Fri Oct 25 – Tues Oct 29 Happy Birthday on the 27th to Virginia’s brother Chuck (and her dad who was celebrating in heaven). We spent our last few days in Indonesia doing boat maintenance: an oil change, loading up on diesel, preparing a few dinners for the upcoming passage, and making good use of the self-serve laundromat. It had been awhile since we could do our own laundry without the use of buckets and so we did some spring cleaning freshening up blankets that had sat unused for many months (and would likely do so for quite a few more). It was hot and some of the chores were strenuous so we were generally in the pool by 1700 along with many other cruisers.


Wed Oct 30 – Fri Nov 15 We left Nongsa Point Marina, Batam Indonesia on the day our cruising permit for Indonesia expired. We would have left earlier with several of our cruising friends but were delayed by a cantankerous fuel system. We had noticed the engine hesitating on the last leg and Dennis recognized it as the first sign of a clogged fuel filter. Dennis hardly ever changes fuel filters because of the exasperating process of bleeding the fuel system afterwards. Fortunately, the fuel filters seem to last a long time (years in fact), much longer than what we hear from other cruisers who change their filters so regularly that they have devised intricate plumbing systems to expedite the process. As it was years since Dennis had last changed filters, the finer details of the bleeding process had faded in memory. Two days later and after several anxious hours, Dennis was ready to hire someone to tow us to Malaysia. Virginia implored Dennis to have one more crack at it while she read the multi-step process. Lo and behold, teamwork and Virginia’s optimism saved the day and we were off to Malaysia the next morning. We took a short hop to an anchorage behind Bernam island in the Singapore Channel to ensure that we made good use of the currents the next morning to get us across the channel. We were expecting it to be a secluded spot given that no structures were visible on the channel side of the island, but we found quite a little community settled on the far side of the island. The next day we motored across the channel without much excitement. We did have to maneuver around several large ships, crossing behind one, then running parallel (between two of them) until the second one passed us so we could scoot along behind it. We had to be very alert given all the traffic on the water and fishing devices in the water. Here is where we saw large fish farms established on the sides of the channels – multiple huts sitting on a superstructure platform with nets hanging under them. They lower the nets into the water at night and then in the morning lift up their catch. We made our way up to Donga Bay Marina in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. While we made good use of the tides and currents, we arrived too early to enter the marina as there was a shoal that we could not cross until high tide which would occur right about sunset. We hate entering anywhere in the dark and this was no different with town lights glowing everywhere making it difficult to see the dock and the people trying to direct us. After a bit of confusion, we were placed out on the end of the furthest finger, well away from the marina office and facilities, but we didn’t mind as it was relatively quiet there. Our friends closer in were kept up until the early morning hours by the music blaring out of the two nightclubs on shore. Virginia got her exercise walking the docks and visiting with friends each day. All the stops on the Malaysian Rally were in marinas and the approximately 80 boats participating really stretched their facilities. We were grateful that each marina managed to find a way to squeeze us all in – even if some of the boats had to be rafted together (we never had that situation). The only services near the marina were a couple restaurants and bars. But there was a very convenient bus service into town and we used it every day to get around and do our shopping. We’d close up the boat tightly before we left as right around 1500 we got a big downpour each day. We filled up our water tanks with our rain collection mechanisms. The Malaysian marinas all had water available on the dock but everything we read advised boiling before drinking. Our watermaker had been keeping our fresh water supply topped up but the silt and trash we found in the waters in this area made us hesitant to use it. Our shade structures do double duty as we have gutters on them with fittings that connect to hoses leading back to the water tank. Dennis came up with a very clever design which allows for quick set up and has proven to be very efficient. We haven’t had to boil water yet. First order of business, as with every new country, was to get to an ATM to get local currency and SIM cards for phone and internet. Next stop was fresh produce and other provisioning. We had let ourselves run kind of low in Batam as Nongsa Point marina was very remote without bus service so everything required a taxi ride. Fortunately, the fruits and vegetables that we had found were often scarce or unappetizing in Indonesia were plentiful here. One thing we noticed right away was that there were lots of cars in Malaysia. We still saw many motorcycles and scooters but cars were much more plentiful than what we saw in Indonesia. Being right across the bridge from Singapore, Johor Bahru is one of the largest cities in Malaysia, but the car as the main mode of transportation held true throughout our travels in Malaysia. We spent about two weeks at this stop as the rally boats trickled in and the events got started. Virginia met Bob from Sisutl who was just a few boats down from us and offered to help us upgrade our OpenCPN navigation software to include tide tables for the world, climatology (basically pilot charts) info, and more icons for waypoints and a bunch of other goodies.

