Leaving Hotel California

Escaping Pangkor

We were amongst the most junior residents of Pangkor Marina, having been there for only 7 months. The wise ones have been there for years, and many of these long-term resident sages said that leaving couldn’t be done. We left anyway.

After a few last-minute activities: last dinner at High Time, celebration of our imminent departure, and a final opportunity for Maria to wear comedy glasses, the marina staff helped pluck us out sideways from our absurdly tight berthing space, and we headed off to the sunset. Well, to Pangkor Island, to be precise. We didn’t want to push our luck on the first day.

Langkawi Again

Heading back to a place means that you know where to park, where to stop on the way, and where to go when you get there. That leaves a lot of room for the unexpected. We anchored in the same places as last time, which some might say is boring – we would counter with expedience. We cleared in by taking our tender around to the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club. Again. And shopped at Billion supermarket. Again. No dithering about – we ploughed through our shopping list as though on a mission. After all, this was more of a functional stop to stock up on duty-free provisions; not just beer and wine, but food too, would you believe. Langkawi offers duty-free goods of all shapes and sizes.

Directly opposite where we parked is a small marina that I think is run by the local authority. We had previously avoided it because of comments we read about dinghies being stuck here at low water. But, given it was highish water, we thought we would give it a go. One of the staff members working for Tropical Charters showed us the best place to tie up and pointed us towards the office, where we had to pay 10 RM each for parking.

And here, up close, was one of the unexpected discoveries we recently spotted at Kuah: supercar boats, Ferraris and Lamborghinis in almost any colour, posing unapologetically against a backdrop of battered skiffs and wobbly pontoons. A mini version of one of these would make a perfect yacht tender. We saw them zipping around the harbour going like the clappers.

After paying our parking fee and stepping outside the ferry terminal, the Masjid Al-Hana gave us a visual whack in the face. It’s a whopper and probably more impressive than the photograph suggests. We didn’t go, but it is open to the public. Our mission for that evening was to get something to eat.

And on the way back, we spotted this dire warning to Bot operators.

Pregnant Maiden Island

We took a short break away from shopping and headed over to Pulau Dayang Bunting, where there’s an inland lake – the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden. It might come as no surprise that there’s a legend. And here, with the help of my AI investigation team, is the result of the team’s investigation:

The legend of the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden (Tasik Dayang Bunting) centres on a tragic love story between a celestial princess, Mambang Sari, and a mortal man, Mat Teja. Mat Teja fell deeply in love with the beautiful sprite while she bathed in the lake and, using advice from a sage (such as using mermaid tears to make himself visible and desirable to her), tricked her into marriage.

They had a son together, but the child died just seven days after birth from a mysterious illness. Overcome with grief, Mambang Sari placed her baby’s body in the lake’s waters for eternal rest before returning to her heavenly realm.

In her sorrow, the gracious princess blessed the lake, granting its waters mystical powers to cure infertility—believed to make barren women fertile if they bathe or drink from it. The island’s hills are said to resemble her reclining pregnant form, eternally watching over the site.

As well as all that, it has kayaking and a walkway along the lake’s perimeter. It’s well worth the entrance fee. And for those too tight to pay, there’s a cafe outside serving food and drinks and entertainment in the form of monkeys. The resident long-tailed macaques here will have your face off for a bite of chicken shawarma. We had to fight them off with upended chairs. Anyone who thinks these creatures are cute has probably not had an up-close encounter. They have no fear and big teeth.

Back on a mission

With Christmas coming soon and Santa’s beer-and-wine sack almost completely drained, we embarked on a more focused effort to replenish our stock. If there was any doubt about the time of year, the festive season was on clear display at Liquid Village.

Now, having stocked up with navy strength booze rations and a few boat spares, we decided we were ready to leave Malaysia and head up north back to Thailand in time for Christmas with nautical friends old and new.