Boatyard Batu Maung, Penang, Malaysia

Hi Everyone,

  I’m sure you’ll all be eating some variation of turkey and stuffing.  Last night we ate with E and P on Labarque.  E made a wonderful dish of chicken, red lentils, cilantro, mint leaves, yogurt and other wonderful spices.  We ate it all.  I made a partly frozen dessert of canned chocolate sweetened condensed milk, a box of cream, some cold milk, a glob of Kaya and some ice cubes whirred all together in our blender and froze for 6 hours.  It really needs at least 10 hours, I think, so I’ll try it again.  We sort of drank it!  Then we watched the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency which they had on CD.  Good movie. Good meal.   Today E’s taking me on a tour of George Town while Randal goes to hardware and electrical shops and P works on Labarque. 

This fellow is safe from any dinner plate.

As a matter of fact E and I feed him.  E calls it a cockerel, I call him a rooster.  He is quite pretty and spends part of his day near Labarque on these boat stands.  He sleeps on a roof near the yard showers and toilets.  The other morning I tried to feed him crumbled crackers while the cat looked on. He was definitely more afraid of me, though sometimes he isn’t and just waits for me to finish getting his crackers ready.   The rooster is larger than the cat but the dogs also leave him alone.  He is very pretty and not mean like some roosters I have known.  The one in the chicken house at the group home in New Hampshire where I worked in the early 70s was very mean.  I went in with a big stick when I collected the eggs. 

Ru

DoraMac

Hi Everyone,

Randal and I are both pooped.  Randal from all the boat work he is doing and me from the yesterday’s all day trip to George Town and chores today.  Tomorrow we’ll go back to the local public market, a 45 minute walk from the yard.  Hopefully I’ll walk off some of the George Town snacks! 

"Thosai and Cheese Naan"

Yesterday we made another journey into George Town. (I spell it with two words because that’s what’s on the local map and local street signs.) Five of us went: P and E, Randal, me and the Frenchman Nicholas. We left the yard about 7:15 am just as it was getting light. You have to hike up a hefty hill and then walk down the other side to leave the yard and get to the main road. It’s not at all bad in the cool of the morning when your pack is empty. In the late afternoon with a full pack and an additional full canvas carrying bag (advertising the wonderfulness of libraries,) and, trying to hold an umbrella, it’s almost all bad! I say almost because there was no thunder and lightning, just a steady light rain. My goal was to not only get up the hill as dry as possible, but also to avoid squishing the wonderful bread I’d bought in town. (And I used to dread unloading my car under the carport after a trip to Kroger.)

We left early morning for two reasons: more buses run in the morning and we could have time for a second breakfast in town before the shops opened. We caught, (ran for,)  the bus, which was coming along just as we got to the street; and then we sat for about 90 minutes as the bus route went round Robin’s barn to get to town. The bus is clean, comfortable and air conditioned (I got cold) so it isn’t bad, just long. At least we had seats and finally did get to George Town.

Finally off the bus, our first stop was a bright green and yellow place serving Indian food. Indian food has great breakfast foods! We had thosai, a wonderful slightly fermented rice pancake. E and I had plain and the guys had egg.

It was crispy and wonderful and came with dipping sauces varying in degrees of heat from mild to too spicy for me for breakfast. One sauce had a yogurt base and I stuck to that. There were 4 dipping options, so even plain is never plain!

We almost never eat indoors anymore. Tea and coffee comes in glass mugs.

When I started to write this I wasn’t sure what the pancake was called but remembered P and E calling it something like “toesee.” I looked up rice pancake and figured it out. I could have asked E but that would have involved climbing down out of the boat and then climbing back up the boat. They are just across our bow but weren’t visible for me to call over to them. “There are various ways of transliterating dosa: dhosha, dosay, dosai, dhosai, tosai, thosai, or dvashi. In different countries it is spelled in different manners; for example, in Malaysia and Singapore it is spelled thosai, because of the different way in which Tamil is transliterated in South-East Asia.” Wikipedia.

I guess they are all close enough so if you just say some version, even “toesee” you’ll be understood. I have a hard time learning Bahasa Malaysia, but thosai I’ll remember.

After breakfast the guys went one way and I went with E who knows George Town well and is a great guide.  I had a few things to find as did she, and she also had a dentist appointment a bus ride distance from historic George Town. Randal went off with P and Nicholas to chandlers and hardware stores. P needed 26 kilo of sand (57.2 lbs) so he and Randal would taxi home. I don’t remember every stop E and I made, there were many! but it was about 2 pm when we had another snack, this time cheese naan with ice water with lime. We ate at the restaurant where I’d taken the photos of the bread oven. E and I each ordered a cheese naan and it was an entire piece of naan with buttery cheese lightly melted on top. The pieces looked, and were huge, and there was none left when we finished. Interestingly you get different foods at different times of the day. Thosai in the morning and naan in the afternoon. Each needs the oven and I guess in not the same way. I like all of the different options so it doesn’t matter to me. Randal likes the naan best so he is always sorry there’s none for breakfast. When Randal was in the hospital in China for his food poisoning I went looking for rice for his breakfast but the food stalls were only selling noodles. He was tired of noodles, but that’s what he got because that’s all there was until later in the day. Maybe same reason? At least that morning in Jingan.

