Let’s start
by saying that we are not in Phuket Thailand, the scheduled port, today. Last night we were told by the Captain that
the custom authorities in Phuket wanted 3 custom agents to perform a
face-to-face passport check of the 2500 passengers and crew on the ship, before
we could disembark! This would require
about 6 hours and we weren’t scheduled to arrive in Phuket until 8 am. Guess what – the decision was made to not go
to Phuket but rather to go to Langkawi, the residents of which were happy to
see us.
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| Costa arriving Upright at Langkawi |
This morning
we anchored off shore at 7 am and looked out to see the Costa Classica sailing
in to port (UPRIGHT!). Off the ship,
there are tours being offered, but we decided there wasn’t anything that struck
us as a must do. Instead we disembark
and take the shuttle bus to the local shopping area, which also has the
Underworld Water Aquarium and is adjacent to a nice beach.
A quick
look around the shop resulted in a few must-have items, and our desire to pay
with Thai and US$ required 4 helpful young woman to figure out the
transaction. Then we walk to the beach,
walk the main street and head back to the ship.
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| Langkawi Beach |
Langkawi,
located in the Strait of Malacca of the west coast of Malaysia is comprised of
99 islands which look beautiful from the ship.
They are building and preparing for more tourism. The people were warm and welcoming. This area has been declared a bio-diversity
protection area which means – eco-tourism of course! We see signs indicating that you can do all kinds
of green-touristy things already. A few
other observations: the men seem to all
be standing around, or riding motorcycles or driving taxis; the women all seem
to be in Muslim garb and working in stores; the blending of cultures is even
here on these islands – western, Chinese, Indian and Malay; the beaches are
nice and seem fairly clean; some fishing boats are around and we see fish right
at the dock but we don’t see any signs offering fishing trips; prices are
fairly cheap for hotels – we are told $20 a night and a beer costs 50 cents.
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| Tourist Steve |
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| Local Restaurant |
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| Waving Good Bye Langkawi |
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| Flowerpot type islands |
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| Looking out to the other islands |
Special
treat today in this tender port: The
ship, over several hours, rotated around the anchor, giving all decks
spectacular views of Langkawi and surrounds. Was the ship’s Master was just
showing off Queen Elizabeth’s azipods and bow thrusters to the two other ships
in port, or was this recompense to the passengers for missing Phuket?
Oh – we
haven’t mentioned shipboard entertainment.
Let us just say that last night we had our first singing juggler….need
we say any more about him. Yet, tonight
was Pingxin Xu, a world famous dulcimer musician who played with his heart and
soul this very complicated instrument – excellent! :-D
The next
two days the ship will sail at sea crossing the Bay of Bengal towards Sri Lanka
(aka Ceylon) to dock in Colombo.
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