Category Archives: Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Sabah, Sutera Harbour

Ulu Temburong National Park

August 7, 2009 Ruth

Hi All,

That should definitely tell you where we are. I’m sending the last email from our Brunei trip. Then I’ll catch up with the last events of Sail Malaysia that included a wonderful dinner and a class on how to wrap yourself in 6 meters of material to make a sari. The Rally ended on August 2nd. Many of the boats are still here in the marina, but many have set off to continue their own journeys. We’ll remain here in Kota Kinabalu for the month of August. Randal is doing boat work and I’m doing the wandering around. I did find a watercolor teacher and have taken one lesson so far. I like her and will go again. Every teacher I have is different but the principles are the same. The more lessons I have the more I seem to “get it” even if I can’t always do it.

I’m still hopeful that the Red Sox season isn’t blowing up. But it seems every third year they win the Series and every third year they have a terrible year….At least since 2004. We’ll see.

I’m off to town later to Borneo Books where we can swap books. Randal will do boat work. Then he’s going to try to check on his computer. The R stopped working and he took the computer back to the store where he’d bought it this time last year. They have a Dell person working on it. For now we’re sharing 70 – 30 and you can guess who gets the 30.

So that’s it for now.

Ulu Temburong National Park

http://www.bruneibay.net/eco-adventure/natlpark.htm

“Visit the best protected rainforest in Borneo to see the unique forest, hike to the top of the Canopy Walkway to be above the trees, visit a longhouse and see the rural side of Brunei. Travel in longboats up the rapids of the Temburong River for 15km to reach the National Park. Lunch (afterwards) provided beside the river. The river trip back downstream from the National Park will include a couple of our inflatable rafts and numerous Rapid Riders (inflatable air mattresses made from raft material) to have fun shooting the rapids.”

How could any thinking person not figure out she would get wet? Make that half a bus load of people. Somehow Randal and I zoomed in on the word hike and tuned out the “shoot the rapids” part. So Randal wore socks and hiking boots and I wore my sneakers. Agnes Keith in Land Below the Wind said sneakers were her footwear of choice for jungle treks and I take her advice about anything Borneo. (Borneo is the island that Brunei and East Malaysia are on.) As it turned out, they’re not so bad for rapids shooting because sneakers dry pretty fast overnight in the engine room. Funny enough too, though we all wore life jackets going up-river to the park, no one did on the way back when half of us were in the water and where at one point when Joy and I tumbled off our yellow Rapid Rider into the river, I couldn’t stand up. Randal chose to take one of the motorized longboats back down river and I’m not sure what I would have done had Joy Carey not asked me to share a Rapid Rider with her. Her husband, like Randal opted for the longboat. I handed Randal all of my gear, camera, watch, phone and that was a good thing! But alas, no way to take photos. Luckily, Jean-Marie’s wife Lily did take some and shared them with me. I do have lots of photos of our hike into the rainforest and canopy walk.

Getting to the Rainforest……

We traveled by air conditioned bus; zooming 400 horsepower butt beating water taxi at 60 mph locally called the “Flying Coffin” , a second air conditioned bus, and finally butt numbing flatboat to get to the National Park. This is what the flatboat looks like.

Very shallow and narrow. You sat on a plank about a 6 inches off the bottom of the boat and a board was put in back of you to lean against. When you went past a rapid water would slosh into the boat and wet your sneakers and splash onto your shorts. By the end of the trip you butt was tired of sitting on the plank. Agnes Keith would travel for days on a longboat powered by natives with poles.

We’d be zooming along and then hit a shallows when our young bow boy would get out and pull us along. It was in some ways like canoeing along the James if you have ever done that. At this point we were going upstream so definitely needed the 30 horsepower engine.

Arriving at Ulu Temburong National Park.

Our first stop was at the Park HQ located in a replica of a longhouse and the only “Ladies Room” for miles around. Some folks listened the guide’s short talk. I went off to the “Ladies.” There would be no going off to pee in these leech/spider/who knows what infested forests.

Then we got back into the longboats for the 2 minute trip to the trailhead, got back out of the longboats and started up the 385 meters to the Canopy Walk.

Up the steps though in this photo it looks a bit like a ladder.

Then up the trail with rope railings that you needed to negotiate the giant dirt steps.

A very unflattering photo I asked Randal to take. I’m hot and pooped at this point and was glad there was a bit of a wait to start climbing the metal scaffold’s stairs to the canopy. And I was glad for my sneakers. Lots of folks had on flip flops and sandals prepared for the rafting part of the trip. You can see part of the metal canopy climb behind my head.

Up up and up…..about 45 meters Randal remembers. The air was breezy and cooler.

I hadn’t counted the steps, but the fellow who wrote this following passage did.