E told me what this was; I don’t remember.  But its fragrance says India and it masks the smells from the drains. You see it on the sidewalk in front of shops.

I was ready to walk off my pancake and there were chores to do, so off we went………

Marina office, bus terminal, dentist, bus, small shop that sells pants E likes, hand towel shop, paint shop, electrical shop, European style Rainbow Bakery for great whole grain bread. (They also sell bagels and what Americans call English muffins though the British don’t.) art gallery, art supply shop, rag shop, pharmacy, carpet shop for small, cheap mats because of boat yard grit, and for fun, a really great thrift shop that has prices that even beat my 6.90 ringgit shirt. The thrift shop is a charity so I’m going, finally, through all of my stuff and, if I don’t love it, it’s going into the big bag for the thrift shop. And if it’s too small. I tried on my bought in China jeans shorts and it was sad. I could almost get them on unbutton in China and now they’re too snug! All of the wonderful and interesting food is taking a toll! Lots of passages and rally dinners don’t help either. Soon we’ll weigh 35 tons.

The Rag shop: I bought three of the small, colorful bundles. They cost very little but filled my backpack.

“Antiques” if you needed those too. E just looked, I just bought rags.

At this very large renovated shophouse  you could buy anything needed for any Hindu or Chinese custom or celebration! They also sold aromatic candles that E uses against mosquitoes.

Three shop houses had been combined to make this very large store that went up three floors.

Lions and tigers and dragons, oh my!

On the top floor were the statues with missing hands, or had dings or nobody wanted them for another reason. A tangle of lamps too. Not sure where things went after the 3rd floor.

It was a wonderful building with wood floors and stairs. Thankfully many of the old shop houses are being renovated rather than demolished. I really made that up about the 3rd floor stuff.

Walkways in front of the shop houses are like covered arcades. Cool in the sun and dry in the rain.

A little before 4 pm we walked back to the bus terminal to catch the 307 “rapid” bus back to the boat yard. First we had to sit and wait for the bus, and then it wasn’t really all that “rapid.” It took us about an hour to get back to Batu Maung where the boat yard is located. That was a half hour faster than the 302 local but 40 minutes longer than a taxi. Just as we got close to Batu Maung it started to rain. But, as I said earlier, it could have been worse. Rain is starting to come less often and not so fierce. It is the time for the dry season which is why kids have these few months off from school.

Today was a boat work and chores day. Randal is getting lots done but is also getting pooped. It’s tiring just climbing up and down the stairs to get on and off the boat. Tomorrow E and Randal and I will walk to the local public market for veggies. ( P will keep sanding Labarque’s hull which is why he needed all that sand.) We’ll also stop at the small stainless steel factory: Labarque needs some work done and Randal has some questions. I want more veggies so I’ll stop eating bread and cookies!

Ru

DoraMac

ps Is it baseball season yet?

Hi Everyone,

I don’t know if I used to be braver or just oblivious to possible catastrophe. Car ownership, home ownership, now boat ownership, and as I’ve gotten older, the possibility of broken bones if I fell really hard off a large horse have eliminated much of the bliss of ignorance; and bravery hasn’t replaced it. In the past week or so I’ve found myself saying, “I’m not brave enough for this.” When we had that fish net anchor mess last week and again yesterday when we were trying to get DoraMac into the tiny concrete slip at the boat yard, I just had to wonder about those cruisers who see all of this as “just a part of cruising.”

First, let me say, it all turned out fine with not a scratch on man or boat. (As the fish net mess did too.) But while it was happening I couldn’t imagine anything other than “possible disaster.” (I may have mentioned in earlier emails that my mother used to call me “Calamity Jane” because I was a predictor of doom.) We’d had the boat pulled successfully once in China, but things do happen. And with our experiences lately, I really do believe “things do happen”. They, luckily, just don’t happen so often or so awfully that you want to pack it up and go home. Randal continually seems to be able to deal with whatever happens and the more I see that, the less really worried I get. But controlling a 34 ton boat against the forces of wind and current is truly difficult.

Docking a boat at a marina or boat yard involves throwing long, heavy lines (ropes) to someone, or better, several someones, standing on the dock to catch them. You put rubber fenders out on the side that will come close to the dock to protect the boat. I’m not great at throwing our lines, though I am getting better. At a marina when the weather is very calm and there is no wind, it’s not so bad. But during our docking procedure at the boat yard I knew that there would be no room for error so suggested that the boat yard have someone on our boat to throw the lines. I’m glad I did for 2 reasons. One, it was problematic and our helper had to climb on the boat railing to be able to throw the lines to the guys on the dock, and two, even he missed once and they missed once. If I had done it, Randal would have been embarrassed by his inept crew member. To top it off, the slip cleat had broken and several men who weighed maybe a combined 500 lbs were trying to play tug of war with a 34 ton boat that had to back away to move into position. Did not work as they kept having to drop the line. Finally a temporary cleat was rigged and that managed to hold the line. I have no photos because I was poised, fender in hand to place said fender between DoraMac and the concrete slip if we came close enough to make contact and damage the hull. I also, was in on the line throwing act and luckily got it right the first time. By then we were close enough to the slip and the men there caught my throw which was dead on! Fear is a strong motivator!!

