Category Archives: Malaysia

Malaysia

Women in saris

July 25th Friday:  5:13 pm

I went out for a walk this afternoon.  I seem to have a case of the blahs and am just tired.  “Could be the heat, or maybe it’s fleas!” as the song in West Side Story sang.  We’ll I don’t have fleas, but I’m finding the heat very heavy especially after our island cruising where, on some mornings, I wore my long-sleeve Red Sox shirt.  And life in a big city is “big.”  I will try to get to the museums and mosque and those things should be interesting.  People are certainly very friendly here and quite energetic, more like China than Olongapo. Funny, that I’m always ready to leave somewhere, and then miss it.  Hmmm

Anyway, I just walked around the hotels here in the Sutera Harbor complex; but I took my camera.  I was really glad I did so I could capture this group of young women.  I don’t know why I didn’t talk with them more; I felt like I was interrupting and they seemed hesitant in English    Now I wish I had found out more about them.  Maybe I will see them again.

clip_image002 I saw them in the distance and tried to zoom.  Then I just walked faster to catch up and snuck some photos.

clip_image004 I just liked the “hands on the hip” action. The man was one of two who were accompanying the women.

clip_image006 They sat down to have their photo taken by one of the women and I walked over and asked if I could take a photo too.  They smiled and said yes.

clip_image008  They make the peace sign, just the everyone else anywhere else who poses for me.

clip_image010 Any you knew this would happen.  I had offered to take their camera and take a photo of the group so all the women could be in it.  But they made the men take the photo so I could be in it too!  At least I have my head covered! 

Ru

Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu

July 21  12:44pm

Hi Everyone,

   “I loved the diversity of the city and the huge wet market.”  That’s how our friend Jamie Fritsch described the center of Kota Kinabalu.  It’s true.  You feel like you are in China and India at the same time.  The women in their saris are just so colorful.  I’ll try to get some photos of them.  But here are just a few photos to get you oriented to Kota Kinabalu.  We have lots of boat work to do and the best “natural attractions” are inland, so I think we might miss them. The mall has Starbucks and Body Shop but the upscale shops of Hong Kong or Makati.  Our friends Bob and Audrey, from Subic Bay, are here for a too short long weekend.  They went off with Randal to do boat stuff today.  I just don’t feel great enough.  So I’m having a quiet day catching up on some email and watching the Sox lose their 3rd game to LA. 

We will probably be here for another 2 weeks.  Of course that’s what we said about Subic.  But we have to be done to make it to Indonesia to meet the Indonesia Rally in the beginning of September.  Randal and Bob were looking at possible routes this morning.  Bob and Audrey have their own growing business in Subic so just hanging out here is a relaxing vacation for them. 

http://www.sabahtourism.com/en/home/  is a site for Sabah which is the specific area of East Malaysia where we are now.  Malaysia is two islands in the South China Sea.  East Malaysia is on the north tip of Borneo. 

clip_image002 Here we are at the Sutera Harbor Marina.  We are next to this sailboat owned by an American.  The owner isn’t here now.

clip_image004 The Pacific Hotel just next to the Marina.  The Magellan Hotel is on the other side of the Marina. Lots of families with kids here. Lots of golfers.  Lots of upscale prices.  Wine in the Magellan gift shop was 138 ringgits.  That’s $46.  We took a pass. (Randal and I are the $5-$10 per bottle wine drinkers.)  A small (two bite) Hagan Das was about $7.  We did buy some wine in the supermarket for 36 ringgits, $12.  It was the cheapest one they had, but not bad.  Alcohol is way more expensive, some food is more expensive, but clothing maybe not.

clip_image006 There is a guarded gate onto the docks.  The Marina building has several restaurants, a chart room “library” with chairs and tables and magazines.  Looks a bit like Subic but kept up with very helpful staff.

clip_image008 City center.  Randal in the backpack leads the way; Audrey with the braid.  Bob took the photo.  This is one of the main streets in the commercial center of KK.  The first impression is very modern, the secondary roads are more “foreign” so more interesting.

clip_image010 My old umbrella is a rusted mess.  I bought this one for 7.9 ringgits.  3 ringgits make a dollar.  We’ll see how long it lasts since it sort of opens cockeyed.  But it was the first small fold up one that I saw so it will fit in the side pocket of my back pack.  Bob’s photo

clip_image012  A trimmings and buttons and beads shop.  I would say 70% of the women here wear head coverings.  About 30% wear a full sari.  They sell all of the shiny things you see sewn onto clothes from India.

clip_image014 A woman at the fish market. Men were eager to pose, but women were more shy.  I did ask first if it was ok to take the photo.

