Blog 11: 24th April 2014. Finding Nemo

Over the hills and far away

Previous visitors to the hotel had described the sounds from the nearby mosque as ranging from very negative to highly positive if you happen to be that way inclined. We had totally forgotten this, until at 5am the incredibly loud recorded voice of the chanted calling to prayers burst through our door-frame and window like a rocket launch! I could now appreciate what the previous visitor had said, though to Emma and me this was a cultural experience, and I actually felt the voice was rather soothing, having no idea what it was saying. The prayer stopped after about 5 minutes of melodic chanting, and about 5 minutes later a short chant indicated the end of the session, I likened it to the all-clear from an air-raid warning! We went straight back to sleep, and had another hour or so before having to get up ridiculously early for breakfast.

It was about 7.30 when we entered the breakfast hall. The silver domes had a variety of curry, spice, rice and noodle dishes within them, steaming away on a soft paraffin flame. The breakfast room was simple, with tea and coffee the far corner next to the breakfast cereals and milk, and a toaster with bread and plastic pots of jam nearby. We couldn't really stomach a traditional Malay breakfast of curry and rice at this time of the day, so opted for the western choices of toast and jam and chocolate-flavoured cereal, with tea and orange juice, and sat talking and observing the ten-or-so other guests scattered throughout the room. We were up this early because the bus from the Langkawi Coral company was scheduled to pick us up from outside the hotel.

8am came and went. Emma and I, already in swimming-friendly clothing, were sitting by the main entrance to the hotel, in the car park, avoiding ants which were crawling around nearby flowerpots. Emma was sitting on a step; I chose this time to take the jack to the car and check the front-left wheel for loose bearings, or worse still, a loose wheel. Thankfully, nothing abnormal detected! People were sitting chatting and eating breakfast it the food stall on the opposite side of the road, the one we'd enquired about the laundry yesterday. A western couple in matching blue and pink jogging suits bounced past us, sweating profusely and bright pink. Nobody had told them about the climate. Admittedly at this time of the morning it wasn't too hot, probably mid-20's, certainly nowhere near as bad as we knew it would get once the sun shone from directly overhead. We watched as a few cyclists rode past, from the villages up the road to their places of work on Pantai Cenang, and a dozen motorcyclists and scooterists buzzed past, mostly on the wrong side of the road in the dirt, and none of them wearing helmets. Some had children on the back, of course helmetless too, t-shirts and shorts flapping in the breeze.

After a while of sitting there watching the island slowly awaken, we noticed increasing numbers of 56-seater coaches going up and down the road, bearing the logos of the travel agencies we'd seen in the airport yesterday. They were all the same colour scheme, white with a green lower portion, and the only differentiating feature was their unique logos. There was no sign of Langkawi Coral, or indeed Kasina - we didn't know which would provide the transport. I contemplated telephoning the number on the receipt for the trip, our pick-up having been booked solely on handwritten paper and by what seemed like a voicemail message yesterday, but incredibly the system worked and our coach finally arrived to pick us up, its pneumatics hissing and squeaking to bring it to a standstill in front of our carpark.
"Mr Jah-mez? Dua?" said the driver, looking at a ticklist of names;
"Yup, that's us!"
He gave us two purple wristbands and two stickers, without explanation, before ushering us into the vehicle. We climbed aboard, noting a scattering of orang-orang putih already aboard, dressed similarly to us, though worryingly some carried snorkels and masks and towels - we hadn't thought of that!!

Once we'd settled into our front right-hand seats the driver pulled away, though left the door open and kept the coach in 2nd gear. Before I begun to question why too much, he indicated to pull in and came to a stop outside the grander looking hotel just opposite the laundry, and tooted the horn. A couple more whites came out to meet the bus, and had their identities checked too. The guy was about my height and age but light haired and heavily built, with presumably his girlfriend accompanying him, slim with auburn short-cropped hair. Both were looking as sea-sidey as the rest of us, and both of them carried masks and snorkels with them too. We quietly hoped that these would be provided for us! Visas anyone? We learnt that our two seat-neighbours were from Germany, and that they had been recently staying in Shanghai at a friend's penthouse apartment. Lucky for some!

The coach took a right along the main strip of Cenang beach, stopping to pick up about 10 more tourists along the way, before heading out of town and turning back on itself but on a single-carriageway main road through the southern hills of the island, heading eventually toward the main town of Kuah which lay to the south of our beach but over the headland stretching far out to the south-east of us, about 12 miles away in a straight line. The driver was just as reckless as the one for the Concorde Inn KLIA, the coach's tyres surely digging-in heavily to the road surface as we performed some fast corners on route! We noted typical Malay homesteads passing us by, wooden shacks on stilts and the more modern concrete bungalows with porches and driveways, scattered throughout the fields and trees of the surrounding countryside. A few cars passed us in the opposite direction, but it was generally quiet until we reached the outskirts of Kuah itself, marked by an increase in the density of buildings and streetlights, as well as the cars and people dotted around. The coast was to our right all the way, though we couldn't see the water. The hills all sloped to the right, and we were on relatively flat land toward the end of our journey. Driving down the main strip of Kuah, and noting a large shopping mall with a sign for "DUTY FREE SHOPPING" attached to it, we hung a right and headed for a more scenic area, lined with trees and more decorative streetlights, with open spaces and large ponds scattered around it. This looked like a peninsula of land, and indeed it was. Our destination lay before us, a large but low-lying white-roofed shopping centre complex built around one of the main jetty, Jeti Kuah.

The thirty-or so of us disembarked from the bus and after milling around for a bit, followed a man in a red Langkawi Coral polo shirt across from the bus park toward a set of open-fronted booths set into one of the walls of the shopping complex, noting that one of the booths of displayed the Langkawi Coral logo. Our coachload joined with more people who had presumably arrived from other coaches, and we all gathered around a guy who looked like he was in charge, and over the hubbub of excitable tourists, we were instructed to put on our wristbands. Some people had red ones, others purple. We knew not why - maybe they were diving, as opposed to just snorkelling? It turns out we'd find out later. Wristbands donned, and payments taken from those who were yet to pay (not including ourselves), the leader took us through an archway of the shopping centre and stopped us next to a busy road where shoppers were being dropped off and collected by car. Again we waited, a queue forming by a few people next to a set of traffic lights, but nobody really knowing for what reason! Reassuring looks from others with equally negligible amounts of knowledge about the situation eventually put the whole group at ease as we stood there. I questioned why we were queuing, and whether I had time to buy an underwater camera, but with nobody of any particular authority to ask, decided to wait it out, after a brief discussion with Emma!