“Ulu Temburong National Park has the tallest canopy walk in the world and it is a feat just to reach the bottom of the canopy walk’s metal scaffolding, as to get to the canopy walk you have to climb more than 1200 steps. Add the steps to climb up the canopy walk scaffolding and you have at least 1300 pain-inducing steps.

http://realtravel.com/e-156184-temburong_entry-brunei_ulu_temburong:_hangin_with_the_locals

Before we started the park ranger told us how many “big giant western sized” people could be on the steps or the towers or the scaffolding at one time. (He told us they allowed more of the small local people.) So of course I was worried the whole time because it was different for the steps, scaffolding and viewing towers and I couldn’t remember and thought no one else seemed to care. I especially worried on the bridges between the towers. You walked along the bridges to the next tower and climbed up to the top with a viewing stand.

The top of the top of the top. I don’t like heights that well so didn’t really take time to enjoy the view. But the experience was worth doing for sure.

The way down was straight down. You walked down some steps then stepped onto a platform then down the next flight. The trip up is broken up by the bridges and different levels and time to stand in a tower and look around. The trip down you just go. On the very last level both Randal and I got bee stings on our palm from bees that obviously congregate on the railings.

Then it’s back down the steps through the woods and the dirt steps through the mud and then you’re done. You get back into a longboat and then are taken down the river for a picnic lunch.

Randal getting from our longboat onto shore for the picnic lunch.

The river was full of these rocks and we had to walk barefoot over them a short distance from the longboat. One of the kind guides held my hand while I gingerly ouched my way from boat to shore. At that point I was still trying to keep my sneakers dry. It was a wonderful lunch of local foods and a drink that tasted like sweet Rootbeer.

Then it was time to go down the river.

Photo from Intrepid Tours web site

Joy and I started out on the yellow “Rapid Rider.” She was sitting in front and I was in back. Getting nowhere paddling with our hands, ours being more like a “Slow Rider,” I grabbed on to the rope at back of one of the large rafts. Bad idea. We soon hit a rapid and weren’t able to stay connected to either raft or our yellow mattress and both of us ended up in the water. I managed not to lose either my prescription sun glasses or my B hat; Joy kept her hat too! We then gave up on the yellow mattress and climbed into one of the larger rafts.

Joy in the straw hat, Jean-Marie in back and our young bow person from the tour group. Originally Jean-Marie was in the paddle raft with 2 young men from the tour group. When we got into this paddle raft one of the young men jumped out and took the yellow mattress. Somehow as things went along Joy and I ended up with the paddles. We kept chatting away and Jean-Marie kept telling us to quit chatting and paddle. Somehow Joy and I couldn’t talk and paddle straight so sent us sideways into some of the rapids. You can’t tell from the photo, but Joy and I are both soaking wet from hat to sneakers. Randal and Jim were perfectly dry from their longboat trip. While we waited to board the bus for the return home I stood out in the sun and dried quite a bit. Luckily I had brought a large sarong. I was tempted to take off my wet clothes and just wear the huge pink sarong. Alas, No nerve! So I just wrapped it around me for the bus ride to keep off the blowing air conditioned air. We made a quick stop midway back while waiting to board one of those Coffin Zooming water taxi boats and that would take us home. Then we squashed ourselves into a small van for the mile or so back to the yacht club. Finally it was into the yacht club water taxi and back to the boat!

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Sabah, Sutera Harbour

Kampung Ayer – Brunei Water Village Tour

August 2, 2009 Ruth

Hi All

This morning Joy from Kelerin, Cliff from Icicle One and Ken from Panache and I went into town for the Sunday morning market. I didn’t take my camera because I knew I’d be loaded down with veggies and fruit (as well as a small bronze goat bell I just had to buy and a small basket woven from old magazines and shellacked that I couldn’t pass up.) I bought lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, scallions, cucumber, 3 kiwi, 4 hard red apples, 2 loaves of bread and one very dense, dry cookie to go. Sounds light but weighs a lot. If I’d had my camera I’d have taken a photo of the grubs someone was selling in old water bottles. (And then you’d have to look at it and I’ve been told that’s not everyone’s cup of tea by some of you.) As it was I had to hold it for Joy to take a photo and it moved enough that it was yucky.

We walked around for about an hour and a half and then had a cold drink at a neat open cafe/regular old restaurant. Randal and I had not come to this section of KK last time so it was neat to find a new area. I also might have found an art teacher. There was a booth of lovely watercolor paintings. I asked the 3 people working the booth if they knew anyone who taught and the men pointed to the woman, Ms Asap. We discussed the possibility of lessons and I will do it probably some time next week Yippiee. Randal was heroic and stayed on the boat and did boat chores. Tonight we have the last Sail Malaysia Rally dinner.

As for the Sox who I haven’t mentioned of late; not eveyone out there who reads this cares about the Red Sox; or they their own team to cheer for. But I have to tell you that when the Sox hit the skids after the All-Star break I pulled out and put on every lucky piece of thing I had ever bought (but not the big heavy red chunk of rock stuff I could have worn on a string around my neck,) and they lost worse. So I took it all off and they won 3 in a row so I’m off the hook. I still always wear a B hat, but that’s it. Go Sox!

