Hi Everyone,

  “The blow torch wasn’t cooking the pig leg!”  I should have let Randal read my email before I sent it instead of later. He guesses they were just burning off hair or, well, whatever they burn off.  But it wasn’t being cooked.  Randal grew up in the country where they grew/raised lots of their own food.  I grew up in the city with Stop & Shop and things that came wrapped and packaged or from cans.  Except fish which we bought fresh since we lived in New Bedford with its fishing industry. 

Sadly, the Red Sox did get cooked.  I’m still sad and probably will be till the Series is over and we can begin to look at next year though I’m sure the Sox front office has already started to do that.  RATS!!!

The weather is turning perfect here in Miri.  It was 78 degrees at 6 am this morning and the humidity has eased.  The seas are calming and we will be off before the end of the week. 

Ru

Doramac

Hi Everyone,

  For the past several days the Mari Marina has been full of boats.  They came to participate in the Miri to Kota Kinabalu Race, The Borneo Challenge.  Many of the cruisers we’d met in our travels were taking part and it was nice to see them while they were here.  Randal and I are heading in the opposite direction so we didn’t go along.  It’s a pretty informal race where sailboats sail and/or motor depending on the conditions.  Early this morning we biked over to see the race begin at 8:30 am.    I thought 14 boats participated: Randal said 30.  It was somewhere in between. 

Randal wishing we were going too!

The thing I love about this photo is that except for my bike, it looks totally fake.  It looks as if paper boats are stuck onto the top of the water and the tree is iffy too. 

After the boats left Randal and I biked into Miri center to go to the Sunday morning market to get some fruit and veggies.

This is actually just outside the fish market. 

Randal had gone in to look around.  But we were really just looking: we have enough in our freezer for now.  There are always a few vendors selling some produce here but there are really two big public markets that we go to.  One is just across the road and we usually go there go get cabbage and carrots for my cabbage/carrot salad.  Today we biked to one a few blocks away.  Behind it discovered a pork and chicken market.  Randal asked if I had my camera.  You could see whole pork heads (they were no longer pigs) with the ears still on them. And then there were the hoofs and legs hanging there.  When someone wanted to buy some the vendor took out a blow torch and cooked? it.  It seemed as if every conceivable part of the pig was there for sale.  I told Randal that butchered animal photos weren’t very popular among our blog readers so I skipped it.  It really is almost enough to make one a vegetarian.  Though the concept of not wasting anything is good.  When we bought our pork from the stationwagon man in Sungei Rengit it was past looking like it had ever been part of a pig; it just looked like ready to be cooked food. 

Next we walked our bikes the block over to the Zam Zam Islamic Restaurant for a roti cani.  Randal had an egg roti with a side dish of curried dipping sauce garnished with small pieces of what tasted like a slightly curried version of my mother’s pot roast.  I just sprinkled sugar on my plain roti and it tasted kind of like funnel cake, Islamic style.  The owner of ZZIR is a young man who runs it with his uncle.  They are from Pakistan not far from the border with India.  We like them and they like us.  That’s the way it should be.  Another favorite restaurant is Pete’s Deli, a 15 minute walk from the marina.  There you can get chicken pot pie, hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, apple crisp and ice cream, banana chocolate chip muffins and yogurt that they make.  The owner and his son are Chinese.  We like them, they like us.  Lots of school kids go there for lunch since it’s just across from a huge middle and high school complex. 

We biked back to the boat with our veggies and some frozen chicken breast and meat from another small market we’d tried once before.  We hadn’t been on the boat long when Randal spied some young adult aged kids looking at the boat.  He invited them in for a tour.  Their dad, who worked for the Marine Department had come to the marina.

Emy 20 , Azreen 15,  Randal 61,  Arzliey 11,  Fetty 18

Emy had been to university in Kuching and worked trouble shooting problems with radio station transmissions.  Azreen was a cousin and is still in school.  Arzlie is also in school.  Fetty just finished high school and wasn’t sure what her plans will be.  I hope I have it all right. 

