MOZZARELLA CHEESE

1. I was in Langkawi the day before Raya Haji and had a busy time looking at my projects.

2. The horse breeding is doing well with three foals sired by Albarik, a pure Arab. The foals are also doing well. We expect more this year.

3. We are looking for an Arab mare so that we will produce pure Arab foals by Albarik.

4. The local boatyard is making good progress with my fibreglass catamaran. I ordered the boat partly to give the yard a chance to build something it had not tried before, partly to use the boat for catching squids. It is the squid season in Langkawi and at night you can see hundreds of boats with their powerful spotlights forming a semi-circle in the sea. The squids get attracted to the lights and it is easy to catch several pounds of squids with a hooked line or net.

5. I was saddened to see quite mature teak and mahogany trees being chopped down to widen the road north to Ayer Hangat.

6. My friend had tried to bring in a foreign wood carver to Langkawi to start a new cottage industry. It seems that our immigration policy does not allow anyone above 50-years to come and work in Malaysia. What a pity. Our skilled engineers, pilots, architects etc can go out but skilled foreigners cannot come in. On the other hand unskilled labourers may come in legally or illegally.

7. The net result is that our brains are being drained out, no brains are coming in but the brainless may come in and even settle in our country. You can figure out the end results. I hope the Government realises this and maybe design a new immigration policy.

8. Then my friends took me to the most interesting new industry in Langkawi. It is the production of mozzarella cheese, the cheese used in making pizza.

9. Mozzarella is an Italian cheese and the small facility is owned and operated by an Italian who's married to a Malaysian. He also operates a butchery where the cows are slaughtered and the meat is properly and professionally cut by a young Langkawi person who had been trained in Italy (actually in San Marino, an independent state in Italy).

10. I tasted freshly made mozzarella and it was delicious. Mozzarella is made with buffalo milk and the little "factory" is next to a Government project to breed buffaloes.

11. One day I hope this Langkawi mozzarella factory will become a tourist attraction, and the world will eat Langkawi mozzarella in their pizzas.

12. Telaga Harbour in the Northwest of Langkawi is full of yachts, including mega yachts. People say the marina reminds them of the Mediterranean, with Italian, Spanish, and Russian restaurants as well as a Chinese steam-boat restaurant. You can sit at a table on the harbour front and watch the yachts (some 130 of them) in the protected harbour.

13. There is a plan by someone to put some kind of floating platform in the marina for performances to be held.It is a great idea but the turning circle for yachts in the marina is small. The platform, I am afraid, will get in the way for big boats. However, I have no say in this matter.