Monday, December 15, 2014

Lap of Langkawi & visa run

 

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Our Lap of Langkawi turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. I think we expected too much and well really we should have just stuck to the anchorages south of the island.

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Our first stop on the lap was The Hole in the Wall anchorage. Named such because you enter the Kilim River through a gap in the limestone cliffs. It is not a wide river and is surrounded by mangroves on either side. So it is quite hot and airless. Once inside you can take the yacht a little way up before anchoring and then use the dinghy to explore the tributaries and visit the bat cave or the fish farms.

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We went a little too far and bumped onto a mud bank across the river oops! but we were on a rising tide and with a few extra revs of the motor we were soon off. We took the dinghy to explore the river where the fish farms are first and to have a look at the many yachts left here by their owners while they return home. Yes it is a very safe anchorage but I think 90% of the boats left here have been forgotten about. It was quite sad to see so many turning green and black with mould. There is no way we would leave TToo unattended up here. The fish farms are also restaurants by day although I felt no desire to have a meal at one of them.

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Across the river and you come to a larger opening rather like a lake. The tourist boats come in here and use the props from the boat to stir up the water and attract the eagles down for feeding. I am not sure but I think I saw them throwing some food into the water before revving the props to stir it all up. It was quite spectacular to see all the eagles soaring past us so close. Sorry no photos here, too hard to capture.

Further up the river about 15 mins in our little dinghy is the bat cave. Entrance fee MYR 1.00 each (30c) and same for torch. We walked the boardwalk into the cave and saw the bats fast asleep. Apparently as the bats leave the cave at dusk the swifts enter for the night. I would imagine they exchange places without too many accidents.

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The Kilim River is very busy with tourist boats coming & going and they take great delight at whizzing past the anchored yachts as close as possible causing us to rock & roll constantly. By 7pm they had all gone home for the night and it was a beautiful peaceful anchorage until it all started again at 8am the next day.

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Needless to say we didn’t hang around for another day and in the morning we headed off to Tanjung Rhu at the top of the island. This is where there are some quite expensive hotels and the beaches are quite beautiful in comparison to the rest of the island. Soft  white sand but unfortunately the water is still very murky and not at all inviting to swim in.

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We anchored the boat in a beautiful bay and had a gentle breeze cooling us down. It was so peaceful & relaxing. So much so we didn’t bother venturing ashore we thought we would do that the next day. Just on dark the wind and weather changed and came in from the north and put us on a lee shore with an uncomfortable swell rolling in. Nothing stays perfect for long on a boat.

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We didn’t hang around the next day, no point. We were not comfortable and we were not going to go ashore and leave the boat on a lee shore so we up anchored and headed on to Telaga Harbour just in time to celebrate Hunter’s 3rd birthday. Hunter & his sister Scarlet live onboard  Honeymoon and are from Fremantle! Although they sailed Honeymoon from Queensland.

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The change in season is late this year, or so we are told. We went onto anchor at Pantai Cenang, the main tourist beach. It has lots of restaurants and bars and coffee shops ashore. Unfortunately though it also comes with jet skis driven by tourists who have no idea what they are doing and head directly for the yachts anchored and circle them round and round and round. A day or so of this and soon our smiling  faces and polite waves turn to a grimace and gesticulating arms to shoo them away. They take absolutely no notice. One day we were ashore enjoying a massage and a coffee,  when we headed to the beach for some lunch we were shocked to see how the weather had turned for the worse. A strong sw’ly wind had come in bringing a rolling swell onto the beach. TToo & other boats were being thrown around like bucking broncos out on anchor. We went to get into the dinghy to go back to her but a local jet ski operator advised us to wait unless we had lots of faith in our outboard. I’d say we have 90% and now was not the time we needed the 10% chance of it not working. So we sat on the beach and kept an eye on TToo and prayed the Rocna anchor would hold her safe. Black clouds rolled across the anchorage and the wind got stronger. After  about half an hour there was a lull and the local said go now as this will probably turn around and come back brining rain , thunder & lightening. We jumped into the dinghy and  got absolutely drenched getting out to the boat as it was still very rough. Picked up the anchor & headed off to find a safer anchorage. About an hour later as we were told the wind turned around and the heavens opened. But by then we were safely anchored elsewhere. No photos here either I must have been worried about TToo and forgot to get out the camera. But I did take a couple of photos at the next anchorage it wasn’t quite so rough.

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We needed to do a visa run before Christmas.  The boat gets to stay in Malaysia forever if you want it to however we have to depart every 3 months to renew our visa. It’s not a problem from Langkawi as the choices are endless. Air Asia flies out of Langkawi and fights are very cheap. Koh Lipe is a 25 mile sail and between Oct & May immigration is open for stamping tourists from Langkawi in & out of Thailand or Satun is a 11/2 hour ferry ride, but you have to stay out 3 nights.

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We decided on the Satun ferry run and left TToo safely tied up at Rebak Marina. We booked into the Gleam Resort just outside of Satun. On arrival at the ferry terminal we took a local song-tau to The Gleam. Oh what a lovely surprise we got. A lovely welcome from Aa the owner & a cooling drink.  Eight or ten individual bungalows built amongst a beautiful manicured garden and a pool at the end of the pathway.

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Our room was a good size with a huge king size bed, lovely bathroom and airconditioning. We had decided to splash out & spend a little bit more than necessary $50 per night including breakfast. In town probably $20. But we made the right choice. There were even complimentary bicycles for getting around and we toured the whole of Satun on them (it’s  not very big!) We also spent a morning at the local shipyard to see somewhere else we could slip TToo if necessary. The owners of the shipyard picked us up & arranged a lift back for us. It’s a well set up yard with all the facilities one would need for major refit work and cheaper than the boatyards in Phuket.

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We also met Eddy from Melbourne who had just cycled the final 150kms on his trip through Thailand from Bangkok to Satun. What a lovely guy and we spent the next few days talking of his cycling adventures with his wife. Each year for the last 4,I think, they have toured Europe by tandem for 4 months of the year. See it can be done, in fact anything is possible if you have the passion to give it a go.

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Back in Langkawi now we are anchored at Telaga harbour and have been laid up on the boat for the last week with what I thought was Man Flu but realise now it must be far  worse as I got it too.We both spent 3 days in bed sleeping as we had no energy to do anything but sleep. I think we must have picked up some sort of Asian flu/virus on the ferry. Or maybe it was that we had the aircon set on 16deg the first night in Satun and woke up almost frozen!

Hopefully we are on the mend and will be up and running again in time for Christmas which is fast approaching.

And that brings me to the purpose of this blog which is to wish all our blog followers a Very Happy Christmas and a may you all enjoy good health and happiness in the new year.

Our blog will continue as we head south after Christmas so check back in January sometime.

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