Author: Kathy Scott

The title is what Buddhist temple Kek Lok Si translates as. It’s also said to be the biggest one in Malaysia, so on Tuesday we got up early to pay it a visit.  The temple sits on a hilltop and the ascent to reach it is a gradual one.  The steps of the stairway are typically dilapidated, and on either side the whole way up, a multitude of shops and stalls provide a welcome distraction from the climb.  The vendors pounce on you as you approach, to urge you to ‘buy something’ from the various souvenirs, clothes, food and drink on offer.  A polite ‘just looking’ doesn’t deter them as they are determined to tell you how good the cloth of a certain T shirt is, or about the good value/bargain/handmade quality of their wares.  They are very friendly though and it wasn’t in the least bit annoying.  Paul did actually want to get a small wooden buddha for Sister Midnight but the ones shown to him were in a set of six. We figured we’d probably see more buddhas before the day ended.  We hadn’t gone far when we came to ‘The Liberation Pond’, a sacred pond for tortoises. There were loads of them, all shapes and sizes and it’s possible to buy food to drop in the water for them. Apparently people will buy a captive turtle in order to release it into the pond for good luck.

The walk up was a pleasant one. It wasn’t crowded, it was bearably hot, as opposed to debilitatingly so, with plenty to look at on the way.  Each level of the complex has something to recommend it. The flower gardens and fish ponds are beautiful and of course, there is a plethora of stately statues, buddhas and incense-fragrant shrines.  Several of the temples sell religious paraphernalia to raise money for ongoing construction and maintenance.  This was obvious from the scaffolding and building materials on show: apparently the largest temple in Malaysia is still growing!  The view from the top of the seven-tier pagoda was wonderful, and luckily it was a clear day so it was possible to see it at its best.

 

After resting for a while, we moved on to the second part of the visit.  The bronze Kuan Yin Statue is reached by taking a funicular lift up to its location on a hillside opposite Kek Lok Si. The ticket office was at the back of a large shop, packed with all the usual gifts and trinkets, but it also had an array of more interesting and unusual ‘stuff’: ornately-carved wooden table decorations, chinese boxes, tibetan jewellery, cloths etc.  A great place to browse.  It was a very short ride but again, a great view of Penang on the way up.  Kuan Yin (The Goddess of Mercy) is housed in an octagon-shaped pavilion and there were other shrines and pagodas in the area as well as a lovely garden with a bridge and waterfall (ideal as a resting place before the descent).

The walk down was hard on legs already tired from walking and standing for such a long period in the heat. I kept thinking a beer would be very welcome once we got to Air Itam, the town at the bottom of the hill. In Anthony Burgess’s book ‘The Long Day Wanes’ Tiger Beer seems to be plentiful in Malaysia – not so here.  Even cafes with signs outside advertising Carlsberg or Tiger don’t have it, so I made do with a coke while we waited for the taxi to pick us up.

Kathy

 

 

 

On Saturday 27th we marked two weeks of being here in Batu Uban. It’s gone really quickly and we may well be here another week or two, so as we’d spent the previous couple of days on the boat we decided to get out and see some more of what Penang has to offer.  It had been dull and overcast most of the day but when we set off at around 4, it was cool and a few spots of rain were falling. It’s difficult to predict the frequency and heaviness of the rain on days like that so for the first time since arriving, I got my raincoat out.

As we approached the marina entrance to wait for the taxi, we heard bird noises that were very much like the sound cuckoos make.  I spotted two beautiful yellow birds in the tree opposite the hut and we stopped to get a closer look at them.  Our friendly gate guard noticed us and smilingly informed us we’d need a licence to catch those birds.  I don’t think he was joking 🙂 We told him we just wanted to look at them and a few minutes later he came out to present us with a mango! It seems if he can’t persuade us to have a kitten or a bird he can at least make us a gift of a mango. When we told the taxi driver our destination, I had the feeling he was mildly amused.  I wondered if The Reclining Buddha at Wat Chayamangkalaram Temple is one of the places schoolchildren get taken to as a matter of course.  He said it had been many years since he’d seen it.  Without fail, the taxi drivers have been genuinely interested in us, our boat, where we come from, where we’re going etc. One of them even asked if he could have a look at it when he dropped us off. He was so thrilled to be invited on board and he asked Paul lots of questions about the boat before politely asking if he could take pictures and then got me to take one of him with Paul.  Not the usual run of the mill taxi experience – and the fares are cheap too.