This attachment is our tour of the Water Village. I still have to write about our river trip to the rainforest and the canopy walk and the “yellow rubber raft/mattress” float back down the river. On the way there I tried to keep my sneakers dry so you can imagine what happened on the way back! At least Martha can; who must be hysterical reading that last line given what happened to us on our rafting trip on the Colorado when we tried to keep our sneakers dry. Who knew?

So that’s it from sunny Kota Kinabalu.

Kampung Ayer – Brunei Water Village Tour

“The rustic collective of 30 stilt villages on either side of Sungai Brunei is referred to as Kampung Ayer (Water Village.) It’s home to a population of around 32,000 who pursue a mostly traditional way of life, albeit in prefab dwellings with plumbing, electricity, and color TV.” Lonely Planet Guide

Apparently Malaysians and as I remember, Indonesians too, prefer to remain in the village of their birth. So if you are born in a water village that’s where you stay adding your own marriage family to the village. The water villages have schools, medical clinics, police and fire services; just as if they were land villages. Villagers travel by insanely speeding boats but have cars parked on land for land travel.

You can see the wake from our boat and how vast the other one was going but we saw no crashes!

We’ve gotten off the water taxi and will walk down the wooden walk way to visit a Water Village B & B.

The men in the background were flying kites.

The front of one home across from where we had our tea and snacks.

Allan leading us along.

The owner of the home serving tea to Jean-Marie, a French Canadian. Shoes are always left outside. If you have tie shoes that is much less convenient than flip flops or sandals. I wore my sandals; Randal his big walking boots.

During Hari Raya homes, especially the big front rooms, deck themselves out and are always prepared for visitors. Hari Raya is the celebrated at the end of the fasting season of Ramadan. Hari Raya lasts for a month but is mostly celebrated during the first 3 days…. I think.

Because this is a business as well as a home it is required to have photos of the sultan and his wife. The hallway leads back to other rooms including the kitchen which we visited. The hallway had 3 TV sets.

Another vies of the front room. There were snacks and tea set out on the long tables. The front door was in the middle and when you entered there were two halves of this very large room. You can see that we were there at 6 pm. The tour was supposed to be over about then, but we were an hour late getting started and we were just enjoying ourselves too much to speed it up.

Our host answers Gloria’s questions while the rest of us tour around the kitchen. There were 3 microwaves on one counter and a very small washing machine in one corner; the room itself was quite large.

This treat was so cool! It is all wrapped up and closed with a tiny bamboo peg. You unwrap it and have a sweet, slightly sticky, very dense, semi-solid jell-o like substance. It reminded me of taro or pandan or something I ate in the Philippines. I, of course liked it. But very very full of sugar! Maybe some rice flour in it? As Joesephine would say, “I’m a sucker for the wrapping.” I had to eat one just so I could unwrap it.

I know you can’t make heads or tails of this photo. You are looking through and opening in the kitchen floor at a beam and at the water below the village. There is where some of the biggest catfish in the world must live. Many families keep catfish in enclosures below the house and it eats anything that goes down there, food or human waste. The water villages don’t smell at all like waste though lots of it goes into the river. The river moves too fast apparently.

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Sabah, Sutera Harbour

Brunei Tour with Allan Riches

July 31, 2009 Ruth

5:10 pm

Hi All,

Randal and I pulled up anchor about 7:30 am this morning and cruised until about 1:30 when we arrived here at Sutera Harbor Marina. We had spent August 2008 here and it’s nice to return to a familiar place. These next few days are the last for Sail Malaysia. A final dinner will be held tomorrow night.

As I’m still catching up with email from Brunei, it does make things a bit confusing. Oh well; I would think you’re all used to it by now.

So here is part two of the Brunei city tour. There will be a part 3 so you can see what the water villages are like. Then I’ll write about our trip to the Rain Forest and our canopy walk. We really did do a lot during our time in Brunei.

ps The puffy roll at the carvery was Yorkshire Pudding! I knew it was a Brittish thing, but kept thinking Wellington which I knew was beef wrapped in some kind of dough, I think. But Yorkshire Pudding does sound a bit like brioche.

Brunei Tour with Allan Riches

“Discover Brunei: Approx 4 hour van/bus tour around Bandar Seri Begawan (capital of Brunei) with a guide to learn about how Brunei works and what makes it unique. Visit a mosque, the Royal Regalia, and the water village. Stops at the old and new palaces. Depart RBYC Serasa at 1300. Return approx 1700.”

That’s what Allan’s handout said and that’s what we did! Plus we stopped at the end for an ATM and a quick trip to the supermarket. Cruisers never pass up a trip to an ATM or supermarket especially if someone will drive them in a vehicle. Also, as no one had Brunei money at this point, everyone needed an ATM.

