11/04/2009, Penang Island, Malaysia
This picture illustrates the early morning exoticness found at Tanjung City Marina in Georgetown on the island of Penang.
On top of the trash, it could quite possibly hold title as being THE rockiest marina to ever exist. When the ferries zoom in and out at regular intervals, the swell causes the boats to rock so much that even the tips of the masts sway to embrace and kiss.
Add another undesirable factor: the strong current washing directly through the marina making landings tricky as we experienced firsthand, resulting in a few scratches on the hull. Apparently the marina was washed away completely some years ago, but clearly lessons were not learned since it was re constructed in much the same manner.
But the city itself was interesting, a flurry of bustle and activity, where street corners vibrated with loud Indian music emanating from bass speakers, surrounded with stores selling everything from Bollywood movies to gold and trinkets fused with a compelling mixture of aromatic Indian spices and freshly massacred fowl, we succumbed easily to the lure of Indian cuisine. More importantly, Uwe sought out the best coffee shop since leaving Sydney, in a quiet yet sophisticated back street, which in itself was worth a stop at Georgetown. Operated by an Indonesian recently returned from New York after a 25 year span, the simple and suave ambiance analogous to trendy coffee houses, with real tasting coffee and espresso had us briefly entertaining feelings of being in Berlin or New York. For now, we are bound for Langkawi.
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10/31/2009, Palau Pangkor,Malaysia
We love Ratatouille, but have less of an appetite for real live rats.
Even the numerous and very friendly ones that are purported to stand in line on the pontoons at Port Klang ready to embark without invitation. And so we abandoned the idea of leaving the boat there for 2 days to go to Kuala Lumpur. I was discouraged at even a 1% chance of returning to rats on board-no thanks.
Instead we decided to anchor in the outskirts of Port Klang and continue in the early hours of the morning, while still dark, to the island of Palau Pangkor where we now sit.
Bikes were pulled out, and we circumnavigated the island on pedal, a delightful 20km or so round trip, up and down steep hills through the tropical forest. Its always so nice for us to get around on the bicycles and I realize how much I miss this not being a more regular part of our lives.
There's a somewhat unspectacular old Dutch fort to see, and a sort of replica of the great wall of China, but there was no information displayed as to who built it, or why it was built. Where Port Dickson seemed to contain more of an Indian population, this island appears mainly Chinese. Today is Halloween, and since we are at anchor, Kara and her friends from Dandelion will have to trick or treat by dinghy in the hopes of garnering some treats from the other 3 boats anchored. We're off to Georgetown Penang early in the morning.
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10/27/2009, Port Dickson, Malaysia
Leaving busy Singapore behind us, in a matter of mere hours, we knew we had entered Malaysian waters when our cell phone buzzed welcoming us to DIGI, the Malaysian satellite provider. We motored through the night so as to get some miles behind us hugging the edge of the shipping lane on the Malacca strait which turned out to be surprisingly easy. Huge tankers and cargo ships glided by us in an orderly fashion along the designated lanes of the ocean highway;all were visible on our AIS system and not an unlit fishing boat was in sight. We arrived at Port Dickson, south of Kuala Lumpur, where check in was even more efficient than Singapore. Prices are also right. Malaysia is looking good! Kara is happy to have the 4 other kid boats, they all gather on the dock to fish where she managed to hook herself a few, the prized one being her own heel;she stumbled back to Magnum somewhat concerned, increasingly more so when Uwe emerged with the blue pliers to remove it; the same one that he uses for a real catch. Rusty legs were exercised as we took a rapid ride into town about 12km away. A new country, new scents, new money, new food, new language;but we know nothing about it. Tomorrow we're off again, northbound for Port Klang.
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