Now I’m working on this email and Randal is plotting our course through West Malaysia.  We have signed up to do the West Malaysia Rally which is run by the same people who did our East Malaysia. Even though the rally chooses the stops, cruisers have to get themselves from each stop with their own skill and knowledge.  http://www.sailmalaysia.net/rally-info.html is the web site if you want to read ahead about it.  We had planned to go to most of the stops anyway so decided to just join on.  One of my favorite cruising friends Ken Jenkins from the boat Penache is also signed up for the rally.   Ken was actually parked next to us in Sebana Cove but it wasn’t until the East Malaysia rally that we really got to know him.  He’s cool. 

My Red Sox aren’t doing so well ( an understatement if there ever was one except that in the past they have come back from being even further behind!)  It certainly put me in a sad funk when they lost the second game.  Of course if you look at their pattern since 2004 they weren’t even supposed to make the playoffs this year.  2004 won the Series, 2005 got swept in the first round, 2006 didn’t make it at all, 2007 won the Series, 2008 lost in the second round ; so 2009 meant they weren’t even going to the playoffs.   But they are there and I WANT THEM TO WIN!!!!  

Now it’s time to make dinner.  Then we’ll read since the reception from our new TV dish isn’t so good.  Our neighbor boat said theirs wasn’t so good either.  Then we’ll go to sleep and start all over again tomorrow.

Hi All,

  Randal and I now have television.  Randal and I now have a satellite dish which is why we finally have television.   Buying satellite service when you live on a boat and aren’t always in any one place very long had been impossible so far.  Here in Miri they seem to understand that even though cruisers move around, they are good customers who will maintain the service which subsidizes the real cost of the satellite dish hardware.  A cruiser here in the marina sent us to the shop he had used.  We biked there all excited and heard, “no have.”  “Never had.”  Hmm and RATS!  Then we biked over to our favorite hardware shop and asked their advice.  We were given the card of a satellite dish dealer and Randal called.  We also biked over to a second dish service storefront at the Mall.   They too were helpful but needed our passport to set up service.  We planned to return the next day but the first service called and that afternoon came to the boat to see us and set us up.  The next evening, Saturday, Peter and his wife Lena came with the dish to get us all connected. She had just come along to keep Peter company.   It took several hours of juggling wires and testing the best combination to get the best reception.  While Randal and Peter worked Lena and I talked.  Lena teaches piano and was very interesting to talk with.  At one point she had to drive home to feed their dog Lucky.  Finally everything was finished and they were able to go off for their Autumn Moon Festival celebration.  They were a lovely couple and it was more like making friends than having a satellite dish installed.  And now the Sox better win it all because we can get ESPN and they have the playoffs listed on the schedule.  We bought the Sports, Learning, and News channels.  We paid for a year’s service when we installed the dish so that’s all taken care of.  The total cost for the dish and 12 months service was $367 just about a dollar a day.  Hopefully we’ll be able to use the dish even outside Malaysia; Peter did say they were expanding their service but we will be in Malaysia through November anyway.

Peter and Lena

In December they will be going of to the US to visit LA, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.  They are connected to Amway and the entire company of 700 people will be going!

They had been to the US before.  But Lena was saying that since 9/11 it is more difficult to get a VISA.  They had wanted to drive the short way to Brunei to get a visa there, but since they are Malaysians and Brunei is a different country they must go to Kuching in Malaysia instead.  That means a flight there and back and perhaps an overnight stay.  Too bad paperwork makes things so complicated.  We encounter paperwork too even changing from one city to another if they are in different provinces of Malaysia. 

We do take it down when we make a passage and it can only be used at a marina.   At anchor the boat moves too much which interferes with the reception.  Apparently according to the Astro literature, rain also interrupts reception. 

Ru

DoraMac

Hi Everyone,

  I received a few emails asking if the horrible weather in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia was effecting us.  No and Yes.  No, we are not being flooded and we are in safe marina.  But yes it has effected our travel plans a bit.  We can’t/won’t leave Miri for Sebana Cove until the waves calm down in the South China Sea.  Another super typhoon is supposed to hit the Philippines and that might cause us to have high winds even here in the marina.  During the last storm we did have strong enough winds that Randal put an extra line out to the dock to hold us steadier. The waves outside the marina that hit the beach next to us are pretty big: too big for us to want to mess with.  So we’ll stay here and wait it out. We knew the weather for crossing changes in mid-October so sort of factored it in.  For the most part our weather here is sunny and hot.   Yesterday cruiser friends came from Kota Kinabalu.  Their passage was bouncy but okay.  But just before they left the marina in KK had taken a hit. The fuel and pumpout station dock was uprooted and blown ashore and one boat broke lose so things did get a bit wild there.  Miri is a bit more protected with a spit of land between us and the sea.  We are supposed to be in The Land Below the Wind here in (Borneo) Malaysia after all.

