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Hi All, Sail Malaysia ended August 2nd with a morning reception and brunch August 1st and a wonderful dinner event on the 2nd. At the dinner all of the women were asked to pick a bag containing material and the next morning we would learn how to turn the yards and yards and yards of material into a sari. I think it will take me about 3 emails to write it all up because I did take lots of photos. This email is part one. Since I sent many emails about Kota Kinabalu the last time we were here, I probably won’t have much new to add. I really should write one about all the boat work that Randal does. He spends most of the day doing boat work or researching boat products. But he does like that kind of thing because he really likes boats. I never minded cleaning up after horses I worked with because I really like horses. Ru DoraMac
Final Welcome and Farewell Dinner of Sail Malaysia Sail Malaysia certainly wined and dined us here in Kota Kinabalu. August 1st we had a welcome brunch at 10:30 am. There was so much wonderful food; but alas I had just eaten some yogurt on the boat so I wasn’t very hungry. We hadn’t known there would be food; just a reception. There were speakers and news-people and when asked by one of the cruisers where they could play golf since the resort fees were too high, the owner halved the fee on the spot. I should have asked for pony rides! Then some folks stayed for a round of bowling; we went off to take Randal’s computer to be fixed.
Each stop, at the welcome dinner, a representative from the Rally would speak for all of the cruisers. Aussie Julian Way, second from left was the speaker at Kota Kinabalu. The men on stage show the wide ethnic variety of people that make up the population of Malaysia. The next night was the big do and the marina here went all out. Lots of wine, beer, food, music and performances from local pop singers and traditional dancers.
Pre-dinner festivities. Anne, Lily, Michelle, Jan, and Me We had all been given the beaded necklaces and the bags we’re holding have the material we’d us to learn to wrap a sari.
Then a whole group of these young men rushed through and indicated we should follow them to dinner. The covered tennis court had been transformed into a lovely setting for our final dinner.
Randal and I sat with Jim and Joy Carey, these two lovely ladies, and two men who were part of the team organizing next year’s Sail Indonesia. The lady in the head scarf, Datuk Amisah Yassin was from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Environment of Sabah. The young Malaysian woman whose name I don’t know had just been to the United States and is a staunch environmentalist.
Proving you can’t judge a book by its cover; here they are on the dance floor where Datuk swung her arms and hips to the music of the really wonderful performers. The guy singing could be Roy Orbison, Mick Jagger, you name it. He was great. There was a woman singer too who did a mean Tina Turner imitation. Randal and Jim sat; Joy and I danced!
Jennifer from the Australian boat Mahili jumped onto the stage and “shook it up. Baby!” while the astounded singer seemed to have no idea how to respond except to just keep on singing. The American cruisers in the group could definitely take lessons on how to party from the Aussies, Kiwis, and even the Brits!
Cruisers getting in on the act!
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Brian and Anne, former dance instructors, knew how to do it right. End Part 1. |
