Langkawi

 

4 June

Langkawi

Firstly, for those friends of mine (and you know who you are) who are trying to get champagne on Medicare, I know up until now there has been much anecdotal evidence of the curative powers of champagne/wine. But now, there is proof. Our friend Di, who fell heavily in Bali, hitting her head, her arm and her knee, was in bed looking like she was at death's door when I saw her at lunch time. A miracle happened. When we came out of the buffet restaurant at night, who should be at a table on deck, bright as a button but Di. And yes, you guessed it, the curative element was chardonnay. (And we thought it was only champagne). "It's amazing what three chardonnays can do, darlings", she said. So, now I'm sure we can put in our research grant application. Only, wherever will we get volunteers who will want to drink champagne?

We are just docking in Langkawi. Sail in this morning was beautiful with dozens of small islands with rock bases, cliffs, and covered with green tropical vegetation. .... Didn't go in to town because I've contracted the dreaded "Dawn Princess Lurgi". Had an easy day. John and Allan went in.. They took a cab which cost $7 return for the two of them. Princess charges $7 each way per person in their shuttle bus. He said the town they went to was really nice with a long white sandy beach. There was very reasonably priced clothing. They ate in a restaurant and the food and drink was also reasonably priced. Gail, Rosemary and Barry who are at our dinner table negotiated with a taxi driver to take them around the island. Gail said don't negotiate with the ones who come on to the dock but walk the couple of hundred metres off and there are lots of taxis there. They had an air-conditioned taxi with driver for most of the day, went all around the island for AUD25 each. Would have cost them AUD14 each just to go in on the shuttle bus. Don't know if next year's cruise calls here but I'm posting the info just in case. Another thing, the map Princess gave us with the Princess Patter was useless – didn't even mark where we'd docked. When you get off the wharf there are detailed maps for free. I also heard that, because Langkawi is a duty free port, they were confiscating any wine brought on board to be handed out as duty free when disembarking at the end of the cruise – not confirmed though. Sail out was just as magic – it's definitely a place we would like to come back to.

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