Arrival in Langkawi

The intrepid little sailors on Basanti set off from Johor Bahru on Wednesday November 13 and after four days and three nights of sailing we arrived at the beautiful island of Langkawi.  Langkawi is actually part of an archipelago consisting of nearly 100 isands, but the main activities and the town of Kuah are on the large isand. 

We missed many places we'd like to explore in Peninsuar Malaysia, but we need to be in Phuket, Thailand for the first week of December where we will meet up with friends for the Phuket Race week.  We plan to spend more time in Malaysia next year, so these sights that we sailed past can be explored at our leisure later on.

We were busy in Johor Bahru getting a few things for the boat...even popped back to Singapore for part of a day to purchase filters and things for Basanti's engine.  We stayed at the Danga Bay marina, which is very conveniently located on a main road with plenty of busses and taxis.  Many of the people participating in the Sail Indonesia Rally were in Danga Bay to prepare for the start of the Sail Malaysia rally, and we met cruisers from all over and look forward to seeing some of these folks in the future.  One night there was a pot luck dinner at the marina and it seemed like most of the cruisers came along and there was plenty of delicious food.

We've been anchored just off Kuah Town since our arrival.  We've explored the town and found an electrician to check out the spare starter solenoid and something on the alternator, but now we're good to explore other parts of the island for a few days before heading up to Thailand.  We do not plan to get a Thai phone, so may not have lots of access to internet while we are in Thailand, however, I'm sure we'll manage to check our emails from time to time.

Hope to do some adventurous, touristy or scenic things soon so we can post a few photos.  Jhor Bahru isn't particularly scenic, but it was a good stop for shopping and eating.  Happy Thanksgiving to our American family and friends...we enjoyed our two Thanksgivings while we were in the US and will be missing our favorite holiday this year.  Eat some turkey for us!!

Brief update...from Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Buster's been his bad little self.  Once Phil and I returned to Basanti and Buster over at Nongsa Point (Indonesia) we prepared the boat and ourselves, officially cleared out of the country, and departed the lovely marina.  We departed early on a Wednesday morning as we had about 50 miles to cover, including crossing the Singapore Straits...one of the the busiest shipping channels in the world.  There is a constant stream of ships (2 lanes in each direction) moving east and west through the Straits and we were a little intimidated.  However, plenty of yachties cross it, so it can't be too bad.

We headed west along the Indonesian side of the straits until there seemed to be a gap from the west and nothing from the east.  All in all it was a little bit of an anticlimax, but we're glad for that.  Once we were on the Singapore side, it was pretty busy, but even then it wasn't too bad.  We motored around Singapore to the west and then up the Johor Straits, under a bridge in heavy rain with little visibility and then on up to Danga Bay Marina in Johor Bahru.  Here we are for a week or so getting a few parts and things not available in Indonesia.

Best thing so far about Malaysia has to be the food!!  We are all loving the varieties and eating too much...Indian, Malay, Chinese, Japanese...it is all here.  Yum.  The weather is hot of course and just about every afternoon we get a rain...a heavy downpour, but that cools things off a bit.

This poor computer...while in Singapore we took it to a fixer for a variety of reasons and the analysis was that the hard drive was really corrupted, so the fellow had to re-format the hard drive.  We saved a bunch of the files and things, but after the re-formatting, all the programs and things had to be re-installed and whatever.   Hopefully we are all good to go again with fewer technical issues.  Buster will have to sort through some photos and post something soon.

While the cat's away...

Phil and Chris left me in charge of things on Basanti at Nongsa Point Marina while they went visiting friends in Johor Bahru and catching up with family in Singapore.  Initially I was a little bit put out at being left behind again, however I met a Grizzley little friend from a Canadian boat and we enjoyed Chris's rum supply.

Once the rum was finished, I explored the facilities...enjoyed a table overlooking the marina, the huge pool and then managed to take a jet ski for a spin. 