If you know as little about Brunei as I did, than you pretty much knew nothing. I was surprised to find it in Southeast Asia and not the Middle East. Brunei became a British protectorate in 1888 and an independent country in 1984. That’s all I’ll write; all I know, and that’s only because I just read it in my Lonely Planet guide. (I do know that, had there been any cruisers in the Rally with Israeli passports, they wouldn’t have been allowed to enter the country.) But politics aside, if that’s allowed, Brunei royalty seems to be trying to share its oil wealth with the population. During our tour Allan Riches told us about Brunei; its history, current events, gossip; he seems to know it all. We all had lots of questions about who actually got to spend all of that oil money. (It seems most individual’s loans are paid by the government, house loan, car loan, school loan. And 60 per cent of the workers in Brunei work for the government in some way. Health care is practically free.) A giant plus for this tour; I could almost always understand Allan’s Aussie English. Sometimes Aussie/New Zealand/British English trips me up. The local people gamely try to understand us all.

The last Brunei email stopped with the tour of the mosque. Now we’re off to the Royal Regalia Building where there is more gold, or things gold in color than Fort Knox.

“The Royal Regalia building was officially opened on 30 September 1992 by His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam. “ (I missed the explanation of the name because I was wandering around taking photos. But it’s something about there being no last name so the names of parents are included, I think. Randal didn’t quite catch it either.) “The Royal Regalia Building has been designed to incorporate various characteristics of the philosophy of Malay Islamic Monarchy and has become another striking landmark of Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. The building displays a large number of the Royal Regalia that has been inherited from generation to generation…” Quotes from Royal Regalia Building Brochure

This photo was on the front of the Royal Regalia Building’s brochure.

Royal Coronation Chariot pushed by men walking on either side. There are wheels so at least it doesn’t have to be carried!! Things here colored gold are!

While I was taking photos I wasn’t listening to Allan explain things. When I could listen, photos weren’t allowed. This chariot was in the main entry room and only there were photos allowed.

A solid gold chin rest. During long parades when the royal crown starts to get way too heavy, the Sultan can rest his chin in this gold palm. (Photo from the brochure.)

It could be really easy to start making fun of the royal trappings, but all the money isn’t spent by the royal family only on itself. Apparently the current sultan’s brother tried and now he is in “exile” in LA or Las Vegas or somewhere with his toys sold off. The Sultan is too smart and his sister is too socially conscious. They know that they have to share the wealth and whether they do it because it’s right or because it’s pragmatic, they appear to be doing it. Randal and I enjoyed our time in Brunei. But I do think some of the oil money should go to the public library. There was no link to an online catalog that I could find when I went to its web site.

Women workers at the royal Regalia Building

You could say this is another example of sharing the country’s wealth. These women have jobs paid for by the government. I snuck this photo. When we asked, they said no, though a couple of them acted like they really did want their photo taken.

Here is Anne trying to negotiate a photo.

As close as we could get to the Sultan’s Palace was across the road. Looks a bit like a roller coaster on top.

In contrast, this is the house where the current Sultan grew up.

It’s large, but no palace and no central AC or why would they have those units outside. Now it’s just an historic place.

Down the street from the Sultan’s first home. Large concrete apartment houses are directly across the street though neither Randal nor I know if these buildings were there when the Sultan actually lived in the neighborhood.

Next stop; the Water Village

Malaysia, Sail Malaysia

Moving right along

July 29, 2009 Ruth

Sail Malaysia continues

Hi All,

We are cruising towards Kota Kinabalu, the final stop of Sail Malaysia. We left Miri, Malaysia on the 24th and arrived in tiny Brunei on the 25th about 5 am. Since it’s not light till about 6:15 and the Immigration Officials weren’t due to arrive at the Royal Brunei Yacht Club until 10 am we actually dropped anchor outside the channel into Brunei and went to sleep. We’d left Miri the afternoon before and cruised through the night so we were tired. As for Brunei, other than about a hundred photos, good memories, a trip down Outward Bound memory lane and the best bus tour around Brunei with Allan Riches, eating back about 3 additional pounds I had just lost, a rock from the Ulu Tamburong National Park, and what is still an itchy bee sting, other than all that, we hardly did a thing in our 3 days in Brunei! Several boats took the opportunity to load up on diesel in Brunei where they had special cheap rates for the locals; our visiting yachts were allowed the lower price. But you had to haul it in large fuel containers from the inland station and at too small amounts to be useful to us. Sailboats obviously need and hold lots less fuel than we do. Yachts were allowed 300 litters which is 79 gallons. We had taken on 300 gallons at the fuel dock in Terengganu at the higher but much more convenient rate. Now we’re here in Labuan mostly to wait until July 31st when a slip will open for us in Kota Kinaba (Randal Close the Hatches!, It’s raining!!) Kinabalu . Of course, now the sun’s out and we really did need the rain to clean the salt off the boat. Since we are anchored out here in Labuan we can’t spare our water to wash the boat. We are in a bay; but need good salty ocean water to make water. We do have half a tank of water and that will last us. Sail Malaysia regroups in Kota Kinabalu August 1st.