Eventually we heard a shout from the group leader, a middle-aged Malay man wearing a faded cyan t-shirt, again with the Langkawi Coral logo on its left breast-plate, and the crowd started to move toward the set of lights, ironically not led by those who had queued - typical. We trickled across the busy road, much like sand flowing through big boulders, and were led inside the shopping mall itself, toward a less busy area of it down a dimly lit corridor. We passed by several shops, most of which were closed for some reason, and some market stalls selling sweets and cuddly toys, manned by eager salesmen. Eventually it became clear where we were going, as signs to Customs started appearing and an unmanned desk, complete with rectangular grey metal-detector archway stood in the middle of the corridor we were heading down. We bypassed this, and continued through the now port area of the jetty complex, and eventually emerged at the covered quayside. It grew louder and hotter as we exited the air-conditioned shelter of the complex, the relative peace giving way to the sound of diesel engines and smell of raw and burnt diesel fuel oil wafting through the air. The high-pitched scream of a turbocharged diesel generator filled the air as the hundred-or-so of us approached a small twin-hulled passenger ferry, again with our familiar logo on its side.

By some quirk of logic, Emma and I were now amongst the handful of people leading the pack, following our Malay-speaking company representatives. We were told to wait a minute while everyone formed a rough queue to board our white and red catamaran. Our boat was one of a few moored up on this side of the dock; we saw on another jetty across the small patch of water a similar boat, but single-hulled, seemingly ready to go, its cooling water sloshing out from a discharge pipe low-down on its starboard side, and whiffs of black diesel smoke puffed from its funnel occasionally. There were a few faded multicoloured fishing vessels of all sizes dotted about the place too; some lengths of rope and black hoses lay scattered toward the middle of the concrete jetty protruberance. Eventually the all-clear was given, and the metal gate allowing access to the hand-railed gangway was opened, and with a clatter of feet-on-aluminium, our leading pack boarded the 30-or-so metre long catamaran first, arriving on its starboard stern muster area. We were ushered into the main cabin, away from the now roaring  noise of the turbocharged generators, and an accompanying hot blast of air from two large cooling grilles just before the wooden entry doors. The cabin was well lit by windows along its perimeter. A wooden bar area formed its aftermost part, protruding between the two main doors on either side. Seats were all forward-facing save for eight at the furthest end of the cabin against the forward bulkhead. There were rows of three seats on either sides of the cabin by the window, about 15 rows in total, separated from a central bulk of rows of eight seats by two main aisles. We headed forward, under the nautical-standard grey metal grills of the ceiling, up the right hand aisle and turned left along an aisle at the front, before electing to sit in the far left-most seats of the cabin, allowing us a good forward and port-side view from the right-angle of windows here. We waited as the remaining passengers trickled in and took their seats, filling up nearly every seat in the cabin. With a shudder and a quiet roar, we felt each of the two main diesels kick into life, adding to the noise of the generators and hum of conversations in the cabin. A couple of old cathode-ray 21" TVs on both sides of the cabin kicked into life, and started displaying a Welcome Aboard video, with scenes of Langkawi and its coral and tourist attractions displaying on the screen before the important yet unceremoniously ignored-by-all safety video came on, complete with inaudible commentary from small tinny speakers located in the now-rattling ceiling.

I took the time to look at the GPS; Langkawi, an island about 30km wide and 20km tall, was situated about 30km to the west of the coast of Malaysia, just south of the Malaysia-Thailand border and a short hop from the island of Phuket which lay to the north. We didn't have a clue where we were actually headed on this boat - I had assumed the destination to be a small atoll not far from the main island, but perusing the satellite view, found only one island within reasonable range of Langkawi itself, a kidney-bean shaped island named Pulau Payar. A quick Google confirmed this as a popular tourist destination to see coral reefs, and entering its latitude/longitude coordinates from a marine navigation website into my phone revealed it to be about 30km south-east of our current location at Kuah. The Malaysian peninsula lay beyond this island, its closest point being the town of Alor Star about 25km to its east. I hadn't realised we'd be going quite so far out to sea! This twin-diesel catamaran, complete with "Made in Australia" stickers on its windows, was probably manufactured by the Incat corporation of S.E. Australia, the same as made the 86m and later 112m cross-channel catamarans for Hoverspeed. Knowing this craft was capable of achieving about 35 knots (about 65kph) we would spend just over half an hour between ports, including manoeuvring time.

We eventually set off, the captain choosing to "spring off" from the jetty, pulling the aft away to the port-side before steering left and engaging the forward engines. We watched as the buildings of Kuah were left behind us as we gathered speed, neatly avoiding the numerous fishing and pleasure vessels dotted around the bay area between Kuah and another couple of large islands just to the south, Pulau Dayang and its smaller easterly neighbour Pulau Tuba. By the time we were clear of land and heading directly for the GPS waypoint I'd set earlier, we were already at speed, I was pleased to note we were travelling at approximately 35 knots, and after about 5 minutes we were allowed out on deck.

The waters of the Malacca Strait were calm as a millpond that day, the sun shining brightly overhead and only a few clouds scattered throughout the sky. We stood on deck, peering over the sides out to sea, hair being tousled by the gusting 60kph winds blowing salt spray at us from left, right and centre. We had to shout to be heard over the twin turbo-diesels, the wind, and the noise of the powerful wake as it was forcibly pumped behind the boat, Newton's 3rd law played out in full for all to see, should they have cared to look. A small hump of land could already be seen in the distance directly ahead of us, with another hump, just a dot, to its left. From where we stood the main hump looked thin and long, like Pulau Payar had looked on the map earlier. The occasional small wooden fishing boat could be seen in the near distance as we passed by at speed, and a couple of smaller touristy-looking boats could be seen passing in the opposite direction to us, about a mile away to the south-west. These would have been the boats we'd seen from the air as we made our final approach to Langkawi International yesterday.

We'd been travelling in a more-or-less straight line for about half an hour, when we were asked to return to our seats in the cabin; Langkawi was now a small, haze-faded feature on the horizon behind us, and our destination island was looming ahead of us. We could see it was rocky, and entirely covered in trees, with no sign of any sand on its coastline between the rocks and the azure waters surrounding it. Now inside, as we slowed, the boat passed directly between the north-eastern small island and the main island of Payar, and rounding the corner, taking a turn to the south-west, a small sandy bay suddenly came into view, complete with an large, white PTFE-covered offshore platform advertising Langkawi Coral, with various boats moored up to it. You could see people on the platform, and a selection of plastic chairs and tables were laid out on it at one end; at the other, a couple of wooden shacks stood, presumably kitchens, loos, generators and equipment stores. A long wooden jetty protruded into the blue waters from the middle of the sandy beach, just off-centre, and a couple of small boats shuttled people between it and the landing stage. A collection of small, inoffensive buildings lined the beach itself, just at the tree-line. People were already dotted around, but too far away to make out clearly.

