The treats of living on a small rainforest island some 12,000 miles from San Francisco are many. Of course, I can talk for days about the stunning beauty of nature here -- but in the end, it is the people who live here who make it special.

Langkawi is not like America where huge chunks of lands were taken from the Indians (Native Americans) and “we the government” were reluctant to give it back for all kinds of dark reasons (money and power were involved as usual). On Langkawi, the land belongs to the local people and the citizens of Malaysia. The native islanders have their own pace for things. They seem happier and less worried than what I see among ‘city folks’ when we fly to the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

People from all over the world visit Langkawi – some even come by accident. For example, I know several sailors who happened to land in this paradise and decided never to leave. Others I know first heard about it through ‘the grapevine’ and decided to visit – as did I.

An island paradise with unusual tropical herbs and flowers…

What first attracted me to the island was when someone told me about its unique flora, especially the tropical herbs and flowers that grow wild here. I flew almost the next day to Langkawi (about a one-hour flight over the blue seas from the capital Kuala Lumpur) and spent a few days on what I quickly came to think of as the best place on earth – at least for me. That was confirmed when I visited Dr. Ghani, a medical doctor who has a spectacular herbal garden and is an expert on all the plants that grow in the special island environment.

I have met stranded sailors and ‘yachties’ who hang out at the local bars or who have found a way to make a living doing all kinds of odd jobs. Some of those jobs were things they always had wanted to do but never could because of the cost-of-living or the regulations in America and Europe. Nowadays, in the US and Europe these regulations are killing many initiatives to start up something new and exciting.

Well hey… here is this still unspoiled island and thus a lot of opportunities as well -- for charity work, translation, photography, arts... This is what Langkawi is -- and at least for a while it will stay the same -- as long as people like me are writing this message on our blog read in 60 countries.

The second part of this blog story…

Gynura Procumbens, an herb used traditionally
in Southeast Asia for healing

In Part #2 -- coming soon – please read about my meeting with Dr. Hugo (Dr. Hugh Brennan) who has lived on this island for over 20 years now and how he discovered the spectacular health benefits of “Gynura Procumbens,” a plant that grows widely on this wonderful tropical island. And how our company is planning to start a study and test program - with the highest hopes - to incorporate the extract of the leaves of this still mostly unknown “super plant” into our products for even better skin care.

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