Hi All,

  We walked down to the end of the town for the community festival.  It was mostly exhibits to teach about the local wildlife and how to take care of the environment for the future.  The event was located at the Taman Negara National Park HQ.  We visited the small museum and talked about maybe coming back to do some of the hikes. 

The small fair was more an ecology lesson disguised as a fair. But that’s good because the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Jane and Elizabeth look at one of the displays. 

A mural of “old George Town.” The boats in the painting have been replaced by the Tanjong City Marina and the water buffalo by too much traffic and way too many motorcycles.

“This island was named after the local pinang trees or the Betel Nut, which was once believed to be easily seen along the coastlines.” The leaves and parts of the nuts were turned into a concoction the local men and women chewed and still chew. (We were offered some at the Long House in Kumai though we politely declined.)

The caption on this photo reads, “a popular recreation site for local people.”

We all agreed that this fellow looked about as local as the three of us.  He looks more like everyone we all knew back in the states in the 70s. And his shoes would be flip flops if he were truly local.

Sponge Bob Square Pants!

Outside the park building there were vendors and nature exhibits.

Mickey Mouse and Spiderman have made it around the world too. I really like the soap bubble gun.

Exhibits showed native animals and sea creatures. That wrapped up thing is snake skin. A very huge snake’s skin!

Jane dressed for the sun.

Long sleeves, sunglasses and an umbrella for shade. This is how you dress to deal with the heat and sun. I still can’t do it. I can’t stand anything with sleeves though I do wear shorts to my knees or longer as dictated by local sensibilities. But sleeves, even loose ones just make me too hot. Both Randal and I have started to slather our arms as well as faces with suntan lotion. Randal visited the dermatologist all of the Aussie cruisers see and he was examined from head to toe and all places in between. His arms had to be attended to though nothing that needed a follow up. So now Randal uses suntan lotion and the arm coverings worn by the Muslim ladies wear with their short sleeved blouses when he works outside on the boat.

So that was today….

Ru

DoraMac