Visiting with Friends

We took a detour from the West coast of Malaysia and meandered up the Lengat River to visit some friends. Stephen met Michael Ho while studying architecture in america. Michael returned to Malaysia where he has a successful architecture practice in Kuala Lampur. Michael and his wife Adelyn own several properties and lucky for us, one of them is right on the water with a brand new dock in front. We were a bit nervous about going up the river since it had not been charted as far up as we needed to go but we had been told by local developers that the river was deep so we kept our fingers crossed and proceeded slowly. It was a beautiful 3 hour journey surrounded on both shores by lush palm plantations (that produce the lucrative palm oil crop) and rubber trees.
We had seen Michael and Adelyn 12 years ago when we visited Malaysia by plane but now their daughter Rachael is 14 and we had yet to meet Olivia who is now 8. It didn’t take long to get reacquainted and within minutes, Steve and Michael were talking architecture (and they didn’t stop for 5 days). It was great for Stephen to be able to talk with someone who shares his passion and it was clear to me how much he misses his work. Michael and Adelyn showed us wonderful Chinese hospitality by sharing their home(s) with us, driving us all over the area and taking us to many amazing restaurants to enjoy the local cuisine. The five days flew by too quickly and soon we had to be on our way.
We continued up the west coast and stopped at the island of Penang which is known within Malaysia for its unique cuisine. The people of the island are representative of Malaysia in general where it is almost 52% Malay, 30% Chinese, 10% Indian and the rest a mix of many other backgrounds all of which are represented by restaurants. We used our Lonely Planet travel guide and went from one recommended restaurant to the next for 3 days. It was delicious. We managed to squeeze in a few sights in between. We visited gorgeous temples and mansions and Chinese Clan Houses and museums recounting the colorful history of Penang.
On the way to Pulau Pankor, we lost our fishing lour . I would like to think it was a REALLY big fish that swallowed it but Steve thinks it was probably hooked on an old boot. Maybe it was a giant jellyfish? We could not believe the constant stream of jelly fish the size of volley balls floating by. At times, 10 would pass by within a minute. Although they are not as deadly as the tiny ones in Australia, all jellyfish sting and I stay out of the water when they are around.
Our next stop was Pulau Payar which is the one place on the west coast that has decent snorkeling. (in most places the water is too murky from the river run off from the main land). We arrived late in the afternoon and picked up a mooring ball. You can’t anchor there because of the reef. A storm blew in before we could go snorkeling. It blew all night and when the wind blew against the current we banged up against the mooring ball so hard we thought it was going to hole us. I was out in the pouring rain in the dark (in between lightening flashes) holding us off the ball with our boat hook. By the morning, the waves had built up so much that we couldn’t go snorkeling and we didn’t want to spend another sleepless night there so we dropped the ball and headed out. Once we got out of the relative shelter of the island, the waves were quite high and the wind was right on the nose so we motored 3 hours to take shelter on the island of Langkawi.
Langkawi has a large sheltered bay which makes for a nice calm anchorage so we decided to stay here for a while to do some repairs and some planned maintenance before we head out across the Indian Ocean in January.