Category Archives: Malaysia

Leaving Port Dixon

November 13, 2009 Ruth

Hi Everyone,

At daylight tomorrow we’ll be leaving Port Dixon for the 2 day passage to Lumut, the next official rally stop. We will anchor at night each day so there will be no night passages. We’ll stop at Klang the first night and Bernum the second. When we get to Lumut we will be anchoring off the Lumut International Yacht Club. The marina at Lumut tried to get ready for our arrival but couldn’t so no AC or TV. Oh well. Not sure about wifi though our cell phone modem works pretty well.

Yesterday we walked to the small Buddhist temple not far from the marina. It was something to do…. We went with Julia and Horst Wolff, cruisers from Paradise, CA who are also on the rally. Our plan was more to get the exercise and an early lunch than really anything else. I, however, did have an additional goal. While back in China in 2007, when Sallie and I went to the visit the Buddhist temple and ended up singing, “Take me out to the ball game,” with some very enthusiastic college students, I had also lit some incenses as good luck for the Red Sox. The Sox won the Series. Yesterday I lit some incense for the Sox…so here’s hoping it works again. The kind ladies at the temple had to help me because there is a ritual as to how you light the package of incense sticks and then you burn paper money at the end. I know the Sox have burnt lots of money at short stop lately so it was symbolic in many ways. We stopped at one of the small Indian restaurants on our way back to the marina and ate more wonderful tasting food. Then it was back to the boat to wait for the afternoon thunder storm.

The temple, just small like the one in Sai Kung where I lit incense for our safe cruising….

I put 3 really large incense sticks into the huge incense holder in the center of the photo. The rest of the small incense was divided into 4 groups and placed around the temple. The money burner was outside which was good because there was a lot of smoke involved.

I took two interesting sign photos while I was out walking the other day.

Interesting assumptions made in this sign.

Residents would have only one bird, dog, or snake; but they would have two cats!
Residents might actually have a snake as a pet.

You can rent a Segway at the marina. I think I would fall off and break my neck.

So that’s it. Everything is getting packed up and put away for our passage. Our water tanks are full as is our cruising diesel tank. The fuel gage on the diesel tank had gotten stuck showing more fuel than we really had so we arrived at Port Dixon on fumes. Randal fixed the gauge and pumped in fuel from one of the holding tanks. But now we write it all down anyway to keep check on the gauge. As for putting things away, mostly I just don’t take things out anymore, not unless we’ll be somewhere for a month!

DoraMac

Malaysia, Port Dixon

Nice People

November 11, 2009 Ruth

Taxi

Today Randal and I went back into Port Dixon. We waited for the morning’s downpour to end and then walked off the boat, off the dock, through the main marina building, out the front door, down the driveway, along the short private marina road and along the main road stopping at the bus stop not far from the marina exit. It was 11:25 am and I was predicting the local bus would come along within 10 minutes or so. I had seen one go by the bus stop yesterday while I was out for a walk. We’d actually planned to take catch one of the taxies leaving the marina as we had Monday. But we saw none entering the marina so there would be none leaving. That’s why we walked to the bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus a young woman walked out of the apartment complex near the stop. She too came to catch the bus. I asked her what time it usually came but she said she didn’t know and added that it was hard to get a taxi. We started to chat and she told me that she was from the Philippines but worked here because that’s what many Filipinos have to do. They have to leave the Philippines to find jobs overseas. I told her we’d lived in Subic for almost a year. A few minutes later a taxi pulled up to the bus stop and Randal asked if she wanted to ride with us into Port Dixon. She said yes but was getting out at a resort? hotel? condo complex? outside of Port Dixon. As we rode along I thought that we would pay for her too especially since she would be getting out first and we were going further. She, sadly I don’t know her name, asked the driver to pull over and as she got out handed him money and said it was to pay for us too! We said, NO, we would pay for her. But she said no and walked off. Randal and I both felt terrible that she was spending her money on us but just appreciate that there are lots of really nice people in the world. When we got to Port Dixon we asked the driver what we owed and he said that she had paid for us so that was that. I know she gave him at least a 5 ringgit bill and Randal had seen some ones also. The fare from the marina to town is 10 ringgits so I guess that’s what she gave him. We said thanks and walked off for lunch and chores. A stranger had paid our taxi fare and the driver hadn’t tried to get us to pay more. A very positive experience with good feelings we’ll pass along.

