We are now based at Rebak Island Marina Resort for a few weeks.  Greg, Helen and Spanner all flew back to Australia last Sunday and unfortunately both of their Scoot flights from Singapore were more than 4 hours late – I don’t think Greg will ever fly with them again!

Rebak Marina is a very popular spot with yachties (lots of Aussies) who want to base themselves in Asia as there are no restrictions on how long you can leave your boat in Malaysia.  However you can only stay in the country for 90 days at a time.  Many of the people in the marina have been here for 4 and 5 years and love it.  The marina is very secure and sheltered – which means little breeze – however the beach side of the island catches the wind and is the place to be when the temperature and humidity hits (yesterday in was 39 degrees in the boat).  The facilities here are fantastic – we get free use of the pool, gym, wireless internet, reading room and get a 20% discount in the bars and restaurant – there is also a special yachties canteen ‘the Hard Dock café’ that is really affordable and opens from 12 to 10pm every day.  An average meal costs about $7AUD. There is a resort transfer boat that leaves almost every hour to Port Langasuka on the mainland and this is also free. On Friday I went on the ‘vege run’ transfer boat to Port Langasuka where a Chinese man sets up a stall from the back of his car with fresh fruit, vegies, eggs and also all types of frozen meat. The quality was the best I have seen and most of it comes from Australia – this is also a service especially for the yachties.

The resort is managed by Taj Hotels and is quite nice but as we have found in Malaysia the maintenance leaves a lot to be desired.  The resort was hit by the tsunami and the main part of the resort had to be rebuilt on the other side of the island – (the marina was also re-built). On my morning walks I have found monkeys and numerous black and gold hornbills. I am off tomorrow morning for a hike around the island to a beautiful beach with some fellow yachties I met at yoga. There are only golf buggies and bicycles on the island for transport and there are lots of mosquitoes. The resort staff ‘fog’ for mossies every 3 or 4 nights – it is a chemical spray that I am sure is pretty toxic. 

The resort caters for a lot of Muslims from the middle east as well as Europeans and Asians.  It is quite strange to see people walking around in bikinis and then to see several ladies in traditional full black burqas.  Although I normally only see them in the early morning or late evening with their husbands. Dadang and I caught a taxi into Kuah to get some supplies on Thursday and enjoyed lunch for 10 Ringgit (about $3.30AUD) – so cheap!  To give you an idea the lowest paid workers in Malaysia would earn approx. 900 Ringgit per month ($300AUD).  And as with most of South East Asia it is hard to buy anything here without sugar or loads of fat in it – Malaysia is the 8^th highest consumer of sugar in the world!

Dadang and I are continuing to do numerous boat jobs every day (Greg left an extensive list!!!) – but we try to get finished by mid-afternoon when it is just too hot.