Randal had to back the boat into this concrete slip which is about 22 to 24 ft wide. DoraMac is almost 15 feet wide. That’s about 3 ½ feet to spare per side. You have to do it right. At a marina dock, the fenders can protect the boat from damage. But the sides of this concrete slip are much higher where fenders won’t really work, so men were holding large sheets of Styrofoam between the boat and the slip walls. I walked along with a fender to use if we needed extra protection.

The concrete slip.

Backing a boat is very different than backing a car. The wind and current keep the boat moving no matter where you are trying to make it go. That’s why you need the lines and cleats to hold it from moving with the wind. The really icky times are when you share a slip at a marina and the wind can blow you into the boat that’s already there. Then it’s my job to hold a fender between the two boats if necessary. Luckily so far it hasn’t been necessary.

We’re securely in the slip. The travel lift is the contraption on wheels.

Once you are securely in the slip they roll out the travel lift which is a huge contraption that has two slings which go under the hull forward and aft.

Here we are out of the water. Can you see the two straps under the keel?

We had to loosen mast stays and lower aerials, but it all worked and there were no dings anywhere. The boat yard guys knew their job and friends Patrick and Elizabeth helped and gave us advice on the mast stays.

Elizabeth and Patrick sometimes shortened in my emails to E and P or P and E.

This is the boat yard man who came on DoraMac to throw the lines. I’m taller and weigh more: but he is stronger and knows more! And I wouldn’t have climbed onto the railing to throw the line; at least not onto the top rail. Maybe the middle rail. Falling into the water could get you squished between the boat and the concrete dock.

When he first came aboard he asked for a photo of the boat. We didn’t have one handy at that really busy time. I thought he just wanted one to keep as a reminder of the boats he helps “land.” When we were all finished I told him I’d get him a photo for him. Later P and E said that he wanted a photo to see the bottom of the boat to help with the landing and lifting!

Randal and Elizabeth looking at the crusty propeller and the dirty rudder and hull.

The ding in the orange might be part of the leftovers from the fishing net mess. Randal isn’t sure. The whole net mess was wrapped around the propeller and shaft. It’s not a deep dive to get to the propeller, but maneuvering around with a tank that can get caught places ….

Crusty zincs needed to be cleaned and replaced

Our bow thruster propeller needed attention too and the round metal piece in the center will be replaced.

Power washing the green slime off the bottom.

Randal took a turn; a reminder of his old Roanoke Wreck Repair days.

Randal was washing off, our peeling off white water line marker. He’s going to paint one on.

The expert travel lift driver.

The travel lift hoisted us out of the water and drove us over to our parking space bow to bow with P and E’s boat, Lebarque

Bow to bow with Lebarque. It was close enough to be a bit scary to watch.

Though the boats are very steady on their rests, we all have the sensation that we are rolling a bit.

Remember the crusty propeller and the slime green bottom? That’s Randal’s smiling face you see in the clean, shiny propeller arm! Soon the whole thing will look like that. Randal says know one would know what the reflection is, but I think so.

The boat yard is doing some of the work and Randal is doing some of the work. Some confusion with the estimate prompted that. Luckily Randal can do lots of the work himself. P and E are doing much of their own boat work and so are the Olssons on Blue Marlin.

This is how we get off the boat.

We climb down to the swim platform and then down the swim ladder and then step onto the big barrel holding on to the swim ladder and then, still holding on reach with my toe as far as I can until I touch the big block of wood. In my next life, as well as knowing my right from my left, I’m going to be taller.

Nights in the boat yard are very quiet except for the occasional dog quarrel. The dogs are very friendly but they stake out their claims to visiting cruisers and woe be to the dog who tries to get some attention from a cruiser who has already been claimed. Small brown dog has claimed our row of boats which includes Lebarque and now DoraMac. She fiercely guards her territory from the other female dogs but reluctantly allows her male friend to hang around and even get an occasional pat on the head. This morning they both had our left over, very picked over, Sungei Rengit pork ribs bones. She got more because he was afraid of what I might be throwing. Tomorrow they’ll get some really old biscuits that Randal had made. I will look for dog treats when we go to George Town tomorrow. E and P have chores and so do we so we’ll all take the bus in early and depending on who’s done when, we’ll share a taxi coming home. Patrick needs 100 lbs of sand for his sand blaster; not something you take on the bus.

So that’s that.

