Visa run to Malaysia

Anchored behind some Island on the way from Thailand to Langkawi

Thais pulling in their nets before a storm is about to hit them

So It was a bit of a fast passage to Langkawi, Baikal loves the storms and hoons in the strong wind, but when there was white outs because it was raining so heavily, that was a bit scary. However, it doesn't last long. There were so many floating logs and debris on the way to Langkawi, we had to be alert!

We enjoyed having these freshwater swims, refreshing!

Below is a pic of what you see along the beaches in north Langkawi, of course not the tourist ones. We saw needles and syringes on 2 different beaches! Fricken disgusting. Fisherman's nets and sooooo much rope, blocks of polystyrene, plastic bottles, you know, the usual really..

Always disappointing to see rubbish

As we were kayaking back to the boat, we saw this floating island of rubbish, fishing flag, bamboo poles, ropes, and so many bits of plastic! We saw a fish pot too close to the shore, we knew it must have washed in with a strong wind or something, so we pulled it up and we saw the most sad sight... A DEAD DOLPHIN, humans are pigs, no they are worse than pigs. Disgusting! And you know what was even more disappointing is that there was its tail left floating with meat still on it, there are no fish around to eat it, because the fisherman caught them all!

Floating rubbish, North Langkawi

Baikal anchored NE Langkawi

We kayaked up a mangrove river, where heaps of yachts go called hole in the wall, a cheap safe place to leave the boat while the owners head back home to work or whatever. There were many yachts that look like they've been there for years, a bit of a grave yard, sad really.

This is the actual hole in the wall, a long paddle up the mangrove creeks

Hole in the wall, many yachts moored

North Langkawi, nice cave

 We found some fresh water at this beach we anchored off, south of Langkawi, so all the washing got done, and we were showering and having baths 5 times a day! Was so good, nice and cool!

Duds enjoying fresh water bath!

Sunset at Kuah, Bass Harbour Langkawi

Tanya enjoying a fresh water shower

On our way from Langkawi to Penang, we stopped at Pulau Payar, some 15miles away from Langkawi. Payar is a marine national park, we took a mooring in 25m of water and ventured ashore, there were some awesome walks through the jungle to some nice views and also abandoned resort accommodation that was never finished, we had a look inside one, and saw nice hardwood floors and furniture. The jungle is taking them over. Apparently the owners of them never got a permit to have them there! What a waste! There's about 7 of them! Here we found beautiful clear water and heaps of fish!  There were heaps of small black tip reef sharks, but when we ventured out deeper, there were bigger 5ft ones who came at us out of nowhere, but took off again just as fast.

Black tip reef shark circling me

Only a little black tip, but there were bigger ones

These fish were hanging around looking for food

Back in the water and ready to go again!

Dudley just before Baikal slips back in the water

Just about to go in water

Tanya and the boys from Krabi Boat Lagoon

So  here are some photos (for you mum and dad!) of the inside of Baikal, its been a few hectic days in the water, with tidying all the end bits and pieces.

We leave tomorrow for Langkawi, where we will explore the North and then come back here and rock climb, the weather has been really good, but we are not quite sure just how rough it is out there…

We shall see, being the low season in Thailand, there wont be so many tourists around, so it will be quite for when we come back again.

Anyhow we are looking forward to getting back out there!

bedroom

galley

galley

galley

upper part of head

head

nav station

nav station

port side bedroom, we have a fan each coz it gets pretty hot

port side saloon, if we get a matress for the top you could sleep up there

saloon we still need to paint the floor

starboard side saloon

starboard side bedroom

the empty space Baikal left on the hard stand, note the new toilet block they are building..

Kuala Lumpur and back to Krabi, Thailand

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 10.30pm, we looked into finding accommodation but everything was closing and what was open was expensive, so we stayed the night in the airport!

See me sleeping in the bottom r.hand corner with all our bags, the others are sleeping on the lazyboys.

The next morning took a bus to China town and lugged our bags to the first guesthouse we could see.

The room was budget with just enough room for a bed, and there was a fan (no aircon) so we had to acclimatise pretty quickly to the sweltering heat.

Petaling Street, Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur. View outside bedroom window

We decided to pay a visit to Batu Caves where the most popular hindu shrine outside of India is, (dedicated to Lord Murugan). Batu caves is a limestone hill which has a series of caves and cave temples, 13 kilometres north of Kuala Lumpur.

This was next to the big shrine and the indians gave us heaps of free food to eat...now thats what I'm talking about!!

Petronas towers 451.9m high

(people basejump off this) It was $40AUD to visit the top so we decided to look from the ground.

We went for a walk to the lake gardens and found bambi! We spotted them through the fence of the deer park.

After a few days in the city we soon got sick of the pollution and noise and was looking forward to heading back to the countryside in Krabi, Thailand.

Ladies making skewer sticks for prawns on the barbecue.

We arrived in the afternoon to Krabi and for the whole week it rained torrential downpours solidly! So we started to go stir crazy and then luckily the sun came out.

A quaint little road in Krabi rubber trees on one side and I dont know what the other trees are

Some randoms cool wee house, there are alot of sidecars on scooters here

Dudley hooning past the rubber trees

We took a scooter to the tiger temple in Krabi, and had to walk up around 1300 steps of irregular sizes and very steep sometimes like climbing a ladder. For 2 days after, my quads were sore as!! I know I need to toughen up.. We were so lucky at the top there was free cold drinking water!! What a luxury! Speaking of luxuries, we only just turned the fridge back on yesterday, because being on the hard the power consumption is huge! The steel heats up far too much so the fridge is continually cycling, a drain on the batteries. So Dudley went and turned the thing around that sucks in air, so it sucks in from the galley and not from the hull. And now we can enjoy cold drinks and it tastes soooo much nicer!!
So if ever you're becoming complacent with things in your life, go without it for a few days and then you'll realise just how good you've got it!

View of Krabi from the top

Dudley at the top looking out over Krabi

This was at the top of the hill

arrrrggghh the tiger's got my head!

What have we been doing on Baikal you may wonder, well...working on the interior of Baikal, giving her a new paint job, sanding and fairing the walls and then priming and taping and painting area  work in the anchor locker, making a new hatch for the lazerette, replacing silicone around windows that were leaking, making a surfboard rack in the v-berth replacing a seal on the shaft, testing the header tank for leaks, replacing a heat exchanger, making brackets and the list goes on and on and on.
It is always a constant battle to find the right tool for the job....where did I put the flat head, the paint scraper, the adjustable crescent, we are living in a bomb shelter at present but it is slowly coming back together. THANK GOD!!!

The tools, paint, gloves, rollers, containers needed for the job . In the cockpit

Yeah a bomb went off in here.. we are getting rid of rust in one of the bilges, so had to remove the food, and also repainting the nav area means taking everything away from that area and putting it on the starboard saloon side.

See the cornice (primed in grey) around the edge of the back cockpit, it looks better than the steel edge you can see on the left. You can see the new hatch on the floor as well