Our 3 day sail from Singapore to Langkawi was relatively uneventful. On our exit from Singapore we entered the Malacca Strait which is one of the well known pirate hot spots in the world. Apparently pirates tend to stick to robbing cargo ships so we felt quite safe and we motored along the edge of the shipping lane concentrating on avoiding the frequent fishing and tug boats that popped up on the radar screen.
The water stayed a murky brown colour until we neared Langkawi – a duty free island of the north west coast of Malaysia. We arrived late at night and anchored in the dark off an island at the southern entrance to the channel. We woke up to heaven the next morning – we had reached the land of limestone islands. White beaches, jagged limestone outcrops and jungle clad hills. The water surrounding the islands as we motored up the channel was a murky green albeit clean. Our home for the next few days was the Langkawi Yacht Club. Upon arrival I was pleasantly surprised to see Quantum’s flag flying – one of the race boats I met in Singapore. Most of the racers had left for Phuket, Thailand for the Kings Cup Regatta but a few were left waiting for sails, crew etc.
We lunched at the yacht club and after English with the kids I met Benny from Quantum at their hotel in town for a few beers. We decided to explore the main town of Kuah and wandered down to the ‘sewerfront’ where we found a cool little local restaurant. The beer ran cold and cheap thanks to Langkawi’s duty free status – around A$1 for a cold Carlsberg (how can you go wrong?)
The centrepiece of Kuah is a HUGE Austrian palace looking hotel complete with surrounding moat. Named the Bella Vista Hotel it sports four turrets that stand out in Kuah’s otherwise non existent skyline. After a few beverages Benny and I decided to make it our mission to sneak into Austria and try to get up to the top of the turrets which we accomplished after scaling up a fire ladder from the derelict top floor reached only by some unknown stairs near the lift on the ‘fake’ top floor. The view was worth the climb and after a few hours we descended back to reality and I headed back to the boat.
The next day feeling a little hungover I took the kids to Malaysian Mcdonalds and a nearby playground. That night Benny and I went out for dinner and drinks – this time we found a group of local restaurants that backed onto the Austrian Palace’s moat and had some fabulous seafood. At around one we decided to do another mission over to the other side of the island to go Langkawi’s only pumping bar – the reggae bar. Our problem was finding a taxi over that side of the island for the long (45min) drive home at four in the morning. Problem solved – for about A$40 we paid for a taxi driver to cart us over to the other side of the island and wait for us for a few hours while we danced it up and then bring us home again.
The reggae bar was awesome and we danced the night away before meeting 2 Ukrainian boys Sergei and Vitaly who were staying at the Westin a nice five star hotel just around the corner from the yacht club. So they joined us for the ride home in the taxi and then we joined them at the Westin for a swim in the gorgeous pool at five in the morning. Turns out Sergei was a professional tennis player who had just played a big tournament in Kuala Lumpur. Benny and I eventually stumbled back to the boat at 6:30 in the morning with me falling asleep on his shoulder. It was an early start as Steffie and I did the provisioning and stocked up on lots of duty free grog. In the afternoon I trooped the kids around to the Westin for a sober dip in the pool and then we had a final night’s dinner at a local restaurant.