  We have been thinking about our friends in the Philippines. Our friend and webmaster Audrey emailed that Olongapo had flooded very badly even weeks ago from heavy rains.  Our friend Carol who lives in Manila said her home in Manila was surviving the storm.  Yesterday I met a young man at the Miri Library who is from the Philippines.  He has come here to work as many Filipinos do because there is too little work in the Philippines.  He had studied to be a history teacher and was very articulate and sweet.  So was his K-9 dog Oscar.  (At least I think I have the dog’s name right.)  Chris’  family lives near the Philippines’ largest lake, Laguna de Bay 13 miles southeast of Manila.  He had called home and the family home had been flooded but they all seemed to be ok.  We certainly hope that all of our friends in the Philippines are safe and will continue to stay safe. 

Chris and Oscar.  Oscar is 7 years old and she is very calm.  Chris was working just outside the library and I stopped to talk because of the dog.  A very nice young man.

The library is the building in the back of the photo.  The small open-sided building on the right is where I met Chris and Oscar escaping the intense mid-day heat. 

It was school vacation and there were lots of students in the library sort of doing work but things were quiet because the computers were downstairs in a different room.  It was nice to see all of them actually and having all of those people in the room seemed to keep it from being as freezing as in my past visits.  On my way home I saw these two young boys taking advantage of one of the several pools that surround the library plaza area.  Can you see the hands making peace signs poking out of the water?  When the young boy surfaced he asked if I wanted to trade a ringgit for a dollar seeming to imply he’d give me the dollar though I’m sure he meant the other way around.  I told him that would be a bad deal since the dollar was worth more.  He knew he hadn’t a prayer I’d swap so he just smiled and waved as I walked away.  And come to think of it I only had ringits with me and no dollars which I do usually carry.  I really do like the library and spent 3 hours looking through art books, sketch books and books about Islamic law relating to women.  Wish I had a library card.  The collection isn’t large but it is very well thought out, up to date, “liberal” in its views and the books are in very good condition.  There is an older “circulating” public library about as far from where I am standing as the new library.  The plaza is sort of in the middle.  The old library is colder, noisier and they don’t let you bring in your back pack.  The art collection isn’t as good either though the staff is very friendly and helpful and very public library oriented.  The problem with both is that they are an hour walk from the boat.  If they were closer I’d go every day.  I walk because I’m not sure about leaving my bike though I think next time I will bike because there is a food stand just outside the door and a guard just inside the door so maybe my bike will be safe. 

So that’s it.  Thanks for thinking about us. 

Ru

DoraMac

Hi All,

Randal and I are just really relaxing here in Miri.  We ride our bikes, read, I paint, Randal watches his Discovery DVDs and watches the late night shows on his computer the following morning while I follow the Red Sox.  Just a couple of retired people!  I have been to the library twice.  Randal is also spending lots of time doing boat chores and also researching where and when we’ll go to have the boat pulled and the bottom painted.  We’ve decided that we’d both like to stop in India on our way to the Med.

We’ve only been here in Miri for about 2 weeks but it feels like much longer.  I know my way around the city and can’t remember what it was like to feel unsure.  I know the library and the bookstore and where to buy enough fresh veggies to keep me happy.  There are large supermarkets too when we need them.

The local people are very friendly.  During Hari Raya Muslims go to the cemetery to honor the dead.  We were biking past and slowed to let a group cross the road.  They said a quiet hello.  I said Salamat Hari Raya!  Then they all smiled and gave us a huge hello.  I think they appreciated that I had acknowledged their holiday.  We have found great apple crisp and ice cream, chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, homemade banana muffins and yogurt all at Pete’s Deli just up the road from the marina.  Pete’s Chinese!  The longer we stay the more we discover that we like.

