Christmas in Langkawi

 

The end of the Malaysian rally has dropped us off in Langkawi, a holiday playground for many a nationality and seemingly, especially honeymooners from Saudi Arabia. The island is abound with resorts and hotels and, for the first time since we left Australia, we are finding the people indifferent. In the rest of the country, we found the locals to be incredibly welcoming and friendly as we had in Indonesia. Perhaps they've been tainted by too many wealthy and demanding tourists.

Our final dinner was held in a fabulous restaurant in a rice paddie, beautiful surroundings and spectacular food with the usual dose of Malay entertainment thrown in. 

 The following day, we hopped aboard Saol Eile to attend the open day at a marina on the west side of the island. This so-called event turned out to be a bit of a damp squid as there were no activities put on with the exception of finalising the results of the rally photo competition. There were five categories to choose from and I was thrilled to walk away with two firsts, a second and two third places. I've been desperately trying to improve my photo techniques and it definitely seems to be paying off. We then hopped on another boat to return to Calypso back in the bay at Kuah.

Once the rally was officially over, the fleet starting moving off in a variety of directions, some headed straight over to Phuket in Thailand while quite a few put their boats into marinas to fly home.

We chose to visit a couple of different anchorages but to stay put for Christmas to celebrate with a few friends who stayed behind. We knew that our good friends, Shelia and Stuart of Imagine whom we hadn't seen since our first trip to New Zealand, were anchored around the other side so we headed off to meet them and enjoyed three days of heavy socialising, catching up on all their news. It was so great to see them both again.

Calypso is anchored just inside the two little islands

Once they left for Phuket, we basked in a day of sightseeing by going up the Langkawi cable car which presented a magnificent view over the entire island and on over to Thailand. We had perfect weather that day so thoroughly enjoyed the excursion. While up there, I volunteered to take a couple's photograph for them and like an idiot, said the usual 'smile' only to realise as I walked away what a stupid remark that was. She was dressed in a complete burka with huge sunglasses hiding her eyes or any part of her skin (black gloves on her hands) and, for all I know, she could have been poking her tongue out at me. He, however, did smile. Why do they bother?

Langkawi is a duty free island which, in some senses, doesn't really mean much with the exception of booze. For the first time in forever, we can actually afford to stock up on beers and alcohol. The wines aren't what we'd consider cheap but it is possible to purchase cask wine which is certainly acceptable. Gin, whisky and rum is very inexpensive, as is beer. So, yeah, at long last we can fill the coffers (bilge) for the future.

Five boats found themselves in the Kuah bay anchorage come Christmas so Myra on Saol Eile and myself organised a Christmas pot luck which turned out to be amazing. Gene and Sherry aboard Reflections actually found a whole turkey despite being told there were none to be had, David and Jackie from Jackster brought a roast pork, potatoes and a soup. Then Jason and Karen from Yolo also brought pork and other goodies while Calypso offered starters and lemon meringue pies. Myra and Paraic, Saol Eile, seemed to bear the brunt of it all by contributing a roast lamb, corned beef, veggies galore and cheese and biscuits and their boat as a venue. Needless to say, it was impossible to go hungry. What a spread. However, the sad thing for me was, I caught some dreadful stomach bug a few days before so my entire Christmas menu consisted of dried Marie biscuits and water – didn't even get to sample the bubbly, damn.

Paul delivering his desserts

And, the amusing thing was, I was far too sick to even contemplate the cooking of our contribution so Paul came to the rescue. Now you must understand that although Paul makes an excellent cup of tea and a fair scrambled egg, that about sizes up his culinary skills (oh, I mustn't forget the occasional warming of a tin of beans) so now you have me, prone in the aft cabin trying to talk him through making a double batch of hummus and two lemon meringue pies. Well, congratulations to the dear man, he did a sterling job and certainly saved the day for Calypso. 



 

Fireworks from our cockpit

Malaysia has a massive campaign on at the moment Visit Malaysia in 2014 so have, accordingly been putting on a big water display set to music and fireworks every night for a couple of weeks. This is all held just 100 metres from where we're anchored so we have front row seats to some spectacular sights. How this prompts those not actually in Malaysia is questionable but it's fun while it lasts.

The important thing is, the locals love it all and it gives us a real sense of 2013 coming to an end and the New Year about to begin.  Here's to an exceptional one!

PHOTO ALBUM:

One needs sunglasses inside the tour buses here

What a spread

The Malay dancers, colourful and gorgeous

The anchorage from below

The usual array of gorgeous sunsets

And more......

Clean plates - what a spread

Season's Greetings

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Season's greetings to all our friends and family. Another year has almost passed and this sees us celebrating our 9^th anniversary out on the oceans of the world. 2013 has been quite hectic as we've covered almost five and a half thousand nautical miles since our arrival in Brisbane on Christmas Eve last year, an amazing distance using what has to be one of the world's slowest forms of transport.

Earlier this year I had a trip back to Canada to see my family which was terrific with Paul using that opportunity to catch up on the inevitable boat projects that pile up relentlessly.