Until we leave for KK boats will stay here in “duty free, buy all your booze” Labuan or head the 30 miles to Tiga Island which is half way, 30 miles, to KK. Not sure what we’ll do. I’d like to see Peace Park where the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in WW2 and also the WW2 memorial to the Australian soldiers. But as Randal says, we can stop here on our way back around after the rally. It would be nice to split the 60 mile cruise to KK. We do have to check back into Malaysia here since we left to go to Brunei and because there are “independent” parts of Malaysia who require visiting yachts to check in and out no matter it’s all Malaysia. Miri was in Serawak and Labuan and KK are in Sabah, all Malaysia, but different states.

We plan to stay several weeks in Kota Kinabalu so I should be able to start sending lots of photos. From some comments, I won’t feel the need to discuss bird saliva should Randal and I encounter it on a tour. In August 2008, Randal and I spent a month in KK so we know our way around. There is a pretty good library and hopefully in that time I’ll find some art lessons too. Islamic art is often beautiful calligraphy so I’m not sure about my success finding watercolor lessons; but I’ll try. We still have boat chores and with shore power and water, the boat should get a good cleaning. And we’ll be able to dive and clean our propeller.

Here in Pulau Labuan we are anchored in the working harbor next to the fleet of fishing boats. It’s like being anchored in downtown New Bedford next to the fishing fleet which I think is quite cool! Things are getting morning busy now, but I slept like a log last night. It was calm and quiet. No kereokee. The harbor doesn’t have much room for visiting yachts so some cruisers had to go over to the unfinished marina; unfinished because it was more rolling there than here in the working harbor. But there is only so much room and most of the 30 something Sail Malaysia boats are here. We were lucky it get here in the middle of the pack so found a space.

We’re off later this morning to check into Sabah, see a bit of the city and then to buy our share of beer and some wine and hopefully some form of sugarfree Coke product. Pepsi is dreadful! Cruiser chatter about checking in and out and buying booze is over the VHF radio just now. We all turn to the same not busy channel to keep in touch. Apparently booze isn’t so cheap and the water taxis might take a bit to come, but the sun is shining and all seems good.

Malaysia, Miri Marina

Niah Cave with Jim and Joy Carey – Traders Cave and the Guano Carriers

July 23, 2009 Ruth

Hi All,

Today we biked to customs and immigration to check out of Malaysia to prepare for tomorrow’s departure for Brunei. We will spend 3 days in Brunei as part of Sail Malaysia; the 25th -27th. We still haven’t planned our route to Brunei but it will probably be straight through so will be an overnight passage. Our time there is pretty crammed full of events.

Last night we had a Rally dinner and tonight we will have one tonight also. It’s funny, although we like Miri and would come again, we have done little touring around other than the Niah Caves and biking through town to do boat chores. I never did make it back to spend more time at the library. Next visit.

So, here’s the last of the Niah Cave trip emails. Maybe more than you wanted to know?

Niah Cave with Jim and Joy Carey – Traders Cave and the Guano Carriers

On our way to the caves we passed this fellow.

We weren’t quite sure how to connect him to the area until we read about the Trader’s Cave and saw another man actually filling bags in the caves.

Buyers and sellers met at the Traders’ Cave.

Traders’ Cave

Rock formations in Traders’ Cave

I don’t know if all of the rock hanging from the ceiling can be called stalactites. In the first email I wrote that the Park brochure calls this an overhang rather than a cave. Not sure the difference although this one had more opening.

The bird’s nests and guano are collected in the Great Cave. “Proceeding into the cave, the sound of disembodied voices mingle with the squeaking of millions of bats and swiftlets to create an eerie atmosphere. The voices belong to the guano collectors who toil by the light of paraffin lamps to collect the guano (bat and bird excrement) covering the cave floor. The guano is then carried in sacks to the Sungai Niah (Niah River) where it is graded and sold as fertilizer. “Park brochure Guano makes one reluctant to hold onto the railings! That and scorpions and giant crickets that also pinch. I spent as much time on the way back shining my light on the rail as on the stairs. But mostly you just ignore it all and walk through the caves just looking around amazed at the geologic structures carved into the walls and ceilings.

A guano collector. Sifting?

Collecting?

Bagging it all up?

Another guano collector. I think we saw three in all. We have no idea how much those bags weigh.

Birds’ Nest Collecting

Bamboo poles used to collect the birds’ nests. But we never saw the birds’ nest collectors. They climb these bamboo poles attached to the roof of the cave and collect the nest of the swifts. We’re not sure how high up they are thought the cave entrance is over 60 meters high. It is much higher than our sail mast and I won’t go up there and neither will Randal. (At least not until we get a boson’s chair.)

