7th March - another Telaga harbour day (Langkawi)

Friday 7^th March

A quiet day in Telaga harbour.  Hot, peaceful, reasonably productive.

Pete has been, yet again, working on his accounts.  He is very diligent; it gets VERY hot in the cabin and I have to make sure he is drinking enough to keep body and soul together, and to prevent him from turning into Mr TomatoHead.  Thank goodness for blackcurrant juice!

Pete, startled, at work...

I have been working on our itinerary for the next month.  2XS will be abandoned in Rebak marina, while we scamper around the Malaysian countryside, and the Singapore urban landscape.  I have been going through our eyewitness guide, finding hotels in the not-too-expensive category, and trying to work out which end is best to catch the Jungle Railway.  This sounds fabulous but…a word of warning from the editors – trains are VERY airconditioned in Malaysia and we will be BRRRRR cold…

The duck went past at least 6 times today, loaded with happy campers

Halfway along the railway I have found a national park which promises many Attenborough moments, and not to much aircon – we shall see!

So pretty  a local boat...

Last night we had a most wonderful dinner.  Next to the marina office in Telaga there is a cheap & cheerful restaurant (Maharajah Arabica) which serves Arabic, Indian and Western food.  We have had two most memorable meals there, for about $8 per serve.  I have had aloo gobi*, and chicken tikka, and both very totally SPLENDID.  Pete had dhal, and later mutton curry and he just loved his too.

Not only were our meals fabulous but…our waiters were just delightful, full of chat.

As we were leaving we saw a large man puffing away on a hubble-bubble pipe.  His wife saw that we were interested, and invited us to have a puff.  We didn’t really want to share his treat, but we did stay to chat with this very charming woman.***

As we were going back to the dinghy, I felt like crying – SO nice to have random chats, with waiters, other humans… In Thailand we really have been limited to other yachties… Not sure why this is.  Dave and Jacqui (Jackster) had similar experiences.  When we went to the yellow and blue Customs House to register our entry back in Malaysia around midday yesterday, at least three people leapt to their feet to show us which way to go, smiling happily.  This really wasn’t necessary; the building is very distinctive…but we were so grateful for the kindness and the courtesy. 

We are very happy to be back in Langkawi… Thailand is so very extremely beautiful but…maybe there are too many tourists and the local people are sick to death of this.**

* potato and cauliflower curry – I ate this a lot, in India, and I think it was even nicer here

** These comments are only based on very limited, personal experiences – NOT to be taken as gospel…

***
This woman was SO expressive...in spite of the veils...