Posts!

Another entertaining day in paradise. As you can see it does include discovering that the clubhouse in front of the marina has Interwebs connection, so I was able to post all of my updates.

Today was another great day of shopping, good food and interesting sights. The plan tomorrow is to do a bit more exploring of the island in the morn. Then when high tide hits at 3:30 we'll exit the marina and head around the island to a place where we'll anchor and spend the eve. Then come the following morning we'll set sail for Ko Lippi. I'm told that this is where the diving is excellent. Given that I haven't actually been in the water yet here, I'm ecstatic about that prospect. Course that also means that now that I've discovered an interwebs connection I'll once again be leaving it, so you may only get one more update at most before we exit again for awhile. But I'll continue blogging as we go and post them once we return to the world wide web. Till then, hope you folks enjoy the posts above!

Night in Langkawi

Dad has a motorcycle here. Actually looks more like a very large motor scooter, but it does well getting from point A to B. this morn we nabbed it and went to do some quick groceries, including some amazing chocolate. There are stores here that sell nothing but different kinds of chocolate, oddly including American brands that are far superior to what the sell in the states. It is sad that Hershey's can make such good chocolate, but then waters it down with wax for the US.

 This eve we rented a car and Crys, Barb, Tams and Rio took  the car while Dad and I took the cycle. We first headed to the fruit stand, a which contained a wide variety of tasty fruits. Then we wondered off to the grocery store to stock supplies so that when we do take off for Ko Lippi and wherever else we wind up we'll have plenty of food. As we pulled out back onto the road I noticed a business across the street entitled "Crystal's Yacht Vacations". How fitting. 

     From there it was food time! We had eaten very little today aside from some toast, chocolate, and a piece of apple with a piece of cheese. Consequently we we ravenous as we headed for Dad's recommendation, a place on the other side of the island in a more touristy district. We pulled in a walked through to discover the restaurant was on a beautiful sugar sand beach. Literally. Our table was in the sand. It also had a wonderful view of the sunset. Not a bad place to kill an evening at all. Dad and Tams ordered some German beers, which I'm told the place is renowned for. Not being a beer drinker myself I decided to try the hard English cider listed.  Sadly I was informed they were out, so decided to go with the Lon Island ice tea instead. Wow. A tall glass was delivered that was short on sweet & sour and heavy on everything else. The fresh lime and cherry in it mad it extremely refreshing. For dinner I went with a parmesan and cheese crusted fillet of fish, garlic toast, and a tomato salad in balsamic vinaigrette. I do not know what kind of fish was served, but I can safely say it was high among the best fish dishes I have ever tasted. Clean, white, flaky with an amazing breading. The toast was also quite tasty. That salad... Well I'll give them props for truth in advertising. I expected a salad with tomatoes. Instead they delivered a salad of tomatoes. That is pretty much all it was. Kinda odd. Everyone else raved an out their own choice of dishes, and we finished up with a few deserts to share. Dad and Tami grabbed a very tasty Tierra messou, Barb and Rio tried some chocolate ice cream, and Crys and I shared a dish that essentially tasted like a coconut flan with a fruit topping. 

  The trip back on the back of that bike got down right brisk at times, but it was an awesome way to view the island. We had a couple of interesting moments, one when an on coming car decided it needed our lane worse than we did. We luckily whipped past it, but it definitely caused me to catch my breath. The other came when we passed a small heard of water buffalo meandering along the side of the road so close that I could smell them. For those interested, water buffalo smell virtually identical to other cattle. One other odd note was when dad pointed out the name of a hotel as we passed it. It was spelled as the "Citin Hotel". Not noticeable till you think about the facts that in the local language C is always pronounced CH and I is always pronounced EE, to the name would be pronounced as the " Cheeteen Hotel". Wonder if they rent rooms by the hour?

Everyone else decided to crash after arriving, but I think the near 10hrs I got last night actually caught me up, so instead I'm catching up on my posts while laying on the netting that connects between the two hulls at the front of the Silke. For all practical purposes it is like being on a huge hammock spread above the sea water. A gentle breeze is blowing, the moon is near full, the sky is clear and full of stars and my earbuds are playing a variety of my favorite tunes. There are worse places to be. Life is good. Lets see what tomorrow brings!

Gaining Sea Legs

We've been at the boats for over 24 hrs at this point. Most of our time has been spent in the Silkie. It is surprisingly roomy, though of course being a boat everything is compact. I'll try and do a video some time soon, as it is hard to do it justice with pictures. It is about 91 during the day. Hot and humid, though if the wind is blowing and you find some shade it's really nice. They tell me when you are actually sailing, which we should do tomorrow or the next day, it's really nice. The eves are beautiful. 70's with a cool wind blowing off the sea. 