Ruth Johnson

Doramac

Near George Town, Penang Island, Malaysia

Hi Everyone,

  It was a calm and quiet night!  We were far enough down the river that we didn’t hear the karaoke though I could feel the thrum when I woke at 3:45 am.  It ended at 4 am again.  This afternoon we’ll move down to the boat yard. We have to maneuver into position with the help of a tug to get our 34 ton DoraMac onto a travel lift and out of the water.  A lot is involved because of the wind and current.  One of the boat yard men will come aboard to throw the lines when that needs to happen. That was my idea. I’m not perfect at it and you have to be in this situation because it moves fast. It will be interesting and sort of scary and we hope it all goes as it should. I can’t even imagine though we did go through this once in China when we moved to a second boat yard. I didn’t throw the lines then either. We stayed in a hotel there: this time we’ll stay on the boat and climb up and down by a ladder.   I’ll take lots of photos. Life on a boat!

Ru

Images of George Town November 19^th, 2009

Customs Building across from the city marina

Old and really old mixed. I was trying to capture the tree and wooden roof and not the man begging. Actually, oddly, I didn’t see him in the photo until I looked at it on the computer. It’s easy to just focus on my original subject and “not see” anything around it.

Chinatown

Lots of motorcycles and modern malls too. We were walking past here on our way to a mall with a grocery store and Maybank (Malaysia Bank.)

Street scenes

Rattan shop

I loved the trickshaw and didn’t notice the snazzy orange car until I looked at the photo. Randal had noticed the car and says it’s either a Porsche or a Nissan.

An alley way with a lovely painted fence and leaning light poles.

Restaurants open onto the sidewalk

A leather shop, like the rattan shop and many others open onto the sidewalk. That’s Randal’s shoulder and backpack strap on the right. Someday Randal will have leather covering the settee and chairs.

Interesting sign

Ruth Johnson

DoraMac

Hi Everyone,

  We had a lovely day today.  Last night not so great….

Why I Love Penang

I love Penang!!! We have been here for about 31 hours and I already know it’s going to be one of those places that’s hard to leave. One of the best parts is that our friends Elizabeth and Patrick from Labarque are here also. Their boat is pulled out of the water at the same boat yard we’ll go to tomorrow. Our boat will be pulled and the bottom will be repainted with anti-fouling paint. Other work will be done and we’ll spend several days there. The boat will be up on a giant stand (“on the hard” is the term) and we’ll live on it. We’ll have water and electricity, but no AC because the condenser is water cooled from the ocean water and we’ll be on land. I’ll do a separate email about it while we are there. We did live in a boat yard in China so this won’t be a totally new experience. And there will be no Penang karaoke bar blasting music from 10 pm to 4 am! It was totally awful though not really surprising (in hindsight.)

Karaoke Nightmare!  And it seemed such a lovely anchorage with wonderful cooling breezes. 

You can see our boat and the shore about 600 ft apart. Randal and I had been up since midnight when we left Lumut to do the 75 mile passage to Penang so went to sleep about 9 pm. I don’t know when the VERY HORRIBLE WAY WAY WAY TOO LOUD BAD SINGING started, but I know it ended at 4 am because I looked at the clock. In between we slept and woke and cursed and put pillows over our heads or closed windows and portholes and cursed. And I had actually worried that I hadn’t bungeed our swim platform gate that sometimes clangs.

This busy road was also 600 ft away and no problem at all.

Kind of looks like Roanoke near the river. It is pretty neat anchoring “in town.” We did it in Makassar, Indonesia and the restaurant/bar blasted us too. In Puerto Galera, Redang, Perhentian, lots of places blasted us; but not until 4 am. During Ramadan we heard prayers from mosque loud speakers, but that was different and I could accept that. But there’s no excuse for this and those folks will all be deaf one day, serves them right! (PS We moved the boat further down the river away from the horrid bar. And Elizabeth gave us each some ear plugs. After that we’ll be at the boat yard. We have been warned that when we move to the marina in town with the Rally we’ll be blasted again with horrible loud bar music. Next Malaysian official I meet at a Rally event will hear about it.)

Today Elizabeth took Randal and me on an introductory tour of George Town, a UNESCO designated World Cultural Heritage Site. (Patrick continued with their boat’s work.) The boatyard is a 20 minute taxi ride or a 40 minute bus ride from Historic George Town. Elizabeth and Patrick have spent many months over the past few years here and we met shop keepers who know Elizabeth by name. Chinese, Indians, Arabs, local Malays, Achehnese from the Indonesia, Siamese, Burmese, and Europeans have made for a complex city and culture. It’s great! We first visited the marina and reserved a spot for when our boat work is done. Then we walked along looking and listening to Elizabeth as we made our way to the Indian area for lunch.

Cable maker. If one could draw his would be an interesting face to try!

At his small shop this man twisted strands into cable. His wife ran a small restaurant where E and P have eaten roti many times. Elizabeth was greeted as an old friend. This was across the street from the big, fancy marina.