The marina had a potluck dinner with a Halloween theme; very few wore costumes – kind of hard to get in the mood since it was held on Nov. 8 and the ambient temperature was in the nineties rather than the fifties. Amazingly, we had found some candy corn in one of the stores and brought a big bowl of that to share along with our fruit salad. While it got smiles from the few cruisers from the US, it was a curiosity to most as it appears that it is not a treat that the US has yet to export outside of the US.

On Nov 11 there was a rally technical briefing held on one of the big tour boats that was docked near to us. Gail and Patrick from LeBarque, who have been sailing this area for quite a few years, talked about our upcoming passage up the Malaysian peninsula, pointing out good anchorage spots between the rally stops, navigational hazards to avoid, and sights to see. They also provided us with a document that was basically a cruising guide to the west coast of peninsular Malaysia. They were very helpful.

That night the opening rally event was a very fancy, delicious, Chinese dinner. We must have had 7 or 8 courses. During dinner we were entertained by Malaysian dancers. This dancing was very different from what we saw in Indonesia. The dancers were wearing very colorful, beautiful, traditional outfits. But the music and dancing was modern - very similar to a Gaucho Dance Team performance at halftime of a UCSB Basketball game. Most of the official rally events were alcohol free – where they did not provide alcohol and asked us kindly not to bring our own. Many of the Malaysian people do not drink alcohol for religious reasons and we were happy to comply. For this event they gave us tickets for free drinks at one of the nearby bars for a happy hour in advance of the dinner. We were not even going to have the free happy hour drink but as soon as we arrived at the party, the bartender had two bottles opened and was handing them to us before we could say no thanks, so we couldn’t let the beer go warm and stale now could we?

We decided to take a quick trip to Singapore since it was just a short bus ride away. Sorry – no pictures – we forgot to bring the camera, but it’s a big tourist city, so Google it for just about everything we saw. Chris and Belinda from Nahanni went with us, but they returned that night while we spent one night in a hotel in Little India so that we had a second day in Singapore. Singapore has a fantastic transportation system. We used buses and the rail system to get around. We had a few items we were looking to find there – where the most difficult ended up being some folding tent poles. We use them to make a shade structures for the boat and we needed one more set. Dennis had found all the camping/adventure stores on the web and we proceeded to go all over town in search of this item. The shop owner at our last/successful stop pointed out that the reason none of them are in central Singapore is that the rent for retail space is very expensive. The shops we visited were all stuck in the back room of some other establishment in very cramped conditions. They have to do that to remain profitable. We did fun things too. Many of the rail rides were above ground so we got a good view of the city on those trips. We rode a cable car between Mt. Faber and Sentosa Island. The island has many attractions on it such as a waterpark and rollercoasters, but we just looked on from above. We walked through Little India and had lunch there. We visited Haw Par Villa and walked all through the grounds. It was a very different type of park. Quoting Lonely Planet, “Inspired by Chinese literature and mythology, the park is filled with thousands of statues set in dioramas depicting scenes from disparate sources including Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Confucianism. The park’s crowning glory is the Ten Courts of Hell where grotesque statues depict sinners’ fates in gory detail.” From this description we figured we might take a peek and move on. But it was very interesting. It is all outdoors so the statues require constant painting. Some were in need of touch-up but you could tell that others had been recently redone and in fact we saw an artist in action redoing one section. You would have to be an artist to do the restoration job given the amount of detail. The artistry of it alone is amazing and we found it quite interesting to see the punishments that were levied for various bad deeds – respect for elders and family in general was obviously held in high regard. Our favorite stop was the Science Center. This had nothing to do with Singapore in particular and we have been to other Science/Discovery centers in towns. But we found this one to be exceptionally well done, thorough, and nearly every exhibit was interactive so we played with a lot of them. We spent several hours there and saw just a small fraction of it but we had to move on. The night of our second day we took the Night Safari at the zoo. It was a different, and enjoyable, way to see a zoo. We rode on a tram past 100 spotlight-lit nocturnal species. At a couple points you could get out and walk, but it was raining that night (adding to the ‘jungle’ experience) so we opted to stay on the tram. We had been hoping to have dinner after our ride and Virginia was especially looking forward to having a Singapore Sling as it brought back memories of bar hopping with her college buddies. But we didn’t have time; we had to catch a bus back to the border to ensure that we got on the last bus from Johor Bahru out to the marina. It was a quick but very enjoyable and productive trip.

