Tamam (Marina Island)

Today we do not have much planned.  We have to drive to Marina Island to buy ferry tickets for tomorrow to get to Pangkor Island.  It seems our United States issued credit cards are not accepted by many of the Malaysian websites such as websites that sell ferry tickets and bus tickets, so we have to go in person.

We ate what we had around for breakfast and took the 10 minute drive to the ferry station.  Afterwards, we decided to drive around this very small (317 acres), manmade island.  We went left our of the ferry station and it didn't take long for us to get to a guarded gate.  The guard let us into Rockund Fishing Chalet to let us look around.

Here we had a view of Pangkor Island where we will go tomorrow by ferry.

We then went the other direction and wound up at Teluk Batik, the happening beach here on Marina Island.

Today is a holiday....again.  It seems that there are many holidays in Malaysia.  Today is Vesak, a Buddhist holiday that celebrates the birth, enlightenment, and death of Buddha.  There were many families enjoying the day on the beach.  We were even provided an "air show".

This family set up tents and was cooking satay on an open flame.  I don't know if they slept in the tents overnight, but it seems so.

We saw this ice cream vender and Peter wanted a coconut ice cream.  We also was rewarded with her story of the great tsunami of Christmas 2004.  This area was spared, but she said that if the police ever tell people to evacuate because of a tsunami, everyone will.

After walking around the market at the beach, we headed back towards our lodging.  We were all ready for lunch, and we saw two restaurants kitty corner from each other.  We parked, checked them out, and picked this one.  The restaurant was self-help style, so you take what you want and the cashier somehow adds it up and tells you how much. 

We have plans to go to a well reviewed seafood restaurant tonight, so I didn't want to eat much.  I was very tempted to get one of these fish, but then I saw prawns, and choice that instead.

Prawns, bock choy, and rice for me; chicken, bock choy, and rice for Tim.  With our standard drink of 100 Plus, the total came to 31 MYR = $7 USD.

After lunch we headed back to the apartment to catch up on blogging and do some planning for Bali.  Oh...the Toddy that I drank yesterday did not make me sick, so I drank some more while blogging.  I actually do like this weird drink.

Around 6:30 PM we were ready to go for dinner.  The place is conveniently located right across the street.  We ordered seafood hotpot, butter squid, and a pitcher of watermelon juice (68 MYR => $15 USD).  It was all really good and may have been one of my favorite meals we have had in a while.   

And checkout the sunset we could see from our dinner table. Wow.

After dinner and the beautiful sunset, we walked back across the street to the lodging.  After some more computer work, we called it a night.  Tomorrow morning we catch a ferry to Pangkor Island.  Until then...