10/22/2009, One Degree 15 Marina, Singapore
For the final 24 hours in our approach to Batam, the last Indonesian port of call, we motored through thunderstorms with powerful rain and lighting.
We spent 2 days at Batam, before checking out and embarking across the Malacca strait to Singapore, one of the busiest shipping channels in the world between Malaysia and Indonesia. We could see the high rise buildings of Singapore a mere 15 miles in the distance. From the snapshot shown above of our computer screen, you can see just how busy it is. The AIS system tracks the many ships in our radius; most of whom are moving in a north south direction along the strait; we are the red boat and the ships are signified by the green triangles. At this point we had not yet crossed over but we managed to do so without incident.
Our day began with breakfast while still in Indonesia, lunch was haphazardly consumed while dodging ships in the Malacca strait, and we sat down to dinner in Singapore.
And so we find ourselves in a completely unfamiliar territory: Singapore is a big, modern super clean city with more shopping malls than we ever seen, and shops containing items that we can little afford but which are free to browse. Construction and development seem to be omnipresent, the heat and humidity is more intense here than anywhere else, but entrance to any conceivable building has one yearning for a sweater after a mere 30 minutes when the high powered air conditioning churns out cold air. On Magnum, temperatures inside reach about 95 degrees, and drives us to a macrobiotic diet because its just too hot to cook anything.
We're enjoying our short time here; school is undertaken in the coolness of the club office each morning. The marina is part of a private club whose top class facilities we are entitled to avail of; located on desirable Sentosa Island a short distance from the city by free shuttle bus. Checking into Singapore was by the far the most efficient we experienced in any country: an immigration boat comes alongside, handing out a fishing net in which papers are deposited and processed in about 10 minutes, and voila Welcome to Singpore. Tomorrow we leave for Malaysia.
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10/14/2009, Batam, Indonesia
In 1999 we sailed through the Spice Islands of Indonesia. We have good memories from our first real adventure to foreign lands, but unfortunately the trip ended with our swift departure due to dangerous civil unrest in the area of the Spice Islands which ended with many dead and lots of destruction. The cause was based mostly on religious tensions between Christians and Muslims.
This time around we did not embrace too much excitement about the trip through Indonesia, thinking perhaps we would have similar experiences like 10 years ago.
Now, having sailed through the waters west of the Spice Islands, we leave this amazing archipelago with the most wonderful feelings regarding Indonesia and its lovely people.
Contrary to popular opinion, we found the type of Islam practiced amongst the majority of the population is quite relaxed and the perception of Indonesia as a land where Islamic terrorists are the norm is quite ill conceived. It's no different to any other country where most citizens prefer peace as opposed to war, and frown upon terrorist activities that wreak havoc on their already meager livelihoods. It is hard to understand though how such a genuinely kind and helpful collection of people can simultaneously be host to such an engrained level of corruption in its ranks: such is the dichotomy of Indonesia and like all countries is not without its problems.
After the Bali bombing in 2003 hardly any tourists showed up for almost 2 years. Many small businesses closed down and lots of financial hardships to the local population was a result of it. But the news we receive in the west about places like Indonesia slowly brainwashes us as well. All of Islam ends up in the same pot. Most people in the world grow up in the tradition they were born into. We do Christmas, Easter etc if we are worshipers or not. With our muslims friends in Bali, we partied together, helped them celebrate Adul Fitri by playing the guitar and singing songs, all a big happy international family.
Just think of it, imagine the religious right in the U.S had the power to rule the country? There wouldn't be room for any other religion or people of difference.
So, our thoughts are just an expression that we would like to share of how we must remind ourselves to think carefully and be open minded before we pronounce judgement upon something we have not directly experienced.
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Joint Birthday celebrations on the island with the kids taking claim to their own beach section. All was well until darkness came, tide went out, no water left, not a flashlight to be had by any adult, and dinghies had to be hauled over rocks back into the deep water. Temporary light was attained by 2 adults dipping a large palm leaf into the fire and holding it out as a live torch for the rest of us to see.
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