Saturday 21 December Magical Langkawi

To promote Langkawi and Malaysia as a tourist destination and to kick of Visit Malaysia 2014 a two week festival of events began here at Kuah town on Thursday. The key spectacle is a half hour show of lasers and fireworks set to music which starts just after 9 each night. We watched the opening night sitting in our deck chairs on the foredeck. It was like watching a play from backstage – the lights and the performers, yes performers too, direct their attention to the beach in front of the floating barge s this evening we went ashore to view from the beach. Happily the VIP tent and it's comfortable armchairs had been left in place so we settled into the front row and waited. The opening set is 5 water skiing girls holding national flags being towed in front of six fountains of water back lit by lasers which are sited on a barge behind. The girls exit stage right and the show kicks off with music and a co-ordinated light show. I didn't know how effective it is to use fountains of water as a screen. We found the light show more entertaining than the fireworks which were also part of the show. The lights were even better than the guys on jet bikes with fireworks strapped to the sides or the pyramid of water skiers which closed the show.

After the light, sound and skier show a music concert began further along the beach front but that we could hear from on board and even see with binoculars trained on a screen on the beach.

This was either a sign of our age or being protective of our newly repaired dinghy. Since we bought the dinghy secondhand three years ago it's never deflated. However, the glue joining fabric tube to aluminium floor had disintegrated and for the last two years David has been seeking new glues and re-sticking. Since we've been in Malaysia it's gotten even worse; to the state of looking like an old shoe with the upper coming apart from the sole. Each time it was not on deck it seeped with water and has begun to look like a shoe with it's upper coming away from the sole in so a recommendation given to us in Johor for a Langkawi repair shop was most timely. Two weeks ago Farid of Swift Inflatables collected dinghy with an estimated finish date of 10 days. He overran by four but we are delighted with the job he has done. Let's see if we keep dry...

If you wonder how we managed for two weeks without a runaround – our very generous friends, Christina and Keith of Poco Andante lent us theirs while they were staying in the marina in Rebak.