We ended up spending ten days at Port Dickson. The marina was good with power to run the air conditioners on the boat, we have three, and was relatively clean. The Malaysian rally boats all arrived and we did do a lot of socializing as well as two bus trips. The first was to the town of Malaka which was the old port town during the Chinese trading days dating back to before Columbus. The old area is old but unfortunately has been taken over by T-shirt shops and other tourist must have items so not much of a draw.
The second trip was to Kuala Lumpar or KL as they refer to it here. One of the tallest towers is located here and is the icon for the city of two million. It is just a big city with none of the charm and interest of Singapore.
Next we spent a few days sailing to get up to a place called Pangkor. You really need to sail only in daylight as these waters are so full of junk as well as fishing boats that do most of their fishing at night. Our first stop was at Port Klang which is the commercial port for KL. It was the dirtiest place we have ever seen! You could almost walk on the water with all the debris floating about. At first light we left and ended up running out of light that evening so just dropped the anchor in 4 meters of water five miles from shore in the middle of the ocean. The wind came up at dawn so we moved on to Pangkor which has a marina that is fairly new but looks to be falling apart. We spent two nights and left for Penang stopping by a small island just south of the airport. The next morning we powered up between the island of Penang and the mainland and passed under two large bridges that connect it to the mainland. The first one is under construction and has a causeway that appears to be twenty miles long and the second one is the same but with a shorter causeway. Since leaving Bali we have not been in over 30 meters of water at any time and the coast of Malaysia is likewise very shallow and with the tides we have to be careful not getting hung up on a sandbar. The amount of plastic in the waters of Indonesia and Malaysia is amazing and makes us feel very depressed. These countries have a long way to go to be even close to the rest of the world in cleanliness and knowing what to do with the trash.
We arrived into Staits Quay marina which is small holding maybe only thirty boats on the 22nd. This place is clean as a whistle with restaurants all around the quay. So now we have a choice of Irish, Italian, German etc all around us. We are taking advantage of this which makes Marian very happy, and me too. Penang has an old part of the city called George town that has some interesting old buildings but mostly t-shirt shops etc. Not much in the way of interest except for maybe going up the tram to over look the city. It is high enough to get a respite from the heat and humidity. We did that yesterday after applying for our visas for Thailand which will be good for two months after we check in there in January. We will stay here for a few more days before leaving for Langkawi where Kilkea II will stay at Rebak marina while we head home for Christmas. It will be good to get out of this heat for a while but I imagine we will be happy to return to it after winter time in Canada.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
Singapore pictures
Port Dickson Malaysia
The dinner for the rally at Denga Bay was quite the production. We had gone up the five miles to the marina in a water taxi and arrived to find most all the cruisers at the bar having a free beer before moving into the convention center for dinner. It was a bit of a shock to move into an air conditioned room after being outside in the heat. It was actually cold with the ladies wrapping themselves with what ever they could to stay warm. I think we are getting soft as if the temperature goes below 25C we are cold. The dinner was a production with great fanfare as the waiters arrived with the food. It was interesting that just one course arrived at a time with the rice at the end. It was all ok but the sound system was cranked up to where your body vibrated with the singing and dancing that was put on for us and it made any conversation impossible. It was a busy night and at 10pm we who had come up from Puteri marina jumped back into the water taxi and went back to our boats.
At 10.00 the next morning after getting our clearance out for Langkawi we left for the 140 mile sail up the Melaka strait which separates Sumatra from the Malay peninsula. This is probably the busiest shipping area in the world with we have been told over 7000 ships transiting each month. Some of the oil tankers are over 1000 feet long (333meters). There is a traffic separation lanes to keep everyone safe and we just hung on the inshore westbound lane so that we would be out of the way of all the freighters as well as to be out of the way of the local fisherman with their fishing nets all about. It worked very well for us and we sailed for a change much of the way. I had a talk on the radio from one of the tankers who was interested in what we were doing and remarked that they did not see many private yachts in this area. He wanted our blog site and said it was his dream to do what we have been doing now for the last seven years. Maybe he will read this and get back to us. Our trip took us 23 hours and we tied up in Admiral Marina in Port Dickson at nine in the morning. The marina is impressive as it is surrounded by big hotel complexes and the clubhouse is rather opulent at least from the outside. Inside is pretty nice too. It is HOT and we are happy sitting inside our boat with the ac on. We have been up to the pool for a swim and went into the town for an afternoon but have mostly been relaxing onboard and getting projects finished as well as checking up on the world news. Sounds like the same old same old stuff!!