 

 

 I'm sure I'll be in trouble when Phil and Chris return, but it was pretty fun and I think we'll all miss the pool when we move on.

Pleasant surprises at Bintan Island

We were on our way to Penyenget Island which is a historically significant place as it was the original capital of the Riau rajas.  On our way there, we noticed a reasonable sized city on the main island of Bintan and decided to check it out being in need of some fresh food.

 

The harbour at Tanjung Pinang was a really busy place with ferries coming and going all the time, barges and tugs, fishing boats and little boats filled with people going to and from Penyenget.  We found a place to anchor in the river that was fairly out of the main traffic.  The dingy was quickly launched and we headed to town in search of beer and food.

 

 We found both at a brand new open air food hall.  These kind ladies whipped up an assortment of tasty items for our dinner...chicken satay, fried rice, fried chicken and some water spinach.  A couple of beers and we were really pleased with ourselves for finding this place.  We'd been away from any sort of city since our shopping run into the city on the island of Belitung...we eat well on Basanti, but it is always nice to have a break from cooking.

 

We needed a number of provisioning items on Basanti and we thought that this town would be a good place to find some of the things we need.  No big shopping malls that we could find, but plenty of grocery stores around town for the staples like beer, rice, canola oil, toiletries and various items.  Prices were good and the convenience factor was high as we had a pretty nice place to tie our dinghy on a floating pontoon.

 

 Around town was a pretty interesting mix of traditional and modern ways of doing things.

Fishing gear





Egg delivery

 

KFC had this shiny fleet of delivery scooters.

 We finally found the markets in town, they were great.  I haven't put so many photos here because you all must be getting tired of photos of the markets...sorry, but they are such lively, colourful and fun places and we always take lots of photos.  Here was a fellow mixing up curry pastes and chillies...the whole place smelled delicious!  Yum.

 Eggs and bananas...so many different varieties of bananas here to enjoy.

 Again, the fresh chickens.  The fellow next to Phil is the chicken chopper and the lady helped us find some ripe pineapples.  She speaks English, has a brother living in the Netherlands, and was an enthusiastic guide around the markets.  Phil and I were the only westerners there, we only saw a handful of other westerners the entire time we were in Tanjung Pinang...the locals could not be friendlier or more helpful...whenever we have some trouble with the language, someone turns up with another person who speaks some English.

 As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we were on our way to see the historical Penyenget Island.  After a couple of days of shopping and enjoying "city life" we finally got over there...raced over in the dinghy for a couple of hours, it wasn't far.

 Once there, we hired this fellow to take us around to the sites.  It wasn't far and we'd planned on walking, but at least we found everything this way and it was pleasant being driven.

 We visited a few cemeteries of the rajahs...generally from the 1800's so not centuries old or anything.

 ...and a palace...

 Saw this little fellow walking down the road, check out his fish!

 At another cemetery some other tourists asked us to be in the photos.  How funny!  Like I mentioned, we (western tourists) seem to be something of a rarity here, and lots of people asked us to be in their photos... the random western tourists in holiday shots.

 This big sulphur mosque can be seen from a distance away and is the most impressive of the sites on the island.

 Our little tour ended and this lady was nearby making some sort of fritters which we tried, not bad.

Time to get back to Tanjung Pinang for one more meal and a cold beer.  Tomorrow we plan to get up early and get to the marina at Nongsa Point, Batam.

Making our way north and a visit from King Neptune

The Island of Belitung has to be one of the most beautiful places we've visited.  As we zoomed around the myriad of tiny islands fringed with pristine white sand and giant boulders strewn haphazardly nearby, we saw turtles swimming beneath us through the clear water. Paradise.

 Phil at the helm.

Visited the lighthouse built by the Dutch in the old Colonial days.

 A few yachties (us included) were the only western visitors we saw on Belitung, however it is a popular destination for Indonesians on holiday.  There was a wedding party on the island near the lighthouse, and one of the other tourists (from Bangka) offered to take our photo.