The rain that had begun when we set off had stopped by the time we got there, and it was deliciously cool and bright (ideal conditions for walking around). We only had 20 minutes before the temple closed so we went straight in. I’d read that this Buddha was big but it was still an incredible sight.

I was impressed by the walls of the building, which were lined with square compartments for the ashes of loved ones. The ashes are inside elegantly decorated vases behind perspex covers, with a picture and description of the deceased on the front.

We spent an hour or so looking at a plethora of shrines, statues, and carvings before moving on to the Burmese temple across the road.  This one had ornate gardens, and a corridor with paintings portraying events in the life of the Buddha.

In stark contrast to the historical and reverent atmosphere of Buddhist temples, the plush and upscale Gurney Plaza was our next destination. It’s been put together very well and seems to be popular with visitors – although some of the designer shops were noticeably empty – but like most malls it could be anywhere in the world.  We visited all of its 9 (!!) floors, mainly to get to the top and check out the view. It took quite a while to get up there but the view was worth it.

In my quest to become proficient in Asian cooking I’ve been gathering recommended ‘staple’ ingredients, as listed in a book on the subject.  One product, however, is proving so difficult to get hold of, it’s become something of a mission to find it and has led to puzzled or bemused looks when we’ve asked for it.  It’s ‘black bean paste’ (not to be confused with sauce). It exists, but so far no shop or supermarket has had it in stock, and the likely-looking Waitrose style shop in the mall was no exception. It was nice to browse in it though.  It was also nice to sit in the bar on the ground floor and have a drink listening to live music being played in the square. The seafront promenade is adjacent, giving the place a festive, ‘seaside’ atmosphere.

 

Gurney drive is also well-known for its open air hawker food court and this is where we ended the evening.  It’s a huge area consisting of mostly Chinese street food vendors. The smells emanating from them were mouthwatering and we were both hungry by then so we decided to seek out some veggie options from the wide variety of dishes on offer.  This was easy – lots of the stalls turned out to be vegetarian and it was a great eating out experience.  After double-checking with a stern-faced but very efficient lady about the ingredients (mainly that there was no fish because some places have deemed fish to be vegetarian) we settled on Tom Yam and then had to choose our noodle sizes. If she could have said ‘hurry up’ she would have, but her manner wasn’t rude, she was just ‘busy’. We sat at a table in the middle of a very lively and crowded street and Paul got us drinks from a separate stall. The man cooking the food had such a tiny area to work in, and considering how busy it was we didn’t have too long to wait before our absolutely gorgeous meals were brought to us.

The search for black bean paste continues.

Kathy

 

 

 

 

 

The past week has been all about tasks and chores relating to ongoing maintenance, and cosmetic jobs which have been neglected due to time and situation constraints.  Paul has been up early most mornings when it’s cooler working on the bowsprit, as well as doing more sanding and varnishing, while I’ve worked on the interior of the cabin and polishing the steel from the cap rails with Brasso.  It’s got a lot cooler during the course of the week and there has been a lot of rain. The preceding nightly storms consisted of distant rumbles of thunder and hours of flickering lightning.  For the first time, last Saturday afternoon, it was possible to sit in the cockpit and enjoy the fresh breeze while watching the raindrops bounce off the water before it got heavier and forced us inside.  The slight drop in temperature made it a lot more comfortable to work in, both above and below deck.  Here are some shots of the interior (still a work in progress).