“Strategically positioned bamboo poles and ladders made from ironwood are evidence of the birds’ nest collectors, local people who have practiced this dangerous occupation for generations. The half million swiftlets that live in the cave make their nests purely form their own salivary secretions and when the nests are cleaned and cooked they produce the famous birds’ nest soup which is highly regarded in Chinese cuisine and in the West. Collecting the nests from the cave ceiling is a dangerous job and fatalities are not uncommon. ….Obviously such a valuable commodity is a magnet for poachers and over-harvesting is a constant worry. Therefore Park management constantly monitors the caves to deter illegal collectors.” Park brochure (When we first learned about the swifts and birds’ nest soup I was told that you can take the first 2 nests the bird builds and it will rebuild each time. But if you take it three times it will stop. I don’t know if that means stop permanently or the bird will just move to some other site.) I would think I’d be put off knowing the main ingredient of bird’s nest soup is swiftlet saliva even if the soup were free for the tasting. Yuck. I draw the line at chicken feet, cow tongue and chittlins (sp) which are pig intestines which I actually did eat once in a Southside restaurant in Chicago back in 1970. I think I could easily become a vegetarian.

Malaysia, Miri Marina, Sarawak

Visit to the Niah Caves part 1

July 22, 2009 Ruth

Hi Everyone,

Tonight is the first Sail Malaysia Rally Miri Dinner. Today was an oversold optional trip to the Niah Caves. Luckily Jim and Joy and Randal and I went a few days ago.

We still like Miri and everyone is quite friendly and helpful. The marina is crammed full and yesterday late afternoon our dock lost power for an hour which means no AC. Just as we had finished opening all of the portholes and hatches the shore power was restored. Yippee.

Today I am following the Sox lose yet another game. They have forgotten how to hit the ball….but I think this is always their bad time of year; at least that’s what I’m hoping and they get over it before it’s too late.

Niah Caves with Joy and Jim – To the Caves

We took off on an in land adventure and hiked to and through the Niah Caves, a National Park site in Sarawak not far from Miri. Our cruising friends, Jim and Joy Carey on Kelerin planned the trip, made arrangements for and drove the rental car. Randal and I just had to show up at 7am with our snacks and hiking shoes and split the cost of gas and the car rental. The car rental, 30 ringgits and the gas 40 ringgits was divided so was about $ 16 U.S. for us. It was about 60 miles from our marina to the caves. Jim did an admirable job of driving the small car that just fit 4 American size people. (And the steering wheel is on the wrong side and you drive on the wrong side of the road too.) Only one window would open, and the AC wouldn’t work. But hey, it cost next to nothing to rent and it did the job.

Our first stop was for gas which involved a tour around Miri and its frustrating puzzle of one way streets, always the way you didn’t want to go. But we found the station and then headed back out of Miri toward Bintulu. Our original destination was a different park where you might be able to see some crocodiles and take a boat ride too. But as began to realize how long it would actually take to get there, and that the Niah Caves were much closer, we opted for the caves. The Sail Malaysia Rally had planned to make a trip to the caves; then it became an optional trip at an additional cost. The last optional trip that was offered in Terengganu never happened. And the day the Cave trip might go, Jim couldn’t so switching to the Caves made perfect sense. As it turned out, when the cave trip was actually organized, none of us was around and when we learned of it the bus was full. Good thing we went on our own. http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/np/niah.htm is the Cave’s website.

Our first stop, about 9 am, was for snacks in Niah Junction. It’s just like those places you stop at for gas and snacks in the US except the food is Malaysian and you’re not sure what it is.

Randal and friend at the snack shop. There was also a “display” of some very large turtles that we weren’t sure were alive or not. Sad when the displays for live things aren’t more humane.

Randal ate noodles but the rest of us had just small snacks. As it turned out, we all should have had noodles and more since it would be about 3 pm by the time we were back in the same snack stop having a meal. We just had no clue. I did have some of the dry floury cookies I’d bought at the snack stop and we all had water so it wasn’t dire or anything.

The Niah National Park Complex offered housing and a cafeteria for people staying overnight. We saw young hostlers and also a couple who probably took the VIP lodging.

Randal, Jim and Joy qualified for the “senior” tickets of 5 ringgits but mine was 10. We rented torches (flashlights) which you truly did need while walking through the cages.

Joy, Jim and Randal. You had to take a motorized boat the two minute ride across the river. I’m guessing they don’t have a bridge so they can control access to the Caves and Park to protect it. The one ringgit fee each way was minimal.

There was a small building that said Archeological Museum but it was closed.

You walk 3.5 Kilometers to the Great Cave. Most of it is along flat boardwalk through the jungle. Unfortunately there was no wildlife to be seen. We could hear lots of different kind of birds, but except for bright orange centipedes and two lizards, we never saw a monkey, flying lizard or anything else. We did see the huge Tapang trees like we’d seen in Kumai and the Singapore Botanical Garden and some fungai, but no orchids.

Not sure if these two were making love or war. They were totally still.

About half way you get to the entrance to a small village. We didn’t walk the half mile there, but in hind-sight wish we had and skipped the trip to the Painted Cave. You’ll see why when we get there. These ladies were selling cold drinks and souvenirs. We had the cold drinks on the way back.

Every now and then you would get to a gated area. Not sure if they were ever locked now.

And stairs! Randal wished we had counted how many we went up and down along the way.

Next email, “into the caves.”

