(Daniel) After what could only be described as a very bad nights sleep!  I woke up this morning to the sound of Leo’s dog barking at something, and jumped down from the roof tent, only to find that I could hardly walk from the sunburn on the back of my legs.  It was ok once I got going, but each time I stood up, or stayed standing for any length of time, I had the most amazing pains in the backs of my legs!   I hoped that this would not take too long to heal, and then took the dog to have it’s morning pee.

After a while Leo turned up, and he and I headed into town to collect my outboard motor.  On the way we stopped at a café for some sandwiches and coffee.  While we ate Leo’s phone rang, and as soon as he answered he got all exited!  His family had arrived in town to surprise him.  He told them where we were and they drive down to meet us arriving about ten minutes later.  After some brief introductions, and some catching up, I went with Leo to get the Outboard while the others went back to the beach to wait for us.

When we arrived at the boat place, I asked for them to start the outboard for me, so that I could see it running, they had considerable trouble, which had me a bit worried, but after a telephone call to the workshop they had the engine running, and once we had settled up, we headed back to the beach.  I couldn’t wait to test the engine out for the first time in the sea!

We arrived back, just as two people walked over and asked Leo for a trip to the Island where we had gone fishing before.  He obliged and started to get his stuff together.  Meanwhile I took the opportunity to go over to the Sunday bar and see Regis, who I hadn’t spoken to since he put me onto camping here a few days ago.  He was sitting with an English guy and his Thai wife, who I started to talk Thai with.  She was so impressed at how politely I spoke, that she gave me the telephone number of her Daughter in London!  I told her that I am very shy and would never have the guts to ring it, but she insisted and gave me her number also in case I had any problems!   Regis probably bought me one too many beers then, because as Leo came back over to say that he was leaving for the Island, I found it very hard to follow!  But I managed somehow to get up, and then take my own boat down to the water for it’s maiden voyage.  The plan was to follow Leo, and that way if I broke down, he could rescue me on the way back.  I wrapped a sheet around myself, to prevent my painful sunburn getting any worse, and then pushed the boat out into the sea.  The engine took some starting again, but once it was going I was off, and sitting in the right place was surprised to find the plane even with this small 4hp outboard!  I was so happy as I started out, that I started singing, something about Captain Dan and he’s the man, on his way to an island, etc etc, and only stopped singing when the engine suddenly conked out halfway!

There I was, stranded a good 2km from shore, I waved to Leo, who I could see on the island, but he couldn’t see me.  I blew my whistle, but no-one heard, and so after trying many times to get the engine going again, I lay back and took in the experience of being marooned in the sea.  It wasn’t so bad, except when I needed the loo, and fell over, getting more than just my boat a little wet! I cursed the beers that I had drunk!  After about half an hour, sitting under my sheet like a Bedouin on a very wet desert, Leo started back, and headed off in the wrong direction!  Luckily he spotted me waving my sheet around manically, and turned to meet me.  I would hate to have swum back from there with my sun burnt legs!   After plying around with the throttle and filling it to the brim with fuel, I managed to get it going again, and it was just as well, as Leo just sped off and left me there again!

When I got back, the boat was acting perfectly, so while Leo and Daniel, his son went wake boarding, I drove around for nearly an hour, testing it maneuverability and seaworthiness.  To my surprise it was extremely good even in the rough waves at the shore, and only slowed down when the water filled it up and I had to bail it out!  I drove in and rode the waves, and then turned suddenly jumping back over them until I was past the breakers, again and again until I was satisfied. Then I pulled onto the shore and dragged the boat up and out of the way.  Several people came and asked how much it would be to hire it, but I resisted the temptation in favour staying out of prison!

After drying off a little, I took my stunt kite out and flew that until the sun went down, and storm clouds started to move in.  Then Leo and his family took me into Kuantan, where we ate another huge fish dinner at a Chinese restaurant that was obviously very popular. As it was filled with people all the time that we were there.

When we finished Leo drove me and his wife back to the resort, while the boys headed to an apartment in town.  They went off to bed, but I stopped in at the Karaoke bar, where the Hunter was drinking coffee in the corner.  He was really happy to see me, and we sang more Malay songs, and I did a particularly good rendition of “love me tender” before we went across the road to have a late night snack of Nasi Goreng, or fried rice in English! 

While we ate a Hindi movie was playing, the lead woman, Bobby, was remarkable, and I made a note to find out more about her, although she is probably 50 now!  She had such allure.  As we finished eating the Hunter told me stories of his best hunts, and then of his dream, which is apparently soon to come true, to hunt a tiger.  He told me that the Chinese will pay 400RM per kilo, to which I replied that he could probably get 4000RM per kilo from conservationists not to kill it, but he had that look in his eye again and as he dropped me off at the tent I made sure that I would remember him telling me the story tomorrow so that I could note it down in the diary.

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