We returned to the same Indian “restoran” we’d eaten in Monday so we could have another one of those chicken/onion patties. Still not sure what they’re called but they are good. Randal and I got the last two.

Our bill was 13.30 ringgits. We each had one of those very filling patties along with some dhal dipping sauce. Randal had a piece of chicken too and I had a small dish of cooked curry flavored cabbage. Both of us had a canned drink. We left full and happy and it cost us $4. I was going to say that they also sold penny candy, but it probably cost far less than a penny. A small boy had gotten to pick one out and it was like all kids everywhere doing that same exact thing.

We walked around a bit for the exercise and then headed back to the grocery store for veggies and dessert for dinner. New cruising friends Julia and Horst whom we had met in Puteri and traded books and talk are coming for dinner. Shopping finished, we went back to the taxi stand to the group of drivers who had called out to us earlier as we walked along. We picked one, got in and drove along listening to the news that Jon Bon Jovi wouldn’t act anymore because he hated the audition process and later to Rod Stewart sing Sailing. Randal tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I had told the driver where we were going. No. Neither had Randal but the driver took us to the marina. I guess when westerners walk out of the grocery store there is only one place they could be going and that’s back to their boat. Randal told him that it was the first time we didn’t say where we were going but the driver just knew. I said that he’d read our minds. A second taxi story for the day.

Now we’re back on the boat on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away wasting time!

DoraMac

Johor, Malaysia, Puteri Harbour

Tour Johor

November 11, 2009 Ruth

Hi Everyone,

Today’s Rally event is an all day tour of Johor. The past 3 days have been dinners with traditional dancers representing Malay, Chinese, and Indian cultures. There was a dance performed by tiny tots who looked just adorable and I did take a few photos: but you have seen it if you have ever seen preschool kids perform. That was during the first day of events. The next two days I spent on the boat trying to find a comfortable way to sit or lay down. Years ago I hurt my back shoveling snow because even in Virginia we get snow. I was in good shape from biking so shoveled for several hours. The driveway which was huge, the front path, the back deck and a path out into the yard for Trapper, my lab. It was that long ago because after Trapper came Pepper and then Belle. It was pre-Randal but he hates to shovel so I would have been the one doing it anyway. I actually used to like it. Anyway, by the end of the path into the yard for Trapper I couldn’t stand up straight and the diagnosis is that I have a disc pressing on a nerve. Every now and then it acts up: even bike riding the other morning didn’t help. Biking usually cures everything. So the past 2 days I’ve stayed on the boat with a heating pad and it’s not so much better. But I’m going off on this tour and will last as long as I can. Wish our friend Julia were here: she’d fix me up. She’s a physical therapist and massage therapist and one time gave me a deep tissue massage that felt great when I could breathe again. She used her hands. But that was ages ago too and now they have those machines with electrodes. And yes Julia, I will restart my exercises so maybe this won’t happen again. (Famous last words.)

The tour starts at 8 am and goes all day. I’ll take my Advil with me and hope for the best.

Johor, Malaysia, Puteri Harbour

Passage Info

November 9, 2009 Ruth

Tomorrow early in the morning we’ll start off FROM PUTERI to Pinang, Besar, and Port Dixon on our way to Lumut, the next official rally stop. The first Lumut event is on November 17th. We’ll anchor each night so this trip has no overnight passages. We will spend 3 nights in Port Dixon where we will be at a marina. Since we don’t have any night passages I’m actually looking forward to the trip. And some of our anchorages might be good for snorkeling if we get there in time and the water is clean. We haven’t gotten to do that for a while and we both miss it. This isn’t necessarily unchangeable, but as of this minute it’s our plan. Not sure about email along the way. It just depends if there are cell tours where we anchor. Our DIGI phone modem is working pretty well with the email here in Puteri though it’s slow loading web pages. Since the Sox are out of it, who cares and baseball trading really hasn’t started yet so I tend to just do email and then I’m off to read or paint. I do still read the NYTimes Art and Book pages. We’re flush with them now! Thanks George and Eileen. And last night after the Tuesday market I swapped some I’d finished reading with Julia Woolf. We had some really good talking time with Julia and her husband Horst when they visited our boat after the night market trip and will see them again as we travel during the rally.

