Hi All,

  We walked down to the end of the town for the community festival.  It was mostly exhibits to teach about the local wildlife and how to take care of the environment for the future.  The event was located at the Taman Negara National Park HQ.  We visited the small museum and talked about maybe coming back to do some of the hikes. 

The small fair was more an ecology lesson disguised as a fair. But that’s good because the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Jane and Elizabeth look at one of the displays. 

A mural of “old George Town.” The boats in the painting have been replaced by the Tanjong City Marina and the water buffalo by too much traffic and way too many motorcycles.

“This island was named after the local pinang trees or the Betel Nut, which was once believed to be easily seen along the coastlines.” The leaves and parts of the nuts were turned into a concoction the local men and women chewed and still chew. (We were offered some at the Long House in Kumai though we politely declined.)

The caption on this photo reads, “a popular recreation site for local people.”

We all agreed that this fellow looked about as local as the three of us.  He looks more like everyone we all knew back in the states in the 70s. And his shoes would be flip flops if he were truly local.

Sponge Bob Square Pants!

Outside the park building there were vendors and nature exhibits.

Mickey Mouse and Spiderman have made it around the world too. I really like the soap bubble gun.

Exhibits showed native animals and sea creatures. That wrapped up thing is snake skin. A very huge snake’s skin!

Jane dressed for the sun.

Long sleeves, sunglasses and an umbrella for shade. This is how you dress to deal with the heat and sun. I still can’t do it. I can’t stand anything with sleeves though I do wear shorts to my knees or longer as dictated by local sensibilities. But sleeves, even loose ones just make me too hot. Both Randal and I have started to slather our arms as well as faces with suntan lotion. Randal visited the dermatologist all of the Aussie cruisers see and he was examined from head to toe and all places in between. His arms had to be attended to though nothing that needed a follow up. So now Randal uses suntan lotion and the arm coverings worn by the Muslim ladies wear with their short sleeved blouses when he works outside on the boat.

So that was today….

Ru

DoraMac

Next we visited the library, which we hadn’t planned; but then we hadn’t planned for the batik factory to have burned down either. 

We went to the library which was quite small and devoted mostly to children. Elizabeth is visible standing by the shelves checking out the English collection of classics. Elizabeth taught English in Malaysia for many years.

All of the children had something to read even while they watched the TV in the front of the room.

They really had great places for kids to sit with a book.

The Children’s Librarian.

She and I talked for a bit and I gave her a card with our email. I hope she does write to me.  It was a very cheerful place and the collection had titles in English as well as Bahasa.

Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury 1834-1913

I particularly noticed this poster on the library wall because I have a paperweight given to me by my friend Joesephine which says, “A room without a book is like a body without a soul.” Cicero.

Cicero died in 43 B.C. Maybe Lubbock hadn’t read Cicero and couldn’t look it up on the Internet to find out. Though if he were so well read, he would have read Cicero. I thought it was interesting. Maybe the real point is that it was true thousands of years ago and it will be true thousands of years from now. National Library Week begins April 11^th. Go thank your librarian!

Shoes are removed before you enter the library.

have one more email. We walked to the end of the town where they were having a community festival.  It was being at the headquarters of the Taman Negara National Park. 

Ru

DoraMac

Hi All,

  I haven’t been writing much but I have been off exploring.  Sometimes I just don’t know how to narrow down all of my photos to pick ones to send.  So I get stuck.  I’ve also been reading and painting and there’s only so much time in a day when you have to walk to the wet market for vegetables and chicken or off with Randal to collect the small fan motor for our dehumidifier.  All that walking in the heat makes me need a nap!   But Elizabeth and Jane and I have done some exploring while Jane’s school is on vacation.  And though we always enjoy our time together, sometimes the adventure doesn’t quite go as expected.  Like who knew the batik factory had burned down?  It was still on the map.  But it was a fun day and here’s the story. 

Ru

Doramac

Elizabeth, Jane and I Have and Adventure

First things this morning Randal and I met Elizabeth and Patrick and we walked yet a new way through George Town to meet Jane and Roger for chicken rice. It’s Saturday morning so it’s chicken rice. That’s the Saturday morning ritual. Brian and Terry from SV Cherokee joined us this morning too. Brian and Terry were some of the very first cruisers we met in 2008 on the Indonesia Rally and we toured Rinca Island, home of the komodo dragons with them. We have not seen them since the rally ended. After breakfast Jane, E and I caught the 101 bus to Teluk Bahang on the northern part of the island to visit some batik facilities. The road went along the coast and the traffic was light so it was quite nice. Randal and I had thought to possibly bike this road but when two buses met on a curve on this single lane curvy road, ours always slowed down because the road is quite narrow with no shoulder. We did see bikers riding the opposite direction which was the downhill direction but it doesn’t look appealing to me. Our bikes are at a local shop being over hauled so we will ride some, but mostly around town. The bus ride took about 35 minutes and cost 3.40 ringgits, about $1 U.S. A taxi probably would have cost at least $20.

We planned to visit the batik showroom and then walk just a bit down the road to the batik factory shown on the map. Photos were allowed in the demonstration area but not in the showrooms.

I rarely see women dressed in these heavy black robes with the small slits for their eyes so I do find them fascinating.

A hotel had ordered these pieces which were to be made into uniforms. The image is hand drawn and then outlined with wax which keeps the paint dye where it belongs on the fabric.

His mom is the batik worker and he wanted his photo taken too.

The different stages of the process: Elizabeth takes a photo and Jane looks on.

Even the dark background is painted mostly with a large brush but a smaller one is used for the close work.

We left what called itself the Craft Complex and headed over to the Batik Factory.

A huge sculpture of pitcher plants filled this rotary.

We saw lots of these plants in Sebana Cove. They would trap insects in the water and then eat them. At least I think that’s the story. In the distance you can see the mountain of the national park.

This funny guy was across from the rotary.

You can see the sign for the Penang Batik Factory. The pink building across the road is the library which we did visit. We visited a library in George Town on Thursday. It was pink also.

A marching drum band.

We had asked for directions to the Batik Factory from women selling cold drinks near the rotary. They told us it was 5 meters down the road. We walked way further than that so asked directions from the teacher. She sent us back the way we came. When we got back to the library (I can now recognize the Bahasa word for library) we asked directions again. Finally someone knew the answer. It had burned down so most of the work had moved into the craft complex we had already visited. So we went to the library instead and that will be the next email.