There is quite a community spirit in this marina. Paul got to know a few of the permanent residents when he was here earlier in the year. They have been very helpful, providing Paul with useful local information and driving him to places, while he’s been able to help them with some technical and boat-related issues.  The marina entrance has a little hut for the guard on duty (it’s manned 24 hours a day) and all of them get to know the boat owners because we’re passing in and out daily. There is a family of cats in residence by the hut (a mum and her kittens) but I’m not sure if they belong anyone in particular or anyone at all. I look for them each time we pass and one guard has got to know this – he always laughs and says ‘you want one, you take’.  Paul always answers for me and declines the offer, but they are so gorgeous, it’s hard to resist.

Most evenings we walk to one of the nearby supermarkets so that we’re not on the boat all day and as they are both a mile or two away it’s a chance to get some exercise.  The only difficult part on these walks is crossing the roads. The main roads are very busy with no facilities for pedestrians apart from a few faded zebras which are largely ignored unless you happen to catch an approaching driver’s eye and look appealingly at them to slow down.  Otherwise you take your chance with the rare gaps and run for it – like a game of ‘chicken’! Before we get to that part, though, the walks are scenic and pleasant. We hear cicadas in the undergrowth, frogs on the water and pass beaches and leafy lanes.

 

I’m going to be learning a lot about the food on offer in the supermarkets. So far, I’ve managed to keep to my mainly vegan diet and I’m keen to try some of the exotic-looking fruit and veg on display.  I also need to get to grips with cooking tofu. We’ve had some nice dishes in restaurants where it is one of the main ingredients but whenever I’ve tried to cook it, it’s been bland and the texture hasn’t been right. I thought there was  a lot of different types in the UK (silken, firm, soft etc) but here there are lots more variations!  I made a stir fry dish with it the other night using mirin, ginger and soy sauce as a marinade and that was ok but I’ve got a lot to learn.  I’ll need to start by identifying the veg, herbs and other unheard of ingredients that are listed in recipes in the book of Vegetarian Chinese Cooking I’ve bought (‘wood ear fungus’, ‘dried lily buds’, and ‘wolfberries’ make it sound more like a spell from Harry Potter than a meal). It’s already been a fun ‘treasure hunt’ tracking down the list of suggested basics on the shelves.

I haven’t missed television at all. I would probably have watched the Bake Off and some of the crime dramas, but at home I mainly watch Netflix or Amazon Prime programmes anyway.  We’ve discovered that we can access Netflix here but it uses a lot of bandwidth – it was like having to ‘put a shilling in the meter’ every half an hour to continue watching :). The radio is good entertainment and I can listen to the book and film programmes I enjoy and ‘Johnnie Walker’s Sounds of the Seventies’ to my heart’s content (usually while Paul’s busy on deck).  Reading remains my favourite leisure activity and I’m adding to the small library of books onboard each time we go out and I spot a second hand book shop. This marina doesn’t have a laundry service like the one in Langkawi so I washed a few things by hand the other day, rinsing them with the hose on the pontoon. Needless to say they didn’t take long to dry, and nothing needs ironing, which is nice ;).

On Wednesday we went back into George Town, making the most of a break from the rain and to have a change of scene.  We didn’t have a strict itinerary apart from my desire to see the Beach Street area where the focus is on animal welfare.  It was nice to just slowly walk the streets, going wherever looked interesting to check out the architecture, the shops and exhibitions. It was a very humid day and after a couple of hours of this I began to feel weak and dizzy. I didn’t know if I was hungry, thirsty or overcome with heat but I had to sit down and wait for Paul who was further down the street buying a pump for the air conditioner.  He suggested we head to the Black Kettle for a rest and refreshment. One glass of wine, a sit down and some pricey bread later, I felt fine again. Later, we came to the area near Beach Street purely by accident.  Too tired to visit the actual cat sanctuary which was further on (I’ll save that for another day), we spent some time looking at the street art and browsing in the ‘hippy-themed’ shops.  It’s a picturesque and fascinating hotchpotch of streets and alleys that reminded me a little of Brighton’s Lanes.

That evening we had the heaviest downpour of rain yet, but the day in George Town had so exhausted me I was asleep on the bunk while Paul went up above to watch it.  He said it was so heavy, the paths and boat decks looked white and shimmering like they were covered in snow.  I’m sure there will be more opportunities to see that while we’re here.