The catamaran moored up to the jetty with a bump, starboard-side first, and the engines were shut down. Our friendly group leader stood up at the front, and explained the reason for the red and purple wristbands - some people, us included, with the purple bands were to be served a simple packed lunch and drinks by staff on the island itself. Others were to receive a sit-down buffet-style meal on the floating platform! Anyone wishing to upgrade to the buffet would have to pay an extra Rm200 each! No thanks. We let the red wristbands off first, and they filtered onto the landing stage. It was our turn next, and we were informed that once on the platform we'd receive our buoyancy aids (NB: NOT "life-jackets"), and be shuttled by smaller boat to the beach where we could then pick up our snorkels and masks. Overcoming the undulating action of the boat, we climbed across the gangway and walked around the platform's perimeter, joining a queue to collect our buoyancy aids. While waiting, Emma noticed that basically everybody else had a towel, and was wearing sandals. Two things neither of us had thought about! Never mind, it was a bit too late to turn around and go back.

We received our blue buoyancy aids and waited by a blank area of the platform for a small boat to appear, more like a floating golf caddy than a leisurecraft, complete with raised canopy suspended on poles. The captain of the craft held the bow of his ship against the platform by keeping full-revs on the engine, allowing people to board clumsily one by one, encouraged on board by a member of staff on the platform. We crashlanded into our seats, and by the time we'd noticed that the floor was actually glass and that you could see a few fish swimming around beneath in the water clouded by multiple propellers, we were reversing away from the platform and making way toward the jetty. A similar head-on collision with the jetty at the other end of the short hop allowed all the passengers to disembark from the shuttlecraft, and we disembarked up a flight of concrete stairs to a covered holding area, to allow stragglers to gather around. I have no idea how we always ended up at the front, but I suspect it might have something to do with the international Ministry of Slow Walkers and their accompanying lackadaisical mannerisms!

Selamat Datang ke Pulau Payar! The sandy beach, blue seas and jetty of the coral island of Payar.

The bunch shuffled along, straining to hear the words of our guide. Lunch would be at 1230 til 1330; please wear buoyancy aids at all times, especially if going east of the jetty. Snorkels and masks would be collected on the beach. Enjoy, but be sensible, don't chase the fish or steal any corals! Briefing over, we walked the length of the jetty, and scrambled across the concrete at its landward end toward the sheltered buildings along the beach. These turned out to be a mass of tables and benches, to be used for storing belongings and eating lunch on. We collected our snorkels and masks, our purple wristbands marked with a number with which to identify us later. It was already 1145, but we decided to ditch our belongings and trainers and head for the inviting water, donning our Factor 50+ (what did the "+" equal?!) and hiding our bags and tying them to some table legs for security!

I remembered that I had been to Pulau Payar a very long time ago. Back then it was quiet, there were no concrete buildings or hundreds of people, simply a couple of dozen with a tour guide. There was a wooden causeway lining the coastline along the beach and for a few hundred yards either side of it, which was designed to allow you to regard the sea and rocks beneath without getting your feet wet. This causeway, though still in existence, was now closed off to the public due to wear and tear. The water had also been cleaner back then, now standing on the edge the signs of the island being a popular tourist destination were all too clear, the occasional plastic bottle or crisp wrapper seen bobbing around in the more sheltered areas of the bay, and the water not being anywhere near as crystal clear as it had been 15 years ago! Never mind, it was still clearer than the Mediterranean, and still a darned-sight warmer than it when we stepped into it from the hot sand, sharp underfoot from millions of shell fragments. By the time we'd waded in up to our waists, about 10m from the small waves breaking on the beach, we could easily see dozens of little fish zipping around between our legs and around the water. At this point, mask in hand, Emma now revealed she hadn't the foggiest of how to snorkel, and so I gave a quick lesson. She wasn't keen to practise the snorkel clearing drill of blowing out hard to eject water! Irrespective of this, she took to it like a fish to water, and had no problem swimming around head down and admiring the sandy seafloor below us. The diving signal for "Are you OK?" is an O-shape between thumb and forefinger, with the three remaining fingers pointing upwards; "Go up to the surface" is a thumbs-up sign, and "Go down" is a thumbs-down sign. I always make sure I look for the three fingers perfectly straight in the "Are you OK?" - someone not willing to let on that they're not as OK as they'd like you to think may have bent fingers!

The bay was about 200m wide; about 200m from the shore there was a floating inflatable boom, complete with dangling net, marking the safe territory for swimmers. Observing the colour of the water changing from bright blue to dark green, it was clear that further out from our location lay the reefs, and reefs meant life and fish, so we initially headed to the right (based on my previous experiences of the area) to try to find interesting fish. Emma had hoped to see clown fish and the whole cast of Finding Nemo while we were out here! Nearing the right-hand-side reefs it became apparent that this was not in fact where the life was; only a few fish darted around beneath us, and the coral to my disappointment was not brightly coloured and filled with thousands of fronds of anenomes and seaplants swaying in the currents, but here was dull-coloured and for all intents and purposes, dead. It was a huge blow compared to how it had looked in the past. The odd thing about swimming over coral, especially when snorkelling, is that you can hear the giant organism breathing. As soon as your ears find the solace of the water, the busy sounds from the surface immediately cancelled out, you can hear clicking and crackling noises. It's like putting popping candy on your tongue, only the sounds surround you, and you can nearly "feel" them as much as hear them, from all around. Even this brown-coloured reef was cracking and popping, I have no idea as to what actually causes the sound. 

The coral reefs of the Malacca Strait, it turns out, according to a Wikipedia article anyway, suffered a terrible episode of bleaching only a few years ago, the sad impact of global warming and tourism. Despite being the cold truth of evolution in action, it was sad to see. Swimming over living corals is similar to being thrown head-first into a flowerbed, or being put into a blender with a Rembrandt. Everywhere you look you see colour, bright flashes of intense hues coming at you from everywhere, the fish needing to be colourful to be camouflaged from predators! Swimming with a bleached coral is like swimming through a graveyard. Every now and then a recognisable coral brain shape, or the classical spiky white forking skeletons can be seen poking up at you, but the colourful fish would have had nowhere to hide from the brown and black predators lurking in the crags of the reef. I consider myself very lucky to have the memories of swimming in this unique and treasured ecosystem before it was hurt so badly by global warming. Do it while you still have a chance!

