Our stay in Langkawi was higlighted by two events; me falling in love with a local girl and Aliisa being hit by a tsunami. I'll tell them in that order.
I lie in bed, trying to sleep in the increasing heat of the day. We have sailed through a fleet of tens of fishing boats, Paula is on the helm and Langkawi is within sight. Paula wakes me up because the wind has died and we're slowly drifting closer to a fishing boat hauling out nets. I rub my eyes and assess the situation. Paula wants to turn the engine on and get out of the way. I totally agree and turn on the engine. We drive away and motor all the way to the island of Langkawi, Malaysia. We find anchorage in Telaga Harbour, behind a newly constructed marina, protected by two artificial islands.
Getting through the customs is the first hurdle, after all we do not have clearance from Thailand. We meet Rahman Yaacob, the customs officer. Rahman is friendly but not happy with the lack of paperwork. After an hour of talking to him, we leave the office, officially cleared in from Cocos Keeling. Rahman sets a standard of Malaysian friendliness. He is so friendly, understanding and helpful that when we walk away with advise to call his personal mobile if there is any trouble later on, we feel that no Malay could ever top his level of hospitality. But they did.
International evening
One evening, walking the new marina boardwalks of Telaga, we meet a Swedish couple, Gunnar and Ingrid. who invite us to dinner. We end up in the only Russian restaurant on the island, the USSR. While sipping on a cocktail called AK47, a girl from Kyrgystan serves dinner and says "Bon Appetite". Where am I again?
Next evening, in the restaurant next door, I find a very attractive and very young Malaysian female. She's squatting under the table, looking for food. The skinny little kitten looks into my eyes and says: "Miiaau". I'm sold. After feeding half my dinner to her, I pick her up and we walk 15 minutes to the dinghy. Paula thinks I am crazy. The little kitten sits quietly, eyes wide open on my lap as we drive the dinghy to the yacht. We have a new Malaysian crew member. I open a can of tuna in oil and the kitten laps it up like a last meal of her life. She spends the rest of the night farting and the next day sleeping and farting.
After last nights beers have exited my system, I wake up to the reality. There's a fucking cat on the boat. What about quarantine in Europe? What about toilet training? What about feeding and looking after it? Finally I come to my senses and make a decision; no animals onboard. Too much hassle, the cat must go back.
Five minutes later Paula is holding the cat in her arms and both girls look at me in the eye and say: "miau". Paula is already in love with her. I look at the skinny little black and white bad smelling kitten, turn to Paula and say: "OK, she'll stay". Nothing wins my heart like a miau. At last we have someone to talk to, cuddle and pamper.
The cat must have a name. Paula thinks a little black 'moustache' under her nose makes her look like Charlie Chaplin. (Adolf Hitler wouldn't be a good name anyway.) She's a female, so she must have a female name. Finally we come up with Charlene Toxic Sleepyhead Summer Palace (princess of) Langkawi (The Summer Palace film set from the old Jody Foster movie Anna and the King is right next door where we found the kitten. We call her Charlie. She settles in well, particularly after I fetch some really yummy cat food from the local shop.
Want some authentic Swedish meatballs or the best Mee Mamak? Great Malay / Thai / European food at the Pier Restaurant.
Langkawi turns out to be laid back and friendly. We catch up with Alkira, the Scottish yacht that sailed with us from Cairns to Darwin. After visiting them in the local shipyard, we find ourselves standing on the side of the road, waiting for a taxi that never comes. A stranger shows us what Malays are made of. A man driving to the opposite direction stops his car and offers us a lift. "How much", Kerry asks, presuming he is trying to turn his car into a private limo. "Nothing" he says. Kerry, me and Paula jump in, the man makes a U-turn and drives us 15km to the town of Kuah. His name is Amzi. During the trip Amzi uses his mobile phone to find out where a local vet is, after hearing about our newly adopted street-cat. He then drives to the vet to show us where it is and asks: "Is there anywhere else I can take you?". Finally we step out of the car and Amzi turns back for his 20km drive back. How's that for hospitality?
After taking Charlie to the vet and pumping her full of anti-everything, we take a trip to Butang, a Thai Island nearby, to spend some of our left-over Thai money. Charlie has imported her problems to the boat and Paula and I both start getting itchy. It's ringworm, a fungal skin infection. It's time for us to get our antifungal treatment too.
We return to Langkawi. I get a text message from a good friend of mine, Hanski from Finland. She is travelling with the Mäkinen Family, Mom, Dad and three almost-adult boys. They are in Langkawi and keen to meet us. We move Aliisa to Pantai Tengah, infront of a beautiful beach by the Holiday Villa Resort. The following two weeks offers a strange but welcome break from our daily routines.
Hanski, Markku, Mysse, Kitti, Basti and Jokke become part of our daily activities. We play tennis with them in the resort, we dine in fine restaurants where Markku picks up the tab. In return, we take them sailing and fishing on Aliisa. The ladies lie on the deck, Jokke insists on playing heavy metal on the stereo and the rest of us hold on to our fishing rods, without catching anything. We use their extra breakfast vouchers for a massive buffet feed in some mornings, we have hot showers in their rooms and laze around by the resort pool.
Young Charlie enjoying the view on Aliisa's solarpanels
My shoulder is still sore and Markku - who is a doctor - laughs at my visit to a Chiropractor in Thailand. He does a quick examination between beers in a bar and prescribes me with anti-inflamatories. The shoulder gets better in two days. While I've got the opportunity, I mention the ringworm and anxiety too. The doctor prescribes me with a carton of beer and Lamisil cream. In the following days Paula gets swamped with Finnish language, something that she intends to learn, one day. Life's good, we're thoroughly relaxed and living a holiday. I manage not to get a heart-attack on the tennis court, but win no games and hurt my foot. Thank you Hanski, my dear friend and thank you Mäkinen Family, my new friends, for a great two weeks.
