Dear Conch-Lers -

There has been entirely too much time wasted recently on my stupidity.
Let' s move on to other more important things.

Recently Ashish Gupta of India joined our group.  He sounds like he will be
a good addition - even if Ranellidae is not listed as one of his favorite
families.  So -  welcome, Ashish, we are happy to have you with us.

But I was even more interested in his second email asking about beach
collecting in Langkawi  and Panang Islands - LANGKAWI WAS THE BEST SHELLING
PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN TO.  I am going to send you a copy of the email I
wrote over a year ago in response to the same question.    I don't think I
sent it on Conch-L before but if I did this is where you should hit the
delete button.

"I usually don't answer requests like this because everyone doesn't like or
want the same things on a trip.  But when you mentioned Langkawi -  well I
think of all the places I have ever collected, it was tops - so I wanted to
tell you about it.

"Our group flew from Los Angeles into Kuala Lumpur (the capital of
Malaysia), spent the night at the Holiday Inn in the City and flew out the
next morning for the island of Langkawi off the northwest corner of
Malaysia.  The hotel was one of the nicest I have ever stayed in.  It was
called the Pelangi Beach Resort and it was right on the beach.

"At first we had several boat trips to nearly islands. But eventually we
stopped that because we found the shelling right in front of the Palangi
was fantastic.  There were huge sand flats that came out at low tide (and
we had good low tides) so you had two to three hours of excellent shelling
- one hour before and two hours after.  I am no good at judging distances,
but I think at low tide the exposed area went out into the ocean a good
quarter of a mile or more and probably close to a mile along the beach front.

"We found quantities of both crabbed shells as well live ones, both
gastropods and bivalves.  Shortly after the turn of the tide the Babylonia
spirata were literally popping out of the sand, maybe at one time you could
see twenty or even more.  I got a lovely growth series.  Another very
common shell was Murex trappa, although they were usually crabbed but in
good condition. There were some BEAUTIFUL bubble shells (actually the
mantle was lovelier than the shell), and lots of other things.

"The only other place we found comparable was a beach on the north side of
the island (the Palangi Beach Resort was on the west side) where the group
went by bus.  We found pretty much the same things that we found at Palangi
but also Marginella elegans. This beach was called Tanjung Rhu.
Unfortunately they were doing some dredging there to bring more sand in for
a beach for a condomenium they were building, but hopefully they have not
ruined all the molluscan habitats.  I am sure I have said enough.  I would
love to go back there again and I wouldn't go out on a single boat, but
just shell those two beaches.  (continued)