Malaysia, Philippines

Island Cruising

Hi Everyone,

I might have fixed my Outlook, so this is from me.   It will take a bit to catch up and finish our Puerto Galera adventures with Carol.  But here are a few photos of our stops along the way between Illultuk Bay where we waited out Typhoon Frank and Kota Kinabalu.  I still want to send photos of Romblon and Puerto Princessa because we spent longer than an evening in both places and liked both.  I will also do a separate email about Illultuk Bay and all of its stories.  If you want to know what the area around the Sutera Marina, Golf and Country Club looks like, picture West Palm Beach.  That’s what Carol suggested from the photos of the marina she saw on the web. Much different from the small islands with just fishing huts.  But I really enjoyed our time at those beautiful spots; so cool, quiet and remote.    www.suteraharbourclub.com is the marina’s web site.

So here are some random photos of our island anchorages.  I have made them small so they will send

clip_image002 Not sure if you can see the black specks in the water.  They are the floats from the pearl farms.  Row after row after row! 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.      -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-    Just rows like that parallel to each other with breaks along the way so you could make a tricky turn to work your way through the rows.     You could go the length of them but not cross the lines between the points.  The breaks saved us from going maybe miles our of our way following the length of the row.  One day we did have to go way around, that was our first encounter with them.  “Dumaran Passage needs care, but is feasible in good light.”   That was the best that was written about the passage through the pearl farms there.  Other guides and especially word of mouth were less kind!  I’ll look at pearls differently from now on, that’s for sure. 

clip_image004  This is what a squall looks like.  You can see them coming and prepare.  You can change course a bit and miss them.  It takes about 10 minutes to close everything up (if you rush) and 3 minutes for the squall to go by.  Actually we passed this squall off to our starboard so didn’t have to deal with it.

clip_image006  This was the weather we were lucky enough to have most of the time.  Flat seas and sun.  We usually ran about 6.5 knots.  Our last week before getting to KK, we had wind in our face and rolling seas and averaged about 5 knots!

clip_image008 This is our North Verde Island anchorage.  Just a few fish farms and huts and us.  It is the first place that “smelled” like New Bedford and my idea of how the sea should smell.

clip_image010 Some other fishermen who waved and smiled for my camera.

clip_image012 Same island looking at the back of the bay.

clip_image014  Sunset!   One of my favorite anchorages!!!

Malaysia

Hello from Kota Kinabalu

Hi Everyone,

July 13, Sunday 2:17 pm

   Randal and I arrived in KK yesterday afternoon about 3:30pm.  Our last 4 or 5 days of cruising have been pretty rolling and our speed averaged maybe 5.2 knots.  55 mile days took almost 10 hours!  Even though you mostly sit, it’s tiring especially when we are underway just past 6 am each day to get to our anchorages in enough light to see if there are any reefs we need to avoid.  Some anchorages were nearly as rolling as the trip itself and some were perfect, with no one there but us.  Randal could shower on the swim platform and not embarrrass himself or anyone else. That was Teluk Lung where we put the dingh down and explored and snorkeled and had a wonderful dinner of salmon patties and fried pototoes! 

   Now we are Kota Kinabalu where you can’t hang your laundry out to dry on the boat and there are pages of rules about everything.  It is lovely and means to stay that way, hence the rules.  Everyone is friendly and helpful.  A kind Irishman named Brian led Randal and me to the free shuttle bus and then showed us the local mall.  We were there yesterday to get money and today after we made the required visit to immigration.  Immigration was very helpful and informal. 

   Now back at the boat, Randal’s computer seems to have crashed and the main saloon AC won’t work.  Our other electronics, bow thruster, anchor light and flood lights seem to be on the fritz.  Just part of cruising apparently.

   The wifi here is free but seems slow at times.  I will try to do photos when I can.  Who could believe I would miss the Subic Bay wifi??!!!

   Today we took a taxi from the yacht club to Immigration.  Our driver going out was an elderly Chinese man.  Our driver coming back was an elderly Muslim man.  That apparently is KK.  And both drove on the left side of the street with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. 

   So we have gone from anchorages where we were the only noise and light for miles to being in an upscale, modern, city. 

Oh, and thank goodness the Sox are doing well.  Last I knew they were 4 games out! Go Sox!!

Ru