Flour Girl

The Homeschooling of Zack on a Cheoy Lee Offshore 44

23 April 2017 | Ascension Island, South Atlantic
20 December 2016 | Richards Bay, South Africa
26 November 2016 | Richards Bay, South Africa
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01 April 2016 | Krabi Thailand
28 March 2016 | Phuket Thailand
10 March 2016 | Khao Lak, Thailand
28 February 2016 | Phi Phi Don, Thailand
16 February 2016 | Phuket Thailand
12 February 2016 | Phuket
22 January 2016 | Phuket Thailand
31 December 2015 | Phuket (poo-KET), Thailand

Langkawi

15 December 2015 | Malaysia
Dan
Dear readers, I Daniel Norman of the clan Shelton interrupt your previous author's blogging in an attempt to expedite the completion of my dinner. Angie and I have been stowaways on Flour Girl since Penang and have been having a blast. Hopefully my rambling insights will be as delightful as your gentle nature has come to expect from the dedicated efforts of my current cook and your previous blogger Kim.... Langkawi, the eagle island in the Andaman Sea sits on the frontier of Malaysia and Thailand. For those of you following along at home, that is on the west Malaysian coast but I suggest Google Earth for a nice taste of envy. Langkawi functions as a resort destination for Malaysia and much of South East Asia due to its stunning beaches. The cruisers are drawn to the duty free alcohol like a mediocre writter is attracted to a sloppy simile (I have relearned the difference between a simile and metaphor while sitting in on Zack's boat school). The culture of Langkawi is one of commerce and capitalism, a funny mix of hijab wearing locals selling bikinis and rocking out to Eminem, duty free everything with alcohol being of the most interest, seafood restaurants, and impossibly busy KFCs (which I ate several times after a less than filling local meal, but more on that later). Our first night in Langkawi was spent trying to track down an elusive night market where we were told we would find excellent, cheap food which is what we all want always. The directions we received from several individuals were 'a bit dodgy', as the Kiwi sailors say, because everyone kept pointing in different directions. There was probably a bit of language barrier. After 30 minutes of wandering, we decided to hail a cab van which took us directly to the night market for fairly cheap. The night market is a foot traffic affair on either side of a creek which smells like it might be partially composed of raw sewage. At this point, the group of 14 splits up in the pursuit of food. Now gentle readers, my girlfriend Angie and I went in search of vegetarian food in a Muslim country with a fairly profound culture of meat eating. Thankfully, there is typically some Indian, or Thai food which leans more inclusive. The food stalls seemed to be selling previously cooked food from grilled meat on sticks to fried unknown nuggets all of which was served cold after sitting for unknown hours. We found our way to a Chinese restaurant and were able to communicate to our hipster haircut rocking Chinese waiter that we wanted some spicy vegetarian food and what followed was some of the spiciest fried rice I have ever eaten. My whole being was pulsing, kinda like holding your breath for a long time, but much sweatier. We punished the whole pile down and to quench the burn we went for ice cream in the form of Magnum Bars. The next day we changed anchorage to Cenang beach, tourist central with sweet white sand beaches, chair rentals, umbrella rentals, jet ski rentals, parasailing rentals, you get the idea. We had Asians jet skiing circles around the sailboats, kinda like a swarm of flies. We decided to breakout the tow rope and wake board and show these tourists how we shred the gnar. I was eventually able to pop up and take some runs but my mass was so great that I felt like I could almost pull the boat when I went outside the wake. All the kids are able to shred, with some preferring to kneeboard. Angie did some serious kneeboarding and she might be in a kneeboarding magazine now. Kim was pulling 360s on the kneeboard so of course I had to give it a try. Couple full speed rail digger wipeouts, I had figured the 360 spin. I will admit that my back and leg muscles were sore for days following this shred session. Time starts to get a little fuzzy going forward due to beer and a never ending stream of fun but I'm not creating a religion here so truth isn't that important. Day after or there abouts. Queue the 3 hour queue to ride the steepest fernuncular in the whole universe or all of Langkawi; the signage was unclear or written in another language. The cable car starts in an Oriental Village, their naming not mine which equated to as string of crappy tourist purchasing options including: a ridiculously short zipline ride called the flying fox, giant plastic balls that you could climb into and run around on a kao filled retention pond (that the kids did twice and loved, supposedly someone kept farting though), overpriced shirts and sexy head scarfs. Generally Dollar Store goods. The 3 hour wait was spent counting the hours till we could join the real queu to go on the cable car. Unbeknownst to us, our ticket price included a visit to the Sky Dome, advertised as 'beyond your wildest imagination', so of course we spent 30 minutes in the queue speculating on the awesomeness that awaited us. Turns out, the Sky Dome was a simulated roller coaster ride on Mars. That was definitely not within the scope of our hypothesizing on the Sky Dome. It was air conditioned but it was one of the more silly attractions I have experienced. Think the beginning of a movie at AMC movie theater, with that annoying little man made of 35mm film riding on the film roller coaster with popcorn popping and sodas pouring. We did make it up the fernicular to the highest peak in Langkawi, and the view was pretty great and worth the wait. We could see all the way to Thailand and I was also able to jump into 4-5 selfies with random Asian tourists who carry selfie sticks everywhere they go. I think that I enjoy selfie bombing as a new sport and look forward to its addition into the upcoming Olympics. The Hole in the Wall will be the final adventure I will dazzle you with. On the east side of Langkawi, there is a geopark reserve to which hundreds of tourist flock. As cruisers, we just sailed up and dropped anchor. The Hole in the Wall is a split in a cliff wall that gives entrance to a sweet mangrove preserve with steep jungly cliffs and eagles and fish farms. At some point, maybe someone will post pictures that will do the place justice but suffice to say it was very nice. We anchored, as I mentioned, in the main channel and proceeded to dingy about the mangrove. We followed the tourist wooden longboats that we suspected knew the secrets of the mangrove to be unveiled by our stealth. They did lead us to an area were the boats raised their outboard motors and frothed the water violently, and loudly for several minutes which seemed to attract many eagles. At the peak of the eagle feeding frenzy on the fish that must have been attracted to the agitation, we counted 14 eagles (not as big as American eagles but everything is bigger in America). The eagles were catching fish and the tourists were taking pictures and maybe some of those pictures will make the web as well. I bet someone took some selfies there but I was unable to jump into those photos. The Hole in the Wall was our last adventure in Langkawi and we left for Thailand in Ko Lipe the next morning a 40 mile run. Much love, Dan
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Vessel Name: Flour Girl
Vessel Make/Model: Cheoy Lee Offshore 44
Hailing Port: Coral Bay, St John USVI
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