We let the current drift us eastwards, along the bay to the far left, and the varieties and number of fish started to improve; there were now at least some colourful specimens of the marine world, brightly coloured blue or pearlescent white, and a few orange/white/black angel fish lazily swimming by. Occasionally you'd feel a sharp twang somewhere, and look down seeing a fish have a go at biting you like a mosquito would. A quick flick of the limb would be enough to discourage its attempt at eating you alive! The coral to the left, despite being nearer the boat drop-off area, also seemed more alive, though with only the hardiest of species. It was still predominantly brown in colour, you could see the marks and shapes where plants would once have graced its surface, though now within crags and cracks you could see petrifying-looking black spiny anemones, their hemisphere of dozens of 6"-long black spears poking out from a central black core. You really wouldn't want to stand on one of them! Some huge fish swam by us, easily half a foot long, and white/pearlescent in colour, accompanied by hundreds of smaller fish swimming past in a shoal. Unfortunately, no Nemo, but there were a couple of Dorys! I was delighted to see an increase in colourful vegetation coming into view, particularly in the more protected parts of the reef's superskeleton. The occasional bright flash of blue alerted us to the presence of incredible sinusoidal plants growing in similarly shaped crags, about half a foot long and a few inches wide. It is just possible that these are plants recolonising the once bright and beautiful reef. I sincerely hope so, because it's equally possible that they're the sole survivors of their golden days. 

Our stomachs and my Casio watch told us that it was lunchtime, so we headed for the shore and swam through the higher density of crowds not brave enough to venture far into the water. There were sunworshippers here too, blatantly they were Westerners, who didn't seem in the remotest bit interested in venturing into the water despite having paid to do so. I found it hard to excuse such a blatant waste of a trip! Never mind. We headed for our bags and finding a family already seated at that particular table, had to move further along the rows of tables to a pew at the far end from the food being served, and took our place near to some Chinese already eating their lunches. A friendly middle-aged Malay tourguide approached us, telling us that the Chinese never stop talking! We weren't entirely sure what would be appropriate to reply, nor indeed if our new tablefriends were fluent in English, so were very diplomatic and said "It's great that they can have so much to talk about!". If he was unimpressed by the answer he didn't show it. 

I left Emma to guard the bags and seats to go collect the food, and after battling my way to the front of the enclosure and front of the queue, had to return empty handed to look for the stickers we'd been given earlier! Damn. Second time lucky, and two foldable polystyrene trays in hand I approached the drinks counter, receiving two bottles of ice lemon tea. And then a problem happened! We also were to be given two oranges, and two bottles of water. Good God! I had swimming trunks on and no pockets, and now 8 irregularly shaped items to carry, with no shoes on, across a wet sandy floor, through throngs of unexpectedly-reversing tourists! The oranges went into my pockets, becoming a suddenly dangerous opponent to the weak elastic of my shorts! The bottles under one arm, the cans under the others, and the food in hand, I waddled my way back to the table at the other end, now seeming about 5 miles away, and crash-landed onto the table, bottles rolling away from my impact site. Ah well, any landing you can walk away from is a good one!

Lunch was rice, deep-fried chicken and a side-salad. Washed down with the tea, and finished with the orange, it wasn't too bad considering the whole trip plus food had only cost us £20 each! Our friendly Malay tour guide came back for a chat. He said he liked the English, which was lucky for us. He'd worked there nearly 15 years, and was probably working the day I'd visited so long ago. He recalled that the place used to be far less developed, and you had more freedom to explore back in those days. Ah well, we were here for the present. He offered us to join him and a family after lunch in swimming beyond the jetty (where buoyancy aids were "mandatory"), to see bigger and more fish in that area. We agreed that we'd join him, and finished our lunch relatively quickly to meet his schedule.

Back into the water we went, satisfactorily satiated, and headed in the direction from which we'd exited previously, the man's blue shirt and orange-tipped snorkel just visible above the waterline, surrounded by the blue buoyancy aids and snorkels of the family he'd mentioned. He was right, there were more fish here. The water was rougher here too, being funnelled against the rocky shoreline; the waves were quite high, at times leading me to fear being beached on the coral and possible anemones below! We ventured under the concrete jetty between its rows of cylindrical pillars, tourists waving down at us and taking pictures, and entered uncharted territory. We were the only group of swimmers in this area, the water now clear but very dark from the reef below. We saw the group, either Indians or Malays, intently looking downwards into the depths, as if they'd lost something. The coral below us was big, still brown but with some aspects of dark vegetation growing from it. A couple of big gaps in the coral revealed the sandy sea-floor below, at least 3 metres deep - quite a long way down compared to the main bay, where you could stand on tip-toe. We thought we saw what the family was looking at, a shoal of big fish lazily ambling (if fish can amble) in the swell. Pretty cool actually.

Then the fish scattered, like you see in movies! Whoosh. Gone. Darting for cover. Two other fish appeared in the void; slender, like missiles. Silver above, white below; two beady eyes looking sideways and forward, menacingly, and black-tipped pectoral and dorsal fins. About a foot long each, and looking like they could give you quite a bite. Reef sharks. That was what the family was there to see! The fish were right to be scared away; Emma and I who had drifted slightly from the family also hastily rejoined our own shoal of clumsy marine explorers - safety in numbers was a default setting in the human subconsciousness it seemed! The guides had said earlier that you'd lose a finger, or even a hand, or at worst, your life, if you antagonised the sharks; and the nearest hospital was at least an hour away, with no air-rescue services available. Incidentally they'd only told us this when we were standing on the island, boat already departed. Great! The sharks were wary of the floating blue and fluorescent human blobs, all staring and pointing, kicking up the water with their fins with blatant disregard for the rows of teeth behind the pointy noses of the predators. The unbreakable rule, when faced with animals of ferocity, is that you don't need to be the fastest to be safe: just faster than the slowest! There was no danger of Emma or me being the slowest among this group of splish-splashing people. We stayed for a while, bobbing up and down in the swell by the jetty, before moving to a different area of the reef to see what it had to offer.

