What is long, soft, and tubular and when you cut it into two, it is able to reattach itself? Well, you know it's not Lorena Bobbit's ex-husband's. It is an unsightly sea creature called the sea cucumber or the local Malay name gamat.
Gamat is a species of sea cucumber. Gamat is a well known product of Langkawi. In the early days, this sea slug can be found all over the reefs around Langkawi.
But since a local inhabitant saw its potential for medicinal use and commercialised it, the sea cucumber is no longer found in such abundance in Langkawi. Most of the sea cucumbers are now imported from Thailand. Apparently, the incident that led to the discovery of the medicinal value of the gamat was when a fisherman stepped on one of the gamats on his way to his camp on the beach. The gamat secreted a kind of sticky milk which glued his hairy legs so effectively that the only solution was to have a clean shave after that. He took revenge by hacking all the sea cucumbers around him with his rusty old axe.

Langkawi is a legendary island in more sense than one. Other than its wonderful beaches, its beautiful legends are what draws a visitor to its shores.
The legends are all the more real simply because its people are convinced of their authenticity. As such, a keen sense of mystique and mystery surrounds the island and lends charm and intrigue to an otherwise quiet and calm faade.

Malaysian food: there are just no limits to that term. What would you expect, when the country is such a melting pot of cultures.
First we have the three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians. Then all the sub-groups, the regional variations, the different sub-cultural divisions, combined with the influences of our neighbours, the colonial powers, and our postwar partners. Local food is a mixture of many elements, and no wonder then that the name of one of our most popular dishes, rojak, is also slang for a haphazard mixture of things.

When I was a kid living in Britain, I always used to be asked where I was from - after all, the brown skin did stand out among the shades of pink at school.
No matter how many times I was asked this question by new boys at the beginning of term, I would patriotically stand straight and, beaming with pride, say I was from Malaysia. But puzzled faces inevitably greeted this pronouncement. Hey mate, where's Malaysia then? (though it usually came out as "Malaysha"). The genuinely bewildered faces usually led to nothing less than a geography lesson describing the Asia Pacific rim.

The internationally-renowned cuisine of China's Canton and that of southern India are significant sources of Malaysia's culinary heritage, as is the sublime cuisine of Thailand.
Fresh tropical fruits and succulent Malaysian seafood are featured ingredients, and the chilies and curries of India and Thailand form the basis of spicy preparations. Coconut milk is ubiquitous in Malaysia, imparting a delicious smoothness to curries and other dishes.

If you are walking the streets of London or sipping coffee at a sidewalk cafe somewhere in Paris, and you hear in plain English, "So expensive-lah" or "So hot-lah", just turn around in the direction of the voice and I guarantee you that ten out of ten, the person who just dotted his or her sentence with a lah is Malaysian.
If you are feeling homesick in a foreign land and suddenly you overhear a conversation full of Yes-lahs and No-lahs, your homesickness can be assuaged for it sounds just like home and the speakers can only be Malaysians (or Singaporians, which is close enough when you're homesick!).