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