We'd wished we had an underwater camera at this point, with the added variation in species and scenery, so I ventured back to the beach through the increasingly dense crowds, amorphous blobs with snorkels and bums in the air, oblivious to everything but the fish beneath them. Underwater cameras were sold, said our now landed tour leader, but thanks to our status as members of a captive audience, they were being sold for the crazy price of Rm100 (100 Malaysian Ringgit, or £20) - easily more than 5-times what they were actually worth! There were waterproof iPhone covers available too, for Rm150 - but that was even more excessive, and besides, I didn't have an iPhone (nor was I prepared to test my Galaxy S2's resistance to the Andaman Sea!). I asked for the underwater camera, and was told to wait. The guy got on his personal radio, a small PMR-446 type device, and spoke something into the microphone. He then turned to a young female colleague who started walking in the direction of the jetty. The guide informed me that the camera would be brought in by boat from the "mothership", and would be about 20 minutes. He'd come and find me when it arrived, and take the money then. Luckily Malaysian notes are all plastic, so I popped the two Rm50's into my pocket and rejoined Emma out in the water, who was casually bobbing up and down some way out, still looking for clownfish. 

We spent more time bobbing around and trying to find exotic fish species, with me checking the shore occasionally for our Malay tourguide. After a while, I spotted him looking for me, with a shiny metallic bag in-hand, so I swam over to meet him and he removed the Fuji disposable camera from its protective packet, and held out a hand for the two (soggy) Rm50 bills. After showing me the trigger and the winding levers on the camera, basically a cardboard disposable camera encased in a see-through rubber-sealed perspex box with protruding buttons, I said terima kasih and headed back to the water, winding the camera to the first shot as I did so, ready to use the 27-or-so exposures on the film.

I found Emma again, and after trying to pose for various shots underwater by holding our breath and pointing-and-hoping with the camera, I gave it to her to take a few photos that she wanted, while I bobbed around nearby looking at coral and enjoying the cracking sounds coming from below, some loud enough I swore I felt the vibrations. All of a sudden I heard a yelp! I looked up, just in time to see Emma take off - swimming rapidly toward shore - some of the best swimming I'd seen her do in a long time, camera still in hand. I reached out to grab her leg but she was too quick, and disappeared off! Amused, I followed. And followed. And followed. Until I had to overtake her and grab her arm before she stopped swimming. Breaking the surface, panting, she had a partly-scared, partly-relieved look in her eyes! She hurriedly explained something about a photo, a big fish and cramp. I had to get her to repeat, before I could understand what she was getting at! It turned out that she wanted to take a photo of a big fish that was casually swimming in front of her. Just as she was ready to take the photo, camera outstretched, apparently the fish had darted straight for her! Spooked, she had tried to swim off, but managed to get a cramp in her leg at exactly the same time! Unable to simply stand up on the bottom for fear of putting her feet in a spiky sea anemone, she had simply continued swimming for quite some time, with the aim of beaching! I didn't really know what to say! She laughed about it, eventually!

It was eventually time for us to get out of the water and dry off; though typically we'd forgotten to bring towels, so we opted to stand in the 35°C breeze in the sun by the water's edge, and dry off by evaporation - which was surprisingly inefficient! So we were still dripping by the time we had to get back to the beach hut to hand in our snorkels and masks, and even after the shuttleboat ride to the main catamaran, we understood why the Langkawi Coral boat had plastic-coated seats! We found a seat amidships, not near our window this time, and awaited departure. The sea was a bit rougher than before, and a few clouds had rolled in from the west, but it didn't look like it would rain anytime soon. The big diesels started up and before long we were on our way, departing the floating pontoon, still with people milling around it, mostly staff. Most of the people on board were fast asleep by the time we'd cleared the two islands of Payar, but Emma and me, still needing to dry off, opted to go out on the noisy and diesel-scented deck, to enjoy the sun and scenery, and take advantage of the 30-knot winds!

to be continued...

-authentic chinese food with knives and forks and lots of Russians

Blog 10: 23rd April 2014. Hiring a car abroad

Three flights left to go...

It was a typical hot sunny morning by the time Emma and I left the room and had breakfast for the last time at the Concorde. For some reason we always chose cereal here, always served with thick UHT milk. The hotel shuttle bus took us to the airport, and we arrived at the terminal with plenty of time to spare, to check-in at the MAS desks housed on the top floor of the spacious multi-purpose terminal building. It was about the size of a football field, with departures above arrivals, themselves above the offices and these above the transport hub below containing the KL Ekspres train and bus station. The roof of KLIA was as spiky as the grandstands at Sepang F1 Circuit, but inside formed of brown wooden grilles high above our heads balanced on tapering concrete columns. There was an air of calm in the terminal, a low hubbub of voices just audible above the low rumbling of the air conditioning units and occasional sound of jet engines spooling up ready for take-off all echoing off the building's polished white and grey floor.

We were too early for lunch - MH1436, our flight, was at 13.10; our large and late breakfast would have to do until we arrived in Langkawi! We passed uneventfully through the security gates, this time to the far left of the terminal building as we were travelling internally. All electronics placed on a tray so as not to confuse the scanning man, shoes and belt off, and nothing metal on our persons. Domestic departures was far less exciting a place than International, consisting of only a small row of shops and some rather expensive bunches of Toblerones taped together in a 6 at a small cart selling sweets. The main KLIA terminal is a rectangular glass-fronted building, with northern and southern spars sticking out at the eastern side for domestic departures. International departures could take a short monorail ride from the main terminal to a cross-shaped building, similarly glass-fronted and airy inside, located between the airport's two main runways, each arm of the cross serving as aircraft parking and departure gates, arriving and departing passengers divided into two floors of the building.

We arrived at our gate, and with nobody at the desk simply took a seat and waited for the crowds to slowly trickle in. After about 15 minutes, sitting and talking, watching the occasional 737 taxi past out of the window, the 30 or so of us who had gradually gathered on the rows of seats were told to get up and leave the waiting area, and show our boarding passes at the desk we'd walked past, now finally staffed! We queued, showed our passes and passports, and sat back down in the seats from whence we'd come, continuing to look out of the window as our characteristically oval-nacelled white 737-400 was waved into its parking place by a man waving a couple of high-vis flags below us. These 737s were the workhorses of the MAS fleet, old versions slowly being replaced by the larger and newer -800 versions complete with silver wing-tips, sweeping skyward. Our -400 had no such tips, instead simply a bulbous trailing edge extension to the wing housing a white anti-collision light. The gantry was still attaching to the plane by the time the luggage cart driver had opened the main cargo door and climbed aboard; the fuel bowser driver hooked up his ground line and hose to the wing and the ground crew attached the yellow tow-bar to the nose-wheel by the time all the passengers had been offloaded. It was finally our time to board, and we took our place in the queue to board the plane, eventually sitting in row 25 seats E and F, on the right hand side, some way behind the wings near the back of the plane - leading to a rather bouncy experience when taxiing over the concrete pavement!

