Monthly Archives: December 2014
The Hole in the Wall
After our wonderful Christmas at Rebak Camomile and Norsa left the marina on 27th December and headed to Kuah on the main island. As Langkawi is a duty island we restocked with wine and visited the supermarket before checking out of Malaysia. This huge statue of a sea eagle dominates the harbour and is the emblem of Langkawi. The place to see them is at the ‘Hole in the Wall’ anchorage on the north side of the island so before we headed north to Thailand it was decided that a day or two there would be nice. Langkawi isn’t very big and it only took about 3 hours to motor around.
Camomile was anchored at
06º25.2N
099º52.0E
Norman had been having trouble with his new battery management system that Bill had helped him fit in Pangkor so the next morning Bill and Norman spent several hours sorting that out. Just upstream from us there was a ‘crossroads’ in the river.
I had noticed quite a lot of tourist boats heading round to the left so Sara and I packed up picnics and the 4 of us set off in 2 dinghies to explore.
Round to the left we found the sea eagles; there were dozens of them. Some were soaring high up in the mountains but some were swooping down on the fish that the tourist boats had attracted by feeding them. I’ve got so many photos with half a wing or a bit of a splash but this one has no less than 5 birds in it although they are difficult to spot.
We motored back towards the boats but decided to cross over the ‘crossroads’ and see what was the other way.
Just around the corner from where the boats were anchored was a row of fish farms with restaurants attached to them and mooring for boats. We should have ventured further up the river when we arrived. Continuing further up stream from the restaurants we stopped and tied the dinghies and while they slowly drifted we had our picnic.
Even further upstream it started to shallow off but we spotted some monkeys on the bank. Unfortunately they saw us and started following us. One of the tourist boats warned us about letting them get onboard so we watched from a safe distance.
We thought we had discovered the ‘Hole in the Wall’ when we came across this gap in the rock but a bit further round and we think this is the hole in the wall.
Later that evening we had planned to have a meal in one of the restaurants but the heavens opened and we had an absolute downpour for about an hour. As we had made it as far as Norsa it was decided to open another bottle of wine and wait for the rain to stop. Once it stopped we ventured out and had a really nice meal.
The next day we left for Thailand.
Christmas at Rebak marina
We’ve got a decent internet access so wanted to post some late Christmas pictures.
We arrived in Rebak marina on an island off of Langkawi in Malaysia on the 9th December at the end of the Sail Malaysia rally. It was also where we had started Sail Malaysia East in April so we had come full circle. After spending a couple of weeks doing boat jobs and relaxing in the wonderful Rebak marina resort, of the Taj group, our Christmas celebrations started with a wonderful dinner on Christmas eve in the resort. The dining room looked spectacular with a Christmas tree at the entrance and food of every description laid out on one side of the room. The ‘all you can eat’ buffet at the equivalent of £30 a head was remarkable.
We shared a table with Norman and Sara our friends on Norsa and Georg and Mauella from the German yacht Sternchen.
It was fun to dress up for a change. I wore my new dress that I had had made in Vietnam by a lovely lady called My (pronounced ‘me’ which caused some confusion) and my fabulous intricate silver necklace and earrings that Bill bought me in Yogyakarta.
They had traditional Christmas cuisine as well as Malaysian curries
And the desert table …… I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! And this was just one of them, there was a second table full of goodies as well as a chiller cabinet with mouth-watering Tiramisu, among others.
This was my choice – diet can start after Christmas.
It felt so strange dressed in a sundress for Christmas and eating next to the beautiful pool, which looked brilliant in the evening light.
The dancing got under way and Sara and I soon joined in dancing to the song YMCA along with the arm movements.
The next morning Bill and I opened our presents to each other. I had bought him some new binoculars because ours have suffered from being dropped several times and he had bought me a new bag that I wanted and some Body shop bits (yes Body Shop is in Malaysia). He had also found some dark chocolate Belgian seashells – yummmm. We had bucks fizz with Norman and Sara before walking down to the beach to watch Santa Claus arrive on a jet ski! After he’d handed out presents to all the children staying in the resort he came up to the restaurant to wish all the adults “A very Merry Christmas.” This seemed a bit bizarre because the Malaysians don’t celebrate Christmas but I’m sure he was entering into the spirit.
Again the food was wonderful. This turkey had been roasted in an oven but the staff had set up BBQ’s for the chefs to cook a sumptuous feast on.
The Christmas lunch, at the equivalent of £20 a head, included unlimited sparkling wine, is this a good thing you may well ask? Bill and I sporting our Christmas hats brought from the UK with our first glass of bubbles. Norman and Sara joined us again. (My new bag is in the foreground).
The meal started with a delicious pumpkin soup followed by an amazing array of starters and salads; again as part of an all you can eat buffet. (Should have joined us James) My Christmas dinner was roast turkey, a little sausage thing, a barbecued chicken leg, a really tasty piece of barbecued lamb and a Brussel sprout but NO roast potatoes! Can’t please some people can you? It was all beautifully cooked and tasted all the better for not having cooked it myself.
The desserts were even nicer than the night before, if that was possible. It was so difficult to choose so I had a bit of everything.
After lunch some people had a snooze!
It was a fabulous setting with lots of our yachtie friends enjoying life together at a very different Christmas.
Lunch and snoozes were followed by a dip in the pool.