Day 28, Year 5: A Busy Day in Kuah
Date: Monday, November 23, 2009
Weather: A Little Bit of Sunshine, Sprinkles Here and There
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia
After our rude awakening last evening that time really is slipping away, we kept ourselves busy today shopping, making decisions, and looking forward. We rented a car with Cory and Barbara of Increscent Moon and headed to Kuah. Cory and Barbara are leaving for Thailand tomorrow, so they were doing their provisioning for that trip. We were just continuing our search for the food we will need to cross the Indian Ocean. We also made a decision to buy our courtesy flags for the Maldives, India, Oman, Yemen, Eritrea, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey. We have put this off since we have been so indecisive about whether we will round South Africa or go through the Red Sea. But today we made yet another step toward the Red Sea. Cory and Barbara went to the Langkawi ferry terminal to Customs and Immigration to check out of Malaysia, and we walked to the Langkawi Yacht Club to pick up our Top Climber from Nauti Bits, the used boat equipment store that was trying to sell this for us on consignment. We published a sheet of things for sale and posted it on the bulletins boards here and found a buyer. When we walked back to the ferry terminal, Cory and Barbara were still in the process of checking out, so we called the infamous Banana Travel and Tour agency in Penang to make sure we could get our Thai visas on Wednesday. We were assured by “Mr. Banana” that we could, so we booked our ferry trip for 5:15 tomorrow afternoon and booked a room at the Banana in Penang for tomorrow and Wednesday night. Evidently, the gentleman that owns the Banana Agency is very efficient and knows everything about the visa rules for various countries. And he even offers you a room with air conditioning and pool. Not bad.
We made it back to the Rebak ferry terminal just in time for the 4:30 ferry and then spent the greater part of the evening unpacking our purchases and storing them away. Before doing that, however, we did take the Top Climber to Mike and Faye on Minke II. We had not met them before and we had a delightful visit. They are from Adelaide, Australia, and sailing around in this part of Southeast Asia before returning home. They asked us about our plans, and in talking about going through the Red Sea to the Med we discovered that they have a daughter-in-law from Ankara, Turkey, and have traveled a bit through Turkey and parts of Europe. They reminded us of the Schengen Agreement and will allow us only three months in EU countries. As of this time, Turkey is not part of the EU, so we are thinking we will go straight from the Suez to Greece, spend two or three months there, and then go to Turkey for the next couple of months before heading to Morocco and points west. This is another one of those cases of thinking out loud, because he could go to Turkey first and then Greece. So if you are planning to come visit us, let us know where you want us to be at what time and we’ll try to plan accordingly!
Our sudden plans of heading to Penang tomorrow have put a bit of a crimp on my Thanksgiving dinner plans, but we do hope to be back here by mid-afternoon on Thursday and still cook a Thanksgiving dinner. We actually found a turkey in town today, but it cost 144 ringgetts, the equivalent of about $45 US. I was so excited to find this lone turkey, but I had to say no. I don’t think any self-respecting Native American or Pilgrim would have paid that for a turkey, and neither shall we.