Woodlands Indian Restaurant.

For 7 ringgits (about $2) you could get one of these wonderful samplers of food. Luckily we walked for a few hours after we ate all that really wonderful food. That is Elizabeth next to Randal.  You might remember her as one of my craft adventure friends. There’s not much Elizabeth

doesn’t know about world history or geography. She also taught in Malaysia in another life and was thanked by one of her former students in Terengganu while we were there at a rally dinner during the East Malaysia Rally. E and P aren’t on this rally but are spending time in the area. Amazingly, though we were all stuffed to the gills, Randal and I bought more food. We stopped at another Indian restaurant and bought some bread and chicken for later meals (dinner!) I was invited into the tiny area where the bread was cooked so I could take photos.

I kept trying to take photos as the young man worked and he kept stopping to pose! Then I walked outside and tried to take photos through the window so he opened the window and posed some more. The chicken kabobs were hanging on skewers and they were rewarmed in the oven. We were given chopped onion and lime and sauces with all of it. Total cost 13 ringgits $4 and there’s enough bread and dipping soup, because it is like lentil soup for two or three meals. We ate the 5 large chicken kebabs for dinner with some bread and cucumber and tomato.

I took lots of photos just during our quick walk around town which included some used book stores, a small art gallery, a local crafts shop, and a large grocery store. By about 4 pm it was time to catch the bus back to the boat yard where we had tied up our dinghy about 10 that morning. The yard is only a few miles from our anchorage. (Randal had wanted to see the boat yard and make final preparations for our arrival there on the 20^th. ) The bus was the long scenic tour but that’s okay. When we got back to the boat we put the dinghy back aboard and then pulled up anchor and moved further up the river away from the noise. Of course, maybe they just blast music Wednesday nights. That would be nice since we’re not that far up the river. We’ll see.

Ru

DoraMac

N04.14.239  E100.38.286  (Just next to the barge/ferry lane so don’t anchor between the green buoy and the yacht club.)

Malaysia

No, we didn’t encounter pirates and statistically will never encounter pirates.  Statistically we will snag fishing lines with the propeller, and that’s what we did which is a real nightmare when you have one prop and really aren’t a sail boat though we do have "ultimately get to somewhere sails."  Obviously you know the end of the story already since I’m sending this email from the anchorage at Lumut and not off tiny Angsa Island.  Maybe renamed Anxiety Island!  Anyway, here’s the story. 

Brave Randal

I once wrote a cute little story about Randal being a hero because he took my accidentally captured snail down the dock to shallow water and safety. Today’s story is a bit different.

Yesterday, late afternoon just short of our anchorage we snagged a floating mess of old, discarded fishing net and lines and it wrapped itself around our propeller creating a giant blob around the shaft.

All of this was sucked under the boat and ended up wrapped around our propeller thankfully leaving a tiny bit of blade still free.

We went from a cruising speed of about 7 knots down to a limping speed of 4 knots and no ability to go in reverse. Luckily we were just short of the tiny island where we would be anchored. There were lots of small fishing boats and it looked like a row of small wooden fishing shacks at the base of the island. It seemed pretty rolly and crowded and smelly so we went around the other side and anchored there. It was 5:45 and there would be about an hour of sun and then dusk. Randal put on a snorkel to see how bad the mess was, but the water was murky and he couldn’t see anything. I dreaded the thought of getting into the diving gear but would have there being no second choice if we were going to move the boat again. But Randal told me to wait on the boat and he would dive. I got out all of his gear and he suited up, took a dive knife and went under. Twenty minutes or so later he came up and was really frustrated because the knife was of no use. It was really getting dark so the next dive would wait till the morning. To top it off, we needed to be on our way fairly early the next morning because we had to cover almost 60 miles.

Randal “slept” in the pilot house to keep an eye on the anchor. It was really windy and we were very close to a rocky island shore. If we had dragged it would have been really hard to get ourselves away with the fouled up prop.

There was a light house on the very small island

After a very sleepless night (I hate to admit I slept well, but I hadn’t slept the night before and just wanted to blot out the net mess,) at first light, Randal got back into his dive gear, took our really good heavy scissors and went down again. When he dove the evening before, the tank had been full. By the end of the final dive the next morning the tank was about empty. Luckily that was all the air that was needed. Just as the tank needle was showing close to empty Randal managed to get the mess off the prop. Whew! I tell you what, I was really scared for Randal and for what would happen if he failed, that I was making deals with any deity that was listening and trading a Sox Series win for a freed prop. By the time my deal making was done, I’m not sure the Sox will even be making the playoffs. But with the boat rolling in the waves, the dark murky water and fish netting, it was scary. Don’t want to do that again any time every again. There are just so many fishing boats and nets and debris floating in the ocean, maybe we’ve just been lucky up until now.