Kathy

 

 

 

 

The main parts of Tuesday and Wednesday were spent on the boat. Paul was busy sanding the cap rails and I stayed below reading, writing, catching up on emails, and helping Paul when needed (mainly fetching and carrying).

On the 1.5 mile-walk to Tesco, I saw the spot where Paul got mugged. In daylight it looked a most innocuous place; a verdant country lane with colourful flowers, joggers and cyclists. The only thing missing was dog walkers.  I’ve seen very few dogs since I’ve been in Malaysia. A couple of nervous strays and once, a whole pack of them, much like the packs that I used to see roaming the streets in the 70s. We see lots of cats and kittens too but it’s hard to tell if they belong to anyone. The local radio station urges people to adopt stray cats and dogs and there is a ‘help the beach cats’ programme in place, but it seems the idea of pets isn’t a ‘thing’ here yet.

Yesterday morning (Thursday), I cleaned the spray dodger in the hope that it would improve visibility. I couldn’t stay out long, though – the exertion needed for cleaning left me sweating and breathless. Paul stays out in it for hours using power tools and doing strenuous jobs. He says it’s because he’s acclimatised. If that’s the case, I’ve got a long way to go yet! Because he needed to go to a chandler in George Town, we decided to combine it with visiting the places I’d been reading about in the guide book (a heritage walk relating to George Town’s colonial era). This time we got a taxi to take us straight to the chandler’s which is directly opposite the clan jetties, so when Paul had finished we made those our first stop.  These are little wooden houses perched on stilts over the sea. Each of the ‘villages’ on the jetties has its own Chinese clan and are named for them: ‘Chew Jetty’, ‘Lim Jetty’ etc.  Most now sell gifts, hats and cold drinks but one still makes a living from fishing.

Apart from the heat-at its peak at this time of the day-we had to contend with the very heavy traffic on the main road.  Pavements are intermittent and haphazard, so cars and (particularly) scooters whizz dangerously close to your body. It’s also hard to hear anything with the constant roar of engines and horns beeping. We headed inland to the busy, but calmer, streets and made for Fort Cornwallis.  I was keen to see the site where the founder of Penang, Francis Light had supposedly loaded a cannon with silver dollars and fired it into the jungle as motivation for the workers to clear the thick undergrowth for the settlement he wanted to establish.  We didn’t want to go in to the fort because we’d heard there wasn’t a lot to see and it wasn’t worth the entrance fee, so we had a walk around the walls instead.

We were ready for some refreshment after this, so walked along the esplanade enjoying the cool breeze coming off the sea.  Our destination was The Eastern and Oriental Hotel, a grand and luxurious building that in its heyday was host to illustrious guests such as Rudyard Kipling, Noel Coward and W Somerset Maugham. Neither of us was hungry but I wanted to see what the bar was like so we entered the palatial cool, dark reception hall and through to an old-fashioned looking, beautifully decorated lounge bar (wooden walls, plush leather seats). It was empty and there was a terrace area outside so we asked the barman if we could sit out there with a drink and he offered to bring our order out to us.  The only places to sit were on sun loungers that were set out around the swimming pool and from here we had a lovely view of the rear of the hotel with its brilliant white walls and ornate balconies. Despite its reconstruction, it was easy to imagine it in past times when writers and actors visited.  Our drinks arrived with a dish of nuts and crisps and we spent a pleasant hour relaxing by the pool.

Next it was on to the Protestant Cemetery where Francis Light is buried. It was a fascinating place, reminiscent of Highgate with its crumbling and cracked headstones and tombs.  So many men and women had died young – hardly any were over 50. They had succumbed to the rigours of the tropics (malaria, dysentery and cholera mainly). 

By the time we were ready to walk to the bus station, it was late afternoon and the beginning of rush hour so the journey back took ages due to the bus crawling through the town traffic jams but it was cool inside and it felt great to be sitting down after being on our feet for so long.