We departed to the north via runway 36-Right, spotting the grandstands of the Sepang race track disappearing behind us from our right-sided windows, before spotting the tall buildings of Putrajaya and KL in the distance as we climbed into the clouds. By the time they had served the in-flight peanuts and orange juice, less than 30 minutes into the 55 minute flight, we were already clear of the northwest coast of Malaysia, nearing the island of Penang, its snaking new bridge clearly visible below us connecting to the mainland of the peninsula. Cruising at 27,000ft we were at the top of descent, and the captain updated us on our progress - it was a nice day in Langkawi, if a bit hazy, and temperature about 33°C. Emma noted the plane change its attitude, and noting nothing but the water of the Andaman Sea outside was worried slightly that the pilot was going to land well before the island! I tried to reassure her with maths (ballpark descent rate figure divided into altitude gave about 15 minutes flight time remaining), but I think that this method doesn't work for everyone, I'm unsure as to why!! Needless to say, about 15 minutes later we levelled out at about 2000ft above the waves, easily spotting tourist vessels and fishing boats going about their daily business on the sea below us, before the flaps were extended fully, the landing gear went down with a dull thump, and the trailing edge vortices could be seen spiralling their way behind the wings. At last the greenery of the island of Langkawi appeared out of the window, the main harbour of its capital town of Kuah sprawling out infront of us before disappearing behind a hill and giving rise to a white sand strip of beach parallel to a road lined with hundreds of low buildings, the Cenang Beach area of Langkawi, near where we'd be staying. We landed with a bump on Runway 03, famous due to the theories of the disappearance of MH370 in that it is a huge runway, nearly 4km in length!

The short walk to the small terminal building started with disembarking the plane from the back door, by a set of metal steps wheeled up to us, the blast of the Malaysian mid-day heat combined with the exhaust from the slowly spinning turbines equating the experience to opening an oven door. Entry to the terminal through a set of sliding glass doors revealed that baggage reclaim was to the right, separated from the tarmac by a wooden door flapping in the breeze, upon it a large sign reading ironically "keep closed and locked for security and safety purposes". A group of tourists crowded around a large map of the island placed inside a glass cabinet against a pillar, we took a glance and opted to photograph the map for later perusal. Our bobbles arrived in good time on the conveyor, and we took our cases from the belt before heading to the far right side of the arrivals hall, lined with a dozen small desks with tourist agency names in bright signage above them, eager company reps attracting the eye of unsuspecting tourists shouting "you want hire car?" "hotel cheap!" "diving tours here!". Emma had thought ahead, and brought up a TripAdvisor page about Langkawi, listing three hire car companies that were considered reputable by previous visitors. We chose Kasina car rental as it was the only one here matching our list; oddly, its sales assistant was a quiet lady keeping herself to herself, not leaning over her counter waving brochures like the rest. Her neighbouring stall owners seemed both surprised and dejected by our choice, though we had a sneaky suspicion that the young Malay chap to her right was actually a relative of hers, possibly her son, by the amount they chatted and shared information and phonecalls while we were booking in!

Car rental was cheap, Rm180 including deposit for 3 days (equating to just over £30, i.e. £10 a day!). We would pay her when we left the arrivals hall and passed through customs; then the car keys would be handed over to us. Noticing that Kasina was also a travel agent, I enquired about snorkelling experiences, and luckily such a thing was possible for a further Rm200 for the pair of us, including hotel pickup and drop-off for tomorrow morning, so we chose to do this too!

We passed through customs with our sales assistant in tow, and proceeded to the cash machine to pay her, where she handed us over to a Malay chap about our age who took us to the car. I had tried to refrain from signing the acceptance slip but she had insisted, so without looking at the car first we followed our new guide, receipt already received. I was filming the events, however! Langkawi airport was a single-storey, though high-ceilinged rectangular building, wider than it was deep. The arrivals hall occupied the top-right of the building if you looked from above, the departures hall the top-left, and the main concourse, before security, occupied the whole southernmost side; it contained numerous shops and eateries, from McDonalds to more extravagant noodle outlets. Camera accessories were available on the side furthest from the tarmac. A jet ski with three fluffy minions riding it stood proudly under a paragliding parachute suspended from the ceiling, advertising local company "Naam" and their adventure packages. We took a rain-check on this, but thought of perhaps investigating later. Langkawi is an entirely duty-free island so is slightly cheaper than the rest of Malaysia, especially for alcohol, although export limits restrict the amount you can take home with you!

Our hire-car helper led us across the carpark out from the front of the terminal building, firstly via a pedestrian tunnel capped with a blue translucent awning that did the opposite of what it was intended to - instead of shading from the sun, the temperature beneath the radiating awning felt a good 10°c hotter than the surrounding breezy car park! Never mind. We approached our car, a small silver runaround (Perodua Viva, known to us in the UK as the Nippa), about the same size as the old model Corsa B. It had seen better days, but we were assured it was all roadworthy and good to take away immediately! I stopped to photograph it from all angles, just in case they claimed the numerous dents in the side and the hanging-off rear wiper were our doing. The petrol gauge read empty on clicking the key to auxiliary - we were advised to return it in a similar state! Our man turned the key to start and she ticked into life immediately, air-con on full, no warning lights on the dashboard. The petrol station, the guy said, was just to the right of a set of traffic lights as you exited the airport to the left, so adjusting our seats and loading our luggage, we said thanks and climbed into the car. We nearly didn't get very far - while we were faffing with the luggage a guy in a silver Proton had parked directly in front of our bay, so our first real interaction with the locals of Langkawi was a quick toot on the horn, following which after friendly waves and gestures he backed up and let us out of our space to battle the traffic exiting the airport carpark. Immediately jumping to my attention was a dreadful creaking noise coming from the left front wheel, I hoped it was just a bearing rather than the wheel about to fall off; cranking the steering to full deflection either side didn't seem to show any defects and nor did heavy braking, so I tentatively drove to check the roadworthiness of the vehicle before taking it to speed on the roads. "This is a small island, no speed limits to bother with, just don't go above 100kmh!" the man had said. OK then!

Our little carriage awaiting us

We followed the turn left, then right at the lights instructions, but, petrol light flashing, could we find a petrol station? Could we 'eck! I wasn't particularly worried because we had the guy's number, but my copilot was cautiously anxious! It turns out that the great machine that is Google hasn't really taken off in Langkawi yet, searching for Petrol took the map screen a few hundred miles away to the mainland. Not quite what we wanted! Luckily I spotted a green teardrop sign, the Petronas logo buried amidst other signs on a lamppost that we drove past, with a small black arrow indicating ahead and left, and the letters "5km" beneath it. Fingers crossed that our game of petrol roulette would last us that long!!