One of the cruisers who had been in the marina for awhile had a connection for ordering meat and cheeses. We had placed an order with her before our Singapore trip. We picked up our items upon our return and prepared the boat for the next passage.

Sat Nov 16 – Fri Nov 22 We left Danga Bay headed for Port Dickson. Our first night out we anchored on the north side of Pulau Pisang. Although we saw several boats anchored on the south side of the island, it had been a very calm day and the depth was rapidly diminishing which would have caused us to anchor quite a distance from any protection the island might provide, so we anchored on the other side, closer in to the island. That night we got rain and howling winds; we were rocking and rolling with very confused seas in the anchorage but the wind and current was driving us away from the island, so we were in no danger of a lee shore. We didn’t appear to be dragging and it wasn’t clear that we would be any more comfortable moving to another side of the island, so we stayed put. We had planned to head out in the early morning to our next anchorage, but the wind was still strong and now clearly from the NE – where we were headed. We saw a couple other boats leaving from the south side anchorage pounding right into the wind and decided we would move to the protected south side of the island and rest up a bit as we didn’t get any sleep last night. It was calm enough there for Virginia to prepare lunch and give us a couple hours of rest. Then we upped anchor intending to do an overnighter to Port Dickson as with the delay in getting underway, we would be hitting our intended anchorage of Pulau Besar in the middle of the night. But as we mentioned in our passage reports, when we were passing by Besar just after midnight it looked very enticing, several other boats there already, so we pulled in, anchored, and had a good night’s rest. The next morning we went onto Port Dickson and checked into Admiral Marina.

The marina had a very nice swimming pool and we were in it most afternoons by 1600. We took both of the optional tours at this stop. The first was a bus trip to the south to Melaka (also spelled Malacca so sorry if I mix and match these at times). Here we were introduced to some of the history of Malaysia. When we reached the city a tour guide rushed us around the central area; we had two large busloads of us and just one tour guide so he was having a hard time herding us and speaking loud enough to be heard so he kind of rushed us through a few things to get us oriented and then let us explore on our own. Trishaws (bicycles with a sidecar) abound and are very elaborately decorated with lots of plastic flowers, stuffed animals, dolls, music, etc. We walked up to the Porta de Santiago fortress atop of hill and from there had a great view out over the city. We walked along the river where they had a replica of the 13 meter high Melaka Malay Suntanate Water Wheel which used to direct the waters in the river. We visited three museums. We got into the Customs Museum by accident, but it was actually quite interesting to see the items they have confiscated from folks trying to illegally bring them into or out of the country. They ranged from guns to crafts made with parts of endangered animals. Items that had any part of the Koran inscribed on them were also confiscated. We later asked about this and discovered that they are concerned that such items will bring in misinformation – phrases taken out of context or misstated. The Maritime museum was in a building shaped like an old schooner and here we were introduced to the Malaysian custom of taking off your shoes before entering a building. We were to see this quite often thereafter so we generally wore flip flops to make this easy. We walked through Chinatown and visited the Chinese Jewelry Museum. The carved jade was especially fascinating. As we gathered in the center of town where the buses would pick us up, the local policemen and women were out handing out goodie bags and literature about encouraging social harmony (discouraging crime in general and domestic violence in particular). They asked us to sign their banner to show our support and were so thrilled with each one of us that signed.

