Merry Christmas from Phuket, Thailand



Who needs an alarm clock with the Thai longtail boats and their outboard car engines guaranteed to wake us up Christmas morning!


We’ve been travelling at such a pace over recent months that some places have become a blur and unless something significant happened during the time of our visit, it’s lucky if it finds a slot in the memory banks! Kuah on Langkawi is almost one such place. The town is the first port of call for the majority of visitors in search of winter-sun. The ferry brings them to Kuah from mailand Malaysia and if any of those tourists were under the illusion they’d be welcomed with clear white stretches of sandy beaches as far as the eye can see, they’d be disappointed. Kuah town sits on reclaimed land, with unattractive buildings and the waterfront looks mucky and dirty. The dreamy beaches are elsewhere on the island. Had it not been for the local breakfasts of roti canai, the First Mates discovery of the McDonald’s McFlurry and the thousands of visiting Malaysians making the most of the duty-free opportunities, Kuah may well have dropped off our radar.

The are a number of marinas on Langkawi Island and a Captain of a Malaysian catamaran had recommended the Telaga Harbour marina to us. We booked OD in for a week and were very comfortable there.










The pluses? A constant breeze ... always a winner in a marina environment – especially with the humidity levels such as they are here. A good Indian restaurant – among a choice of six. Cheap berth – although we’ve yet to discover an expensive marina in Malaysia! Interent link – albeit a little slow at times. The minuses? There were no DIY laundry facilities – but there was a next day laundry service within walking distance. The showers were lacking in number - that said, if you timed it right, there wasn’t a problem.


Thailand was on the horizon (literally) and with family coming to join us in Phuket mid-January, we decided to press-on to check-out provisioning and seek out our Christmas anchorage. We sailed overnight to Phuket, somehow managing to avoid the fishing net buoys and arrived in the popular Chalong Bay to check-in at first light. Chalong Bay was packed. We’d not seen this many yachts since XXXXX. There was ample room to anchor due to the size of the bay and clearing-in was surprisingly more straight-forward than we’d anticipated.


Kite-surfers - Annual Thailand competition, Chalong Bay



Can you spot the Giant Buddha over-looking Phuket island? He's 45 metres high.




We tracked down the local Tesco Lotus supermarket which seemed good enough to provision although it might be a struggle understanding the contents of some packaging due to the not insignificant language barrier. Then, joy-of-joys, we stumbled across the Villa Market. A supermarket much closer to the anchorage so not to far to lugg the groceries and packed full of western produce ... Christmas had come early!

On Christmas Eve we decided to have a break from High Lawries ‘House’ and watch a movie. We’d be talking about the 2004 tsunami during the day and wondering where in Thailand had been hit. Unbeknownst to either of us, we’d acquired a movie that would answer our questions. Even putting it in the DVD player we didn’t know the storyline we just knew it was about one of the ‘worst natural disasters of our time’. You can imagine our amazement as the storyline of the 2013 film, ‘The Impossible’ began to unfold. We were totally gripped by the harrowing experience suffered by just one family here as the wave hit. The special effects are truly awesome – as is Ewan McGregor.

Nine years ago to the day and 5,400 tourist lives were lost in this area alone. Maybe we shouldn’t be too quick to judge the state of some of the coastal towns.