The road from was wide, with only a handful of cars other than our own making their way along it. It was covered with a fine layer of golden sand, and the odd piece of litter floated around in the afternoon breeze. The edge of the road was poorly defined, sort of blending gradually into the sandy greenery beyond. We passed Langkawi's international exhibition centre, an arch across the road still advertising last year's International Aviation Expo. Damn, we missed it! A smattering of other buildings populated the road on either side as we drove along, some businesses with open shop fronts, some residences; from time to time big rusting advertising banners tried to attract us to buy motor oil. The greenery of the island was all around us, open fields with buffalo grazing on them, interspersed with wooden houses on stilts, leading to the mountainous centre of the island a few km into the distance.

We took a right at the end of the road, stared down upon by yet more billboards, and headed toward a less developed part of the island, with a greater density of grey concrete houses and dusty cars parked in driveways. Kids on mopeds buzzed around, overtaking slower vehicles or staying well to the left of the road, in the grit, if they were going too slowly. None of their riders wore helmets of course. Some mopeds which appeared to be two-up, on closer inspection were actually three-up, the third passenger revealed to be a small child sandwiched between the two adult riders!

The orange gearbox-shaped engine management light decided to blink to life, so with the low petrol gauge we now had two warnings screaming at us from the dashboard, and our Petronas logo had chosen to direct us in the direction of the mountains! 3km to go. The road was getting narrower, still two ways but not as spacious as before. I tried to save as much petrol as possible by being easy on the gears, smooth on the accelerator and allowing the idle-cutoff servo to do its job on downhills or deceleration but to my utter annoyance one of Malaysia's finest drivers happened to be ahead of us, nearly coming to a standstill on every slight turn as we progressed into more hilly areas of the winding road. We couldn't overtake for two reasons - firstly, we'd be killed by oncoming trucks, and secondly we'd push the petrol consumption up! So we sat there, by now both of us concerned about the pump sucking up the last of the liquid in the tank!

Emma the navigator was telling me we were rapidly approaching the island's famous cable car station, and that meant mountains - not the best tactic for saving petrol, but the only one we had. We snaked our way along the undulating road, and after a particularly steep ascent we were glad to see ahead of us that the road was now descending again. We had rounded what must have been a headland, and were coasting in the direction of the settlement of Kampung Kok. Less than 1km to go said the green teardrop; finally around a corner, the welcome sight of a Petronas logo, and the petrol station, sitting to the left of the road, a gorgeous coastline and bay coming into view to left of it and the road. As we approached the petrol station, we noted a white amphibious Duck was filling up too - useful information to save for a later date!

Petrol in Malaysia is ridiculously cheap by our Western standards, costing about Rm2.30 a litre. Apparently this is actually a subsidised price by the government - how's about that, subsidy, not tax! Rm2.30 works out to be about 40 British pennies. What a bargain! We put in Rm25, just over 10 litres, enough to get us 100 miles assuming about 40mpg of the little car. The petrol seemed cheap, but then on thinking about it, the average Brit earns about £1500 a month, and we pay £1.30 per litre; the average Malay earns less than Rm1000 per month, and pays Rm2.30 a litre - so really, we can see why the government is forced to subsidise petrol, the relative cost of petrol is over twice that of ours, even though Petronas has huge refineries and oil fields around the country.

Petrol in the tank, with a sigh of relief from both of us we turned the car around and headed back up the mountain road toward the airport; our hotel, The Villa Langkawi, was situated near Cenang Beach (Pantai Cenang), on the opposite side of the airport to that which we were currently located! Getting a tiny bit lost in a village while trying to re-trace our petrol-hunting steps, and again while trying to find the hotel (actually driving straight past it without noticing and continuing on for a couple of miles) we finally arrived. The modern yet minimalistic red, white and grey concrete building stood out like a sore thumb amidst the wooden shacks and roadside eateries of its neighbourhood; a small mosque stood next door, its dome and tower noticeable but not dominating the area. Slightly down the road, a larger hotel stood proudly behind a wall guarding it and its car park. Up the road stood a selection of small houses, bungalows, concrete, and none of them looking particularly well maintained. The road was quiet save for a few motorbikes and cars whizzing along from time to time. We parked up easily in the empty car park, which previous visitors to websites had described as "lacking". First job: unload. Second job: check the reason for the engine management light. Third job: check-in! Fourth job: find a laundry!

First job - done. Yellow and black cases, complete with bobbles, sitting in the sunlight. Job two revealed that the cooling water tank filler cap had come off and there was no water left in the system. There was no expansion tank like in UK cars, but instead a low pressure reservoir. Job 2 part A: find some water!

The hotel was a single storey construction, its minimalistic modern style including a rectangular entranceway leading to a corridor opening out to the left of a lovely blue swimming pool, also rectangular. Some rooms overlooked the right-hand side of the pool behind large curtained windows. A few chairs and tables rested to the left of the pool, between it and more windows, this time floor-to-ceiling, running the length of the reception area and what appeared to be the breakfast hall, complete with tables and chairs already laid out, and silver food domes neatly placed in a row along a central island. We walked to a pair of glass doors mid-way along the pool, and entered the reception area, paying a Rm50 deposit but our stay already paid for via Expedia.co.uk months beforehand. Third job complete - the keycard for room 113 was handed to us. Breakfast was served from 6.30 til 10, but there was no bar or food facilities here outside that time. Fourth job - price per laundry item was ridiculously high, we'd find another way later.

Good enough to be a brochure shot. The swimming pool and rooms of The Villa Langkawi, photograph taken later that evening.

Further down the swimming pool, beyond the end of the breakfast hall and swimming pool and opposite a triplet of black massage chairs, for some reason incredibly popular in Malaysia, the door to our room was within a concrete rectangular tunnel. Entering and turning on the light, we found the room was minimalist but to a good quality, the heavy wooden door impressing me firstly, and two towels neatly rolled and placed like iced buns upon the neatly made bed. A safe sat on a white makeup desk across the room from us, to the right of which a mirror hung on the wall. We placed our cases down. The bathroom was a good size, and made from grey polished stone, with white porcelain features and a good quality rain-effect shower behind a glass divider. Nothing to complain about!