The second bus trip was north to Kuala Lumpur. The bus stopped several places before dropping us off at the famous Petronas twin towers where we had several hours on our own. Our first stop was at Batu Caves Hindu temple built into the caves of the limestone cliffs. At the foot of the stairs leading into the temple is a 140 foot statue, the largest statue of a Hindu deity in Malaysia. It was amazing and we got some exercise going up and back down the 360 steps leading into the caves. Next we visited a batik factory where we got to see an artist brushing on the wax outline of the design and then painting the design on the silk. Our next stop was the Royal Selangor Pewter factory (according to Guinness, the largest pewter factory in the world). Dennis has always liked pewter and really enjoyed this stop. We were given some small demonstrations of how they pour the melted metal into the molds and then the artistic work they do with various methods to shape and decorate the items. The factory guide was quick to point out that no pewter is wasted in their production. All shavings and errors are collected and remelted/recycled for other production. In town, one of our first stops was to a museum where they have a huge model of the city of Kuala Lumpur, where clear plastic buildings indicate future building. Around 1400 they dropped us off at the Petronas twin towers. Dennis headed off to a subway that would take him across town on a boat part errand. Virginia stayed at the towers as she had heard about a water fountain show that happens in the courtyard of the towers each afternoon. After joining some friends for lunch she wandered down to the courtyard and spent a couple relaxing hours reading her Kindle, people watching, and viewing the fountain show. Dennis arrived back after his successful errand to see the end of the show.

Sat Nov 23 - Sat Nov 30 We moved further north to Pangkor Marina, which is its own little island between Lumut on the mainland and Pangkor Island. On our passage up the west coast of Malaysia we were navigating between shallow water on our starboard near shore and the shipping channel on our port. We had to share that area with the fishing boats. So while we thought we had encountered and dodged many fishing boats in Indonesia – this close quarter sailing in Malaysia was even more intense. The first night we anchored at the mouth of the Klang river. Many of the boats went up the river to tie up to the docks at the Royal Selangor Yacht club, but we were ready for a break from marinas. A few others joined us there. The next day we sailed by the biggest, most structurally sound fishing house we had seen to date. It looked a bit out of place out in the middle of the water. The second night we anchored in an estuary near Bernam. The cruising guide says there is a Chinese temple here, but we didn’t see a structure that looked like a temple from the boat. We did however see more of those big buildings with no windows that are used to capture birds. We had another very peaceful night. When we arrived at Pangkor they were again very stretched for space and we got put out on the end of one of the fingers, but this time we weren’t the furthest out. Some of our friends were on a dock out past the dry storage area. We had access (for a small fee) to the pool at the nearby hotel and made use of it several times. The marina was quite isolated, the nearest grocery store was a 30 minute taxi ride. There was a ferry running frequently between the marina and Pangkor Island. One day the marina manager arranged a tour of Pangkor Island for the rally. We took the ferry over and then got into 8 person taxi-minivans. Our first stop was a very beautiful temple built on the side of a hill that had a great view from the top. Next we visited a fish shop where they took the fish that were too small or otherwise considered unusable for eating directly and made them into dried fish products. There were all kinds of snack type foods available and we sampled some of the jelly fish chips later in the day at our lunch. We had a delicious Chinese lunch (the name of our marina manager was James Khoo….note his last name and read on to the Penang entry). We then visited the site of a shipbuilder – the last of his kind in this area. He has no one interested in learning the trade so it will die when he retires. More an art than a trade as each boat was unique and assembled by eye rather than measurements! It was a massive wooden boat and it was interesting to see the type of wood used, how they bend the wood for some of the curved surfaces and in other situations actually cut the curve which means they have to use a very wide piece of wood and “waste” much of it. These boats are used for fishing.