So here it is. Tonight we’ll get the boat all ready and be off tomorrow early.

DoraMac

Malaysia, Port Dixon

Port Dixon

November 9, 2009 Ruth

Admiral Marina http://admiralmarina.com.my/

Port Dixon, Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus, Malaysia

Hi Everyone,

We’ll be here in Port Dixon for one or two more days and then make our way north to Lumut, the next official rally stop. Many of the rally boats chose to stop in Melaka instead of Port Dixon so there are very few rally boats here with us. We’ll stop in Melaka later in the year or early next year, after the rainy season ends. We have decided to remain in SE Asia through 2010. Originally we had planned to leave Asia and cross the Indian Ocean, go up the Red Sea and then into the Med. That’s now our plan for 2011. There just too much that we haven’t seen; too much that we rushed through and once we leave SE Asia we probably won’t be back. It’s kind of “now or probably not ever.” We want to do lots more snorkeling, revisit some of our favorite places, like Terrenganu, and also do some land travel. Beijing, the Tibet railway and India are on my list though we might very well cruise in India. Anyway, that’s what we’re thinking now.

Today Randal and I went into Port Dixon. We’d planned to take the bus but joined another cruising couple who were planning to flag down a taxi. None of us was sure when the bus would actually come: if we had just missed it we’d have to wait at least 30 minutes or more for the next one. Because it’s always fun to talk with other cruisers, in Port Dixon we all ate lunch together at one of the many Indian restaurants that line the streets. We all thought it was very good and it seems as if you really can’t go too far wrong eating Indian unless you think being way too full is too far wrong. I had yellow flavored rice, some kind of spinach, a cucumber salad and a few bites of what tasted like a very light small onion bagel that had been fried. It was good but I was too full and didn’t need bread with the small mountain of rice. Randal decided to try a chicken onion egg patty along with his meal of rice, chicken and cucumber salad. It was very good and large enough that all 4 of us has as much of it as we wanted. By the end, way too full.

We’d gone to town to shop for veggies, bread, milk, mail my letter to my cousin Naomi and get a desperately needed haircut for me and a shave for Randal. At one point I think the barber thought Randal wanted his head shaved and when I asked Randal just now, he said, “No”, but that he had heard the word bald… Not to worry, it worked out fine. Except the photo I took of me multiplied by the shop mirrors totally disappeared from my computer photo file. There’s just a blank space where the photo had been. It wasn’t deleted, zoomed, cropped, or erased with the brightness option. I have no idea where it went. RATS!

It was only Randal’s beard that got shaved and not his head. I did make sure my flash was turned off before I took the photo. I didn’t want to blind the barber while he was using a straight razor on Randal.

The barber was Indian and the customers was Chinese which seems pretty typical of the population mix that we saw in town.

We finally bought another little clock so I don’t have to keep moving the only one we have from room to room.

Originally we had 3, but for some reason really inexpensive little clocks just don’t seem to last forever.

Of course my overpriced Red Sox watch fell apart even faster and rusted to rediculousness instantly.

We walked around town for a bit before we headed over to the one grocery store at the end of town. I couldn’t resist the elephants.

Not exactly Starbucks. This crow had raided the trash and was flying around with a styrofoam cup. I don’t know what he thought it was but he just wouldn’t let it go.

Our main chores were done and it looked like we were in for the afternoon downpour so we grabbed a taxi and just made it back into the boat in time. We hooked up our water catcher and managed to collect about 100 gallons in less than an hour so you can imagine how hard it rained.

Port Dixon is a beach resort area and also has two big petroleum facilities which seems not a good mix.

So that’s what we’re up to. Is it baseball season yet?

DoraMac

Malaysia

Tour Johor Part 3

November 7, 2009 Ruth

11/7/2009 10:35 am Off the coast of Malaysia

Hi Everyone,

We are mid passage between Besar and Port Dixon. Our anchorage last night was quite comfortable and today the sun is shining. We left at 7:30 am which was a good thing since right this minute we’re only making 4.9 knots because of the adverse current. When the tide changes about 11 am our speed should pick up. Hopefully. Today’s passage is about 40 miles.

