Thursday, Day 68 - Mar 15 - 11 to 7, Langkawi, Malaysia

Langkawi is a place of relaxed charm with its farms, fishing villages and peaceful rice paddies. Langkawi boasts colorful myths and legends, dramatic mountains, and  pristine beaches. It is a small island just of the west coast of Malaysia at the with Thailand. There are between 99 and 106 or so islands in this chain depending on whether it is high or low tide! There is a strong Thai influence in the look of parts of the island. It has a number of tourist attractions for such a small place and there are many hotels and resorts. The main attraction is it is a tax free state which makes everything much cheaper.

This is also a new port for us and Carolyn isn’t too impressed with the information on it. So we are doing a free half day ship’s tour, Langkawi Overview, which starts at 12:30PM and is 5 hours. We are tendering today so that takes longer to get going. Once on the bus, we drive into town to see a massive sculpture of an eagle about to take flight in Eagle Square. The archipelago’s most recognized animal is the eagle. The name Langkawi derives from the Malay word for eagle. It is a huge metal sculpture that we can almost see from the bus, but we have no desire to get out in the heat and humidity to take a picture. But we did take some pictures as we drove around.

Then we head across Langkawi, which is some what mountainous and largely undeveloped with a classically tropical landscape and visit a gallery that displays gifts that Malaysia’s former prime minister received from various world leaders. The items include cars, furniture and vases decorated with his likeness. We are given 45 minutes to explore on our own. It is interesting to see all the gifts. Some are worth a fortune.

From there we head to the northern shore, for a visit to the Budaya Craft Cultural Complex celebrating Malaysia’s heritage. We see exhibits of batik fabrics, rattan baskets and delicate bamboo carvings. Ethnic tribes have created many of the woven and beaded handicrafts using time-honored designs. Again we have 45 minutes and Carolyn makes good use of the time and her credit card!

The last stop is basically a stop beside the road at a rubber plantation. Most of the rubber tree farms...hardly plantations...are abandoned due to the low price of rubber. Here  there is demonstration on how the tree sap is harvested to create products such as latex gloves, tires and paint. The tree bark is grooved at an angle, so the sap can slowly drip into a metal bucket, a simple method that has been used since the late 1800s. We stay in the bus again as we can see everything from our seats.

After our tour and its four stops we arrive back at the dock to board a tender back to the ship which is anchored about a mile away. There is a tender loading but why is there a line of familiar faces out the gate? It takes but a few minutes to learn that there is only one tender running. The other two have died and, for some reason, they are making do with one! Mind you all the tours left within 30 minutes. They were all about the same length so they are all getting back to the pier at about the same time! Chaos reigns!

Soon the cruise director, Jamie Logan, comes through in a very harried state telling us to move into the shade as it will be at least an hour until the next tender and the counter in his hand tells him and us that we will not be on it. Oh, Joy!

The problem is that if you get out of line and move into the shade your place will be taken by the next bus that unloads and your wait for a tender will only increase. Carolyn finds a seat in the shade and Dick elects to stand in line and hold our places. Mind you, it is in the direct sun, on the equator at 5PM and there is minimal cloud cover!

Sure enough, after about 50 minutes the tender returns for its next load. It is carrying a supply of water, soft drinks and umbrellas. As predicted, we are about sixth back in line at the cutoff for this tender and we settle in for another hour in the slowly setting sun.

But, relief is a hand! Jamie and Terry Bishop have arranged to rent local 20 passenger tourist boats as additional tenders. We are on the first of these to load and admire its 250HP motor as it purrs quietly. Once loaded, we are off like a shot and pass the plodding tender and are first to the ship. Even before the tender arrives there are two more of these hired tenders waiting to unload. Our boat is first and once they figure out how to tie it off we are back on the ship, in our cabin and stripping out of our sweat soaked clothes.

While Carolyn showers, Dick steps onto our balcony and takes a few photos of the boats below for posterity. Ah, the joys of travel!

Surprisingly, we are only a few minutes late to dinner and enjoy cocktails, wine and a nice dinner. As the dining room fills, the afternoon’s adventure is the talk of the town. The Captain comes on the PA system to tell us that the two tenders that broke down had rope and a rubber tire (Michelin car or a bike tire he does not say!) Wrapped around their propellers. One is back in service and the other is still being serviced but all passengers and crew are back on board. There is no explanation for the horribly slow tender’s problems.

During dinner we watch and hear all the boats lowered into the water and tested for operational status and then we finally sail about 8:30PM.

Bobbing like a cork in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with all engines down... aground on a sand bar in the harbor at Bali...passengers stranded on the pier in Malaysia due to two out of three tenders broken...What is next on this seemly snake bit World Cruise? It boggles the mind, or scares one to death! Oh well, all is well again and we got one hell of a boat ride to the ship this evening!