Hullo Friends and family
Say hart ke?
Which means, “Are you well?”
Being back in
Langkawi is being back in Island Mode - it’s the “Manana” syndrome where
time is meaningless, and for those of us who are slow at the best of times,
its easy to deal with. Far be it that we lead a boring life though and the
more we get to know the islanders the fonder we grow of them and their ways
which are strange to our western minds to say the least.
Friend Kim has
bought himself a house on the island, and we became enthusiastic at the idea
of perhaps owning a piece of something somewhere ourselves one day, and so
why not in Langkawi…just for the time of “in case”
Having time on
our hands, a very kind and enthusiastic Hasmadi offered to take us under his
wing and proceeded to show us all manner of properties that were “For Sale”
The first was a
beautiful piece of land on the banks of a river that was crystal clear and
babbled over pebbles on two sides of the house. It had an enormous curry
leaf tree in the back yard that really sold it to me, and huge shady trees
that had us hooked. The incomplete house would be a challenge and was quite
unique. My eyes bulged at the sight of rooms that people would actually
build and live in: The wall between living room and kitchen had a huge
circular faeces-brown tiled hole that represented a doorway, and the
bathroom, squat-panned, was tiled brilliant blue from floor to ceiling. But
the thought of a project had Mister all enthusiastic and the potential to
make it comfortably liveable was there.
For a while it
had our minds running away with us. The process of buying a piece of land
which falls under what is termed “Malay Reserve “ was something else though.
To cut a long story short…after Don smelt a rat, we had a surveyor out to
check it over and as we surmised, the house was built on river reserve and
therefore nothing about it was legal.
It wasn’t meant
to be.
But Hasmadi
wasn’t about to give up. There followed a few days of land hunting in which
we were dragged around to look at all manner of abode. We had great fun as
we traipsed through paddy fields and slapped and scraped at leaches that
threatened to suck our blood dry. We climbed through fences and leopard
crawled through jungle, were eaten alive by huge red ants and nearly run
down by water buffalo. Until eventually we asked ourselves what on earth we
were doing. We have a beautiful house that we can move anywhere we want,
especially when we get tired of the neighbours!
But we met
lovely people and have been enthusiastically learning to speak Bahasa Malay
as a result.
We also had a
notion to be making some sausages seeing as there are none available on the
island. Nothing is as it seems though and the fact that it is a strict
Muslim island doesn’t help. However we have invested in some equipment, have
got ourselves a business licence (to cover charter as well) and will be
doing some experiments. So those of you who will be coming over to visit –
wont be denied your favourite Boerie!
Some Chinese
Malay friends who have a food distribution business joined us on Katrine for
a couple of fishing expeditions and in return invited us to a business
dinner at the famous five star Frangipani Resort and Spa. That was a real
treat and we put our stringent diet on hold for the night. The setting was
out of this world with the buffet spread out under the spot-lighted palm
trees along the beach-side with swimming pool surrounds, the sound of the
waves and the sweet scent of frangipani. The catering was over-done with
enough food far in excess of the 21 guests and we didn’t do justice to the
lamb on the spit, huge dishes of every seafood imaginable, an assortment of
Malaysian chicken dishes and salads and desserts that ranged from a
chocolate and mascarpone delight to bread pudding and fifteen others in
between. The guests included top chefs from the island hotels like the
Sheraton and Awana. I sat next to a delightful gentleman named Winston, who
is a pastry chef. He was as round as he was high, a Chinese Mlaysian and
spoke English with a New Zealand accent as well as 4 other languages
including Russian. He had a witty sense of humour and kept me amused with
his stories. Ben, also Chinese Malaysian was “2nd generation
chef” whose father had recipes for all manner of Chinese dishes including
python soup (the intricate recipe for which was water and python) which was
good for “pimples and blood.” He informed us knowledgably of birds-nest
soup, very good for ones complexion and the delicacies derived from monitor
lizard and dog. I’m glad this discussion took place after dinner but I was
still tempted to lift the lid of some of the containers to re-check.
In true
Malaysian style everyone was given enormous doggie bags (excuse the pun)
from which we ate for the following few days although I did avoid the Redang
in which I swear I distinctly saw some fur!
Back on board
Katrine, we continue with our cookery book and to expanding our culinary
expertise. In light of this, we had a wonderful morning being entertained on
Mr.Lee and Hwang’s boat, Isaac. If you remember Mr.Lee was one of the unsung
heroes of the tsunami when he saved a child who fell into the water at
Telaga Harbour
Hwang’s
speciality at any yachtie “do” is sushi and on admiring her artistic
handiwork I was told, “You come, I show you.”
Which is what
we did,
And as we
watched Hwang, Mr.Lee told us his story of how he had a dream to cruise. He
told of how against all odds in his country, Korea, where he did not agree
with the politics, he had built his boat, knowing very little of the craft,
of the sea and of sailing. Then sadly they had lost their son at the age of
25 and this had determined the couple to set off to Who-Knows-Where to pick
up the pieces. Whew. And they cant even swim. We meet such lovely and
courageous people.
All the boats
that have been cruising Chagos, the Maldives and India this past season are
dribbling back into Telaga with wonderful tales of adventure, and our
tongues are hanging out for another trip. Before that though, the charter
season begins next month and with all the chores still on the “gunna” list
(The things we are gunna do) we had better get cracking. Our next trip to
the (Indian) Andaman Islands is in February…insh’allah – if God wills - lets
hope another tsunami doesn’t interrupt these plans this time!
Take care and
write soon
All love
Don and Jeanne