Sunday 15 November 2015

Having dodged sudden death on the overnight trip up while making excellent time to arrive at Admiral Marina before 1100 we found plenty of room. In fact, the place didn't fill up until 3 days later. Turns out all the guys who went to Penang City for the rally scheduled clearance out of Indonesia and who then planned to clear into Malaysia here before we arrived, ran into the filibustering queen of port captains and were stuck there for several days. Forget what your mother used to tell you - wandering off is good.

After a day and a half of extensively scrutinizing the one bar and one restaurant at Admiral, we rented a car with Chris & Sara from Tulu (who for some inscrutable reason purchased a catamaran instead of a real boat) to drive back south to historic Malacca (or Melaka), the namesake of the Strait and former center of trade in the area: lots of museums, temples, churches, mosques and some terrific, inexpensive food. Next time you're in town, don't miss the Baboon House. It makes only burgers, but is Tripadvisors #2 rated restaurant out of 343 in the city. No apes were harmed in this production, but can't guarantee the same for the odd lamb or steer.

Now on a rally sponsored bus to Kuala Lumpur (KL) for sightseeing. We'll stay over tonight so Jan can apply for a passport at the high commission early tomorrow. Not quite sure what Canada expects its citizens to use them for, but apparently not travel as hers has gotten completely filled since 2013. The new one will be good for 10 years (increased from 5) and has a few more pages. She'll be restricted to Malaysia for the 3 weeks needed to process it as officials get all huffy if one tries to leave without. We have so far toured Batu Cave (Buddhist temple) and the Royal Selangor Pewter factory. Next stop is the Petronas twin towers (former tallest buildings in the world). So far it's been great except the bus tour guide speaks in the lilting, high pitched voice one might use with 3-year-olds. Regrettably Malaysia doesn't recognize this as grounds for justifiable homicide. On second thought given my commensurate attention span, it's not so bad. She means well.

Jack