a proper bed. But it works all the same. For some reason we thought that just getting sleeping bags would be good enough for sleep, but after a couple nights on the hard tile floor, I couldn't take much more of it. I am pretty bony and that is all more aparent when I am laying on what starts to feel like cement after twenty minutes.

I have been kind of working at a local beach bar called the Submarine. A guy from Slovenia who's name is Anand owns it and a whole lot of friends are there nightly. But on this beach I could say that about any of the bars since most of the night is spent walking up and down the beach from place to place. I have played music at the Submarine three times with Mie, Siful, and Brent. Mie and Siful are local artists and very nice guys. Siful used to be in a very famous metal band in the eighties and is very well known around here as a shredder on the guitar. And yes, although now he plays acoustic covers of pop songs from the 60's until the present, he still loves metal. A couple nights ago I was playing around with the ipod at the Submarine and then the next thing I know Anand tells me that I can DJ there whenever I want. Then he hired me to DJ for Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years eve and is going to pay 150 ringit. That kind of ringit is enough to last me about two weeks here. It's pretty crazy to actually get paid enough to live as a performer around here. For example, a few nights ago I played one set of songs for about 35-40 minutes. For which I got payed 40 ringit. On an island where beer is 1.50 to 4 (though when performing it's free anyways), food is 3.00-5.00 (that's eating out price), cigarettes are 1.50, or renting a motorbike for a day is 20 ringit. 40 ringit is enough to survive on for quite a while. Compared to making $40 for a night in the U.S. if you're lucky, which we all know is not enough money to survive very long in the U.S. with, this whole getting paid pretty well here is quite a pleasant surprise.

To give you a better idea of what life entails I will tell you what I did yesterday. I got up at about noon and chilled at home for a little bit before starting the day. After some coffee I went down to the beach in search of bananas and soy milk for my cereal. I went down to the Submarine to get a piece of wood that my friend Zool (local artist) got for me so I can make something out of. I got sidetracked on the beach for about two hours talking with Asham and Ajia (two of my very good friends) about some of the local gossip from the night before. I went home and had some cereal and wrote for a while. Lan came home and we talked about how much we enjoy living simple lives and how most women we have met so far do not seem to understand what living simply means (him and Joanna are going through relationship stuff and notice that I said most not all women). Then I went to my friend Souls jewelry stand where I have been learning how to make bracelets, anklets, and necklaces for a while to hang out with him and talk to tourists who are shopping. I try to help him sell stuff sometimes and often do. After that (it is now about 9:00pm) I went to my friend Ajia's house with Ajie and Zoo where we listened to Iron Maiden, made jewelry, played djembe, talked, and relaxed before going out for the night. Ajie and Zoo are both from Kuala Lumpur. Zoo was also in a very famous metal band once. If I haven't said it yet, my friends here love metal. Most of them anyways. We then met up with Layla (who is the girl that Brent metioned), Remi, Asham, and Zach. We went to Little Lylias where our friends Yen and Zoo play (different Zoo then metal Zoo). I sang a few songs with them. I sing a lot here and often get shout outs on the street that go "hello my singing friend". Then we went to Submarine and I played DJ for about an hour. Playing DJ is very fun because I get to listen to what I want to. I played Curtis Mayfield, Jackson 5, Fatboy Slim, Radiohead, Dr. Dre, The Cure, Metallica due to a request from a couple of guys from Finlind, Iggy Pop, and Queen. At this point it is about 1:30 and at this point in the night everyone who is out on the island goes to Sunba which is a dance club that is loaded with people everynight. I usually just find a place to stand or sit and observe the crowd because it's a lot of fun to watch people in that kind of environment. Ajai usually does this with me and we talk about what motivates people to do the things that they do. We have had some deep conversations at the top of our lungs in Sunba. Layla (who is the local girl I am playing cat and mouse with) and Rosie (a girl from England) eventually joined the conversation. Then Rosie asked me to teach her how to play drums. Teaching a drunk person to play drums is like teaching a small child. Very short attention span but very serious at the same time. At about 3:00am we all either go to Tammy's which is a club that stays open until 6:00am, or we go to Tomato which is a 24 hour Indian place for food, or on very late nights, we go to both. There is usually a group of about 6-20 of us and it's funny to have crossed the line from tourist to local which is what is happening more and more everyday. Mie told me at Tomato last night that I am now being refered to as the cool American guy with the tattoes who plays music and lives here now. It's endearing and puts a smile on my face.

I hope that you are all well and happy and I will be thinking of you while DJ'ing on Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years. Wishing that you could be here with me.
Love and kittens
nate