Far East adventures

---

Well, I am back on my travels and have been so for over a week. I am only now getting down to my 1st Far East blog but I will hopefully be more regular in my updates going forward....

The journey over to my parent's boat in Malaysia is quite an undertaking - I flew Aberdeen to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and then Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi. On arrival, there was a short taxi and ferry trip to arrive at my final destination of Rebac Marina. Thankfully, the journey was all very comfortable and I slept most of the way (which may have been somewhat thanks to a few V&Cs at Schipol airport). The only disruption to the otherwise pleasant travel was a few snorting/choking/sneezing disease-ridden (male) passengers - why are some men so disgusting? And if they must insist on being so disgusting, could they at least have the courtesy not to travel on the same plane as me? Or could some kind of airport surcharge not be levied on them to cut down the price of airtravel for non-disgusting travellers?

Rebac is a fairly opulent marina as it shares its facilities with a 5* resort. So there is a swimming pool where you can enjoy half price Pina Colados at the pool-side bar between 5 and 6pm. There is also early morning (well, 8:15am) pilates (and 7am yoga for the really hard-core which, needless to say, I did not attend). In spite of this, a night in the marina only costs £6 and an evening meal at the "Hard Dock cafe" costs around £2 (you can bring your own alcohol). Alcohol is also very cheap here with a 3 litre box of vodka costing only 38 Ringgits (equivalent to £6.50)

It's quite a different lifestyle and most of the people on the yachts ("yachties") live on their boats all year round ("live-aboards"), some of them having sold their houses back home to finance the yacht of their dreams. Most of the yachties are retired and so are of my parents age (or even older) but there are actually very few straightforward husband-and-wife type yacht-households: Most of the boats are crewed by unmarried middle-aged couples (living-in-sin at sea) or couples of indeterminate relationship (who are the subject of much speculation amongst the other yachties). A typical conversation goes along the line of -

"No, I don't think they are married. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't interested in men at all."

"Oh no - have you seen the way she flirts with some of those mannies on the boat alongside! And she used to be on that other chap's boat - you know, him from Australia - I think they had a fall-out and then she moved to what's-his-name's boat. I tell you, they are definitely a couple".

"Well, when I was onboard to borrow that rope, I had a look and I think they have separate cabins."

"That's maybe just for clothes - you don't know where she sleeps", etc, etc

My suggestion that perhaps it would be easier just to ask (if they are a couple rather than where she sleeps) as opposed to trying to pick up clues like a nautical Hercule Poirot was instantly discarded.

In fact, as most people on boats are moving around you tend to meet in and out with different people from month to month, which makes it difficult to even remember names, without worrying about marital status/sexual orientation. Fortunately, a knack for clear descriptions can get round this problem ("You know who I mean, looks like an attractive Anne Widdecombe").

The heat here can be quite oppressive so you don't eat as much. As a consequence, my dad (never one to deny himself a chocolate biscuit or four at home) always loses a considerable amount of weight. As I will be in charge of the provisioning and catering during the voyage to Thailand, it is very likely that this extreme weightloss will continue (I told him to think of it as a fasting regime) and we may have a skeleton skipper at the helm on our return trip.

However, before we set sail, we left the boat for a 3 day visit to Penang on the Malaysian mainland. More of which in the next entry......

---