What a nice day. Total contrast from the soggy streets of Singapore or the steaming streets of Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi Island is one of 99 islands in the immediate vicinity and one of only three that are populated by humans. Very much a tourist holiday spot. We were up on deck just after 6:30am as we tied up to the wharf, but not much to see. Paula’s room card failed to activate the door lock, so it was a trip to customer services again, this time for a replacement which took only a couple of minutes. Just enough time them to grab a quick snack before once again joining the mob for the tours.
We trooped off the ship and were organised into twos (for easy counting – shades of Mapperley Plains primary school...) and were led to the inner end of the pier/dock where we hung around for a further 20 minutes but were at least issued with bottled water. We piled into small boats, seating from 8 to 15 passengers and enjoyed a great high speed ride along with the other 5 boats in our group.
The flotilla stopped together, so that we could all take our photographs of “Pregnant Maiden Island”, so named because in profile, it looks like a pregnant maiden...
The boats then all headed for the tiny jetty at “Wet Rice Island”, whereupon we were warned to watch out for the monkeys and to specifically not carry exposed plastic bags, as the monkeys assume that the bags will contain food and are likely to steal them.
A fairly steep, hot and very sticky climb up to the top of the hill, then an even steeper descent, where the concrete steps were all different heights and some were quite high. We came out onto the edge of a fresh water lake and pontoons were arranged in such way that they created small swimming pools that many people took advantage of for a warm swim. The rest of us hung our feet into the water, hoping that the fishes would come along and nibble away the dead skin. No such luck, though if you read the other blogs from yesterday, you will find various accounts of these aquatic nibblers in more controlled conditions.
After about an hour, we climbed back up the hill and down the other side, where we ran the gauntlet of the monkeys.
Queuing to get back on the little boats was total chaos, as by this time, there were dozens of them still arriving with mainly Muslim visitors. Seems quite strange to see these ladies dressed in black from head to toe and some even wearing heeled shoes.
Another cooling exhilarating run back to where the sea eagles feed and then to another jetty and beach for a BBQ lunch. The food was fine and it seemed a waste to leave a couple of cans of Skol lager in amongst the Pepsi, so I gave them a good home as they had run out of the rather weirdly labelled “Joy Juice”, their version of the over coloured Mellow Yellow lemonade.
We gave young Jacob a bit of a wind up, as he’d left his watch on the BBQ table whilst he went for a swim, so we hid it and on his return, told him that we had some bad news. A monkey had stolen his watch. He asked which one, so we told him it was the only monkey wearing a watch and shaking it, as he couldn’t hear it ticking... Jacob stepped out, determined to find the monkey and retrieve his watch! When he returned a couple of minutes later, somewhat down, we told him that the monkey had returned it as it couldn’t read a digital watch.
Back to the cool ship but en route, we passed a stall selling plates. A quick look showed them to have individual digital photographs of most of the trippers, taken that morning on the jetty so for about $4NZ, I got a souvenir misspelled plate proclaiming it to be a Trupical Paradise...
A 2:00pm sailaway and heading for India with our trivia score of 15/20 at the 4:30pm session, putting us just one point behind the winners.
Birdie returned to the table for the evening and wasn’t too impressed with my choice of chicken satay, chicken and lemon noodle soup and chicken curry. The blueberry wonton’s were rather nice.
The Vista lounge show was a stage version of “Balderdash” with the lead dancer Lynsey taking a speaking part for a change. The show was hosted by “Bex” from Middlesbrough – still with a lovely accent and an infectious laugh.
Afterwards we headed up to the buffet (yes, again) for a late night hot drink.
A great day but still so nice to look forward to a day or three at sea – and once again, read the other blogs to see what the other’s did... Clocks back again an hour tonight (and the next two nights I believe), as we steer a westerly course.
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