Kathy

 

On Sunday evening we walked to a huge shopping mall in Batu Uban, the small town in which the marina is situated.  Our purpose was to buy more food in the well-stocked supermarket there but we had a walk around before doing that. The building was wonderfully cool after the 30-minute walk in intense heat. Apart from a few cultural differences, the mall could be in any city in the world – all the usual designer shops, brands and fast food chains were in place, complete with a multiplex cinema on the top floor.  I had a look around a bookshop which we thought might have been a Borders once, until we found an actual Borders on another floor.

In the alcohol section of the supermarket (suitably distanced from the shop’s more worthy items such as sugar-loaded cakes, biscuits and flavoured milks), Paul showed me how much more expensive it is to buy wine here.  It’s almost double what it cost in Langkawi, so it’s a good job I’ve cut down ;).

On Monday afternoon we moved Sister Midnight from the emergency pontoon to a berth just around the corner which is where we’ll stay until the 2nd of September while Paul gets on with sanding and varnishing and other maintenance jobs.  We also want to see some of the George Town festival however, so late in the afternoon we set out to check out the first of the events I’d chosen.  George Town is further away than I thought.  A bus service runs there and the stop is on the main road near the marina (in the shade of some trees luckily, considering the 20 minute wait in blast furnace heat).  I didn’t know which window to look out of on the journey; we passed elegant Chinese-style houses and temples, shanty town-like shacks, coconut trees, farms, parks and the ubiquitous high-rise tower blocks were dotted in between them all.

We got out at the Komtar tower complex (basically another huge shopping mall, except this one includes a hotel). Paul knows the town fairly well so he led the way to the centre from there – quite a walk in the heat but plenty to look at on the way.  I particularly loved Little India, an area of streets where saris, flower garlands, and Indian jewellery and statues are out on show in the colourful shops and stalls.  The more unpleasant street smells are masked by the gorgeous aromas of incense and curry wafting through the air. Indian music coming from one of the shops added to the festive atmosphere.

The exhibition we’d come to see was in a venue called The Black Kettle, a modern airy cafe bar, which (unusually) served wine.  We also managed to buy some real bread in the delicatessen shop here (well worth it at £3 a loaf!).

‘Penang Then and Now’, showed, in photographs, how specific locations in the city had changed over the years, with historical anecdotes explaining how and why etc, and I found it fascinating. I think Paul enjoyed it too :).

Back on the streets, we spent some time searching for a restaurant Paul wanted to revisit.  It was worth the walk and the wait. We had delicious Indian meals (Mushroom Masala for me and Chicken Masala for Paul).

Before getting a taxi back we had a walk along the waterfront. The night was warm and as in any seaside town the prom was lively and crowded. I’m keen to go back and have a proper look in the daylight.  The waterfront has several places of interest relating to the history and development of Penang, and some beautiful buildings too.

 

Another squall came as we set off on Saturday morning, which Paul describes in his post. This one was more intense and from the look of the sky it seemed to me that bad weather was set for the day.  Once again, the force of the waves rocked us from side to side, and the wind reached speeds of up to 40 knots.  Paul discovered his wet weather gear wasn’t waterproof while he was up above steering in extremely poor visibility and said he felt cold for the first time since we’d arrived.

Meanwhile, in the cabin, I succumbed to slight seasickness, having made the mistake of trying to read. I had to lay down on the port side sofa like a lady on a chaise lounge until it passed, which thankfully wasn’t long.

Conditions had improved by 1pm so I went above to help watch for buoys, fishing lines and ferries as we approached Penang Bridge. Obviously from away it looked as if our mast wouldn’t fit underneath it but it was most disconcerting that this perception didn’t alter as we got nearer.  I just had to double check with Paul that it would – thus inviting the response that unless they’d lowered the bridge since he was here last, all would be fine…guess I asked for that.

