Day 51, Year 4: Meeting Up with Old Friends
Date: Friday, December 12, 2008
Weather: Another Beautiful, Hot, Sunny Day
Location: Kuah, Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia
We didn’t get all of our shopping done today, but we did reconnect with a few friends that we haven’t seen for some time. We worked on the boat until noon and then went to shore and met up with Steve of Oz, Margaret and Patrick of Aqua Magic, and Rosemary and Mike of Jemimah. We all had lunch at the Asia Restaurant close to where we take our dinghies to shore, and then we headed into town to shop. Since Oz, Aqua Magic, and Jemimah had all just arrived, we helped them get oriented, went to the
ATM to get more money, and then started our searches. We walked far across town for the second day in a row trying to find Epithanes varnish thinner, but on both days the store has been closed for lunch-a very long lunch. I think we might have to give up on that one, but we did go back to a fabric shop that we had visited yesterday to get mosquito netting. I had seen some Songkat woven fabrics that I just had to have, but didn’t have the cash yesterday. When we walked back to town we met up with
Jean and Ken of Renaissance 2000. We haven’t seen them since way before Bali, so we had a good time catching up. Our final task for today was to do a little Christmas shopping. On Friday, most of the Muslim businesses are closed but the banks and Chinese shops are open. We walked the back streets and found just the things we were looking for, so we called it a successful day and headed back to Windbird.
Shortly after we returned, the folks from Oz and Aqua Magic came over and we all piled in our dinghy with its brand new motor to go to the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club. Mark and I needed to meet up with Ben, the canvas guy, to give him a deposit on making a new sail cover (stack pack) when we come back in February. He has to order the materials and that requires a deposit. Oz and Aqua Magic were just interested in seeing the yacht club and checking out the facilities and services. We stopped for
sundowners in the yacht club bar and then came back out to the anchorage.
Tomorrow we have a full day of shopping. We need to provision for the ten day trip from here to Phuket, Thailand, so we will need to go to the wet market for veggies, the fruit market for fruit, the frozen food outlet for meat, and the supermarket for all the other stuff. It is not a one-stop shop, especially since none of these things are close together. And then we will have to stop in town for beer and soft drinks in the duty-free stores. We need to have enough drinks to last us until we return
here in February as the cost of drinks quadruples in Thailand. So it will be a shop ’til you drop day, and then we are out of here!