We are cruising alone at this point since the rally tends to break up during the lag days between scheduled events. We’ll certainly have rally boat company in Port Dixon since it’s a major stop between Johor and Lumut, our next rally stop.

DoraMac

Tour Johor Part 3

Lunch was good. Actually all of the meals provided by Sail Malaysia and also Sail Indonesia were pretty good. You might not always know what you were eating and some of it might have been way WAY too spicy hot. But it was all very interesting and usually very filling. I do avoid most of the fish dishes because of the bones and the really strong fish paste too. Everything else I always try.

Not a tea pot!

As I went to get in line for my food ( with 100+ cruisers it’s always buffet style) I noticed one of the local ladies putting this kettle on the table near some cups. When I sat back down I noticed a brown colored liquid in the cups. Says tea to me. LUCKILY I didn’t have a cup, for if I had, I’d have poured myself a cup of tea. When I asked for a cup so I could have some tea, the lady looked at me oddly and so I pointed to the pot and said, “Tea.” She smiled and shook her head. “For washing hands.” Then she picked up the pot and showed me that you poured the water over your hands into the holder below. Muslims always wash their hands before eating. Cruisers go with the flow….since there isn’t always anywhere to wash anything. I have noticed that all Muslim restaurants have sinks. Some also have soap and a very few also have a towel for drying your hands. Interestingly, I noticed a sink just outside the entrance to the big synagogue in Singapore. I think customs get shared geographically no matter the religion. I don’t think hand washing before prayers was the custom in our synagogue in New Bedford. So anyway, I washed my fingers for the experience and then took my cup up to the juice dispensers and finally had my pineapple juice.

Lunch was rice, fish, curried chicken, some veggies and by the time I was done and also finished the last bit of Randal’s fish, I was ready for the National Park walk.

Our lunch was served in the front yard of one of the local Homestay houses. Randal and I sort of did that when we stayed in the longhouse in Kumai, Indonesia. It’s different than a B&B because you are there to learn the customs of the area, not just sleep and have breakfast.

This lovely lady was putting out plates of watermelon.

There was a table of locally made baskets and local snacks for sale.

Dried fish and peanut crackers, yellow banana chips, and the folded up things tasted like sugar cones.

Each locality makes those fish crackers differently. These were only okay as were the ones I bought in Kuching. My absolutely, I got addicted to them favorites, were the ones I bought in Terengannu. The folded up sugar cones got eaten on the first day we left Puteri and we haven’t broken into the banana chips yet. ( I have to admit that I ate all the cones myself though not all at one time.)

Then it was off to the Tanjung Piri National Park where you could walk to the tip of Mainland Asia.

The giant globe at the end of the jetty.

At the end you get a certificate with you name written on it to prove you have been to the tip. This is my certificate. I probably didn’t deserve it. I did walk there, past the mean macaque monkeys, but I didn’t take a photo at the giant globe and can’t even tell you what we are looking at. I was just not in the mood for anything other than the walk. Randal and I have been to Key West’s end point in Florida and to the tip of Province Town in Massachusetts. And at the end I forgot about the certificate but our guide had brought some bland ones for those of us who forgot to get one.

Actually not only did I forget to get my certificate, but I followed some other cruisers back through the mangrove so I wouldn’t have to deal with the monkeys alone. I followed them right past one of those signs with a red line through the center, over some really rickety trail planks right up to the point where one park worker spotted us and waved his arms for us to stop. He moved aside a rusty old exit gate to let us out.

Oh well, I got my certificate.

Where was Randal during this adventure…..he opted to stay on the bus and read.

A lucky shot of the flowers at the National Park.

High School kids on a field trip.

The boy here with his “girl friends.” He wanted to know if I thought he was “cute.” I said I thought they were all cute.

I spoke with one young girl who was a sophomore in HS and wanted to go on to be a doctor.

They were bright, friendly, polite, spoke excellent English and were happy to talk to all of the cruisers. I loved the way the girls had funky hats on top of their head scarves. These are the kinds of kids you want to see grow up and run their country.

Then it was away from the park for the hour long drive back to Puteri. There was one last stop for coconut milk drinks but this time both Randal and I took a pass. It really isn’t my favorite drink and I was just ready to be done.

Johor, Malaysia, Puteri Harbour

Tour Johor

November 4, 2009 Ruth

Election day back home.

