LANGKAWI, MALAYSIA -

PORTO MALAI

Monday, March 3, 2025, Temperature 81 Degrees, Humidity 79%, W- 2.3 mph

I’ve mentioned before, for John the World Cruise is all about the journey, he would be happy if we never got off the ship. He enjoys dinners together in the formal Dining Room, watching the sunset through huge windows on the Crow’s Nest on the 10th Deck (we’ve even seen the Green Flash), and the laundry service with pressed T-shirts and underwear! I like those things too, but he says I’m more interested in the “experience”, i.e. Excursions. So, we compromise. After two back-to-back excursion days (Singapore 3 /1 and Kuala Lumpur 3/2 - he enjoyed them both I might add), I decided to save up some of my “Excursion Time Credit” with John and not schedule anything for the next 2 ports – Langkawi, Malaysia and Phuket, Thailand.

Before every port, Kimberly Wells, the Cruise Director, gives a Port Talk geared to cruisers who want to “do it” on their own. She talks about what’s available, transportation, etc. We were able to tie up the pier side in Langkawi, which is always a plus. Kimberly said there’s a covered walk about a ship’s length into the port with a small resort, refreshments and some souvenir stands. The city was offering free shuttle buses to town and the Aquarium about 30-45 minutes away, but we decided to pass on those.

Our plan was to leave the ship early, but it was almost 10 AM before we got off and it was already hot! I try to swim about 7-ish every sea day. Calling it swimming is generous; I dog paddle and don’t get my face in the water. There are usually 3 of us regular early pool people. John does laps around Deck 3 most Sea days; he does six laps, one lap is 1/3 mile. Then we have breakfast in the dining room which makes it about 9 AM when we’re done. The stewards were still working in our cabin, so we went up to the Crow’s Nest to give them more time. Finally, back to our cabin for hats, sunglasses, money and we were off.

The ship has suggested trying to avoid using credit cards in this area, so they’ve had Money Changers (doesn’t that sound Biblical?) on board here and in Kuala Lumpur. The money here is very colorful – each denomination is a different color, sometimes a different size (makes our green money seem pretty boring) with metallic and clear accents. It’s made of plastic material we’ve heard is washable. John is saving foreign money to give to our 15 year old nephew who loves money! He’s a great money manager – saves the money he earns and has bought his own computer and gaming console (we think a career in finance is in his future).

The covered walkway was longer than advertised. We were passed by a couple of cruisers whizzing by on their mobility scooters. We’re impressed with the number of older and dodderier people (is that a word?) than us who don’t let it slow them down. They go everywhere on those scooters, but you have to be careful, or they’ll mow you down. Once on land, we walked by the resort with its infinity pool, refreshments and the souvenir shops – our big purchase was a refrigerator magnet! In the marina area, there were two fiberglass Corvette replicas floating on rafts, not sure what that was all about.

After a couple of pleasant hours, we headed back to the Zuiderdam - it’s always nice to be “Home”! Members from Hospitality are waiting by the gangplank with water, lemonade and ice-cold cloth – so nice on a hot day. After dropping off our big purchase, we headed up to our favorite place, the Crow’s Nest; a G&T for John and a T for me. From there we could watch the rest of our fellow travelers as they straggled down the walkway, hot and tired after a good day ashore.