Malaysia, Miri Marina, Sarawak

Niah Caves Part 2

July 22, 2009 Ruth

July 22

Niah Caves Part 2

Hi All,

This is the 2nd of 3 emails about Niah Caves. If you have missed the first one or any past ones, they are all posted on www.mydoramac.com. Audrey gets them posted almost faster than I can create them.

Anyway, this email is about our hike through the caves. Pretty impressive though my camera really couldn’t capture it. The 3rd email will be about the men who collect the birds’s nests and bird and bat guano. Yum.

Niah Caves with Joy and Jim – To the Caves

Our first stop, about 9 am, was for snacks in Niah Junction. It’s just like those places you stop at for gas and snacks in the US except the food is Malaysian and you’re not sure what it is.

Randal and friend at the snack shop. There was also a “display” of some very large turtles that we weren’t sure were alive or not. Sad when the displays for live things aren’t more humane.

The Niah National Park Complex offered housing and a cafeteria for people staying overnight. We saw young hostlers and also a couple who probably took the VIP lodging.

Randal, Jim and Joy qualified for the “senior” tickets of 5 ringgits but mine was 10. We rented torches (flashlights) which you truly did need while walking through the cages.

There was a small building that said Archeological Museum but it was closed.

Not sure if these two were making love or war. They were totally still.

Every now and then you would get to a gated area. Not sure if they were ever locked now.

And stairs! Randal wished we had counted how many we went up and down along the way.

Next email, “into the caves.”

Malaysia, Miri Marina, Sarawak

Woman Smoking a Water Pipe

July 16, 2009 Ruth

Hi All,

Just trying to catch up on the emails I wrote but couldn’t send. There are about 4 of them. Here is the first, about a woman and a water pipe at the Little Lebanon Restaurnat in Kuching.

ps Spent today doing boat chores: defrosting frig, cleaning up exploded Pepsi Max from the freezer, washing sheets and blankets. Randal did his boat chores and our friend Jim came to return a book and retrieve his hat that he left on our boat back in Tioman. Just a quiet day

Woman Smoking a Water Pipe in the Little Lebanon Restaurant, Kuching

That about sums it up! Randal and I were in our “favorite by default” restaurant in Kuching. I say favorite by default because we really didn’t explore the city all that much. We ate 3 times in Little Lebanon, once in James Brooke and twice in small Chinese open air restaurants. I say open air because the street side has no wall and it’s all just open. Most small restaurants are like that. But some seem more like bistro sidewalk seating than like the wall is missing. And though I’d prefer eating somewhere new each day, Randal prefers to “go with what you know and serves beer.”

One time we were sitting at our same table that we always sit at waiting for our food. We do order different dishes each time and I do have to say that they were all quite good. That visit Randal’s meal came first and mine about 10 minutes later. While I waited a “baggish lady” sitting at a restaurant table but eating her own food, offered me some of her rice. I tried to explain that my food was coming, but she offered again. Maybe she thought Randal wouldn’t buy me any! I had ordered two small inexpensive appetizers that sounded interesting, and were, but larger than I had expected. The first dish was 6 small vegetarian fried pies. When it came I offered some to the lady. She came over to look and was a bit surprised. At first she wasn’t sure what to do, then took one. Then the restaurant owner came out to shoo her away. I explained what had happened; but I guess they weren’t too pleased with her sitting there but couldn’t yell at a tourist. The other dish was Dayak Chicken soup and was wonderful and spicy hot! But that was a different story and this is about the water pipe smoker….

I asked if I could take photos of the process.

They were trying to figure out why it didn’t work. The water apparently acts as a filter. I guess the smoke goes through and makes the water bubble or something that apparently wasn’t happening. The woman was drinking beer and about to smoke this intense pipe. Her male friend was reading a magazine and sipping a Pepsi. Opposites attract.

This woman was beautiful enough to have this odd hairdo. The hair above her ears is shaved almost. The best of both worlds, short and long hair. She actually is quite typical of many of the young travelers we see. The Rainforest World Music Festival attracted many more tourists than we have seen in other places.

Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes…..and several piercings too.

Francesca Ang to the rescue. Somehow she knew how it was all supposed to work and took charge ordering the restaurant worker to bring a different pipe and a new mouth piece. She also took charge of lighting the small piece of coal that heats it all up. A bit later Francesca walked by our table and we stopped her to talk. She is Malaysian but lived in Lebanon (the real place, not this restaurant) and works in the area of Malaysian economic development. Her lunch companions were two men from Egypt. Francesca told us to look for her at the Music Festival and we actually found her and enjoyed a cold drink together.

So that’s the story!

Malaysia, Miri Marina, Sarawak

Woman Smoking a Water Pipe

July 16, 2009 Ruth

Hi All,

Just trying to catch up on the emails I wrote but couldn’t send. There are about 4 of them. Here is the first, about a woman and a water pipe at the Little Lebanon Restaurnat in Kuching.

Woman Smoking a Water Pipe in the Little Lebanon Restaurant, Kuching

I asked if I could take photos of the process.

Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes…..and several piercings too.

So that’s the story!

