Chapter 13 - Langkawi - Phuket and back again (and again)
Langkawi is the most northerly group of islands in Malaysia. A bare 6 miles to the north lies Ao Tarutao, the first island belonging to Thailand. However there are no check-in facilities until you reach Ao Chalong in Phuket about 120 miles to the north north west. Fortunately the authorities take a benign attitude to cruisers and allow a week, sometimes two for the journey which allows stops on several pretty isolated islands along the way and makes for some very pleasant cruising. See Chart The islands are mostly granite or limestone, rising sheer from the sea, a welcome change from the flat, featureless coasts of the Malacca straits.
Leg one - Up to Phuket
Ao Taruao didn't appeal so we sailed on the next day to the Rok Nok group, about halfway to Phuket. Here for the first time in months we found gin-clear water. (The seas off Malaysia are a muddy brown and those off the Thai coast further inshore a cloudy green). From our mooring we could see good coral and pretty coloured fish swimming around. Still, we didn't dally, we were really just exploring possibilities for later on that month. Our son Jon and Jo, his partner, were due to join us on 11th December and would want to come sailing so we were looking for good places to bring them.
On again, this time to Phi Phi Lei, the location of the cult film "The Beach". To call it dramatic is inadequate. The cliffs soar several hundred metres into the sky falling sheer to the sea. There are caves and blow holes, golden sandy beaches and blue, blue water. For all that, we learned that the film's director had felt it necessary to import several hundred palm trees to give that tropical island feeling! (They were all removed when shooting had finished.)
While the scenery was stunning, the incessant procession of longtails, dive boats and other craft bringing tourists in for the view and a spot of snorkelling all but spoiled it. Longtails are open boats powered by a motor perched on the stern driving a propellor via a 5 metre long free-swinging shaft. Fortunately at about 1600 hours the tourist traffic ceased and we had the place almost to ourselves, sharing the peace with six other yachts. That night at about 2000 a full moon sailed over the cliffs and bathed the bay in silver light. It became a magical place and stayed that way until 0800 the next morning when the first tripper boat sped round the headland and broke the spell.
So we dropped our mooring and set off for Phuket, or more precisely the southern bay called Ao Chalong. Along the way we briefly visited Phi Phi Don, the larger of the two Phi Phi's and reputed to be the prettiest island in the world. We beg to differ. The head of the main bay is a sprawling mass of hotels, discos and restaurants; music fills the air night and day and the beauty has been spoilt.
Phuket is a pretty large island, 60 kilometres from north to south. These days it is a major tourist destination and even though the main resorts are clustered around the bays on the western shore, Ao Chalong has not escaped entirely. It is a wide bay, maybe two miles across and with two entrances, either side of an off-lying island.
There were fifty assorted cruising yachts anchored in the shallow, muddy water. An equal number of large and very fast speedboats were tied up in the shallows, ready to carry holidaymakers to Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Lei and countless other islets offshore. Restaurants lined the road along the beach. In the midst of all of this we spotted FOREVER, last seen two years previously in Tonga. We anchored close by and spent a happy afternoon and evening catching up on each other's news. We also enjoyed our first Thai meal, a truly wonderful experience after the fiery cuisine of Malaysia.
Checking in the next morning was an eye-opener. First, we realised that the officials spoke very little English and we had neglected to learn any Thai. This was to be a common experience in Thailand and made communication rather difficult. Next, we soon discovered that the Thais love paperwork and the whole process took one and three-quarter hours! Also, some of them are quite open about asking for " presents" and for inventing charges which should not exist. We were pretty disgusted when finally we emerged to find the heavens had opened and a tropical downpour was in full swing. Needing some provisions and bits for the boat, we hailed a taxi and agreed a price for the short trip into town.
Well, our driver was a good ambassador for his country. Despite our lack of many words in common he found us a hardware store where we bought a new hose for the bilge pump, a bakery where we bought good bread fresh from the oven, an ATM where we got some Thai money and finally, the world's biggest supermarket. Things were looking up. Depositing us back by our dinghy our taxi driver tried for some more money but put up little resistance when we said that the agreed price had been a fair one (our friends had given us the going rate) and he even helped carry the shopping to the dinghy. Maybe we would like Thailand after all.
