Thursday 23 June 2016

Busy week of exploring and margarita night recovery. Miri is a great town. Hired a driver who knew where to find anything. Had a mounting plate made for new engine control which, if sufficient enthusiasm can be scraped up, will be installed to replace buggered, but yet useable 18 year old lever. After having looked for months found roasted coffee beans that are so good we returned to buy 4 kilo. Replaced dwindling supply of diesel oil with 20 liter barrel and couldn't live without really cool USB rechargeable, personal fans. Excellent food there too.

Humongous nearby Niah Caves, sight of most ancient homo sapiens remains in Asia (40K), was amazing. Hope breathing bat crap all day doesn't cause brain damage. Besides guano the place is also a major source of swiftlet nests. These outrageously expensive soup ingredients are harvested from the roof by insane individuals who climb up end to end, nailed-together boards that hang straight down as much as 100 meters. Hope these guys make a pant-load of money, but it's more likely to be somebody further up the distribution chain. Bird spit soaked twigs must be mighty damn tasty.

After a beautiful sail to Kuala Belait, center of oil production in Brunei, the boat club a mile or so up the river was a nice surprise. Run by a Dutch expat whose husband works for Shell Brunei it was friendly with great food, but, however, no adult beverage (despite being very modern and tolerant, Brunei is seriously Muslim and the Sultan has instituted sharia law). Someone, who shall remain unnamed (not us), was chastised for eating an ice cream bar before sunset in public during Ramadan. Water in anchorage ran about 3 kts. on outgoing tide and looked to be primarily mud.

Speaking of petroleum, a substantial amount of revenue works its way to the citizens even though Shell gets half and the Sultan has more money than Allah. Sarawak and Sabah have scads more oil than Brunei, but the money goes to central government in KL with a bit coming back in dribs and drabs. That's like someone taking your bottle of fine scotch, then giving back a taste after they've run it through their kidneys. Only about a quarter of the population are Malay. Not surprisingly the 2 states are pushing for independence. Everywhere are signs: "Sarawak for Sarawakians". Think I'd call myself something else, but guess it's better than Sarawakees or Sarawakers.

Jack