Jeff's Log ~ Saturday, March 29th 2008

6 03.335N 99 52.200E

Yesterday, after leaving the anchorage outside of the marina, we took a short ride to a place called The Lake Of The Pregnant Maiden. We anchored about 300 meters away from the dock in about 18’ of water. Then we all jumped in the dink and went ashore to a nice little park area that has a walkway built through a fairly dense jungle to a fresh water lake. It is named after the rock formation that towers over it resembling a pregnant woman lying on her back. There is a nice floating pier from which we jumped in and swam in fresh water for the first time in a very long time. There is a natural rock dam that keeps the salt water out.

On the pier is a t-shirt shop and paddle boat rental shack. The island is really cool with wild monkeys running about. There is heavy vegetation, and I even saw a termite mound. The termites had eaten the previous wood structures, and all that was left was a couple of eaten remains sticking up from concrete plugs. After a refreshing swim we walked back to the dock and returned to the big boat.

Just around the island’s corner, we anchored for the night. Just before sunset, we were treated to the aerial acrobats of two Langkawis. Lang is Malay for eagle, Kawi is Malay for reddish brown. The island used to be full of them, but now because of loss of habitat, the eagles are only seen in the outer islands. The two that were flying just above us were riding the air currents and were very close to the boat I thought of my Big Sis, Chris, and how she would enjoy the show. The sunset was a very pretty one with orange and yellow steaks in the clouds.

In the morning as the sun came up, the cries of eagles could plainly be heard, along with the other bird songs. Quite a nice start to the day, I’ll tell you. We were under way as the sun broke the horizon, making our way down the Malacan Straights towards Singapore.