Jon and Jo arrived a few days later for a three-week visit
including Christmas. It was great to see them again after nine months and to
catch up on all the news from home. As
expected, they confirmed they
wanted to spend most of their time sailing and so, after checking out (a little
quicker than checking in, but not much) we prepared ALIESHA for sea
and sailed back south towards Langkawi.
Leg 2 Back to Langkawi
We travelled overnight, a wonderful starry
night but with no moon.
Dozens of fishing boats were at work as we sailed
along but only one came near us and, like all the others, it was properly lit; such a change from the boats encountered in Indonesia and
Malaysia! Dawn saw us nearing the Butang Group, almost the most southerly
of the Thai islands and about thirty miles north west of the nearest bit of
Langkawi. We found a mooring in a deserted cove with good corals and colourful fish. The day passed snorkeling and sleeping and all agreed that this
was the life! After lunch next day we decided to
move to an island called Ko Lippe, part of the same group and about ten miles
away. It was a mistake. The bay was lined with restaurants and
three hotels. Countless longtails plied the waters ferrying tourists to
and from the mainland ferries or to local beauty spots. It was Phi Phi Lei all
over again and we didn't much like it, although we did get a good fish dinner
ashore.
So next morning we continued on to Langkawi, our journey interrupted by the need for Dick to go over the side again to free the propellor from yet another rice sack. We made the anchorage at Kuah Town just in time to visit the Night Market which Jon and Jo found very exciting. As on our first visit, we bought satay, samosas and cooked chicken pieces from the street-side vendors, added some nasi goreng and other local dishes and retired to the boat for a feast. The total cost of a meal for four was under five pounds.
Langkawi is a duty-free island. Pam and Jo had a field day in the boutiques and the one new shopping mall while we men stocked up on booze for Christmas.
And then we sailed back to Phuket, visiting some of the places we had checked out earlier and a couple of new places before reaching Ao Chalong, Phuket again, ready for the check-in ! Phi Phi Lei was a favourite. We also caught four decent fish, which kept us fed for three days. It was great fun.
Christmas 2006
We had decided to spend Christmas in the Royal Phuket Marina, a development of apartments, shops and restaurants with berths for about 60 boats. The channel from the sea is about two miles long and we took advantage of the free pilot service which is offered. At the shallowest, we had about 5 cm under the keel and were relieved to arrive in the marina without going aground. To our surprise and delight we found our friends on CIRCE, CALABAR, ICE~MAIDEN and MISTER BEAN already there, also DRALA MAGIC, our neighbour in Cammeray Marina, Sydney. You've guessed it, there were parties!
Christmas away from home, without family and friends, has always been difficult for us. In an effort to recreate some of the atmosphere, on each Christmas Eve since we left in 2001 we have held a small party for close friends who were nearby. Dick has mulled wine to his own recipe, and very popular it has proved. Pam has baked mince pies to her own recipe and they have been so well liked that she has had to hide a few so we had some for Christmas Day. This time we hosted fourteen on ALIESHA and having Jon and Jo on board made it even better.
There is only one restaurant currently open in the Royal Phuket Marina, Les Anges. It is owned and run by Peter, an Englishman who in an earlier life had been head pastry chef at the Savoy in London. His restaurant also boasts a bakery and a patisserie. We decided to take Christmas Dinner there. We'll spare you the details but the turkey was moist, the trimmings were perfect and the Christmas pudding had so much alcohol in it, it laid us out for most of the afternoon. Wonderful!
Jon and Jo did touristy things for the next three days, then flew back home, tanned, relaxed and just a little envious of our lifestyle. We had a few things to get done on the boat, stocked up on tinned and other foodstuffs for the coming crossing of the Indian Ocean and then it was New Year's Eve. We must be getting old or maybe we were partied out but we decided the best way to celebrate the New Year would be at sea. So we checked out (again) and sailed through the night back to Langkawi. The new year was toasted in under a canopy of stars with a bottle of chilled bubbly and smoked salmon sandwiches.
