06.22N 99.41E
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Mon 1 Dec 2008 04:32
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Hi Everyone
We are now in Telaga Marina on the island of
Langkawi, Northern Malaysia.
Our stay in Singapore was interesting but I guess
we've got used to smaller, quieter places, so it was quite a culture shock, its
very busy, everybody seeming to be rushing about and of course lots of
tourists!
We spent a few days on the tourist trail, The Night
Zoo, Clarkes Quay, and of course Raffles hotel which was really great, and of
course expensive. The Museum of S.E. Asia civilisations, and the
National Museum were well worth a visit as well.
Eating out was a little expensive but the "Hawker"
centres - lots of small kiosks selling food, was really cheap.
Our overall impression was of a clean efficient, but some how soul-less place -
great to visit but we knew when it was time to go!
We left Singapore on the 20th November - a little
later than we would have liked due to some engine work that we thought needed to
be dealt with sooner rather than later (never a good move). We were lucky this
time and the part was obtained locally rather than from Italy, so in fact we got
away earlier than expected. The weather remains much the same, the wet
season is in full swing, and the norm is very cloudy and very humid,
but not cold of course!. Hopefully this improves as we trek NNW through Malaysia
towards Thailand.
Our destination first was to Port Dickson - to
clear customs/immigration into Malaysia. We stayed at Admiral Marina- quiet,
clean and great facilities. From there we visited Malacca and Kuala Lumpur.
Mallcca very interesting and historic - the market where east met west on
the Europe - Asia trade route in the 16th century. Lots of Dutch
Portuguese and English colonial influence there, culminating in its demise
as the centre for trade!!
Kuala Lumpur was similar to Singapore, clean and
efficient, but areas such as Chinatown still had character, unlike the sanitised
versions in Singapore. A visit up the KL telecoms tower at 430 meters gave
fantastic views over the city and views for 25 miles. A great day spent in
KL - but a day was long enough.
Our next stop was Langkawi, a 3 day trip up the
coast. A quite unpleasant journey with headwinds up to 30 knots, lumpy
seas and rain so heavy sometimes you could not see the length of the boat,
We motored virtually all the way,only sailing a few hours. Our biggest problem
is at night avoiding the numerous fishing boats all the way up the coast,
straddling our route. Its difficult to work out what directions they're going -
they all use strong white lights to attract the squid, its like Blackpool
illuminations!!! I counted 17 around us at one time, so nights could be
quite exciting!!!
Langkawi is beautiful, the scenery dramatic, and
the sun shows itself more now. We've toured the island and seen a lot of
the sights - and its duty free so the boat is now "stocked"!! Peter is now
winging his way back to UK and we intend to leave for Thailand in the next few
days
Alan, Jenny and Ellie
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