May 28, 2015
Langkawi again: I think I've been here before, or have I?
Having left Phuket we spent the night sailing south again, returning for a third time through the Malacca straits. It was only later that I found out that this stretch of water is notorious for piracy, something that must have caused one or two of the oldies on board a moment or two of panic when they turned a corner and bumped into Tom for the first time. But by morning we were docked up safely in port on the Malaysian island of Langkawi. It felt even weirder for me to be back here, because of course I had cycled across Langkawi a few months previously. My mind struggled to find the logic in me being back here when I was supposed to be closing in on Australia, but I didn’t name this journal The Really Long Way Round for nothing.
We were at least at a different part of the island, one that I hadn’t been to before, and it was actually nicer scenery here than that which I had previously witnessed. The numerous small forested islands in the bay looked rather picturesque as the sun rose on what was to be a beautiful day. Tom and I, bellies suitably swollen from breakfast and with our pockets stuffed with hoarded surplus to get us through the day, disembarked the ship and left on an expedition. We once again ignored the buses and taxis and set off on foot, although this time there was no café close by, and we followed the road for several kilometres through the jungle until we came upon a town. Here Tom had ambitions to find an ATM and purchase a bottle of champagne that could be drunk onboard to celebrate our upcoming crossing of the equator. I settled for the beach.
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I lay on the soft sand of a mostly deserted beach and watched paragliders as they flew through the air behind speedboats. From my position I could see north to the mountains on the west of the island, the place that had been my first sight of Malaysia back in March, and thought again about how strange it was to be back here. I was itching to get to Australia.
Tom came and found me, bottle in hand, and we walked back to the boat together. I wasn’t sure how much Tom was enjoying being on a cruise ship, it wasn’t really his scene. I thought about this more as the ship departed in the evening. There was a special sunset as we sailed away through the small islands and I had on my Mp3 player. As The Verve’s ‘Lucky Man’ played in my ears I looked at the striking scene around me and reflected on how very lucky I was, and how privileged to be able to travel in this luxurious way. How fortunate to be able to step away from the poverty and struggle I’d witnessed too much of, and to experience a different world aboard this boat. And I thought of Tom, poor confused Tom, and how I could tell for sure that he had been much happier on the floor of that cockroach-infested Indonesian ferry.
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