While in Australia, most of our sightseeing was restricted to Brisbane and the coastline but we had a great trip down to Sydney with friends and once we started moving up the coast, stopped and visited as many places as possible. We met up with a few friends we'd not seen in many a year and then our journey took us up the Queensland coast through the Great Barrier Reef, over the top of Cape York through the Endeavour Straits and on over to Darwin where we joined our first ever rally to take us through Indonesia.

Indonesia was wonderful; the people so incredibly friendly and welcoming despite the abject poverty in so many of the places we touched. We saw dozens of active volcanoes, beautiful reefs and islands, spectacular mountainous scenery, rice paddies, traditional villages and tropical fish and corals. We were constantly entertained with traditional song and dance, sampled the delicious local fare, saw Komodo dragons, watched Orang-utans in the wild, visited temples hundreds and hundreds of years old and were generally treated like royalty. A three month visit but memories to last a life time.

Then on to Malaysia, a country which is very first world in comparison to Indonesia with a fascinating combination of cultures (Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indigenous and Dutch, Portuguese & British) as well as religions (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist). We also managed a few days in Singapore with a friend there. Another fascinating city.

As I write this, we have travelled up the west coast and are currently in Langkawi, the last island we'll visit before moving on to Thailand. En route, we visited Kuala Lumpur, the historical city of Melaka, toured islands and revelled in the past and present. Again, the people are one of the country's greatest assets and I mustn't forget to mentioned the food...we're in gastronomical heaven!

We've decided to spend our Christmas at anchor here with other cruising friends. As we continue our adventures, we will toast in the New Year and wish you all everything of the best for 2014.

Love and best wishes from Paul and Maureen aboard the good ship Calypso.

  

Cheers Everyone

Palau Penang

Georgetown from the 'Junk' anchorage

As we arrived at the island of Penang, we learned of the passing of Nelson Mandela. Although this was inevitable, it's still sad news and we can only hope that the nation honours his memory with a peaceful mourning. He was a great man who proved greater by openly admitting that he made mistakes. He wasn't a saint but a man with a moral compass who showed that it was possible to forgive and move forward. The world is a sadder place without him and, as former president F.W. de Klerk said :”the greatest legacy the nation can give him is to uphold the constitution”. Let's hope so.

Back to our travels: Penang surprised us. We arrived at the southern tip just as the sun was setting so dropped anchor at a little island named Palau Rimau; it was too late to get up to our proposed anchorage. From there we could see dozens of skyscrapers nestling among a hilly background. As we were still a long way from the main city of Georgetown, we hadn't expected to see anything but a rural setting.

In the morning, we moved further up the island passing under the new bridge (not yet open) and what a marvel of engineering this is. It crosses from the southern end of Penang right over to the mainland and is so long that it disappeared over the horizon. We were told that it is some 27 kilometres long – amazing. There is a second bridge, the original Penang Bridge and it is 13 kilometres long; we sailed under that one too a few days later. It's always a bit unnerving passing under these bridges – one's convinced that they aren't high enough to allow us to get through so we go under waiting for the crunch of the mast tumbling down.  Of course that doesn't happen but, for a minute or two, we hold our breath.

Our mission the first day was to apply for our Thai visas so we hopped on a bus that took us into Georgetown passing huge new apartment blocks, hotels and shopping centres en route. Georgetown itself is a much older area with many old Colonial buildings giving evidence of its past British occupancy and history with an incredible mix of the Malay, Indian and Chinese cultures that make up the majority of Malaysia's population. History has seen Georgetown ruled by the Dutch, the Portuguese and more recently, by the British making it a very fascinating mix of cultures and architecture.

After a few days at the lower anchorage, we moved on up to what is referred to as the 'junk' anchorage right outside the city harbour among the big ships. Something quite amusing that we heard is that this anchorage is well known for the garlic smuggling that takes place between Malaysia and Indonesia. 

 Indonesia only produces 14,000 tons of garlic a year but the national demand is around 400,000 tons. In their wisdom, the ministries of agricultural and trade banned the import of certain horticultural commodities, garlic included, to protect local production, but failed to anticipate the consequences of such a policy and the serious shortfall caused prices to rise significantly hence the advent of garlic smuggling from neighbouring Malaysia.

Georgetown has dozens upon dozens of samples of wall art. Some are paintings but many are wrought iron caricatures with anecdotal descriptions of the streets that they adorn. Below are a few examples.

 

There are interesting examples of fine Colonial architecture, a few which have been beautifully restored but some....... I think beyond redemption.

The Eastern & Oriental Hotel was built by the same firm as the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore but is even older.  It has been beautifully restored.  Some other structures leave a little to be desired.

We spent a day wandering the streets of the old town with our Irish friends, Myra & Paraic off Saol Eile, and finished off with the usual sampling of street food. A great day in a very interesting piece of history. 

PHOTO GALLERY:

The original Penang bridge disappears into the mist

Colourful shop in Little India

A Chinese temple roof in China Town

And looking up one finds amazing ceilings

The Christmas tree in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel

The rooftops of an historical building

A Buddhist Temple

Strolling along the pedestrian pathway - I just have to ask the question "WHY?"

 What idiot did this?