Day 35, Year 4: AQuick Tour of Pulau Langkawi
Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Weather: Partly Sunny Day
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
The free ferry that takes us back and forth to the mainland is wonderful. It runs both ways about every hour and a half from 7:30 am to 8 pm. Almost no one takes the 7:30 am as it is barely light here at that time of day. The sun rises at 7:15, but it is really almost 8 am before it feels like morning. So we took the 8:45 am ferry to the main island, met Din, who gives you the keys to a car and tells you to put the keys under the floor mat when you return and “don’t lock the car.” So off we went.
We were headed to Panti Cenang, the most popular beach resort (popular because it is not as expensive as the resorts on the north side of the island) to the TCY Internet Caf� that we had read about in the Lonely Planet. In fact, it is the only internet mentioned on the whole island, although we know there are more. But where? We got there at 9:15 am which was going to give us plenty of time to get things set up for a 10 am Skype call to Justin and Jo. Foiled again. TCY is not open until 10:30, so we decided to drive across the island to Kuah, go to the wet market (veggies and fresh meat) that is only open for a few hours in the early morning, and then go to an internet caf� in Kuah. This sounded like a good plan to us. Kuah is the biggest center of population on the island, so we thought that most assuredly it would have internet cafes. We unfortunately hadn’t checked this out when we were anchored in Kuah. Since we had told Justin and Jo we would call at 10 am our time, we were in a rush. But we barely got started when we realized the rental car was on empty. I guess they don’t come with a full tank here. We had to back track to get fuel, but then the trip to Kuah was really fast. It is only 25 kilometers from the beach to the wet market in Kuah. We arrived, bought veggies and the chicken for Thanksgiving. I had them cut the feet and head off, but when I got home, I found they had included the treasures in the bag. They packed the chicken in ice and we bought some prawns on the way out of the market, also packed in ice, and both packed securely in our little cooler bag. Chicken and prawns for Thanksgiving sounded good to us-a great substitute for turkey.
We were still on track, only 10:15, so we hoped Justin and Jo would still be standing by for our call. Then we hit a brick wall. Everywhere we went we asked where we could find internet. No one knew. We couldn’t believe it. We got a few vague directions, followed them, and found one place that was not open. We finally headed to the town center, parked the car, and walked to the shop where we had bought charts and bottom paint. The son of the owner of that shop is young and I was pretty sure he would know. He was busy, but another young man immediately directed us to the closest internet shop. Okay, we thought, we still might reach Justin and Jo. We found the shop, but then we could not get connected. An hour later Mark was still struggling to figure out the problem, and just when I was on another computer emailing Justin and Jo to tell them we were not going to be able to call them, he got things working on our computer. I should mention that in order to have a hard wired connection for Skype, we have to connect our computer as the local computers do not have Skype as an option. Mark connected with Justin and Jo and we were finally able to do a Skype call with video. There was a bit of a delay, but it was so much better than any wireless connection we have had recently. It was so wonderful to see Justin and Jo. Jo is almost five months pregnant and really doesn’t look it. She has a little bit of a belly, but not much, and if feeling great. Justin assured us that she really looks bigger in person, and since I know she has a most hardly appetite, I know “wee gerbil” is growing. Justin has cut off his beard as I suspected for the glimpse I got yesterday, and they are loving the new house in Santa Fe. So all is well in New Mexico and we feel so much better after talking to them and being able to see them via the Skype web cam. As frustrating as it has been to get connected with them, it was all worth it. Unfortunately, calling them is easier than calling Heather, Jed, and Sam due to Sam’s bedtime. We have to call Heather and Jed late at night our time in order to see Sam in the morning. So we’ll work on that next. The internet caf� that is closest to us on the main island is open until midnight seven days a week. We’ll just have to spend the night there as there is no transportation back to the island after 8 pm (5 am on the East Coast and not a good time of day for a phone call), but that should be a fun outing.
Once we had our Thanksgiving chicken and prawns and had talked to Justin and Jo, we turned around and headed back west. We stopped at our favorite Kuah restaurant and had prawns in Thai sauce. They were delicious and we were now ready to do a bit of touring of the island. We drove back to the west coast to Telaga Harbor where we checked in with the Harbormaster and checked out the Telaga Harbor Marina and the newly built Perdana Quay. This is a very upscale little quay with megayachts “parked” right next to the row of restaurants. It all looked great but was very expensive, so we traveled on. We then checked out a couple of tourist attractions that we will definitely want to visit on another trip and made it back just in time to catch the 4:30 ferry to Rebak Marina.
I forgot to mention that I was able to buy California celery at the wet market this morning. Now I’ll be able to have my favorite Thanksgiving stuffing. It just wouldn’t have been the same without celery and celery is a seldom seem item out here. Celery, a chicken, and a successful video Skype call to Justin and Jo . . . I feel thankful already.
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| 081126 Day 35 Langkawi, Malaysia–Telega Harbor Check-in |