We're currently staying in the marina the boats are based out of, which dad describes as a "high class redneck trailer court". The boats are all yachts, ranging from $50k to millions of dollars in value. The people are an eclectic mix ranging from old money to new rich,  tech millionaires, well off retirees and apparently the occasional celeb. It is a winding maze of docks and the boats within are as eclectic as the owners. My step sister Tami and her daughter Rio are staying in the Lady Kathleen, which is parked right next to us. 

Crys felt a little woozy the first day on the boat but appears to have gained her sea legs pretty quickly. She laughed about glancing out the window this morning and seeing the dock drifting up and down and suddenly realizing "oh my god we're moving" and reaching to stabilize herself. She then realized as long as she paid no attention to the window she no longer noticed the movement and had no need to stabilize herself at all. Given that she tends to get a bit motion sick at times I was a little concerned for her, but I'm happy to see she's doing we'll with it. It's one of those things you really don't know until you just do it.

Note that I continue to write these not know how long it will be until I post them. Dad has a travel modem, but Barb took it on her trip to Thailand and has been unable to locate it since. It may be on the boat in a bag, or may be in Thailand still. This has lead to the unusual side effect of being completely cut off from the real world. It is an odd but not entirely unpleasant sensation. I'll no doubt have a lot to catch up on when I return to the interwebs!

On Ferries and ports

The ferry was about a bout a 90ft or so, two stories with a half shaded deck on back. The interior had a dank smell, grungy windows, comfortable airplane style seats, good air conditioning and a Tony Jaa martial arts film playing on the TV. The outside deck had a very nice view of the passing islands, which look the part of green covered mountains jutting out of the sea. There were rare fish sightings where what appeared to be a Bonita would leap out of the water two to four times in a row before disappearing again beneath the small waves. This view was combined with the interesting aural combination of fresh sea air, cigarette smoke, and diesel fumes. We'd been told the trip would take about an hour and a half or so, however the winds must have been more favorable than expected as we actually made it in about 45 minutes.  

  We disembarked at Langkawi port, a hustling and bustling combination of an airport immigrations and shopping mall. Apparently immigrations at the prior had merely checked us out on Thailand, leaving us sort of nation less while on the ferry. Now we were being checked back in to Malaysia. A few quick stamps and we moved through, passing customs with a quick nod from the guards. We loaded our bags into a couple of carts and took off down the road for the marina.   

Thai Trekking

So, first off we discovered you actually can sleep two to a bunk if you're good with being cozy. After a couple of trips to the bathroom Crystal decided that climbing up and down was less than interesting and crawled in with me instead. We managed to sleep the rest of the night in a shared bunk, with me waking at daybreak and spending the next hour staring out the window as Thailand passed again. We saw some of the largest rice paddies I had ever seen, along with a few palm oil plantations. I could have sworn that I also saw a few elephants outlined in the dim light, but never saw one in the open, so I can't be positive it wasn't a trick of the light. Saw a few more temples hidden in the trees and on the mountains, optimal places to expect Buddhist temples. As we closed in closer to Malaysia the number of mosques also increased, though the ones we saw tended more towards the functional look than the ornate. 

We arrived in Hat Yai around 9:00. We hit the ground on a dead run, trying to reach Satun in time for the early ferry. Hat Yai station was a reasonable size, but far smaller to what we encountered in Bangkok. It was more of a large way station than the full hub our prior one had been. After exiting, we took off across the street to a small hole in the wall with a taxi sign outside. There Barbara bargained for a taxi to take us to Satun, settling finally on a price of 1600 baht. This means an hour and a half drive through the Thai countryside cost us half of what it cost Crys and I to get from the airport, 20 minutes from the hotel. If only I'd known then how much you could bargain for those things!

The drive was nice. Hat Yai appears to be a very large city, with far fewer tourist than Bangkok hosts. Most of the signs were in Thai, which meant I had zero idea what any of them said. The road ranged from small blacktop to small highway, from busting cityscape to unspoiled looking jungle. There was an issue when we finally arrived in Satun with the fact that our driver wanted to drop us off at a tour booking place, and didn't speak any English at all. We finally threw enough words back and forth to get him to understand we needed to go to the port and catch the ferry. 

The port was small, and after arriving we discovered that due to the train's late arrival in Hat Yai we had missed the morning ferry. So we arrived at around 11am to discover we needed to wait until 1:30 to leave.  By this time the small breakfast we had eaten on the train had worn off, so we wondered into the dining area to see what we could find. The Muslim ladies running the cooking area were speaking Malay, which is extremely similar to Indonesian. It was good to be back in an area where I could understand at least some of what was said around me! Thai is a very tonal language, and it has proven tricky so far for me to even remember basic words. Indonesian I find I pick back up the basics every time I'm around it, which is nice.