I’ve written a story about having some pillow covers made here in Miri.  It’s just typical of the cruising life although it is amazing the number of cruising women who have sewing machines.  I wouldn’t mind having one.  Maybe one day.

Ru

DoraMac

Red Pillows

Ever since we left China I’ve wanted to replace the pillow covers on the 3 small pillows we keep on the settee in the saloon. (In landlubber terms the pillows are on the built in couch in the living room. I didn’t grow up with anything called a settee or a saloon so they’re just not terms I would choose without feeling that I had to explain what I meant requiring an entire paragraph practically.)

Anyway, the Chinese pillows were bought in a mini-mart store just across the way from where Bill and Stella had their lovely condo in Baijiao. We were waiting for Stella to meet us at the car. Sorry Bill, but I never liked the material, the pattern, the colors or the tassels that started falling off immediately. We lived with those spur of the moment purchases for two years until we got to Kuching during Sail Malaysia. I didn’t love the ones I bought there; I just liked them more than what we had and they looked better in the store…. I had tried to buy some in the Noor Arfa batik shop in Terengganu but they had none and neither did the public market cloth shops. Since the time we had left China I hadn’t seen pillow covers anywhere when I actually took the time to look. What I had seen was a long red, gold, green and blue skirt with an elephant and Indian motif while I was wandering through Chinatown in Singapore. Had to have it even though the elastic waistband was sized for tiny Asian people. I just really liked the material. Something about red and elephants made it irresistible to me as I was in my elephant phase. Well, I never wore the skirt; waist too tight, skirt too long and the occasion never arose.

While in Terengganu I told Ruth from Icicle One about the skirt. She said the waist band could come off and be replaced. So impulsively I took out a scissors and picked out the stitches and took out the waistband and that was the end of that skirt. Oh well. I put it with the sari cloth and the other sarong cloth we had been given and hoped someday to find someone somewhere to make me pillow covers.

Several days ago Randal and I went out looking for the second book store in Miri. We never found it but we did find a huge shop that sold fabrics, yarn, notions, and even a few paint brushes. I noticed that they had women sewing too. So Thursday, when the library had reopened after Hari Raya, I took one “Chinese pillow cover,” the long, now useless skirt, and I went back to the shop which was on the way to the library. Luckily Annabel Aurelia was there. Not only did she speak English, she spoke pillow and knew exactly what was needed to transform my no longer wearable red skirt into 3 pillow covers. Annabel has a hearing problem so we had to write to each other. Annabel reads and writes Bahasa Malaysia, she reads and writes English and she signs and I think she also might have been reading my lips. Pretty accomplished. She measured but found there wasn’t enough skirt material for front and back so took me to the shelves of fabric. She instantly picked out the perfect fabric though I had to keep looking before I saw she was right. Then she picked out the perfect zippers to match. She just really knew what she was doing.

Randal and I rode back today to get them and I really like them a lot. The shop was busy so I only had time to get the covers, say thank you and take a quick one chance only photo of Annabel. And I gave her one of our flag bandannas too.

In US dollars each cover cost about $3.60. I certainly think I got great value for my money. Can’t remember what I paid for the skirt in Singapore but it couldn’t have been very much or I wouldn’t have bought it.

Pillows front and back.

You can see the elephants on the bottom and the red. Can you imagine this as a floor length skirt? Interesting fashion statement I’d have been making since though the waist was small it billowed out around my hips making me rather giant. But I really like the material.

They add a bit of color to our tan and teak.

Annabel made sure the same pattern of the skirt was used on all of the pillows.

Annabel Aurelia in the shop where she works.

Hi All,

  We are enjoying our time in Miri.Two days ago Randal and I got out our bikes and did a really long 15 mile ride.  It felt long anyway with the 90 degree temperature and 90% humidity.  And there were two hills too!   We rode along the coast highway, but the view was blocked by several zillion dollar mansions.  We took a detour to go to a more modest neighborhood near the airport which advertised a show house. It wasn’t opened so we gave ourselves a brief tour of the one being built next door.   We rode back to the coast road and turned into a small beach park area.  After a short rest we biked back toward town stopping to eat way too much fried rice and noodle soup. 

