Hi Everyone,
Email issues again. For some reason my outlook email won’t work with the Heritage Bay Marina wifi. And our new cell phone is just too slow so the outlook times out. I am going to try sending this email as an attachment.
Ru
Sail Malaysia Kuala Terengganu Day One
Hi Everyone,
We are in Kuala Terengganu, and a bit ahead of Sail Malaysia. We had some boat chores to catch up on and Terengganu has a marina where we can tie up, have shore power. Wednesday we had cruised from
7am to 3:30 pm; but the anchorage where we’d planned to stop wasn’t good enough so we cruised on until 8 pm and anchored at Pulau Kapas. Not only did we have to anchor in the dark, but the last hour we were surrounded by rain squalls and lightening. Luckily the heavy rain missed us and the anchorage was good. We slept well that night. Thursday we made the 90 minutes passage from Pulau Kapas to Kuala Terengganu. Our friends Ruth and Cliff on Icicle One were our travel companions and are here at Heritage Bay Marina too. Friday we all went off to see the sights just a quick water taxi ride across the harbor.
Just so you know where we are… Came across this street sign in KT and thought it was pointing to different restaurants named for famous places. Only when I was looking at the photos later did I see it was really a signpost telling a traveler where he was.
“As the capital of Malaysia’s oil producing region, KT has money and has used it to tastefully redecorate. Large brick sidewalks and elegant mosque-like shopping complexes have gussied up the place yet the soul of the former fishing village has been maintained.” Lonely Planet. My first impression is of a smaller Kota Kinabalu where we had spent a month last year. The first local person who asked where we were from had a daughter who studied English at a University in Tennessee and now taught at Malaysian university.
We took a marina water taxi for the 5 minute ride over to the city. We can take our own dingy when we refill the gas tank. It might be possible to bike also. The round trip water taxi is about $2 US per person.
The waterfront area. We climbed the stairs up tree covered Bukit Puteri ( 650 FT Princess Hill ) to see the remains of a fort, a sultan’s palace and a view of the city.
The cannons are aimed across at the marina and DoraMac! Notice the big cannon and little canon.
These cannon are named Meriam Beranak or “The Cannon that give birth” due to their positions that are close to each other and of different sizes. The cannon of bigger size is said to be the mother of the smaller size cannon.
“This throne was made by His Majesty Sultan Umar for His Majesty to sit when having discussions on various strategies with high ranking officials.” Or as Chad Mitchell Trio recited, ” No matter how high or great the throne, what sits on it is the same as your own!” as Randal is proving….. You know you are far away from home when you are in a place ruled by Sultans.
The world is the same all over. A “typical” scene of women in the dress shop and the husband being bored.
And “in the world is the same all over category,” this dad and his daughter were in line ahead of us at KFC. We went from chicken rice in Chinatown to ice cream at KFC.
After a walk around the part of town near the waterfront, we went to the wet market and bought some fruit and veggies. We were hot, tired and hot. So about 3 pm we water taxied back to the marina to rest up for the Night Market; a 10 minute (really 30 minute) walk away towards town. It was a hot walk and the Night Market was mostly food. Since we had planned to have dinner on Icicle One, we will wait until next Friday to sample the food. Back on the boat we found our electricity off. Some cruisers going off to the Night Market told me to find Steve on Wind Swift who seemed to know the most about electrical issues, the marina office being closed…. Luckily it was our friend Steve Calpin whom we had met in KK and whose wife, Valerie and I had gone exploring together. Actually, Steve had been to the boat the prior evening. Between Steve and Randal our electricity was back working, whew!!!
Randal and Steve working on the power cable that hooks us to shore power. This picture actually tells a great deal about cruising. Things are always going wrong. Cruisers have to know how to fix almost everything on the boats themselves. Cruisers will always help each other.
Today is boat chore day. Randal is changing oil filters and I’m doing laundry, blog mail, and then will clean the heads…. Also the cruising life.
Next email some Night Market photos…
Ruth Johnson DoraMac