The rally events for this stop are over. Folks are on their own until the next event in Lumut on November 17th. Until then cruisers will stay here, go to Singapore, do whatever until they leave to make their way from Johor north to Lumut. Today Randal and I went into Johor Bahru so I could go to the Johor Art Gallery. It was a pretty long and not cheap trip but I think it was worth it. The museum is small but there were several paintings that I really liked. Then we had to figure out how to get from the Art Gallery into central JB and luckily a taxi came along as we stood there dithering since it would have been a really long not pleasant walk. We ate lunch and visited a book store. I took a pass on the 40 ringgit hair cut since I’m just too spoiled with the 10 ringgit jobs. The last time I spent 40 anything on my hair was in Philadelphia, PA and it was the worst hair cut ever, EVER!!! And the 40 there were dollars but it was the only place we found in the time we had.

We did one day of official touring with the rally here in Johor State. I give the tour a 3 our of 10. The other official events I missed because of my back. Oh well. But we like Johor a lot. And the visit to the local Tuesday night market last night was lots of fun.

Tour Johor November 2, 2009 Part one

“Johor, the southernmost state of Peninsular Malaysia is made up of eight districts…It has a long coastline flanking the Straits of Malacca on its western seaboard and the South China Sea on the east. Its capital city, Johor Bahru is the main administrative center for the state government…”

It was a long day with too much of it spent on the bus, but my back did pretty okay even when we had to climb the 7 flights of stairs in the Sultan Ibrahim Building and walk the 653 meters to the southernmost tip of mainland Asia at Tanjung Piai National Park. We left the boat at 7 am and climbed back aboard at 6 pm. We visited the city of Johor Bahru and Tanjung Piai National Park. There were stops in between at a pineapple plantation museum, a small roadside fish cake/banana chips facility, and lunch at a local homestay. I wish that the tour had been divided into two days, one full day in Johor Bahru and one out in the country. Luckily Randal and I have been to Johor Bahru so I don’t feel as if we missed out.

First stop was Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque

Outside the mosque.

It took 8 years to build and was completed in 1900. Our guide said that the interior walls were painted with egg white mixed in with the plaster. And when questioned about it he repeated that it was really egg white on the walls and also that there were absolutely no cracks anywhere in the walls. I know egg tempera uses egg yolks as part of a painting medium, so maybe the egg white is used here somehow. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed inside. The outside was so colonial looking that I was really curious what the inside looked like. I asked why the mosque spire had no crescent and star. Answer, the “crescent and star” was the symbol for Islam and the mosque itself being a symbol of Islam, it didn’t need it. Almost all other mosques we have seen have had the crescent and star and we have had discussions as to which way the crescent opening faces.

It was a very pretty building overlooking the Singapore Strait separating Malaysia from Singapore.

Something about it reminded me of the really old Portuguese church that we had seen in Macao.

Next we went to the Sultan Ibrahim Building.

One of our three buses parked in front of the Sultan Ibrahim Building.

“A famous landmark in JB featuring local and colonial architecture, this building was once used as a fortress and command centre during the Second World War. Today, it houses the state secretariat and other offices of the state government. For visiting purposes kindly obtain prior permission from the security personnel on duty.” All that emphasis is from me. The last time we were in JB I tried to visit and the security personnel didn’t even let me get close. That time I had worn shin length pants and sleeves but no luck. This time I came prepared with long pants, socks, a shawl… but no need especially compared to what most of the other women were wearing. Most of the government offices have actually moved to a brand-new-still-partly-under-construction complex not far from where we are berthed at Puteri. Of the old building we only saw the lobby and the aging theater on the ground floor before we climbed the 7 flights to one of the top floors with a great view of JB, the Straits and Singapore. The building must have been very impressive in its bustling days but now reminded me of a cross between an old castle, the old New Bedford High School and the government building in Buffalo where we could at least take the elevator to the open viewing floor. You can’t tell from this photo but there was lovely landscaping. This is the building surrounded by the fence that I had tried to find an opening into and failed last visit. I had hacked my way through brush and over ditches only to find myself having to retrace my hot dirty way back around to where I had started. Then they wouldn’t let me in to the building. Fond memories. That was last trip. Helps to be on a tour sometimes.