Looking back as we cruise away. Very small Angsa Island

Tonight we are anchored up a clam river with fishing boats and barges passing by every so often. But the noise is not bothersome and the rolls are soft so it’s fine. Tomorrow we’ll continue on to Lumut to rejoin the rally activities with a dinner in the evening. We’ll dispose of the “net mess” when we get to a place where it won’t end up back in the water to snag some other boat.

So that’s the story. Our night at up the river at Bernum was quiet and peaceful and calm! Fishing boat went past on their way home or out to sea and the whole crew would yell hello and wave and smile. Other than that nice and quiet and peaceful. For me. At anchor Randal sleeps in the pilot house to make sure we don’t drag or, with lots of boats anchored together, swing too close to each other. Most cruisers have enough experience to anchor far enough apart so there have been no problems. But if there is lots of wind or current and/or lots of submerged garbage bags that anchors slide on, well then you need to keep a close eye.

Last night after Randal did battle with our dinghy motor (took it apart, drained the watery gasoline, dried the spark plugs, did whatever) we made it just in time as the rally dinner started. It was Italian night with pasta and lasagna and something carved from a spit and lots of good bread. Local dancers performed again and that’s always fun to watch. Today there is a tour of the Marine University. I’m going to check on the library!

Ru

DoraMac

Hi Everyone,

At daylight tomorrow we’ll be leaving Port Dixon for the 2 day passage to Lumut, the next official rally stop.  We will anchor at night each day so there will be no night passages.  We’ll stop at Klang the first night and Bernum the second.  When we get to Lumut we will be anchoring off the Lumut International Yacht Club.  The marina at Lumut tried to get ready for our arrival but couldn’t so no AC or TV.  Oh well.  Not sure about wifi though our cell phone modem works pretty well.

Yesterday we walked to the small Buddhist temple not far from the marina.  It was something to do…. We went with Julia and Horst Wolff, cruisers from Paradise, CA who are also on the rally.  Our plan was more to get the exercise and an early lunch than really anything else.  I, however, did have an additional goal.  While back in China in 2007, when Sallie and I went to the visit the Buddhist temple and ended up singing, "Take me out to the ball game," with some very enthusiastic college students, I had also lit some incenses as good luck for the Red Sox.  The Sox won the Series. Yesterday I lit some incense for the Sox…so here’s hoping it works again.  The kind ladies at the temple had to help me because there is a ritual as to how you light the package of incense sticks and then you burn paper money at the end.  I know the Sox have burnt lots of money at short stop lately so it was symbolic in many ways.  We stopped at one of the small Indian restaurants on our way back to the marina and ate more wonderful tasting food.  Then it was back to the boat to wait for the afternoon thunder storm. 

The temple, just small like the one in Sai Kung where I lit incense for our safe cruising….

I put 3 really large incense sticks into the huge incense holder in the center of the photo. The rest of the small incense was divided into 4 groups and placed around the temple. The money burner was outside which was good because there was a lot of smoke involved.

I took two interesting sign photos while I was out walking the other day.

Interesting assumptions made in this sign.

1. Residents would have only one bird, dog, or snake; but they would have two cats!
2. Residents might actually have a snake as a pet.

You can rent a Segway at the marina. I think I would fall off and break my neck.

So that’s it. Everything is getting packed up and put away for our passage. Our water tanks are full as is our cruising diesel tank. The fuel gage on the diesel tank had gotten stuck showing more fuel than we really had so we arrived at Port Dixon on fumes. Randal fixed the gauge and pumped in fuel from one of the holding tanks. But now we write it all down anyway to keep check on the gauge. As for putting things away, mostly I just don’t take things out anymore, not unless we’ll be somewhere for a month!

Ru

DoraMac

 

Taxi

Today Randal and I went back into Port Dixon. We waited for the morning’s downpour to end and then walked off the boat, off the dock, through the main marina building, out the front door, down the driveway, along the short private marina road and along the main road stopping at the bus stop not far from the marina exit. It was 11:25 am and I was predicting the local bus would come along within 10 minutes or so. I had seen one go by the bus stop yesterday while I was out for a walk. We’d actually planned to take catch one of the taxies leaving the marina as we had Monday. But we saw none entering the marina so there would be none leaving. That’s why we walked to the bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus a young woman walked out of the apartment complex near the stop. She too came to catch the bus. I asked her what time it usually came but she said she didn’t know and added that it was hard to get a taxi. We started to chat and she told me that she was from the Philippines but worked here because that’s what many Filipinos have to do. They have to leave the Philippines to find jobs overseas. I told her we’d lived in Subic for almost a year. A few minutes later a taxi pulled up to the bus stop and Randal asked if she wanted to ride with us into Port Dixon. She said yes but was getting out at a resort? hotel? condo complex? outside of Port Dixon. As we rode along I thought that we would pay for her too especially since she would be getting out first and we were going further. She, sadly I don’t know her name, asked the driver to pull over and as she got out handed him money and said it was to pay for us too! We said, NO, we would pay for her. But she said no and walked off. Randal and I both felt terrible that she was spending her money on us but just appreciate that there are lots of really nice people in the world. When we got to Port Dixon we asked the driver what we owed and he said that she had paid for us so that was that. I know she gave him at least a 5 ringgit bill and Randal had seen some ones also. The fare from the marina to town is 10 ringgits so I guess that’s what she gave him. We said thanks and walked off for lunch and chores. A stranger had paid our taxi fare and the driver hadn’t tried to get us to pay more. A very positive experience with good feelings we’ll pass along.