We took on about 80 gallons of fuel (effectively filling our tank) because it was so easy to acquire (delivered to the boat and they would dispense it). But that depleted our cash reserves and we needed to visit an ATM. When the marina office advised that the nearest ATM was in town (60 minute round-trip taxi drive) we were astonished. Fortunately, other cruisers were in the office at the time and suggested we take the ferry over to Pangkor Island where several ATMs were seen during our tour. The ferry was 20 minutes round-trip and a fraction of the taxi fare. Getting off the ferry at the island Dennis ran into Duncan and Catherine of Maggie Drum, another couple that were cruising Malaysia and had just toured the island on a motor scooter –something we were going to do if the tour hadn’t been arranged for us. He told them of his errand and they were also in need of funds, so they all walked back to the closest ATM and were back on board the returning ferry in 20 minutes.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Thu Nov 28 with Janice and Mick on Zoa (from western Australia) and Karen and Jason on Yolo (from Michigan). We couldn’t find any turkey or cranberries but we gathered aboard Libertad for two roasted chickens, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, and peas.

On our last day at Pangkor James arranged for two buses to take us. We stopped at a marine chandlery, a hardware store, and two supermarkets (both of which were in malls that had a variety of stores). It was quite a productive day and we were grateful to James for making those arrangements. That night we were provided a low keyed farewell dinner – not as much fanfare as the previous ‘gala’ events. It was so pleasant and the food was delicious and plentiful. It was another multi-course meal and we finally had to get them to stop delivering as were all so full.

Sun Dec 1 – Sat Dec 9 Happy Birthday on Dec 4 to Dennis’ mother. Dennis had charted our exit from Pankor marina but we strayed a bit from the course and ended up on a shoal. This time the kedging was a bit more complicated because we had left the marina in the wee hours of the morning and it was still dark; we didn’t know where the deep channel was supposed to be. Add to that, the dinghy was deflated and stowed and by the time it was in the water and Dennis was deploying the anchor, the tide had ebbed and Libertad was on its side. This gave Dennis plenty of time to find the deep water by poling around the boat and for cleaning the waterline which needed it badly. While he was working several boats stopped by to look and take pictures. They thought we had purposely gotten ourselves in that position so that we could clean the bottom and we didn’t tell them any differently! After relocating the anchor and with the incoming tide, we were on our way in a few hours. The first night we stopped in a spot that looks like it is in the middle of nowhere – there is no visible land, but there is a big shoal there making it shallow enough to anchor. It was a calm evening; although a bit eerie, it was restful. The next night we anchored off of the southern shore of Penang at Pulau Rimau. We had lush greenery all around and we could see the eastern end of the new (second) Penang bridge. What a beautiful spot. We had it to ourselves for a bit but then the smell of our popcorn apparently lured in about 7 other rally boats so we were surrounded by friends by sunset. Tuesday morning we set off to cruise the eastern coast of Penang and go under both Penang bridges. It looked like the most southern one wasn’t open for business yet as there wasn’t any traffic on it. We got confirmation later that indeed the bridge was finished but one of the on-ramps had collapsed and needed to be repaired before they could open the bridge. It was tempting to stop and visit and get our Thai visas, but we had already decided to go straight to Langkawi and take a fast ferry back to Penang. Georgetown was a big city which seemed to go on forever; but it was concentrated mostly in a narrow corridor along the coast. We had timed our start in morning around 0800 so that we would have the current ‘with’ us for the morning and it did start out that way. But as we got to the narrows further north in the Penang channel we went from 7 knots to under 5 knots in about 10 minutes so something strange was happening there to divert the current. As we passed the northern end of Penang and got back out into the wind we did have some good wind, but it was coming from our intended direction to Pulau Bidan. So with plenty of time to make it to our intended anchorage, we tacked back and forth and got in a nice sail that day (sometimes with the assistance of the motor) – but were looking forward to an even better one the next day as we turned further west. It was beautiful at Bidan and quite protected from the wind. In the evening a fishing boat anchored right along side us. We couldn’t decide if they thought our boat would attract the fish or if we had inadvertently anchored in the best fishing spot. We left at first light on Wednesday morning so that we could get to Langkawi in the early afternoon. The marina had asked us to try and arrive before 1500. We had a fabulous sail that day all the way to Langkawi – what a nice way to end the last leg of the Sail Malaysia Rally – namely to actually sail! The entry to Rebak marina was easy and, no surprise, we were put out on the end again – only one boat further than us from the marina office and facilities. Dennis must have put in a special request for remote berthing throughout Malaysia since Virginia was complaining that she wasn’t getting enough exercise.