My impression of Penang itself as we drew near wasn’t terribly favourable.  High rise buildings, industrial units, and lots of debris in the murky water.  At this point, Paul felt it prudent to tell me more about the place: the marina shower and toilet block was unusable due to its being filthy; there would be mosquitoes, and they would bite; the cockroaches I’d see wouldn’t be just any old cockroaches – these can fly; electricity and water might be intermittent; the nearby motorway was noisy and we would be rocked about by passing boats while on the emergency pontoon…oh, and let’s not forget that Paul got mugged last time he was here! Yet Paul loves it here – he describes it as Birkenhead North on steroids.

By the time we were tied up on the pontoon at 4pm in the sweltering heat, Paul had an addition to those negative pieces of information – it’s hotter here than Langkawi. Despite my concerns about how I’d cope with all that, I decided to wait a few days before I judged it too harshly.  We went for dinner in the evening at one of the nearby Malay restaurants that Paul had eaten in when he was here in June. It was quite smelly on the walk there – stagnant water, mud, and other unidentifiable odours, and I saw a rat scuttle off down one of the building pipes. There are lots of scooters here. Several passed us as we walked the short distance to the restaurant and most of the riders slowed down to wave or give us a friendly greeting.  The eating places looked like a street market from a distance – lit up and open plan with delicious smells emanating from them.  Ours was very busy, pleasant-looking and specialised in seafood. Our request about the possibility of dishes without meat and fish threw our poor waiter a bit but we managed to order a mango salad and some paprika rice for me while Paul had a chicken dish.  Neither of us were overly impressed with the food but I enjoyed the ambience, and the haphazard, chaotic service was somehow charming. When we went to pay, our check couldn’t be found and we had to stand aside while other people in the queue paid before us. When we eventually settled up, Paul was surprised by the amount and it was only later he discovered he’d been charged for a sea bass (we’d paid for someone else’s dinner).

Now that I’ve had my first full day here it really isn’t a squalid or undesirable place. It does seem hotter, but it’s a drier heat and you simply stay out of it while it’s fierce.  The boat is cool enough and there’s always plenty to do on it, as there is in any dwelling. I’ve seen no cockroaches yet, although I have been bitten (possibly by mosquitoes or maybe sandflies) but they’re not as bad as the ones in Spain.  The shower and toilet block is perfectly ok to use, and I can’t hear the traffic noise. We’re here for three weeks and there are lots of places to visit as well as the festival so I’m looking forward to seeing what else Penang has to offer.

 

We woke to the sights and sounds of a storm early on Thursday morning. Loud claps of thunder, flashes of lightning and a heavy downpour greeted us as we prepared for our trip to Pulau Songsong. By the time we were ready to leave at 10.30, it was warm and humid – hot when the sun emerged from behind the clouds.  I steered us out of the marina and into the bay, using the bow thruster for the first time, and I was pleased at how smoothly it went. Once we were in The Malacca Straits heading south, the autohelm took over the steering. This one is much more efficient than the one on Lady Stardust and is such a boon. It means that apart from keeping watch, we are free to move around and get on with other things.  I’m still getting used to the navigation system on this boat – it looks complicated but I suspect it’s just a matter of becoming familiar with it.

A squall hit us after a couple of calm, pleasant hours at sea and Paul has described it in detail in his blog. I’ve experienced enough of them now not to be too alarmed by them. It’s mostly uncomfortable in several ways – more so for Paul who literally battles the elements up above. In the cabin, this squall provided a good test of how well things were stowed.  With the boat rolling from side to side in the big waves, things were being thrown around inside cupboards and lockers and I could hear some alarming clanks and crashes.  Some of the drawers flew open as if a Poltergeist was creating mischief and all the cans from the top shelf of the fridge ended up on the bottom. I positioned myself so that I was ready to sort things out and re-stow but nothing was broken or damaged and only a bit of tweaking is needed to ensure more stability.

Once it was calm again, Paul tried his luck with putting a line out to catch a fish for dinner. He’d been told the area was a rich fishing ground but he had no takers for his bait.