As much as we both wanted to lie down and relax after our day of travelling, and after a bit of persuading poor exhausted Emma who was so drawn in by the prospect of the relaxing blue swimming pool only metres away, I filled the kettle in the room with water to complete Job 2A - and we sneaked it past the glass fronted reception desk and past a pair of intrigued staffmembers. I can imagine their conversation went something like "Tsk. British! Whatever next" *roll-eyes*. Car now filled up with water again, Job 2A could be checked off the list. The laundry was next. We returned the kettle to its rightful holder, probably to the relief of the watching staff (damn those glass walls), and locked the room, leaving my BMA Membership card in the power slot to keep the air conditioning running. Leaving the hotel we crossed the dusty road and approached a stall advertising AIS BLENDED MANGO/ORENGE/APEL JUICE, and COCONUT JUICE.

Despite having advertised coconuts, the girl serving the stall did not understand what "coconut" meant - instead shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders (despite the pile of green coconuts in the corner). Never mind,
"ais mango dua!" I said, and she promptly started shovelling ice-cubes into a blender and filled it with mango juice.

Once the noise of the rattling and slushing had stopped, Rm4 handed over (about 80p), I asked,
"Di mana 'laundry'?"
another blank look. She disappeared from view into the wooden kitchen to the left, and another lady popped out.
"Di mana laundry?" She pointed at and shouted something to her friend washing dishes at the back of the small shack's plastic seating area, who looked at us and said,
"Laundry? That way (pointing in the direction of the beach). Five minutes, walk".
Thumbs up. "Terima kasih!" We walked off in that direction, drinking deliciously quenching ice-blended mango juice. It turns out that the word for coconut was kelapa, and had I known that, we would have been holding two delicious ice-filled coconuts, straws poking out of their axe-made craniotomies. Never mind!

We were a few score feet from the drinks stall when "Allahu akhbar!" suddenly filled the air from the massive loudspeakers of the nearby mosque. Imagine a Christian church doing that back home, there'd be riots! Not one of the dozen or so native Malays scattered throughout the nearby stalls even flinched, all instead carrying on with their daily routine, smoking or reading the newspaper. The call to prayer continued, and walking past a dozen or so more wooden shops and buildings to the right we finally stumbled across a larger hut, with a few workers inside tending to large washing machines, a woman outside sorting out linen.
"Buka?" I asked. (Open?)
"Yes. Until 10pm! 8 Ringgit for a service wash, collect tomorrow" (our white faces gave the game away).
"Ah OK lah. Terima kasih!"
"You're welcome". Smiles all around.

Back at the hotel we chose simply to wash some clothes by hand in the sink. We only needed 3 days' worth before heading to KB. If we hadn't buggered up the visas, we'd have had plenty from a planned laundry trip in Perth, but never mind. Laundry left to soak, we changed into swimming gear, and at last headed for the inviting pool! It was delightfully cooling, and though being as salty as the tourist reviews had said it was, it was clean and clear. Seawater probably. We spent a good half an hour just lazing around, me swimming and doing lengths underwater as always, Emma opting to be less energetic and soak up the sun's rays. Refreshed, we headed back to the room to rinse off the salt, and got dressed in smarter clothes to go for dinner at the beach.

It was only a short car journey, the engine management light still on despite the water. Turning left down a side road before arriving at the main strip of Panta Cenang, I hoped to find the wooden waterfront restaurant that I'd eaten in with dad back in 2000. The Langkawi Holiday Resort and Spa was a sprawling complex, and in fact the one we thought we'd booked into until only a few days prior, owing to the poor utilization of Google by businesses in the area. It was at least a 4-star resort from the looks of it, traditionally themed wooden-frontage buildings but surely over a metal/concrete substructure. A central hallway linked the entranceway to the back of the building, where I knew the beach to be. We weren't guests, but dressed smartly and walking with purpose, nobody batted an eyelid as we walked through the complex. Past an open-air bar to the right, complete with musical stage and roadies preparing instruments presumably for a show later in the evening, we emerged from the building next to the hotel's luxurious and large curvaceous swimming pool, surrounded on all sides by the main building, outdoor restaurant and two room blocks, amidst a landscape of tasteful shrubs and curving cobble paths. A few dozen swimmers and splashers were enjoying their evening dip. We walked on, toward the beach; palm trees ahead of us swayed in the breeze, and we could see the blue sea stretching out beyond a strip of white sand. A small wooden hut formed an open but sheltered bar area, complete with stools. No sign of our old restaurant, though. A paraglider took off, complete with the roar of twin 150hp Evinrude engines of its towboat. Jetskis whizzed around in the distance, the spurts of water from their watercooling pumps firing high arcs of water behind them. The beautiful Cenang beach stretched for a couple of hundred yards to the left, before ending in a tree-covered rocky headland; to the right it curved around for miles, forming a bay. Directly in front of us, out across the water, the small tree-covered island of Pulau Epor lay about a kilometre offshore. We heard an AirAsia Airbus A321 roar into the air from the runway about 3 miles away to the right, taking a gradual climbing turn to the left, leaving our view to the left having flown parallel to the beach during its climb. A european tourist stood meditating into the warm onshore breeze, her red sarong flowing in the breeze; children played in the surf, a few venturing out further into the water to swim. It was a little slice of heaven, the low sun just to the right of Pulau Epor reflecting off the calm tropical water. We stayed for a little while, admiring the scenery, before heading to the modern-looking open-air and covered bar/restaurant that we'd walked past on the way to the beach, from the swimming pool.

Cenang Beach, complete with paraglider and paddlers.

The restaurant was as modern as the rest of the spa resort, with glass panels and a tastefully lit bar. It was shaped a bit like a mobile concert stage, closed at the back, used for an air-conditioned, glass-walled dining room, and open at the front, the ceiling serving as an awning for the tables in the main area. It opened out onto a few more tables outside placed around its main attraction, a stunning infinity swimming pool, with a now reflecting the evening sunset. A couple of palm trees were dotted around the pool's perimeter, amidst a few cushioned deck chairs and softly glowing light cubes, like those you'd see in an Ikea showroom. To our surprise and slight disappointment, the restaurant served mainly western foods, but we ordered from the small Local Cuisine section of the menu, and chose a pepsi and ice lemon tea to drink. We'd started by sitting outside by the pool, but noticing some ominous clouds building to the northeast behind the restaurant, we moved inside under the cover of the awning. A plasma TV showed a football match between the team of the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan and another - it all seemed normal, except for there being NOBODY in the grandstands behind them. Very odd.

The sun set; thousands of lights flickered to life out in the bay, the softly glowing cubes now brightly shining against the subtly lit background of the swimming pool. Strings of lights wound around palm trees provided a soft orange glow in the background, enough to see dozens of large bats flying around in the newly darkened sky. The meal was lovely, if served a little bit slowly, and was of a sensible price. We didn't do anything else that evening, instead opted to head home and chill, ready to get up tomorrow for our long day at sea!