12/24/2008, Langkawi, Malaysia
Are you on your way to heaven? Am I? Are any of us? Is there even a "Heaven"? Who knows - no definite answer! So I'm creating and enjoying my idea of heaven right here in Langkawi.
We arrived in the Northernmost islands of Malaysia a few days ago and have enjoyed perfect weather with fresh breezes on hot days and cool nights. The local folks who work here at our tiny marina/resort island of Rebak are the kindest, most welcoming people we've encountered in our 2 1/2 years of cruising. There are jagged mountains and ridges of more ranges extending to the horizon, gorgeous foliage, insects and rare birds singing at sunrise and sunset, a profusion of blooming flowers and bushes, beautifully cool pool and Caribbean - clean water, and almost white sand beaches beaches for us to lounge upon at sunset.
There is an employee restaurant and bar which welcomes cruisers at very realistic prices and all the normal amenities offered us at most marinas. So Terry is creeping around the rain forests trying to catch pairs of toucans or monitor lizards to photograph in their natural habit with his new camera while I do Pilates or yoga with other sailors, some of which have lived here for more than 3 years because this area is so conducive to cruising life.
Were it not for the fact that we have friends awaiting our arrival in Phuket for New Year's and our months of boat maintenance/upgrade/repair, I could live here for years too!
Happy Holidays to you all - we hope you feel as if you too, are living your idea of heaven right at this moment. Cheers and Best Wishes from Sora, KK
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12/09/2008, Penang
Penang, what a nice mix of Singapore and Melaka it is. Lots of big city advantages with the small town ambience - shrines, temples, museums, parks, beaches, with friendly people, good restaurants, and reliable bus service.
Although Penang is a very modern city, Chinatown's clock stopped 50 years ago. The hilarious signs, colorful old shophouses, ridiculously cheap restaurants, clatter of mahjong tiles and strange Chinese dialects kept drawing us back to the old city. Whether it was the scent of sandalwood and spices, Hindi music, sari or stone seal shops, or the famous temples, we visited this area daily for a week.
Finding Terry's favorite "street eats" stand closed on Sunday, we kept hiking north to the Garage Shopping Plaza across from the E & O Hotel that just happened to be their once-a-month crafts fair. So Jeni and I wandered, oohed & ahhed, touched & purchased while Terry had another massage. We'd found a restaurant with the very non-descriptive name of Beach Blanket Babylon. It was a contemporary colonial British affair that should have been called Oliver's. Enjoyed their set lunch - a real bargain @ 14 RM ($3.25), pigged out, and hit the shops!
Then we started with the Temples!
Cheers to keeping busy in the city! KK
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12/06/2008, Penang
Ferringhi Beach, a popular hippy hangout in the 1970s, has changed dramatically to a resort community of picturesque coves and beaches hemmed in by the densely forested interior and linked by a twisting road lined with deluxe resorts. The most fabulous of which, the Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort, slept FedEx crews on their Penang layovers. Terry had stayed here for the past 15 years and we just had to visit.
Since we were actually just squatters at one of the most opulent hotels on earth, we felt obligated to make use all of their services. Jen and I had foot massages at our pool side lounges after swimming. She rode "Happy" down the beautiful pristine beach for an hour. Terry chatted up the bartender and found that Tony remembered him from years before. The 2004 tsunami damaged the first floor of the Shangri-La which has since been renovated to this unbelievable marble, teak, tile, and glass structure. Like WOW!
As dusk was falling we visited the Night Hawker Market - brightly lit stalls selling Chinese chop, batik, t-shirts, fake designer watches, purses, luggage, and sunglasses - which was set up along the streets and found many bargains.
Be sure to visit the Photo Gallery for more information.
