Hey,

Have any of you been to this gorgeous Malaysian Island... it's so beautiful it's sick.

Check out Google images for Langkawi

From what I gather it is *very* safe, visas are 3 months - and visa runs consist of taking a ferry ride for just 1 hour, ridiculously low cost of living (average family lives off 300 dollar a month there), good infrastructure, much less corruption than Malaysia, very decent internet.

The location is also priceless. The island just borders Thailand and you are very close to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The climate is tropical, you can do some snorkling if you want, they have beautiful waterfalls, forests, rivers and obv the sickest beaches ever.

I'm thinking of checking it out, maybe living there for a bit.

Seb

I have been there twice. The beaches on the main island aren't even the most beautiful - wait till you check out the offshore (uninhabited) islands. One such island is Pulau Payar, the only way you can get there is by going on a snorkelling or diving trip or with a private charter boat. The waters are literally crystal clear, walk 2 metres out from the beach (where the water is still only knee deep) and you will find yourself literally surrounded by thousands of brightly coloured tropical fish. The water is teeming with them. You might even spot the odd black-tipped reef shark, which is a harmless type of shark but nonethless really cool to look at.

You obviously won't manage to live on $300 a month because you will have to stay in a hotel etc, if you're just a mini baller you can get a very decent room in a 4-star hotel for $40 a night. If you want to live it up in style you can stay at the Datai which has consistently been voted amongst the top hotels in the world on an annual basis - rooms start at $400-500 a night but its absolutely amazing.

By the way, tropical islands such as Langkawi are standard in Southeast Asia, especially around the Andaman and Celebes regions - there are many islands in Thailand and the Philippines which are similar and even less inhabited than Langkawi


Edit - Another good thing about Langkawi is that everything there is DUTY FREE which means alcohol is ridiculously cheap, you can get a bottle of Chivas Regal for $30.

Thanks for all the information man,

I thought you could find some budget hotels for like 20 dollars a night there. Anyways, I can afford 40 too.

I would be poker affiliating full time on the island, and playing poker on the side. Basically hoping to ball pretty hard with 20K + in savings as well.

Do you think it's realistic to live there for a couple of years ? What I worry the most about is feeling isolated on this island.

I mean most of the people there are malay (muslims) and I can see it challenging to make some friends. The only people that could relate to me are the passing back packers.

I'm single and 26 by the way. I don't want to go bezerk on an island with like no social interaction with anyone.

Would you recommend moving there ?

I just spent about a month there, it truly is beautiful.... However, I would not recommend trying to live there to play poker. It is pretty damn hard to get a stable internet connection anywhere on island. Voycontondo is right about residence, prob run about $40 a night at decent hotel. I also think there is a service apartment in the Kula Town area that you could check out. If you are intent on staying in that area of Malaysia you should check out Penang which is just south of Langkawi. Much more things to do there and you could easily find nice place/fast internet. Also Langkawi is just a a short jetty ride away. good luck.

Hey man, I primarely would be building affiliate sites so I won't really need a super fast internet connection.

Don't the 40 dollar a night hotels have internet ? If not, aren't there some cyber cafes that are dirt cheap ?

yeah cyber cafes are around, they run about 2-3 ringit an hour or about .75 cents.

I am sure some hotels have internet connection as well.... I know GeoPark Hotel does as well as a place called Beer Garden Resort. You could get a dirt cheap backpacker room around pantai cenang for about $15-20 a night and just use the internet cafes around there if you are looking to cut costs....hope that helps. Like I said though, I would not recommend living there for a extended period of time. There are many other islands around the same region that offer more imo.... but LangKawi does have damn cheap drinks and nice beaches.

side note. What part of the bay are you from. I flying into SFO in few days (from Macau). I grew up in Mtn. View.

Thanks for the tips man,

I work in Palo Alto by the way.

I know everyone says Penang is better.. but I'm afraid the area will looks like crap compared to Langkawi.

I don't want to trade in a paradise island for a crappy city by the sea which only has better amenities and more americans going for itself.

Don't you agree ?

Well based on what I know, there aren't that many nightlife options in Langkawi outside of the main hotels because people mainly go there for the beaches etc, it's not a party island like Phuket.

If that's the sort of thing you are after you can go to Boracay (Philippines), Phuket or Krabi in Thailand which are all stunning. And you will have more opportunities to make friends there with tourists.

The Malay (Muslim) people are very friendly, I mean they are really open to making new friends and stuff, and Malaysia also has a large Chinese minority. However Malaysians in general are more reserved than say Thais or Filipinos who are the most friendly of all.

Yes Penang is much better infrastructure-wise, it has apartments which you can rent long-term and much more amenities including modern shopping, night life, and so on. Yes it pales into comparison with Langkawi in terms of its beaches etc but obviously you can head over to Langkawi every weekend or just about whenever you like.

Edit - OP, for the stuff that you wanna do I would strongly suggest Boracay. It's even more liberal than Langkawi, equally beautiful beaches and stuff, more English speaking people, more nightlife and balling options, living costs wise its about the same.

This is pretty true, Penang is a nice bustling little city with amazing food, but its congested, noisy and dirty...probably not what you had in mind. There are some parts of Penang (Penang is actually the entire island, the city part is called Georgetown I believe) that are more remote, you might think about looking in to that.

As far as I could tell the nightlife on Langkawi was pretty dead, there are lots of backpackers passing through, but also a lot of European families on vacation there. Its a very laid back place, not a lot of happening bars and things close down pretty early. If you're content with this it would be a very relaxing place to chill for a while, the island has its own airport with flights to KL and Bangkok I believe (maybe Singapore too) and theres a bigger one across the pond in Penang. If you're looking for a little more action, there are lots of spots in Thailand where you can live almost as cheaply and have more options in terms of entertainment.

I can't speak much to the internet there, I only used the computer at my guest house, but it certainly wasnt all that fast. The place I stayed was about 8 bucks a night, right across the street from a very nice beach. You wouldn't want to live where I stayed, though it was great for a few nights passing through, but that should give you an idea of prices.

Thanks man. Boracay looks unreal awesome.

EDIT: Apparently you can rent full cottages for 2000 dollars a year (not a typo)

Boracay looks awesome but maybe very touristy and I am not seeing anything as cheap as 2000/year?

The touristy part of Boracay is only one stretch of beach (called White Beach). Everything is more expensive there. But I think the conveniences come in handy, at least you have somewhere to go shopping/partying etc when you want to.. when you want to chill out you can just avoid the place

Langkawi gets boring. There's hardly any nightlife and not much to do. It is however very beautiful. Georgetown, Penang on the other hand is absolutely great. Gorgeous, cheap food everywhere, and lots more to do.

As a place to live to play poker i have no idea how long i could bare either of these places as there's a drought of hot women.

edit:

voycontodo said everything perfectly. I would like to double down on some of what he said. Langkawi style tropical island are standard for south east asia. There are tons of islands like this, so if you are attracted to this place because of google images pictures of beaches add a thing more requirements to what you want then search in more detail.

Also, i didn't find Malaysian all that friendly, but again as voycontodo said this was because i was just coming out of thailand and philinines which makes my opinion baised.

All in all, yea Langkawi is beautiful but all of southeast asia is while other islands have a lot more benefits than Langkawi. Given what you said about you'll be a single 26 year old moving to there for a couple of years, i think it's a pretty terrible place to start. Go to the Phuket poker house for a month and see how you like that, lots of friends, lots of things to do, nice parts to the island. Then adjust accordingly to the next place based on what you did or didn't like.