  Lunch for me was a fish drop soup and some rice. Crys had a lime coconut milk soup that was tasty as well. We finished up with some cold drinks for desert, iced coffee for Crys and Barb and a strawberry smoothly for me. With that we prepared to say good by to Thailand. 

   Or so we thought. We made it through immigrations and were hauling our bags towards the gate when Barb realized she didn't know where she had placed her ticket. She did a mad search of her pockets and bags to no avail. We made a brief attempt to convince the ticket collectors to let her on anyway, to no avail. No ticket no ride. So with 15 minutes left before we set sail, Barb trucked frantically back towards the ticket office to plead her case. She had her receipt and there was only one lady selling the tickets, so she knew Barbara had purchased a ticket. Apparently there are no protocols in place for lost boarding passes. At $10 a piece Barb would would have been happy to just buy another, however the ticket lady was insistent there was probably another way. With less than five minutes left until departure, Barbara was growing ever more frantic, as we're Crys and I, who were waiting at the entry ramp with our stuff, hoping we would not be forced to hang out another few hours till the next ferry. Finally we saw Barb come rushing up the path, sheepishly admitting that at the last moment she realized she had placed her boarding pass in the edge of her bra and had then proceeded to forget about it. She handed over the pass, we boarded the ferry and were finally departing for Malaysia. 

On the Night Train

Dinner wasn't bad. An egg drop soup, some curry, a sweet and sour dish with rice, chicken, and veggies (the pickles in there were an odd but tasty choice) and some apple slices. 

While we did not have an angle to watch the sun set, we had a perfect view to watch a dark orange full moon rise. When we passed a rice paddy it created an absolutely stunning reflection. The remaining view has of course become somewhat more limited.  

The towns are lit up, but the rest of the time our view is primarily restricted to tree silhouettes against the night sky.  Since things have started winding down we had the crew come make the bunks up. Crys took the top and I the bottom. Aside from being too small to sleep both us next to each other, they are surprisingly comfy. It is 9pm local time now, so ill probably try and crash soon. Want to be up long before our mid morning arrival time. Here's hoping for a good night's sleep as we trek on through the night. 

Watching the world go by

We're sitting on a train watching Thailand pass by. It is phenomenal. 

We left the hotel around one o'clock. We stepped out onto the street, where Barbara proceeded to negotiate passage to the train station with a series of taxies. Apparently they don't like using the meters much, preferring to just set a fixed price. 

The trek there was probably only about twenty minutes long, but gave a good view of just how large Bangkok really is. Several times we passed views that were nothing but huge buildings sprawled in every direction. In many ways it again reminded me of New York. 

We arrived at the train station with about two and a half hours to kill prior to our train leaving. This was pretty easy to do, as there were several cool little shops scattered about to look at, as well as an insanely diverse collection of people to watch. There was a large group of monks, Arabs, Malaysians, locals, Europeans of all kinds, and three burly Russian guys who asked us to take their picture for them. The station itself as you can see was huge, and nice to roam about. 

Barb suggested that just before we left we grab some KFC to take with us. So we did, and brought it on the train for lunch. There were some chicken wings in there made with lime and Thai chilies. Wow. Good thing KFC in the states doesn't have those or we would have to eat there more often. 

When the train itself arrived we found we were in the very back car. We dragged our suitcases up (with help from one of the guards) and found ourselves walking down a tiny corridor barely wider than the suitcases we were dragging behind us. We quickly found our rooms. We chose first class accommodations, which are private rooms about five foot wide a eight foot long. They contain very wide and comfortable couches, along with a tiny sink. We were hooked up with adjoining rooms, so a wide door now stands open between our area and Barb's. all of this, along with two meals a piece apparently set us back 200 baht in total. That comes in a little less than $65 on the current exchange rate. If only we could travel like this in the US so cheap!  

Large windows allow us to watch the world pass by us. We've watched large cities, small villages, and open countryside move by. Many temples, ranging from small shrines to large beautifully ornate complexes to gaudy and garish complexes are scattered everywhere. We've seen houses that look very western, others massively big or extremely small (including one building that appeared to be a thatch hut). We've seen sprawling rice patties filled with water buffalo and large oddly shaped mountains hiding in the haze on the horizon. We've also passed over some beautiful rivers, as well as a couple of muddy scary looking ones. This is definitely a great way to travel. As Crystal has said, the only real issue is not being able to stop and look at anything as you zoom past. 

They will be by soon with dinner, and the sun is now setting. When we are ready they will come through and turn the couch into bunks where we will sleep tonight. I look forward to more of this trek.