 This large concrete jetty was on the main island of Belitung with several tour boats tied up.  There were many fishing boats, which tended to go out in the evening.  On shore there was a little row of restaurants.  Two thumbs up.

One day we hired a car (and driver) to take us into the city, about 30 minutes away.  Needed to reload our phone after Chris messed with it and cancelled the data package.  It was a really nice town, we can't understand why Belitung doesn't even get a mention in Lonely Planet's Indonesian guide book.  Great markets too, we stocked up on the usual fruits and veggies and then went to a supermarket for a few more items.  Haven't had shopping this good since Bali.

 Fresh chickens.

Bangka was the next island we visited.  We pulled into a bay with Tigress Too expecting a lovely calm anchorage and a little place to get something to eat and a cold beer on shore.  The anchorage was great (the first day) and we enjoyed a trip to shore and a swim with Jerry and Jean, however the resorts which were here 20 years ago (according to a local) are gone.  Next day after a blustery tropical storm, we celebrated Jeans birthday on Basanti.

 Rain and 35 knots of wind today.  Will Jean and Jerry be able to come to Jean's party??

Luckily, Phil made the cake a day earlier.

Skies clear and the party was on.

Happy Birthday to Jean!!

 

From Bangka we again overnight sailed up to Lingga and then across the equator, to a little island off of Lingga called Kentar.  Beer in hand, we sailed into the Northern Hemisphere

 King Neptune visited us, as none of us on Basanti had previously sailed across the equator, and we offered rum and port.  Good looking King, don't you think??

 

Anchored at Kentar overnight.  We frequently attract various local visitors.  Often they are fellows selling fish, but for a change, a group of ladies rowed out (they were actually towed quite a way by a fisherman).  We thought maybe they'd try to sell us some fruit or veggies, but apparently they just wanted a chat and hoped for some t-shirts or other souvenirs. We gave them a little tourist book on northern Australia AND our garden.

 The gardening effort on Basanti hasn't gone well.  Initially, most of the plants died, even the mint.  In Carnarvon we were given another basil plant and so we had basil and parsley since then.  Not much...these plants struggle and seem to get smaller with time.  Finally, both Chris and Phil have managed to hurt themselves on the planter, so it was time for the plants to depart and the ladies gladly took the garden.

Everyone was really friendly, luckily they spoke more English than we speak Indonesian.  Get us away from a market or restaurant and we're hopeless.  Even so, they invited us to visit their village, but we wished to leave Kentar and sail a bit further north that day, so after chatting for a while Phil offered to tow them back to shore.

 As always, the friendliness of the locals is remarkable.

These fellows stopped by and sold us some squid.

Chris washed all the ink away and cleaned the squid.  We had 2 meals from it...first prepared in a tomato/chilli sauce and next more like salt and pepper squid. Yum, tender and fresh.

Next stop on the tour was Benan, a tiny island nestled amongst a group of small islands.  We wanted some more fresh food and one of the locals said there was a shop in town.

 There is a long concrete jetty out over the shallow and surprisingly clear water.  Many stilt houses are perched off the beach, over the water, as well as shops and some restaurants.

At the shore end of the jetty is a nice welcoming sign.

 Tiny fish dry in nets along the jetty.

 The homes in this village were generally nice and the surrounds were pretty tidy.

 We had lunch at one of the little restaurants along the jetty.  There are regular ferries that come and go from the end of the jetty.  The water was clear enough to see little fish swimming around beneath us.

Young visitors come out to visit us and Tigress Too also.  They are so little, and completely out of sight of their village when they come out to see us.

 

We get some awesome sunsets up here.  The photo below was not enhanced in any way, actually I reduced the image size to load it here.  This is Tigress Too anchored near us at Benan.  They've now sailed on ahead to get to the beer at Nongsa point marina and we'll catch up with them in a couple of weeks.