Day 29, Year 4: Langkawi–What A Great Place
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008
Weather: Overcast Day with Light Sprinkles All Day
Location: Kuah, Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia

We are liking Langkawi. We have had overcast weather with sprinkles, but the sprinkles are so light that you don’t need an umbrella. The harbor we are in could actually be in the Pacific Northwest if it were 30 degrees cooler. The surrounding mountains are green and lush and low clouds hang over the mountains. We are told that this weather will pass quickly and we will be back to sunshine, but actually it has been a nice break. Langkawi is duty free. We have been in lots of places that are
duty free, but none like this. The cost of liquor and beer here is unreal. In Singapore we would have paid about $40US for a case of beer. We just didn’t buy any. Here we bought ten cases of beer for a total of $100US. And you can buy most any kind of beer you want from Sapporo to Corona to Budweiser to any of the Southeast Asian beers. Unbelievable. You can buy any Corelle, Pyrex, or Luminarik ware in any of the duty free stores. I found a glass Luminarik container that I have been looking for the past five years. I think it cost $5US which was expensive, but I was glad to pay that after five years of searching out here and back in the US. You can buy a brand new 15-horse Yamaha dinghy motor for about $1350US. That’s way cheaper than in Panama and we thought Panama was cheap. We can have all of our canvas replaced for about $2200US. That’s expensive, but a lot cheaper than we could have this done back in New England. So the list goes on. We had lunch with a guy from the US named Ben and his Thai partner, Nim. Ben sailed here from Seattle and has been here about nine years now. He is the canvas guy in Langkawi and he is a wealth of information.

So in one day, we have way more information than we can digest. But it is Thursday, and Friday and Saturday are the weekend days in this very Muslim province. Tomorrow, Friday, everything will be closed, so that will give us a day to think. We will stay here on Saturday and then move the eleven miles to the Rebak Marina on Sunday or Monday where we will be hauled out next Tuesday. We are contemplating having either a new cockpit enclosure made or having a hard top built with canvas side curtains.

Windbird needs her first paint job but it looks like Phuket, Thailand is the best place to have that done. We’d love to have a new dinghy motor, but we have to figure out how to get rid of the two old ones we are currently carrying around. The list goes on and on and it is helping us make our decision about whether to head straight to the Med at the end of January or stay here for another year. I think the decision has almost been made that Windbird will be here for another year. Some of the
work we want done will happen before we head to the US in late February or March, and the remainder of the work will be done when we return in late fall.

So life is good here in Langkawi and tomorrow we will make some final decisions on our plans for the next year. Can’t think of a better place to have to sit and contemplate the future.

081120 Day 29 Langkawi, Maylaysia–Royal Langkawi Yacht Club