Fitting Out in Rebak Marina
Rebak is one of the many islands that form the Langkawi
Group. It boasts an 80-berth marina, haul-out and boatyard and a rather
pleasant but low-key resort. We needed to have ALIESHA hauled, the bottom
repainted and the topsides polished. Hamid, who
ran the boatyard, had
given us such a good price that we could (almost) afford to stay in the
resort while ALIESHA was receiving attention. And so we moved our
belongings ashore to an air-conditioned room with a superb bathroom, TV and
other mod cons. Hamid's men set about their work in languid fashion, which drove
Dick mad with frustration until he realised it was a fixed price contract!
We ate meals cooked by other people, listened at night to a two piece band who
struggled to entertain the few guests who shared our retreat. It was
almost idyllic.
The only fly in the ointment was - monkeys.
The hard-standing in the boatyard backed directly onto jungle. In the jungle lived at least one troupe of long tailed monkeys. One day, after Pam had varnished the companionway and hatch surrounds, we retired to the pool for a swim, leaving the boat open for the varnish to dry. We returned to lock up just before dark. Dick climbed up the ladder and was met with the sight of garlic cloves and onions scattered across the deck. A half emptied carton of milk lay in the cockpit. In the saloon the vegetable box under the table was empty, there were half chewed potatoes everywhere, more spilled milk. There was an unusual, pungent smell. We had had visitors!
Pam finished clearing up next morning and we were congratulating ourselves that at least the monkeys had not messed on the settee berths. Still the smell remained. Finally Pam decided to get on with the varnishing. Reaching for a pair of disposable gloves which lay in a plastic bag on the starboard settee, she found a monkey turd, neatly deposited in the bag. Are these animals intelligent or what?
The refit should have taken a week, but lasted eleven days.
Whenever Hamid, the boss, was off-site, his men stopped working and just chatted
and larked around. True, we had a fixed price contract but each extra
night in the resort cost serious money. 
Finally Dick told Hamid that he
would deduct a night's room charges for each day the job was late. The
threat worked. The boss stayed on site, the men performed their duties and
ALIESHA was relaunched on 16th January, all spick and span and
ready for the ocean.
After a tearful farewell to our friends on ESTRELA, we sailed the ten miles up to Kuah Town, shopped in the night market, bought 10 four-litre boxes of red wine and 240 cans of beer, yet more tins and dry provisions and finally, with the newly painted boot-top just above the water, we sailed for Phuket one last time.
Farewell to South East Asia
We covered the 120 miles back to Ao Chalong in one hop, checked in in record time (knowing the forms helps) and idled away two days while our friend Chrissi from NAGA made a smart cover for our dinghy to protect it from the sun. Then we returned to Royal Phuket Marina in order to buy even more provisions and get a few last minute wood-working jobs done. It took just three days. One of them was Pam's birthday. Well, you've guessed it. As our friends from Christmas were still around, Dick arranged a surprise birthday dinner in Les Anges which Pam described in her journal as " just about the best meal I have ever eaten". Praise indeed for an unusual and an excellent restaurant with wonderful staff.
And then we sailed, down the channel again (no pilot needed by now) and around the south-western corner of Phuket to beautiful Nai Harn Bay. From there we taxied to Ao Chalong to check out, said farewell to our friends Bob and Deirdre on PLANE SAILING and set sail. It was an emotional moment. We had spent six months in South East Asia and had come to love the region and its gentle, friendly people. We had even learned a fair amount of Bahasa Indonesia, which is also spoken in Malaysia. A few words before lapsing into the safety of English open so many doors, bring so many smiles.
But we were excited at the thought of crossing another ocean. We were looking forward to the challenges of the Gulf of Aden and of the Red Sea, with the prize of the eastern Mediterranean at the end. And to our planned visit home in May/June, to see family and friends. We were ready to move onwards, sad to be leaving. Which is how it probably ought to be.
