Zam Zam Islamic Restaurant

Hi Everyone,

  Tomorrow, Friday,  we head off to Puteri Harbour where we will stay until we join up with the West Malaysia Rally.  www.sailmalaysia.net/rally-schedule.html.  Puteri Harbour is about 50 miles from here so we’ll leave early in the morning to get there before dark.   But the wind is supposed to be light and the seas mostly flat so we should have an easy time of it.  We’ll leave the boat at Puteri and take the bus across the causeway to Singapore for about 4 days.  We’re going there to see friends and buy supplies, boat and book.  Our friend Marie-Louise is at One15 Marina in Singapore and we will visit with her.  Also cruising friends Steve and Valerie Calpin will be there.  Steve is a full time cruiser who we have linked up with at several of our stops.  Valerie lives most of the year in their home in England but was in KK during our first visit there in July 2008.  Valerie and I had adventures and it will be nice to see her again while she is here to visit Steven.  Valerie joins him during the year and Steven goes home during the year.  Valerie isn’t ready to give up her part-time teaching job and be a full time cruiser so this works for them.  We also will be meeting up with an American pal, my University of Massachusetts sometimes roommate Eileen’s  husband George who is in Singapore for business.  While we’re not socializing, Randal will be looking for boat bits and I’ll be looking for book bargains!  I’m going back to my favorite Brash Basah complex and the bargain book stores to load up.  Randal and I will also go to the new bookstores because there are a few things I want to find: the new AS Byatt book and one about/by Florence Nightingale, and a drawing video.  We do splurge on books, not clothes or souvenirs. This morning during our trip to Sungei Rengit  I spent 20.70 ringits (about $6 US) on three sleeveless tops for me and 31 ringits (about $9 US) on two pairs of shorts for Randal.  These aren’t even designer label knockoffs, at least not my tops.  They are two pieces of print cloth sewn together and very simply finished at the hem, neck and armholes.  But they are cotton and get soft and are the best thing for hot weather.  Sadly, my absolutely favorite white cotton top that I have had at least 10 years finally fell to shreds.  I just noticed the hole today so had at least one extra wearing of it yesterday.   Sadly no patch can fix it: the material is just worn out.  But it had a good life. 

  I have some final photos from Miri.  We had eaten several times at the Zam Zam Islamic Restaurant and would always chat with the owner.  If I knew his name, sadly I don’t remember.  Maybe he will email and remind me!  I have mentioned him before in my email but hadn’t taken any photos.  The day we left, we stopped for lunch to say good-bye and he genuinely looked sad: like he was losing friends.  It made us sad too.  I hope he gets a chance to visit the US because he really does seem to like Americans.

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Sometimes we ate roti canai and sometimes we ate the buffet.  They had the best rice, yellow and flavored and the eggplant and other veggies were really good.  Randal always ate rice and chicken and cucumber salad.

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Our friend is Pakistani.  He looks to me like a Rabbi.  I think if you mixed all of the middle eastern people together with no label you wouldn’t know, by looking who came from where. 

Randal is wearing one of the bargain shirts he bought in Kota Kinabalu…very bold. 

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Like most restaurants Zam Zam opened onto the street.  We parked our bikes right in front.  The woman in the pink top made the roti.  I discovered that I like my hot roti with sugar sprinkled on it.

So that’s it.  I probably won’t email again until we’re back from Singapore.  I’m trying to write an email about our AIS system which helps us identify exactly when and how near we will pass large ships.  We haven’t always had it and just relied on radar which works, but not as well.  I’ll have Randal “correct” it before I send it so I’m not making things up.

And since my nephew lives in Philadelphia I’m rooting for them to win the Series.  Our friend Carol lives in New York, but I just can’t see myself rooting for the Yankees.  Sorry Carol but I do send 2,200 hugs!