Telaga...

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Geo: 6.3663, 99.6838



So after hanging out in Kuah we head off sailing once more, it was great catching up with everyone again, we've made some great friends. From Kuah we headed to Tengah Beach which is close to Pantai Cenang and hung out for a few days.

Only problem with this anchor is you have all the para gliders and jet skis in the area, we end up waving at them from the boat but they don't cause us any problems thankfully, we seem to be far enough out their routes. There's nice resorts on this beach so Drew decided to set up his metal detector and hit the beach at night to have a scan about, you could be lucky and find all sorts of treasures. We wander up and down the beach, we set up a scoop so when it detects something we can dig down to investigate.

It great fun scouring the beach but actually the metal detector is quite heavy after a while, my arm was sore but apparently you can set the main pack up on a waist belt which would be much easier for longer searching. We probably spent a couple of hours on the beach but we were only finding bottle tops, foil from cigarette packs and coins, no diamond rings in sight but you live in hope, any rubbish we did find we bagged up it was fun trying it out anyway.

There's a few good bars through the resorts at this end of Cenang and we end up at Woods Bar where they're just starting a darts competition. Paul who makes pies on the island (and supplied Drifters) was in and actually I know I few people in the bar from different parts of the island, I seem to forget how long I've lived in Langkawi in the past couple of years.

We hang out on the boat during the day and head out late afternoon into Cenang, we can walk along from the where we leave the dinghy, up the beach and along to Rafii's or Lylia's which is the norm. I've good friends here and I love coming over to see them and watch the sunsets which are often incredible.

We head off once again past Cenang, round Rebak island and anchor off at Pantai Kok, this is a beautiful spot right behind two islands and and in front of Kok beach which is beautiful. We just hang out on the boat as we're pretty tired but next morning is really lumpy, the boats all over the place with the swell coming in, as it's my birthday next day Drew decides to check out Telaga marina for a couple of days which was really kind of him.

On the way in Drew fuels up and we check out the berths, they have space which is great and gets us out of the rocking and rolling. I really like Telaga, it's very picturesque with lovely restaurants overlooking the marina and has an almost romantic feeling with the flowers in bloom and the stunning yachts and mountains as a backdrop. We sit and enjoy dinner and a glass of wine and just relax.

Next morning Drew makes homemade pancakes for breakfast which was fantastic (well it is my birthday) and coppio... and we sit back and chill for a while. We ended up taking the dinghy round to Pantai Kok, Drew had me in control of the dinghy but I'm still a bit all over the place with it... we ended up walking round to Berejaya which is a really fancy resort, we sat at a beach bar and cheers' to my birthday which was really nice. I've never been on this beach before which made it all the more special, it has a line of bungalows on stilts with the water lapping under, they're very exclusive.

We're meeting friends in Cenang tonight for birthday drinks, Roel drives us over which was kind and I'm delighted that so many friends from the yacht club come over, there was quite a crowd of us. We sat and had dinner and drinks and even birthday cake, they really made it special for me and I can't thank them enough. Even ones that never come out came over to celebrate with me, I was really touched.

It ended up a late one but we managed to get a taxi back over to the boat, although a bit of a late start next day we went out in the dinghy late afternoon to the first island. We parked up and asked if we could make a BBQ on the beach which was ok although, I don't know how we got away with it because they didn't let any other yachties on the island, it seems to be closed off for one of the water sport companies. We set up the cooker and made sawsows on the beach while watching the sunset, perfect end to birthday celebrations. We visited friends in the evening before calling it a night, we were going to head back to Kuah the next day.

We set off smoothly with Rod and Jen throwing us the lines but as soon as we got into the channel the engine died, now this is not a good place to lose power. We're in a busy narrow channel and had to throw the anchor down and request assistance from the marina to save us hitting either side. Drew went down and bled the engine and managed to get her started again, just in time as there where another two boats on their way in, anchor lifted and we got away. Rod flew out in his dinghy to make sure we were ok which was very kind, and thankfully we were. Ooo it's all a learning curve and we have learned so much with different situations we've got into!

So we head back to Kuah and back to anchor, Drew wants to work on the engine and install a day tank which should sort the cutting out problems we've had. So we spend a bit of time again, pottering around Kuah and popping into the yacht club which I enjoy our next stop is Penang.

It was a relaxing, fun trip and I'm looking forward to our next adventure.

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