We returned to the same Indian “restoran” we’d eaten in Monday so we could have another one of those chicken/onion patties. Still not sure what they’re called but they are good. Randal and I got the last two.

Our bill was 13.30 ringgits. We each had one of those very filling patties along with some dhal dipping sauce. Randal had a piece of chicken too and I had a small dish of cooked curry flavored cabbage. Both of us had a canned drink. We left full and happy and it cost us $4. I was going to say that they also sold penny candy, but it probably cost far less than a penny. A small boy had gotten to pick one out and it was like all kids everywhere doing that same exact thing.

We walked around a bit for the exercise and then headed back to the grocery store for veggies and dessert for dinner. New cruising friends Julia and Horst whom we had met in Puteri and traded books and talk are coming for dinner. Shopping finished, we went back to the taxi stand to the group of drivers who had called out to us earlier as we walked along. We picked one, got in and drove along listening to the news that Jon Bon Jovi wouldn’t act anymore because he hated the audition process and later to Rod Stewart sing Sailing. Randal tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I had told the driver where we were going. No. Neither had Randal but the driver took us to the marina. I guess when westerners walk out of the grocery store there is only one place they could be going and that’s back to their boat. Randal told him that it was the first time we didn’t say where we were going but the driver just knew. I said that he’d read our minds. A second taxi story for the day.

Now we’re back on the boat on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away wasting time!

Ru

DoraMac

Admiral Marina  http://admiralmarina.com.my/

Hi Everyone,

  We’ll be here in Port Dixon for one or two more days and then make our way north to Lumut, the next official rally stop.  Many of the rally boats chose to stop in Melaka instead of Port Dixon so there are very few rally boats here with us.  We’ll stop in Melaka later in the year or early next year, after the rainy season ends.  We have decided to remain in SE Asia through 2010.  Originally we had planned to leave Asia and cross the Indian Ocean, go up the Red Sea and then into the Med.  That’s now our plan for 2011.  There just too much that we haven’t seen; too much that we rushed through and once we leave SE Asia we probably won’t be back.  It’s kind of "now or probably not ever."  We want to do lots more snorkeling, revisit some of our favorite places, like Terrenganu, and also do some land travel.  Beijing, the Tibet railway and India are on my list though we might very well cruise in India.  Anyway, that’s what we’re thinking now.

  Today Randal and I went into Port Dixon.  We’d planned to take the bus but joined another cruising couple who were planning to flag down a taxi.   None of us was sure when the bus would actually come: if we had just missed it we’d have to wait at least 30 minutes or more for the next one.  Because it’s always fun to talk with other cruisers, in Port Dixon we all ate lunch together at one of the many Indian restaurants that line the streets.    We all thought it was very good and it seems as if you really can’t go too far wrong eating Indian unless you think being way too full is too far wrong.  I had yellow flavored rice, some kind of spinach, a cucumber salad and a few bites of what tasted like a very light small onion bagel that had been fried. It was good but I was too full and didn’t need bread with the small mountain of rice. Randal decided to try a chicken onion egg patty along with his meal of rice, chicken and cucumber salad.  It was very good and large enough that all 4 of us has as much of it as we wanted.  By the end, way too full. 

  We’d gone to town to shop for veggies, bread, milk, mail my letter to my cousin Naomi and get a desperately needed haircut for me and a shave for Randal.  At one point I think the barber thought Randal wanted his head shaved and when I asked Randal just now, he said, "No", but that he had heard the word bald…  Not to worry, it worked out fine.  Except the photo I took of me multiplied by the shop mirrors totally disappeared from my computer photo file.  There’s just a blank space where the photo had been.  It wasn’t deleted, zoomed,  cropped, or erased with the brightness option.  I have no idea where it went.  RATS!

It was only Randal’s beard that got shaved and not his head.  I did make sure my flash was turned off before I took the photo.  I didn’t want to blind the barber while he was using a straight razor on Randal. 

The barber was Indian and the customers was Chinese which seems pretty typical of the population mix that we saw in town. 

We finally bought another little clock so I don’t have to keep moving the only one we have from room to room. 

Originally we had 3, but for some reason really inexpensive little clocks just don’t seem to last forever. 

Of course my overpriced Red Sox watch fell apart even faster and rusted to rediculousness instantly. 

We walked around town for a bit before we headed over to the one grocery store at the end of town.    I couldn’t resist the elephants.

Not exactly Starbucks.  This crow had raided the trash and was flying around with a styrofoam cup.  I don’t know what he thought it was but he just wouldn’t let it go.