The island, as we approached it, reminded me of the ones Bear Grylls chooses for his TV series’ about surviving as castaways.  I thought it was all rainforest but Paul said it’s just a huge rock, with trees planted on the outside of it as ‘decoration’. It’s also a military base so supposedly off limits to visitors but there was a group of lads on the beach happily preparing a barbecue for the fish they’d caught. There’s a widespread disregard for some of the rules and regulations in Malaysia: I like that.

When we’d anchored and the engine was switched off, the noises coming from the trees were hard to determine -birds, m0nkeys, or possibly both – but it was fabulous to sit and listen to them, along with the sound of the waves breaking on the shore as we ate in the cockpit.  As the sun set, several small fishing boats came to cast and check nets near the beach. They all came fairly near to us for a ‘look’ and all gave us a friendly wave.

 

The promised return of the bad weather, came bang on time at 2am and again, Paul gives details of it in his blog. It was good to know the anchor held through it all, though and nice to be rocked back to sleep by the gentler waves when it calmed down again. Despite the broken sleep, we were suitably refreshed and all set to resume our journey onto Penang at 9am.

Kathy

We did our first ‘big shop’ on Monday evening. A big part of it was soft drinks. I think I’m going to seriously deplete the island’s stock of soda water while I’m here. It’s only available in small cans, and there are no bottles of sparkling water to be found anywhere. I get through litres of the stuff, and not just in wine!  Neither of us are eating very much at the moment – not because we feel ill or anything, it’s merely because the heat takes away your appetite.  It will often be well after midday before we’ll have some fruit or toast.  For this reason we bought staples such as bread, eggs, cheese, fruit, pasta, tinned goods and some fruit and veg along with all the cans of soda, diet coke and mineral water.  I like to think I’m not unique in the enjoyment I derive from browsing other countries’ supermarkets. It’s fascinating to check out the variety of different and intriguing foodstuffs and local specialities.

A few products different enough to mention are:

bananas; they are delicious – smaller and creamier and sweeter (possibly due to the fact that they aren’t chilled before sale). We get through lots of them. The apples are nice, too – paler, with a ‘melon-like’ flavour.

coffee; try as we might we have been unable to find ground arabica coffee without the added ingredients of ‘creamer’ and sugar.  The preference here is for white, sweet coffee and the aisles are full of all kinds of brands with 2-in-1 or 3-in-1 variations of this.  Paul did manage to get some beans ground in a nearby Starbucks, but we’ll be bringing packets back from home when we return in January.

bread; disappointingly, the only loaves we’ve found are sliced, and all the varieties, whether wholemeal, seeded or wholegrain are rather sweet and doughy.  I’ve seen butterscotch and chocolate chip flavours, too. Hopefully Paul will keep to his intention to bake some soon :).

Those are minor details in the grand scheme of things, however. Life here continues to be laid back and relaxing. We’ve enjoyed refreshing evening swims in the pool, drinks in the bar ‘watching the world go by’ as well as the antics of the monkeys.  Last night we walked into town to check out a street market that Paul had spotted being set up. It had cooled down by then and it was a nice walk in the dusk. The huge statue of the eagle for which Langkawi is named loomed large on the way, and it was a lot bigger than it seemed in the pictures of it. We also passed a mosque and for the first time (other than on tv programmes) I heard the call to prayer from its loudspeakers.

The market was a delight! The smells emanating from it reminded me of music festivals and the food the vendors were selling looked delicious. We tried some ‘pancake-like’ snacks that we were sure had no meat or fish in them, which were a bit stodgy but nice enough, and some fried potatoes (cold but tasty). I also saw, for the first time, the famous durian fruit which has a reputation for tasting delicious but smelling awful.  I can vouch for the smell – I will report on the taste another time when I feel more brave.  Here’s Anthony Burgess on the subject of the durian from his excellent book ‘The Long Day Wanes’ which is set in Malaysia:

‘Over all presided the fetid, exciting reek of the durian, for this was the season of durians.  Nabby Adams had once been to a durian party. It was like, he thought, eating a sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory.’

On that note, I’ll leave it for this entry and finish with some pics of the day.

