Langkawi, Malaysia Mar 19th

Today was a stop at a small island off of the Malaysian mainland. Malaysia has many, many small islands that make up the entire country. Our stop today was a visit to the Mangrove trees and by river kayak. We started out our kayak journey in a 2 person kayak and set off into the river where the mangrove trees grow wild. They are very tall and their roots grow into the sandy ground like spider legs. They have adapted to the salty river water by absorbing the salt water and then concentrating it into one of its leaves in the cluster. That leaf then turns yellow, dies and falls off with all the salt taken with it. This is how they explained that the mangrove trees have adapted to the salt water environment.
We paddled against the wind for the first half of the trip and then my legs were cramping up in the kayak so we had to get a tow for the trip back. We were able to kayak down a small river full of mangrove trees, but had to turn back since a tree had fallen across the river in their usual route.Unfortunately this kind of put a change into our plans for a day of kayaking.
Then back to the ship for a much needed shower to get all the salty river water off and rinse out our clothes. Scott will be doing laundry tonight to get our long sleeve UV shirts ready for another outing into the wilds of some other country.Read more