View from the top. The building with the dome is in JB, Malaysia and the other buildings are in Singapore. It took us a half of a day to go from our boat at Puteri to our hotel in Little India. You can go from Roanoke to DC is almost the same amount of time but then you aren’t changing countries.

I’m standing with two of the building’s guides. I look like a giant! And except for the red bag I had bought in China I look rather bland compared to my two friends.

Great space and wonderful views.

There was nothing up there but an empty space with these wonderfully shaped openings and a great view. It was definitely worth the climb since “the aging lift” just couldn’t handle the load of getting over 100 huge western sized people up there. Several folks skipped the climb and walked off to find coffee and snacks. I wish we’d had time for both since lunch was a long way off.

After the Sultan building we headed out of JB into the countryside. Our next stop (and the next email): the Pineapple Museum.

I am going to send out an email showing our passage schedule from Johor to Langkawi. Lumut, Panang, and Langkawi are official rally stops. The rest are places we’ve chosen as we make our way to the official stops.

DoraMac

Johor, Malaysia, Puteri Harbour

Singapore visit

October 28, 2009 Ruth

Hi Everyone, We’re back at the boat after our quick trip to Singapore. It was a rush but a good trip. Ru

Singapore October 2009

Just a few photos from our very rushed trip to Singapore. We went Saturday morning and returned on Tuesday morning. Randal needed some boat parts and we both wanted to load up on books. We also wanted to see friends and that was the most rushed part of the trip: just enough time to say hello and good-bye. But we’ll see Marie-Louise and George again other places during our travels. Foolishly I left our contact info for Steve and Valerie on the boat and emailing didn’t work so we missed them, RATS!

We left Puteri Harbour at 9 am when the courtesy van took us to a nearby bus terminal where we could catch the Causeway bus to Singapore. Though Singapore is only over the river and down the road, it is a separate country so that meant exiting Malaysia and entering Singapore with all of the paperwork involved. The bus drops you at the Malaysia immigration building and you go through, get your exit paperwork done and then go back to the bus. We had forgotten to fill out the short exit form because we have been changing countries by boat for a while now and the paperwork for sea travel is different than by land travel. By the time we had filled in the short form we got caught in line behind a crowd from a tour bus. Our local bus didn’t wait so Randal and I had to take the next one coming through that would take us to Singapore. It came in about 20 minutes. Next we had to get off that bus and go through customs entering Singapore. Finally we caught a bus to take us to the Singapore MRT which would get us to Little India and the Broadway Hotel on Serangoon Rd. We have stayed there on previous visits and love the area. Our short trip had taken us the entire morning.

Little India was decorated for Deepavali. According to our Rally info sheet, the Hindu holiday of Deepavali was celebrated on October 17^th and is the celebration of the triumph of good over evil. Called the Festival of Lights, it is always celebrated in the 7^th month of the Hindu calendar. The streets of Little India were still full of the decorations.

Saturday we met Marie-Louise our cruising friend from the boat Dessert First for an early dinner at the Vivo City Mall. Marie-Louise has been “working” in Singapore as a volunteer consultant helping to develop the type of retirement facility for the elderly that she worked to establish in San Francisco for the Chinese community. Singapore is using the model that Marie-Louise developed so they are picking Marie-Louise’s brains for ideas. Luckily Marie-Louise has lots of brains so she can afford to let them be picked. My brain was not working and I forgot to get out my camera before we parted. But you can see lots of Marie-Louise on our website and see the wonderful slide show she created from our time in Singapore early last spring. We ate in a restaurant called Marche and it was very good. Luckily we went early: when we finally left there was a very long line waiting to get in.

Scene from the Vivo City Mall where they were already reminding shoppers that Christmas will be coming. An image very different from what you see in Little India or Chinatown. This could be any big city mall in any country.

Sunday we went off to meet George who is married to my college friend Eileen. During our trip back home to the U.S. this past spring we visited them and had a really good time. George was in Singapore on business. He brought us wonderful stuff from home: books, booze and real Ghirardelli chocolate! Eileen and George had chosen a selection of books that should keep us busy for quite a while. The new Dan Brown, Paul Theroux travel books and some old favorites so I can discover Nancy Mitford. We spent a wonderful long lunch with George where we toasted the absent Eileen, back home working and attending to their new very adorable puppy Rambo III. Mid-afternoon George went off to his business meeting and Randal and I walked back to one art supply shop and another art supply shop looking for copper powder that Randal needed , but “no have” as they say here. Then we went back to our room in Little India and began to read. We’d eaten such a huge wonderful lunch that even I didn’t want dinner. Well maybe a few of those pieces of chocolate!