 

Despite my scepticism about the concept of jet lag, I have to admit I’d been feeling a bit ‘spaced out’ since we arrived here. I thought I’d slipped fairly smoothly into a new sleep pattern considering the time difference and the long journey, and I put my lethargy down to the change in climate.  On Sunday, however, we were both amazed to discover it was 2pm when we woke up. I think I can say I was officially jet-lagged!

The rest of the (short) day was uneventful, and well…lazy (in my case anyway). I spent most of it reading, and researching events taking place in the George Town Festival in Penang, our next port of call.  Paul did some work on the electrical systems on the boat and a few other tasks while Radio 6 music entertained us in the background.

Today we were up at a more respectable hour. Paul got on with some varnishing on deck before it got too hot, while I continued sorting, stowing and throwing in the main cabin. When I went up to help drape a canopy over the boom (to protect us from the sun) that Paul had been repairing (see pic below), I felt the full force of the heat and humidity: I was drenched with sweat in less than a minute! About an hour later though, it went very dark, the wind got up and the rain pelted down for about 20 minutes before it was hot and sunny again. Such squalls are common…and refreshing.

Later in the afternoon we took a taxi into Kuah town to do some shopping. It’s hard to describe how different the shops in the main streets are here. The words ramshackle and higgledy-piggledy come to mind, but they are a delight to go in and browse.  Langkawi is a duty free island so there are shops with huge sections selling chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes etc.  Smaller shops are treasure troves crammed with gifts, houseware and electrical goods.

After picking up a few things (including wine because alcohol isn’t sold in supermarkets),we had a meal in an Indian restaurant. It was a self-serve buffet with the veggie bit separate so I was able to have a tasty vegan meal. We’ll be here for a few more days before travelling to Penang.

 

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As most of yesterday was taken up with getting the boat shipshape, we didn’t venture out until evening.  It’s surprising how quickly a day passes when it’s spent sorting out cupboards, stowing clothes and rearranging bookshelves.  Just before the sun set we went for a drink at the yacht club bar and sat watching the party boats return from their beach jaunts. These are lit up with fairy lights and the dancing and cheering continues on the top deck until the boat is tied up.

Today’s boat trip around the islands south of Kuah was a good chance for me to get the feel of Sister Midnight and to learn the differences in her steering and navigational instruments after the familiarity of Lady Stardust’s equipment.  The only concern I had was that I found it harder to see ahead because of the height of the spray dodger. Luckily, it was so calm, it was easy to spot the jetskis, pleasure boats and fishing boats. It felt great to be back on the water, especially in such a beautiful place. Kuah, like many places in Langkawi, has a legend to explain its name. Apparently, in a Romeo and Juliet-like scenario, a union between a couple was refused by the girl’s parents, and in the resulting family feud, pots and pans were thrown at the island of Belanga Pecah (broken pots). The gravy jug landed at Kuah, which means gravy. In the end, the fathers of the feuding families were turned into mountains, and they are quite beautiful to look at so that all worked out well.  The lush, mountainous islands have eagles soaring over them constantly and as we motored past them, I noticed several pretty orange flowers (in my limited knowledge of all things botanical, I thought they looked like orchids) floating on the water.

After lunch at anchor in a shallow bay in the lee of those mountains, we set off on our return journey.  Apart from a slight worry about possible uncharted rocks in the water, it was a relaxing and enjoyable trip back. The breeze was refreshing, the sun was warm on my skin and it was just too tempting not to lie back and doze for a while.

When we got back, I went to the shower block to wash off all the greasy suncream. The first thing I saw when I entered was a beautiful green lizard on the wall above the sink. It looked just like the ornamental ones people have on their walls, but it scuttled off when I got near.  When I came out of the shower, I was convinced one of the monkeys was about to come in. The noise was so near the door and was just like the sound monkeys make (although when I tried to replicate the sound when explaining it to Paul, he said it was nothing like a monkey). When I looked outside though, there was nothing there. I think whatever it was had moved onto the roof of the block because I heard scampering sounds above me. Things like that really emphasise the feeling that this is an exotic and amazing place to be. Below are some pics of the day.