Thursday, January 31, 2013
Chilling in Rebak
After a week and a half we are over the jet lag and the grandkids colds. We have been doing next to nothing just sitting up by the pool most afternoons reading our books and just relaxing. This is a really nice marina with full use of the hotel services. The hotel is a rambling mix of two story buildings set in a park area along the beach front. Lots of garden areas with everything from tennis to archery.
We have managed to take the water taxi over to Langkawi a few times. We can rent a car for about fourteen dollars a day plus gas so impossible to spend more the twenty dollars a day. The island is all duty free and all the stores in town sell a lot of chocolate and liquor as this is a tourist island that a lot of Malays will come to for a holiday. Shopping for groceries is ok but you have to go to a few stores to get what you are looking for but we can get most everything we want. There is a gondola that takes you up to the top of one of the hills and give a great 360 degree view of the island as well as looking up to some of the islands in Thailand. A couple of night ago six of us took the water taxi over and had dinner out at a local place which was very good and very inexpensive. Otherwise we have just been hanging out enjoying the hot weather, which is fine if you are in the shade sitting by the pool, and just enjoying doing nothing.
Our plan now is to leave here in the next couple of days, depending on the winds, and spend a few days sailing around the island and anchoring here and there before checking out and sailing up to Thailand. Immigration and customs give you up to ten days to arrive in Phuket so one can enjoy some of the islands on the way as it is only ninety miles away. We now have some good information on where to go and what go see around Phuket so we are looking forward to spending a couple of month in the area.
We have managed to take the water taxi over to Langkawi a few times. We can rent a car for about fourteen dollars a day plus gas so impossible to spend more the twenty dollars a day. The island is all duty free and all the stores in town sell a lot of chocolate and liquor as this is a tourist island that a lot of Malays will come to for a holiday. Shopping for groceries is ok but you have to go to a few stores to get what you are looking for but we can get most everything we want. There is a gondola that takes you up to the top of one of the hills and give a great 360 degree view of the island as well as looking up to some of the islands in Thailand. A couple of night ago six of us took the water taxi over and had dinner out at a local place which was very good and very inexpensive. Otherwise we have just been hanging out enjoying the hot weather, which is fine if you are in the shade sitting by the pool, and just enjoying doing nothing.
Our plan now is to leave here in the next couple of days, depending on the winds, and spend a few days sailing around the island and anchoring here and there before checking out and sailing up to Thailand. Immigration and customs give you up to ten days to arrive in Phuket so one can enjoy some of the islands on the way as it is only ninety miles away. We now have some good information on where to go and what go see around Phuket so we are looking forward to spending a couple of month in the area.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Back to Kilkea II
We are back on Kilkea II after five weeks at home. Time really does fly as it seems we were just preparing to leave for Canada and now we are back! Our time at home was full every day with not enough time to do all the things we had planned and to see all of our friends. We rented a house for three weeks and had Natalie, Derek, and her two boys over from Calgary for two weeks. Christmas day saw us with all the family (15 of us) over for the afternoon and for a great dinner with turkey and all the trimmings. What fun it is to have the grand kids all going nuts opening presents with wide eyes and big smiles. We had a busy time with dinners out with friends and family the whole time we were home. In the new year we went over to Calgary to see Natalie and Dereks new home. We had a wonderful weekend but did come home with a cold that we are just getting over now. Poor little Declan ended up in hospital for a few days after we left Canada but is doing fine now and is at home.
We left on the 18th for Hong Kong arriving on the 19th. We spent a couple of nights and enjoyed seeing all the changes, as the last time we were there we think was 1993, so a lot of new buildings!! We did manage to find our way around to some old haunts like the tailors and the lawn bowling club and out to Stanley which used to be out in the sticks and is now yuppie ville with esplanades and upscale shops and apartments. We had dinner with Mike and Annne who also were passing through on there way back to s/v Calisto in Singapore. We hope to meet up with them in Thailand next month. On Sunday we flew down to Kaula Lumpur and then on to Langkawi Island. The flight to Langkawi was delayed by some big thunder storms in KL so we got in after eleven in the evening so just got a hotel for the night as the ferries to Rebak do not run at night. So Monday morning we arrived back on Kilkea and all was well as John on Sea Mist had done a great favour to us and had been running the a/c every so often so no problems on the inside and a quick wash outside brought us up to looking good.
After a quiet day and dinner out with John and Cheryl we had a short night then back to Lankawi and rented a car for the day to do some provisioning. We did manage to drive up to the top of the highest hill here with a fantastic view of all the islands and bays. We had lunch there and started our planning of our next places to visit. We could see the whole island of Langkawi as well as a number of Thai islands to the north. It appears that there are many wonderful anchorages to visit and we will be starting that next week. Our plan today is to spend February and March in Thailand and then come back here for April to do some land tours. Not sure where yet. Then we will leave Kilkea here for the summer and return to Canada in May and return towards the end of September and do some more touring of SE Asia. After that we will in all likelihood ship Kilkea next March back up to Marmaris in Turkey. I do not think that the pirate problem off of Somalia will have resolved itself by then but if it does we will sail that part of our journey. As we say we write our plans in the sand on the beach at low tide and each day we have a new slate to re plan our journeys.
We left on the 18th for Hong Kong arriving on the 19th. We spent a couple of nights and enjoyed seeing all the changes, as the last time we were there we think was 1993, so a lot of new buildings!! We did manage to find our way around to some old haunts like the tailors and the lawn bowling club and out to Stanley which used to be out in the sticks and is now yuppie ville with esplanades and upscale shops and apartments. We had dinner with Mike and Annne who also were passing through on there way back to s/v Calisto in Singapore. We hope to meet up with them in Thailand next month. On Sunday we flew down to Kaula Lumpur and then on to Langkawi Island. The flight to Langkawi was delayed by some big thunder storms in KL so we got in after eleven in the evening so just got a hotel for the night as the ferries to Rebak do not run at night. So Monday morning we arrived back on Kilkea and all was well as John on Sea Mist had done a great favour to us and had been running the a/c every so often so no problems on the inside and a quick wash outside brought us up to looking good.
After a quiet day and dinner out with John and Cheryl we had a short night then back to Lankawi and rented a car for the day to do some provisioning. We did manage to drive up to the top of the highest hill here with a fantastic view of all the islands and bays. We had lunch there and started our planning of our next places to visit. We could see the whole island of Langkawi as well as a number of Thai islands to the north. It appears that there are many wonderful anchorages to visit and we will be starting that next week. Our plan today is to spend February and March in Thailand and then come back here for April to do some land tours. Not sure where yet. Then we will leave Kilkea here for the summer and return to Canada in May and return towards the end of September and do some more touring of SE Asia. After that we will in all likelihood ship Kilkea next March back up to Marmaris in Turkey. I do not think that the pirate problem off of Somalia will have resolved itself by then but if it does we will sail that part of our journey. As we say we write our plans in the sand on the beach at low tide and each day we have a new slate to re plan our journeys.
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