Pulau Pankor

Malaysia

July 9, 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

I am on the beach, sitting on a white-gray, very long driftwood log deposited on the golden sands of Pulau Pangkor, in Perak. I am facing the sun setting in the Laut Andaman, at the northern end of the Selat Melaka.**

I am on Pangkor Island, a four-hour uneventful drive north from Kuala Lumpur on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. After three hours the bus driver was kind enough to stop and wait for me when I said "toilette!"

Then a ferry ride to the island and a pink Volkswagen van-taxi to the charming-sounding Hornbill Hotel. The bus was scheduled to leave KL at 12:00 and the ferry from Lumut at 4:40. In both cases, those times were, I am sure, the honest hope of the ticket seller.