Penang to Langkawi

December 13^th: Very excited to be heading to Langkawi! This will be our home for the next 6 weeks while we have our very special visitors. Kristie and Jessie arrive on the 18^th, Brad, Kristie’s boyfriend arrives on Christmas Day. Paul and Tracey Grace (brother from another mother) arrive on the 29^th December and Robbie’s Mum Elsie, and sister Gill arrive on the 12^th January. So this is a very exciting time for us to be able to see our family and very special friends. We will be in a marina from the 16^th December and will use this as a base and do a few trips out to surrounding islands and explore the region.

We departed at 7:00am from Monkey Bay and had a pretty non eventful passage apart from a cruise ship that was drifting sideways off our Port side at 1.4 knots. This is most unusual for a cruise ship, they normally stay under way so that all stabilisation systems are operational. We presumed they had engine trouble but not long after it started to proceed towards Georgetown and it cut between us and Almacantar.

The entrance into Langkawi was rather pretty with small tree covered islands dotted everywhere. We arrived at Kuah, Bass harbour, Langkawi at 3:20pm and our good friends and travelling buddies Per and Elizabeth from Oda were waving their Norwegian flag welcoming us in. We have not seen them for 6 weeks, and after travelling consistently together since leaving New Zealand in May it was heart-warming to see them again! Steve and Clair managed to get a last minute booking into The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, which is right in the harbour. They have to get 4 new batteries and this will be much easier berthed in a marina.

Per came and collected us in his duck and we went over to Oda for a nice cold beer, and some of Elizabeths home made bread, and Norwegian cheese. This was a caramel colour, but very nice! We had a good catch up, and thought of our other travelling companions Peter and Heidi off Stormvogel who will be enjoying the cold weather back in Germany right now.

We all went into the Yacht Club for sundowners, which I have to say were very cheap 4.00 ringgit for a beer and 6 ringgit for a Gin and Tonic, 1 ringgit is about .34cents Australian! Steve and Clair from Almacantar, and Elisabeth and Onni from Elonnisa joined us, was lovely to see them again also. We then caught a taxi into town – 12 ringgit for about 10 minutes to a Thai restaurant. We all ordered two dishes each and had a few tiger beers each and had a very enjoyable meal, and evening. That cost 160 ringgit for us both.