Pulau Besar, Malaysia

Hi Everyone,

  We had a 68 mile passage today and luckily the weather and tide were with us.  No thunderstorms and the tide pushed us towards our destination so we averaged 6.5 knots over the 11 hours.  We have recently experienced days where the tide was against us and we were lucky to average 5 knots!  What a difference an ebb tide can make.  Last night’s anchorage was sort of rolly though it actually rocked me asleep.  Tonight it’s just calm and breezy and quiet.  There are 2 other boats here but none of us is on the radio trying to chat: too long a day and everyone is tired.  We passed lots of small fishing boats, fishing floats with submerged lines that weren’t a problem and many “fish stake areas” with poles attached to nets below the water.  You can see the top of the stakes during the daytime.  At night it could be a problem though they are closer to shore than we cruise.  Some boats have had fishing net issues but we luckily have avoided them.  I think our flybridge makes them easier to see in the distance. 

  Tomorrow is a 40 mile day to Port Dixon where we will spend a few days and maybe take a bus to Malaka.  Not sure.  I’m trying to finish up these emails about Johor though I know it’s not the most exciting of our adventures.  Actually the best story came at lunch when I confused the teapot with the Malaysian version of a fingerbowl.  But that’s next email.  This one takes us to the pineapple plantation and fish cake factory….  I am using our cell phone modem to send this since there are lots of cell towers on the cluster of islands here.

Tour Johor Part 2

The second part of the tour was to show us Malaysian life outside the big city.

Muzium Nanas Cruisers milling around after the short tour.

This was more of a demonstration site than an actual pineapple plantation. I learned that there are lots of different varieties of pineapple including one called Nanas Yankee. The best eating pineapple: the Nanas Josapine.

The Josapine pineapple is the hybrid you get when combine the Johor pineapple with the Sarawak pineapple. Johor and Sarawak are two Malaysian states. Johor is West Malaysia and Sarawak in on Borneo so is East Malaysia.

Pineapple Kitsch……in case you are tired of cows or cats……

In Kumai we saw a motorcycle laden with pineapples for sale. This photo showed a bicycle as a farm vehicle. The signs weren’t in English but I guess this bicycle is now an ancient artifact rather than still used on real pineapple plantations.

Malaysian scarecrow which looks a lot like the Chinese version. It’s clothes are in better shape than some of our clothes.

There was a small shop selling pineapple juice, pineapple sauce, etc. I was hoping for some juice since it had been way too long since breakfast, but I was there at the end of the line so it was all gone. We’d missed the coffee and donuts in Johor Bahru and now we missed the pineapple samples and juice here at the museum. And still there was no mention of lunch! And…we were heading off for a trek into one of the national parks. And we were hungry!

Fish sticks anyone?

Actually they were quite good and I was there near the head of the line: but I was polite and only took one. They were light and not fishy and probably would have been better with the dipping sauce I skipped. However, I was too far back in the line that very slowly made its way through the tiny, very warm kitchen area to actually see how they were made.

Fish stick assembly line.

I’m guessing this is palm oil.

I had an interesting discussion with our guide about palm oil. In Indonesia Orang Utan were displaced by the palm oil plantations. Here in Malaysia the discussion never comes up as it did while we were on the Indonesian rally. Some palm oil us used for cooking and some of the oil is processed as fuel and is used to pay off debts to both Russia and China who take the oil rather than monetary payment. I accidentally bought an oil mix that had palm oil in it. It turned solid in the frig which made for disgusting salad dressing. My guide said not to put it into the frig and it wouldn’t get rancid in the heat in the meantime. We don’t refrigerate our cooking oil so I don’t know why I put the salad dressing in the frig. And I did read in the NYTimes about a NY restaurant that uses palm oil to meet the tans fat requirement. I just don’t know.

The stand was near a banana tree field and so also sold banana chips. I saw one cruiser put back a bag onto the shelf so grabbed it. We were on our way to the National Park and it would be forever until lunch so Randal and I could snack on banana chips.

Then thankfully plans changed and it was time for lunch. The national park would come later.

Next email, lunch at the Homestay and a walk to lands end.