  Yesterday I went off to the Miri Public library.  Here’s the story…..

Miri Public Library; you can only get there by walking!
Our first visit to Miri was at the end of July for part of Sail Malaysia.  During that visit Randal and I rode our bikes to the Public Library.  It is new and quite impressive and they had several watercolor books that interested me.  They even had an art exhibit of local artists on display.  Yesterday I decided to go back for another visit.  Randal was doing a boat project with the alternator and battery charging system that necessitated running the engine for 2 hours.  I decided to “leave the premises.” 
The library is a fairly good distance from the marina so I decided to attempt the Miri bus system.  There is no printed schedule on the Internet, but the local bakery ladies told me that the bus ran every 20  minutes or so.   You watch the bus go by in the opposite direction and 20 minutes later it will be back at the stop in front of the bakery.    I packed up my backpack, kissed Randal good-bye and walked the 10 minutes over to the main road where the bakery and several small shops and restaurants are located.  It was 10:30: I sat down to wait for the bus.  There was a young man waiting also so I confirmed with him that I was indeed at the right place.  I had brought a book with me; but instead of reading I spent the next 25 minutes picking briars out of the bottom part of my skirt.  I have no idea how they came to be there but they were itchy.  Luckily they were just on the bottom part and only scratchy on my legs.  I got most of them out by the time the bus came at 10:55.  The driver was very helpful even calling the money dollars rather than ringgits.  It cost 1 ringgit to take the bus into town to the local bus terminal.  At the terminal the driver kindly walked me over to where bus 42 was parked; the bus that would get me closest to the library.  He then took me back over to the tiny terminal building where the schedules are posted and we saw that bus 42 wouldn’t leave for another 45 minutes!  A taxi driver asked if I wanted to take a taxi and I said no.  Then I asked the bus driver how much a taxi would cost.  He said about 5 ringgits which is less than $2.  But I decided to walk thinking it wasn’t so far. Also, I would know my way back since finding a return taxi at the Library would be impossible.   And it wasn’t so far; maybe a half hours walks.  I had to ask along the way since I’m not great with maps.  But it actually was quite simple other than crossing the really busy double lane wrong way traffic.  At one point I found myself at a bus stop as a bus came along.  I waited my turn to get on and asked if the bus would get me anywhere near the library.  The driver said, “No, Wait for bus 42.”  I continued walking, saw a taxi coming along and tried to flag it down.  No luck.  The weather was getting very overcast very quickly so I was getting concerned.  But after one more giant complicated major intersection I came to the street where the library was located.  As it turns out there are two libraries and I got to the “wrong one” first.  Another 5 minute walk and I was at my intended library with the watercolor collection I had come to see.  And most importantly, just outside the library, a small food stall.  I had a cold soybean milk drink and then went inside.  It was about noon and 10 minutes later it was pouring!
I sent the next 2 and a half hours there looking at several watercolor books and still there are more books I’d like to see.  And I didn’t explore their magazine collection.  So I will go back. 
I left the library and walked back to the town center and then back to the marina.  Along the way I stopped at a fruit stall to buy some crisp apples.  Though I was hungry I wasn’t the least bit tempted to eat an unwashed apple.  I did find a bag of lightly sweetened caramel popcorn at a house wares store.  The popcorn was in a display at the front of the shop.  That made a great lunch and got me the rest of the way back to the marina.  It was hot but I did have a bottle of water and there was no second choice but to keep walking. 
I had left the library at 2:45 and got back to the marina about 4 pm.  That included stopping to browse the Miri Handicraft Center, buy the apples , buy the popcorn and cross several busy streets.  It had taken me from about 10:20 am when I left the boat until about 11:45 to get myself “by bus” to the library.  It took me just about the same amount of time to walk back.  It really is a shame that it is so difficult to get to the library using public transportation: not for me, but for the locals. 

When we were here in July I wrote an email that included photos of the library.  These are photos of the landscaping around the library.  I had to pass this way walking from the first library to the second new library.  Miri means seahorse so you see lots of seahorse sculptures like in Kuching you saw cats.  Kuching means cat.

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.

Ru

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.”