Saturday, December 20, 2008

Kuantan Break

With Christmas rapidly approaching and having no other holiday plans coupled with needing to be on hand to cover the office while the others are off sunning themselves, Shilpa and I decided to have a rapid mini holiday in Kuantan with the boys.









I was sick with a chest infection so my plans to cycle there and back were vetoed by the coach (yes, her indoors) but I was allowed to take my windsurfer. We stayed at the Hyatt and the wind was a good 15-20 knots every afternoon - perfect! Unfortunately, the waves were real dumpers on the beach and that together with my poor technique and lack of practise made the first two days somewhat frustrating and painful.

Fortunately, a little last minute research meant a quick dart to Balok Beach before heading home meant that I didn't feel like a complete windsurfer loser - I had a good hour of blasting around managed loads of water starts and got to use my harness quite a bite (otherwise my arms would have fallen off).




































Here are a few snaps of me cavorting around on the water together with some of Shilpa and the boys.






















Our last half a day turned out to be amazing actually: -

We visited the zoo;




Took the boys on battery powered jeeps, battery powered (3 wheel) motorbikes (I strongly disapprove of motorbikes otherwise and toy guns for what it's worth).



















We then took the boys on a pony ride all before we went and checked out on the way home with a slight windsurfing detour. Wicked!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey there. The NE wind monsoon is still blowing. If you happen to visit Balok Beach again check out our place where the local windsurfers hang out.

All info here
http://www.bluefinz.com/forum/index.php/topic,3296.0.html

Simon said...

Cool thanks dude, I'll check it out next time we come. Can you give me your email address? Also what are the best times of year to come for the good wind?

Anonymous said...

I'm not very comfortable sharing my email in public space like this. But if you want to contact me I'll be at the bluefinz forum, by username humongous. It's a great forum. Check it out.

Best time of the year is actually now. Usually we have our annual Kuantan Challenge between Jan-Feb. No race this year though, sorry.

Anyway, it has been blowing since late november and it'll continue to blow until late march, peaking at 25 knots at times. See you there! :)

Simon said...

Hi Syamil,

Thanks for the feedback. I understand regarding your email. If you fancy emailing me directly my email is on my profile on this site.

It's simoncross@promarkstrategies.com

Hopefully see you in Kuantan sometime after the Ironman is over but before the wind dissappears.

Cheers