Albert's 90/10 Rule

We just got home from another (yes, aren’t you tired of hearing me say this…) trip to Langkawi.
Of course, as I said this to a friend over dinner, we usually go for business-related reasons.
And it’s true.
Until I dined with another friend, Albert, who says he packs in 2 types of activities when he is travelling the world – work and pleasure.
And he taught me a useful 90/10 rule.
Albert says, when he is travelling, he tries to indulge in 90% travelling/pleasure-seeking activities and 10% business. Of course this is very distinct from the Pareto principle. It’s funny but come to think of it, we tend to do the opposite, we go to Langkawi for 90% business and 10% leisure.
So this trip, we lived by Albert’s pleasure principle. And we had a blast.
Our trip coincided with the last day of the Chinese New Year, so a Chap Goh Meh dinner was hosted by good friend and client, Paul of Paul Penders Company. That was a really good evening of Chinese food and lots of booze and meeting lots of Paul’s friends and business associates! (On the island, a can of beer is only RM1.30. You will drink yourself silly. It’s cheaper to drink beer than to drink cola.)
We also joined Paul and his company for a day of boating out to the Langkawi islands, with private beach stopovers at Pulau Dayang Bunting and Pulau Bras Basah. This trip was put together for Jim and Susan, two of his Chinese counterparts from Paul Penders China International Co. Ltd (Hangzhou China) and to demonstrate to them what pristine Langkawi is famous for!
We swam in the cool and clear waters and had a private lunch onboard the Syndhu, a boat belonging to a friend of Paul’s. To cart us to the beach, we had to climb into Paul’s speedboat as the Syndhu could not berth in shallow water.
At the private beach at Pulau Dayang Bunting, we even saw a tent set up by Four Seasons for its resort guests to sunbathe and read. At Pulau Bras Basah, the water was good for a cool dip but the corals did cut my feet in a few places. I even saw shoals of tiny fish which I thought were ikan bilis (my friend later said they were not). But the sad fact remains that unscrupulous fishermen use drag nets and destroyed the corals, the very place where fish breed!
While there is a jetty on Pulau Bras Basah (an island which belongs to two private individuals), many speedboats stop on the shore. You can have a picnic and a swim here in the clear aquamarine sea water though a friend says the place was much better in its early years. That’s the problem with being a famous island. Every tourist would like to come and visit and that ruins the ecosystem.
(Just like you should NOT go to the Langkawi mangroves and feed the eagles. By feeding the eagles, you are basically ruining the delicate ecosystem. Most people don’t realize they are helping bring Mother Nature to her knees with such acts of random stupidity.)
We were terribly sunburnt when the day ended – thank God I had coconut oil to help ease the redness. I found out that coconut oil is great as an after sun skincare. If you see me now, my face is peeling and I actually have a tan! (Yvonne told me I looked healthy!) I now know what a snake feels like as it is growing out of old skin.
Catch more photos from my Facebook link.