Tues Dec 10 - Sun Dec 15 We immediately got on the internet to make arrangements for our trip back to Penang to arrange our Thailand visas. Unfortunately, we found that you can’t make reservations earlier than 48 hours in advance over the internet. Rebak marina/resort is on a small island off of the larger island of Langkawi; the marina/resort provides a free ferry that gets you over to Langkawi in 10 minutes. We decided to take our chances that there would be ‘walk-on’ space available and the next morning we were on the first ferry out and then hopped into a taxi for the 30 minute drive across Langkawi to the city of Kuah and the main ferry terminal. All seats on the 2:15 ferry were sold so we bought tickets for the 5:30pm ferry (which would have delivered us to Penang after dark). But when the 2:15 ferry was loading, we asked and were given empty seats which delivered us to Georgetown about 5pm. It was a smooth ride, but the air conditioning was a bit too high so it was cold. We had reserved a room online at the Cititel Hotel. It was about 220 RM (Malaysian ringetts) a night (about $70 USD) and it was very nice. There were Christmas decorations in the lobby as there were all around Penang. We walked the 10 blocks from the ferry to our hotel through the colonial district and passed by several items that had been on our list to see including the clock tower honoring Queen Victoria and the downtown colonial architecture. That evening we walked from our hotel towards Komtar mall where the concierge had said we could find a place to get some passport photos which we would need the next day for our Thai visas. We were having a good time looking at all the little shops along the way when Dennis noticed that many of them could provide the passport photos. We got that errand taken care of in short order and decided to continue onto the mall to find a spot for dinner. That mall is huge. We literally got lost. To top it off, we couldn’t find a good place to eat. There were several levels of more traditional shops and then several levels of modern department stores and it winds around for blocks. With no windows it was hard to get our bearings. We finally found the ground floor and when we got outside we were quickly reoriented and headed back towards the hotel. Along the way we saw the neon sign of the Kashmir Indian restaurant. Our son Darren had mentioned that he really liked that spot. He has travelled to Malaysia a number of times on business. In fact he has an employee reporting to him that works in the Malaysian facility and several others from an affiliated corporation that he works with closely. Darren had given us the contact information for Kenny, KK, and CG, three of his closest co-workers/friends, and we had been emailing and texting back and forth arranging to meet for lunch the following day. Although Dennis will usually shy away from Indian food, we decided to eat at Kashmir and were not disappointed. It was quite busy so we had to wait outside on the deck for a table to open up. Virginia decided to finally have that Singapore sling and Dennis joined her. While we enjoyed our cool drinks numerous cruisers from the rally walked by and stopped for a chat and there were two couples already seated in Kashmir. The owner was very attentive to us and the waiter made some excellent suggestions from the menu. We had the Kashmir chicken, butter chicken, Kashmir rice, Indian flat bread, and a number of other items. Delicious. While we were at the restaurant, Kenny called back and said that he would pick us in the morning around 1030 and do a bit of sight-seeing with us before we joined the others for lunch.

The next morning we took a taxi out to the Thai embassy such that we would arrive there at 0730, even though we knew they didn’t open until 0900. The prior day had been a holiday and the embassy was closed and given that this was now a Friday a crowd was expected and we didn’t want to chance missing our place in line to get our Thai visas. We were getting them in advance as this allows us to leave the boat in Thailand while we visit the US without posting a bond (which would be refunded upon our return to the boat). We have encountered this bond requirement in several countries (Costa Rica and French Polynesia come to mind). The country wants some guarantee from you that you aren’t abandoning your boat in their waters. The advance visa along with a letter from the marina here will supposedly allow us to avoid paying the bond in Thailand. It was a fairly quick process to drop off our paperwork and then we had to return at 1530 to pick up our documents.

