On February 8th my friends from Zuerich, Beat, Vincent and Patricia Kuettel arrived for a two week visit. I picked them up with Dessert First in Singapore, helped them see the city and then we cruised back to Sebana where we rented a car and drove north. All this because the strong northerlies prevented us from sailing north to Tioman on Dessert First.

First we stopped at the historical town of Melaka, then headed for the mega modern city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. I had been there in 1968 and as usual was amazed by all the changes. As an architect, Beat was particularly impressed with the Petronas towers (452m high and among the world's tallest buildings). From Kula Lumpur we drove to the Cameron Highlands the old time resort area of the British colonials. Except for the beautiful tea plantation of Boh, I could skip the area - ugly developments in a beautiful area.

Then onto Penang, another town I visited in 1968 . Again a shock to see all the changes. At the time I enjoyed the beach near a lonely hotel around Tanjung and sat in the clean warm water for hours. Now you can hardly see the beach and the water is too polluted for swimming. Further along the coast we visited a nice tropical herb garden and later enjoyed the city of Penang which is a World Heritage Site and is in the process of renovating its historic area. It is beautiful and makes up for the other disappointments.
Then came the last leg to Langkawi via Alor Setar and the ferry from there to Langkawi and a second ferry to Rebak Island. Here we met my friends Carel and Bea (Bea was my first crew in 1995 who met her husband on that passage in the Dominican Republic!) They now run a charter business with their catamaran "Rampant" (see my links!!!!)
The days with them were the highlight of the trip - a beautiful environment, great company and sailing (See the pictures in the gallery). I was enchanted with the area and hope to sail up there on Dessert First after my now planned trip back to the USA from May through July.
Unfortunately the time alloted to my Swiss friends was all to short and so we had to leave Langkawi and drive back to Sebana (over 700 km) in one day. After a day's rest they left to return to Switzerland in the middle of the following night.