Cheers to enjoying how the other half lives! KK
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12/02/2008, Penang
This open air WWII War Museum was dug into the hill on the SE corner of Penang Island. The British had the foresight to fortify this area in the mid '30s to defend their protectorate. It resembled the set from a John Wayne war movie but it was authentic - concrete bunkers, gun emplacements, and underground control centers with the actual radios, tunnels connecting their foxholes, ammo dumps, and barracks. The major difference was that in the 1940s there were no huge mature trees - they'd been cleared to enable the sentries to watch the sea for the arrival of the Japanese. Unfortunately these wily little devils realized the fortification and arrived in small boats from the Northwest, attacking the fort from the opposite direction in which the lookouts were posted.
It is a magical place, very well maintained, and if you close your eyes to remove the other 80 cruisers, you could envision the enemy sneaking up over the hills to claim your body for the emperor.
This day was sponsored by Pen Marine, a local shipyard looking to generate business from the Sail Malaysia Rally. After a brief tour of their facilities and the visit to the War Museum, our buses swept us up to the owner's home atop a cliff where the sun was setting over the airport just as planes were landing. A little soft jazz playing in the background, tubs of icy beer sitting all around our tables on the patio, only a few minutes of speeches and propaganda from our hosts, and we enjoyed a delicious buffet of Malay, Chinese, and Indian favorites with our hosts coaxing us for another beer or plate of food. Our evening's cultural performance was the Lion Dance, more like Chinese Dragons dancing at New Years, but Jeni loved it - photographing and dancing with them. What fun! Then we left with a gift bag of hats, stationary & pens, and coupons to keep us shopping. These have got to be the most gracious hosts in the world!
Penang Hill's Funicular was down (What a terrible description of the function of the Swiss 1922 small cable car that rises 829 meters, almost 2,500 feet, above the city!) so we chose to walk many miles through the gorgeous Botanic Gardens with its orchid, palm, herbal, and cactus gardens. Penang Hill stream cascades through the gardens creating many waterfalls and pools in which to cool tired feet as well as verdant trails in which to lose oneself. Long-tailed macaques, spectacled leaf monkeys, and huge water lizards, reminiscent of a small monitor lizard, all came out to play and beg treats as we left the grounds.
Check the Photo Gallery for further stories and picts.
Cheers to living history, gardens, and exotic critters! KK
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11/29/2008, Kuhla Lumpur
We'd sailed 2 uncomfortable days with the wind and current on our nose and expected the same out of Port Dickson. But the current was with us and after 2 hours of 4 knots Sora sped up to almost 10 for the rest of the day and made our 60 nm to Port Klang by 2PM. We'd dodged numerous fish traps and nets - had to turn 180 and head for the big boys' (large container ships) channel 3 times when we were surrounded by nasty little white buoys marking the nets. But we made it without mishap 'cause we had young eyes on watch for their flags, sticks, buoys, bottles, and Styrofoam markers. We were happy to make the port early only to find it filthy with the Yacht Club on the other side of the river from our pontoon slip. We're at the mercy of the little launch that runs on the hour sometimes whenever we wish to leave Sora.
You can tell that we are in the big city. The club is run down with a gym consisting of 1 machine covered with cobwebs, a shower that drips instead of spraying and no towels, pool with plywood deck, but it does have a lovely huge dining room open on 3 sides that offers good reasonable food with a little bar nestled in the corner. The employees are not friendly and their English is more difficult to understand than all the other places we've been in Malaysia.
No matter, Jeni is having a blast - so nice to have appreciative youth for us oldies to play with. She brings a fresh dynamic to our music games and is a better window shopper than I. After a fast spin through 2 huge malls, we were fortunate enough to wrangle tickets to the Skybridge at the Petronas Towers, once the tallest buildings in the world. The Captain's mention of the fact that we'd traveled 16,000 miles to visit these vertiginous twins must have prompted the official to part with just 3 more tickets. We ate heartily of Korean Barbeque grilled right at our table in the mall beside the towers and emerged into the night with the buildings, fountains, and pools lighted and twinkling as if it were New Year's Eve.
Cheers to cosmopolitan cities, magnificent views, and SHOPPING, KK
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