Malaysia, Miri Marina, Sarawak

Rainforest World crafts

July 15, 2009 Ruth

Hi All,

We arrived here in Miri yesterday morning after a safe but somewhat problematic 2 night passage. Things broke, the sea was rolly, and we we were tired most of the time. But we did arrive safely and that’s the important part. We will be here until about the 23rd of July. There are some Sail Malaysia events on the 21st and 22nd.

I have written 2 emails about the Rainforest World Craft Bazaar. This is the first. The second shows Elizabeth learning to batik. I also tried my hand at it.

Ruth Johnson

DoraMac

Crafts Fair with Ruth and Elizabeth

My crafts companions Ruth, Elizabeth and I regrouped for another crafts adventure. The three of us had spent a wonderful time exploring batik together in Terengganu. The Rainforest World Crafts Bazaar, just in its second year, was held in Santubong in conjunction with the Rainforest World Music Festival now in its 10^th year. www.rainforestmusic-borneo.com The festival opened officially on the 10^th but there was “cheap” entry day on the 9^th so we thought we’d take advantage and go. Ruth, Elizabeth and I can enjoy much more time looking at crafts than Cliff, Patrick or Randal, so we leave them to boat chores and off we go. Perhaps most importantly, the three of us always seem to need teh tarik, lunch and the tandas all about the same time. Quite a compatible trio. (Tea, lunch and the “Ladies Room.)

The Crafts Bazaar is held at the Cultural Village about 2 ½ miles from our Santubong anchorage. Randal kindly played dinghy driver and we collected Elizabeth and Ruth for the quick trip to shore. We began walking at 8:10 and arrived at the Village at 9:10. It was a nice leisurely walk not unlike walking up Mill Mountain along the road though not so steep. We passed an upscale condo complex, a resort, one spectacular home and a restaurant along the way. Definitely not a hike through the jungle.

On brochures for the Craft Bazaar both Elizabeth and I had noticed the reduced entry fee charged on the 9^th. One brochure mentioned that the reduced fee was for “locals,” but each of us at different times had asked in the Kuching tourist office if we could also pay the reduced fee on the 9^th. We were both told that we could. The reduced fee was 15 ringits and the regular fee to enter the Cultural Village is 60 ringits which is about $18 US. None of us wanted to pay $18. Our Music Festival Tickets that would allow us to also see the Crafts Bazaar, the Cultural Village and the Music Festival were 180 ringits for our one day. Cliff and Ruth were going for 3 days so had already paid plenty. 15 ringits was about all we were willing to pay for the early visit to the Crafts Bazaar. There was a bit of confusion at the ticket booth as to whether we were included in the 15 ringit option; but because we had walked the 2 ½ miles and had been told by the Tourist Office we could pay the reduced fee, we were finally only charged the 15 ringits. Whew!

Ruth and Elizabeth sitting. Annette standing. Our first cup of tea after our 2 ½ mile walk

Annette, originally from Britain has been traveling and teaching most of her adult life. She is retired now in Kuching and among other things was a volunteer at the Crafts Bazaar. Elizabeth, a Brit who has also traveled the world teaching, swapped stories. It’s hard to see, but Annette’s shirt was one of the designs created in a contest among student artists.

Nabilah Abdullah a potter from Sarawak. I bought the small cup on the left. It looks like brass but it is clay as you can see. I was as intrigued with her as with the pots. The piece was 8 ringits, less than $3 US and I love it. I thought about buying a larger one, but it was 100 ringits and not the best investment for cruising on bumpy seas. The small one is perfect for toothpicks.

My lovely pot. It feels wonderful to hold in my hands. There is no lead in it so it’s possible to use it as a drinking mug. The small bracelet I bought in the souvenir shop for 6 ringits. It is an American flag sort of and I quite like wearing it.

Nabilah Abdullah

Inkubator Caw. Sarawak

016-8009 680

http://www.kraftangan.gov.my

When Randal and I returned for the Music Festival I brought Nabilah an American Flag bandana and she immediately demonstrated that she knew how to wear it hippy style on her head. I would have loved to have taken potting classes from her; she was so regal and calm…. Needless to say, I was impressed.

Batik Painting

This woman made ceramic beads. She too was quite lovely.

Weaving with rattan. There were lots of lovely baskets and these wonderful mats. I limited myself to just my mug and bracelet.

Coconut monkeys.

There were many lovely crafts. But there was also lots of just “tourist” quality stuff. It was a mix. But we had a wonderful day, stopping for lunch about noon. Then after some more looking we all decided we’d had enough and would catch a shuttle bus back to the jetty. The bus was not due for another 40 minutes so we decided to try to catch a taxi or flag down a ride. My hesitant “flagging” probably looked ridiculous, but soon a car with a Kuching woman and her mom stopped to give us a ride. They were quite happy to do it and we were happy to accept. I phoned Randal when we arrived at the jetty and he dinghyed us all back to our respective boats.

Both Elizabeth and I tried our hand at waxing a batik project and I’ll do a separate email about that.