We then took a taxi to the Kek Lok Si Temple – another spot that Darren told us not to miss. It is an amazingly large and ornate structure, built in 1890, and they are continually adding on to it. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. It is carved into Air Itam, near Penang Hill. You walk up through a maze of souvenir shops to reach the entrance. It is elaborately ornate throughout. There are numerous alcoves filled with stone, painted, and golden statues. The heart of the complex is Ban Po Thar (Ten Thousand Buddhas), a seven-tier 30-meter high tower. It is said to be Burmese at the top, Chinese at the bottom, and Thai in the middle. A cable car takes you up to the top level where there is an amazing 36.5 meter high bronze statue of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy. The pagoda that shelters this statue is supported by carved pillars and the ceiling is quite ornate. The pictures are worth a thousand words so take a look in our gallery. Kenny picked us up at the temple and asked us what we wanted to see. Among the things we listed included Khoo Kongsi (The Khoo Clanhouse) and we asked him (Kenny Khoo) if he was a part of that clan and indeed he was so that decided where we needed to go next. A Kongsi is a social, economic, and benevolent organization of individuals from the same family. They are a way for the overseas Chinese communities to stay connected in a civic and religious way. The most impressive one in Penang is the Khoo Kongsi. Kenny told us that he is the 23rd generation of Khoo in Penang and that his infant son is the 24th. As a member of the clan he has certain privileges such as a discount on buying a house. Later I recalled James Khoo, the marina manager at Pangkor. I must ask Kenny if he knows him. The clanhouse was lovely with stone statues, murals on the walls, ceramic sculptures, and overhead lighting provided by huge paper lamps. It was built in 1906 and is gorgeous. We drove by a few other spots for photo ops, including a bicycle imbedded in a wall with the riders cleverly painted onto the wall. Kenny suggested we get a photo there as it was a famous piece of art and indeed while we were walking over, another couple came by and posed for a picture. We met Darren’s other friends, KK and CG at the Teksen Chinese restaurant. They ordered for us and all the dishes were delicious. We had a great time visiting with them. We walked back to the hotel from our restaurant taking in a few more sights along the way. We took a taxi back to the Thai embassy to arrive well in advance of the 1530 pickup time to find a large crowd already gathered, including a number of our cruising friends. We got our documents without any hassle.

The next morning we were up bright and early to catch the 0800 ferry back to Langkawi. When we arrived we walked over to the Royal Langkawi Yacht club marina to pick up two bags of gear for our friends MerryLee and Dennis. We met them in Bundaberg, Australia. They sailed their boat Lardo through Indonesia and Malaysia and then put it up for sale and returned home. Since they live in Alameda, California and we knew we would be going up that way to visit family, we volunteered to take some items back for them that they were unable to carry on their last trip to the US. It will be fun to see them again. The woman who delivered Lardo’s items to us advised us that the boat has already sold which must be great news to MerryLee and Dennis. We picked up a few produce items in town, shared a taxi back to the Rebak ferry, and took the short ferry ride to the marina. We heard from other cruisers that the new owner of Lardo had moved the boat to the marina we were at so when we arrived back, we went down to meet him and he had a few more items he had found for us to take back.

The rally arranged a tour of Langkawi. We stopped at two museums. The first depicted aspects of traditional Malay life: gamelan music group, traditional houses, and traditional games (Tengteng looked like the familiar game of hopscotch from our youth). Next was the Galeria Perdana. It was established by Mahathir bin Mohamad who was the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, making him Malaysia's longest serving Prime Minister. It houses gifts given to him and other Malaysian diplomats. The range of gift is astonishing. Lots of art objects but also cars and everything in between. The building itself was gorgeous, especially the two circular walkways that headed to the second story. They gave us an hour of free time before our gala dinner at the beach area where there were some bars in case any of us wanted to have a cocktail before dinner. We took a walk on the beach and Dennis suggested we take a photo because it reminded him so much of home and we were getting very homesick by this point. Our dinner was at Lama Padi – a restaurant set in a rice paddy (Padi). A very unique and relaxing setting. Dancers entertained us during the meal and they performed in a more traditional style. They had a whole lamb turning on a spit over a BBQ and everyone received a slice –delicious.