Our main chores were done and it looked like we were in for the afternoon downpour so we grabbed a taxi and just made it back into the boat in time.  We hooked up our water catcher and managed to collect about 100 gallons in less than an hour so you can imagine how hard it rained. 

Port Dixon is a beach resort area and also has two big petroleum facilities which seems not a good mix. 

So that’s what we’re up to.  Is it baseball season yet?

Ru

DoraMac 

We are mid passage between Besar and Port Dixon.  Our anchorage last night was quite comfortable and today the sun is shining.  We left at 7:30 am which was a good thing since right this minute we’re only making 4.9 knots because of the adverse current.  When the tide changes about 11 am our speed should pick up.  Hopefully.  Today’s passage is about 40 miles. 

We are cruising alone at this point since the rally tends to break up during the lag days between scheduled events.  We’ll certainly have rally boat company in Port Dixon since it’s a major stop between Johor and Lumut, our next rally stop. 

Ru

DoraMac

Tour Johor Part 3

Lunch was good. Actually all of the meals provided by Sail Malaysia and also Sail Indonesia were pretty good. You might not always know what you were eating and some of it might have been way WAY too spicy hot. But it was all very interesting and usually very filling. I do avoid most of the fish dishes because of the bones and the really strong fish paste too. Everything else I always try.

Not a tea pot!

As I went to get in line for my food ( with 100+ cruisers it’s always buffet style) I noticed one of the local ladies putting this kettle on the table near some cups. When I sat back down I noticed a brown colored liquid in the cups. Says tea to me. LUCKILY I didn’t have a cup, for if I had, I’d have poured myself a cup of tea. When I asked for a cup so I could have some tea, the lady looked at me oddly and so I pointed to the pot and said, “Tea.” She smiled and shook her head. “For washing hands.” Then she picked up the pot and showed me that you poured the water over your hands into the holder below. Muslims always wash their hands before eating. Cruisers go with the flow….since there isn’t always anywhere to wash anything. I have noticed that all Muslim restaurants have sinks. Some also have soap and a very few also have a towel for drying your hands. Interestingly, I noticed a sink just outside the entrance to the big synagogue in Singapore. I think customs get shared geographically no matter the religion. I don’t think hand washing before prayers was the custom in our synagogue in New Bedford. So anyway, I washed my fingers for the experience and then took my cup up to the juice dispensers and finally had my pineapple juice.

Lunch was rice, fish, curried chicken, some veggies and by the time I was done and also finished the last bit of Randal’s fish, I was ready for the National Park walk.

Our lunch was served in the front yard of one of the local Homestay houses. Randal and I sort of did that when we stayed in the longhouse in Kumai, Indonesia. It’s different than a B&B because you are there to learn the customs of the area, not just sleep and have breakfast.

This lovely lady was putting out plates of watermelon.

There was a table of locally made baskets and local snacks for sale.

Dried fish and peanut crackers, yellow banana chips, and the folded up things tasted like sugar cones.

Each locality makes those fish crackers differently. These were only okay as were the ones I bought in Kuching. My absolutely, I got addicted to them favorites, were the ones I bought in Terengannu. The folded up sugar cones got eaten on the first day we left Puteri and we haven’t broken into the banana chips yet. ( I have to admit that I ate all the cones myself though not all at one time.)

Then it was off to the Tanjung Piri National Park where you could walk to the tip of Mainland Asia.

The giant globe at the end of the jetty.

At the end you get a certificate with you name written on it to prove you have been to the tip. This is my certificate. I probably didn’t deserve it. I did walk there, past the mean macaque monkeys, but I didn’t take a photo at the giant globe and can’t even tell you what we are looking at. I was just not in the mood for anything other than the walk. Randal and I have been to Key West’s end point in Florida and to the tip of Province Town in Massachusetts. And at the end I forgot about the certificate but our guide had brought some bland ones for those of us who forgot to get one.

Actually not only did I forget to get my certificate, but I followed some other cruisers back through the mangrove so I wouldn’t have to deal with the monkeys alone. I followed them right past one of those signs with a red line through the center, over some really rickety trail planks right up to the point where one park worker spotted us and waved his arms for us to stop. He moved aside a rusty old exit gate to let us out.

Oh well, I got my certificate.

Where was Randal during this adventure…..he opted to stay on the bus and read.

A lucky shot of the flowers at the National Park.

High School kids on a field trip.

The boy here with his “girl friends.” He wanted to know if I thought he was “cute.” I said I thought they were all cute.

I spoke with one young girl who was a sophomore in HS and wanted to go on to be a doctor.

They were bright, friendly, polite, spoke excellent English and were happy to talk to all of the cruisers. I loved the way the girls had funky hats on top of their head scarves. These are the kinds of kids you want to see grow up and run their country.

Then it was away from the park for the hour long drive back to Puteri. There was one last stop for coconut milk drinks but this time both Randal and I took a pass. It really isn’t my favorite drink and I was just ready to be done.