Living a life of luxury (for a few hours!)

Living on a yacht in SE Asia in January is fabulous – the water is clear, the weather is comparatively settled, it’s hot but not meltingly so. On land there are plenty of restaurants with a million dollar views but with affordable food and beer at a reasonable price. And occasionally you can lob into a fabulous resort and live a luxurious life for a few hours. 

We did just that when we anchored in Datai Bay, round the corner from Telaga Harbour. 
We were circumnavigating Langkawi with our boat guest, the Capt’n’s brother from England and as the anchorage was nice and calm decided to dinghy in and go for a walk along the beach – something we had been unable to do the previous time we had anchored there. 

We walked to one end of the beach and decided to go in search of a cold beer – the Andaman Resort looked very inviting so we wandered round the swimming pool area and then through a stand of trees where we came upon another pool. This time instead of clear, clean water against an azure background, the water was cloudy green and mossy. It soon became apparent that it was a pool for fish and corals and not for people. 

Wandering round it we came across the delightful resident marine biologist who took great trouble to tell us all about the pool and its inhabitants, about habitats and food, the types of coral and the habits and types of fish. 

All this was thirsty business so we continued our search for those cold drinks and found the perfect spot – the resort’s beach bar. For the record, we were made very welcome there and although the beers were on the expensive side the service was cheerful and faster than greased lightening! We ended up having a very enjoyable bar meal there. 

Later on we walked to the resort at the other end of the beach, The Datai, which looked very chi-chi but by then we’d had our fill of luxury resorts and were looking forward to getting back onto our boat to wrap up the evening.