Location: Pulau Payar, Malaysia
Another scenic island paradise in Malaysia. A national park known as Pulau Payar is just south of the island of Langkawi. Verdant green jungles rise from warm tropical waters to high peaks on islands less than a mile in their smallest dimension. The lush green mat of the forest is punctuated occasionally by a single tree towering above all the others, announcing with its grand size and solid limbs that it was here before us. It will be here waiting for Argo after her next circumnavigation. These are the waters of paradise. We pulled into this place just before lunch today, coming off of our 18 hours, a 115-mile jaunt up the coast from our last tropical paradise, Pulau Pangkor, to the south.
The excitement is always the same when we make landfall at a new place, and they are all new to us. We steal glances at the shoreline and beaches as we work to drop the sails and ready the boat to tie up to her mooring. After eating lunch, we are buzzing with the excitement of something new. We wonder aloud about what we will do and see. Is there anything to do onshore? Can we go swimming here? Where will we go diving tomorrow? Did you see that enormous jellyfish? We were able to take a swim off of the side of Argo, mostly to collect a few samples to look at under microscopes. A few of the shipmates took one of the dinghies and went snorkeling on a small island, where they were eyed by sharks with the same caution that they eyed the sharks. For the rest of the questions, we will have to wait until tomorrow, when we will have a full day to hike, dive, swim, and explore paradise.