Our plan today will be to stay here for a few more days maybe a week and then head up to Penang for a few days before moving over to Langkawi where we will leave Kilkea II for the Christmas period and make our way back to Canada.
At 10.00 the next morning after getting our clearance out for Langkawi we left for the 140 mile sail up the Melaka strait which separates Sumatra from the Malay peninsula. This is probably the busiest shipping area in the world with we have been told over 7000 ships transiting each month. Some of the oil tankers are over 1000 feet long (333meters). There is a traffic separation lanes to keep everyone safe and we just hung on the inshore westbound lane so that we would be out of the way of all the freighters as well as to be out of the way of the local fisherman with their fishing nets all about. It worked very well for us and we sailed for a change much of the way. I had a talk on the radio from one of the tankers who was interested in what we were doing and remarked that they did not see many private yachts in this area. He wanted our blog site and said it was his dream to do what we have been doing now for the last seven years. Maybe he will read this and get back to us. Our trip took us 23 hours and we tied up in Admiral Marina in Port Dickson at nine in the morning. The marina is impressive as it is surrounded by big hotel complexes and the clubhouse is rather opulent at least from the outside. Inside is pretty nice too. It is HOT and we are happy sitting inside our boat with the ac on. We have been up to the pool for a swim and went into the town for an afternoon but have mostly been relaxing onboard and getting projects finished as well as checking up on the world news. Sounds like the same old same old stuff!!
Our plan today will be to stay here for a few more days maybe a week and then head up to Penang for a few days before moving over to Langkawi where we will leave Kilkea II for the Christmas period and make our way back to Canada.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Malaysia
We have spent the last two weeks in Singapore and do not want to leave. Maybe it is because after Indonesia it is so clean and civil that it makes us think this way. The thought of going back to the third world is not too appealing. We have had a wonderful time except for the worms. At least we were able to be treated for this here. We have met a few times with Marians cousin Ben and wife Pat who know there way around town having lived here on and off for the last twelve years. We have been to the gardens and night safari at the zoo with all the lions and giraffes. At night it is cooler to be out and about. The shopping centers are non stop and everywhere. The subway is easy and clean and air conditioned and the people so courteous. The dinners out with other cruisers and friends have made it a most enjoyable stay. We did enjoy the chili prawns and chili crab plus many other great dishes. But on Saturday our visa was out and it was time to leave for Malaysia.
The plan was to leave in the morning for the four hour trip up to Puteri Marina but because of thunder storms we did not leave until 13.30 and arrived here about 1800 in the rain. It was a quiet night and today we did the check in with customs and immigration which the marina did most all of the paperwork for us so all we had to do was to jump into a van and drive a fair way to the offices for the processing. We are surprised that the area we are in now is very upscale with freeways and new buildings all about. We cannot get into Danga Bay where the majority of the Malaysian rally boats are but will go up there tomorrow for the dinner and meet up with many friends. We hope it is better run than the Indonesian rally!!
Oh we got the laptop fixed, I hope, and so will be able to manage the blog a little better. I still could not get the captions on the ipad right so you will just have to make up your own captions or we can fill you in when we meet.
The plan was to leave in the morning for the four hour trip up to Puteri Marina but because of thunder storms we did not leave until 13.30 and arrived here about 1800 in the rain. It was a quiet night and today we did the check in with customs and immigration which the marina did most all of the paperwork for us so all we had to do was to jump into a van and drive a fair way to the offices for the processing. We are surprised that the area we are in now is very upscale with freeways and new buildings all about. We cannot get into Danga Bay where the majority of the Malaysian rally boats are but will go up there tomorrow for the dinner and meet up with many friends. We hope it is better run than the Indonesian rally!!
Oh we got the laptop fixed, I hope, and so will be able to manage the blog a little better. I still could not get the captions on the ipad right so you will just have to make up your own captions or we can fill you in when we meet.
Singapore
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