George and Randal

Monday Randal and I went off on our separate tasks. Randal was off in search of boat stuff and I went off to look for an instructional drawing DVD. I knew that Kinokuniya, the largest bookstore in SE Asia didn’t have any because Randal and I had been there Saturday afternoon. He had gotten American Caesar about Douglas MacArthur and General Patton: A Soldier’s Story. I got the new AS Byatt, The Children’s Book. It follows the fictional lives of children’s book authors and I thought it sounded interesting. Those books plus the pile from Eileen and George will set us for a good long while and make us the envy of other cruisers. We’ll share when we finish. Anyway, I decided to walk to the Borders Bookstore in Wheelock Place on Orchard Road. It took me about an hour of steady walking but I like walking in Singapore. I was disappointed to find no instructional art DVDs of any kind so instead settled for some of the new Watercolor magazines, “The International Herald Tribune”, and “The Columbia Journalism Review” so I could read the articles about how well or not journalists cover the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oprah was tempting but I decided to save my money for coffee and a cranberry muffin in the coffee shop. Then rested and fed I started back to Little India. My mission there was to find a replacement for my recently dearly departed white blouse. I walked and looked and said, “no thank you,” a thousand times. Just couldn’t find anything I loved so that will be a quest for future travels. But walking through Little India is fun and I really didn’t need anything so it was easy just to look but not to buy anything.

We spent Monday evening resting and reading: Randal had walked a zillion miles too and did manage to get most of what he needed.

The room did have a TV. The main English language channel was CCTV, Central China Television which was what we watched during our time in China. It was nice to see “familiar” faces doing the news. But mostly we read.

A slice of Singapore. The view from our room in Little India.

Randal checking the Street Atlas while a local looks on. Often people will come up and ask if they can help direct us.

We walked past the Singapore Art Museum. Hard to imagine that his sculpture was moved here and Randal almost had me convinced that it was so huge that it must always have been there. But I had been to SAM several times during our 7 weeks early in 2009 and remembered it not being there. I was right and it is part of a traveling exhibit. I guess it is almost sacrilegious to say it reminds me of those horrible creatures representing chest phlegm in the cough medicine commercial on U.S. TV. It is pretty impressive when you pass by.

“Li Chen is regarded as one of the leading sculptors working in Asia today. His powerful, large-scale bronzes fuse Chan (Zen) thought with contemporary art practice. Li, who lives and works in both Shanghai and Taiwan, began his largely self-taught career by producing traditional Buddhist sculptures. In the 1990s, he freed himself from the restraints of the traditional canon while retaining a profound spirituality in his work. This was further deepened through his study of scriptures in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. In 2007, a large scale exhibition of Li Chen’s work was presented at the 52nd Venice Biennale and in 2008; his work was recognized at a major solo exhibition titled In Search of Spiritual Space at The National Art Museum of China in Beijing.” From the SAM website.

I thought it was funny that they called the “Walk” symbol the “Green Man.”

Bus terminal in Johor. Actually the small station with the several food stalls was at my back. Not sure what is structure was across the small yellow bridge. But it is definitely a much different scene from Singapore

Johor, Malaysia, Puteri Harbour

Arrival in Puteri Harbour

October 23, 2009 Ruth

It was a really fast and calm trip other than for the hundreds of commercial ships we had to negotiate past, around, behind and in front of. I’m not kidding when I say hundreds. Our AIS system lists up to 100 ships in the vicinity of where you are and the list was always full up to the 100 limit! But we arrived early and there were 4 marina workers to help catch our lines. They seem to really be trying here to attract cruisers though the place is really in the initial stages of development.

Tomorrow we’re off to Singapore. The marina will drive us to where we can catch a bus in town. How’s that for service!

Johor, Malaysia, Sebana Cove Marina

Zam Zam Islamic Restaurant

October 22, 2009 Ruth

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.

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.

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.

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!