The next day the rally cruisers gathered for one more time for a “jumble sale” (swap meet) and relaxing lunch. Langkawi was the only stop where one marina couldn’t handle the full group, so we were spread out across the island. This meeting was at Rebak marina so it was convenient for us. It was very hard to say goodbye to friends that we had been sailing with over the past three months through Indonesia, two months through Malaysia, and some the two months before that as we made our way along the Australian coast to Darwin. But we’ll stay in touch with many and hope to cross paths with some again.

While we were exposed to the traditional Malaysia through museums and such, the rally events primarily introduced us to the cosmopolitan, sophisticated Malaysia. This was so very different from the small village focus of the Indonesian rally events. The Indonesian rally stops were all at anchorages; all the Malaysian rally stops were at marinas. Both were very enjoyable but so different. In both countries the locals were so genuinely friendly and gracious – very polite. In Malaysia the multiculturalism of the population is evident; Malay, Chinese, and Indian making up the majority of the populace.

Anxious to get on our way to Thailand and back home to California, we left Rebak Marina that afternoon after the jumble sale at 1500. We sailed just a short hop north about 15 miles to our first Thai anchorage on the southeast side of Ko Tarutao. It is a former prison camp, now a national marine park. A benefit to sailing in the marine park was that there were few boats close to the island and if they were there, they were anchored and sleeping as they can’t fish in the park waters so no nets to avoid. There was one other boat anchored in this big bay. It was beautiful and very peaceful. We wanted to travel during the day because of all the fishing fleet hazards, so we thought it would take us two more stops before Phuket, but we had such great wind the next day that we were able to get further along to a small bay on the southwest of Ko Lanta Yai. The Thai islands are quite dramatic, pushing straight up from the sea, covered with lush vegetation, and very interesting shapes. When we saw a white sand beach on one of these islands, we could usually see lounge chairs set up on the beach with a resort close by. And there were lots of tour boats zipping around, delivering guests to these lovely spots. We sailed right by the famous Ko Phiphi – known for its beauty and party atmosphere. We arrived at Yacht Haven Marina a day earlier than expected (and an hour earlier because of a time change) but they were able to accommodate us. The approach is somewhat tricky. When we saw a sailboat tipped about 45 degrees, grounded on a mud bar to our starboard, we quickly called the marina on VHF 68 and took advantage of their offer to have a tender come out and lead us into the marina.

As always, first order of business the next morning was to get checked into the country, get local currency, and get local phone and internet SIM cards. The marina arranged a taxi for us. It was an hour drive from Yacht Haven which is on the far northern coast of Phuket to Ao Chalong on the southern end for check-in. It is a one-stop facility housing Immigration, Customs, and the Harbour master all in one building which made it convenient, but we filled out more paper here than in any other country we can remember. The officials were all very pleasant, even when they had to struggle to find a space to put their stamps in our passports as we have run out of space! We promised them we would have new passports by the time we checked out of the country – one of our business items we need to handle on our visit to California. We have two days to get the boat in order for a two month stay here. We’ll have leftover meat in our freezer that we need to give away as we want to turn off refrigeration. We don’t know any of the other sailors here; the rest of the rally was spending more time in Malaysia before moving on. We managed to get a reservation for Boat Lagoon Marina for Feb. 20 when we return from California. Yacht Haven is a nice facility, but very remote. Boat Lagoon has the services we need for a few of our boat maintenance projects, such as getting our anchor chain galvanized. It also puts us closer to the likely point for loading onto the freighter in March.

It’s been another wonderful season of cruising – we are still enjoying our adventure. In case any of you are thinking of joining us for part of the adventure… The plan for next season is arrive in Marmaris, Turkey in March/April via freighter. Sail west through the Mediterranean April – November and cross the Atlantic sometime in Nov/Dec to the Caribbean. Then it will be decision time and there are so many options: sail it through the Panama Canal and back up to California (original plan), leave the boat in the Caribbean for a couple years and visit it periodically with family and friends, sail it to Fort Lauderdale where we bought it and sell it (and buy a new boat back in California).

As we used to say when we were kids “one more sleep” until we get to visit family and friends in California (well actually two if you count the 24 hours we will be in the air). Can hardly wait!