Wednesday, 19th November 2008

Somehow, when we arrive at a destination we seem to be busy doing land based and other things so the Blog and emails don't seem to get written and I find the best time to do these things is when we are on passage.

Danga Bay is supposedly, and has plans as an elite suburb of Johor Bahru which is the capital of the state of Johor. There are huge plans for it afoot but whether they will eventuate in these economic times remains to be seen. It is planned that all the government and financial offices will move there. It has a shopping mall which was in walking distance for us and a huge theme park and a type of zoo which is all great for children but generally was pretty quiet so how they made any money I do not know. Bus services were good to a large supermarket a few kilometers away and to Johor Bahru which was only 10 minutes away by bus.

The night after we arrived 27 of us went across to the other side in a local boat to a seafood restaurant for dinner. This restaurant overhangs over the water and we were amazed to see that some of the pylons were floating in the water or rotted at the top. For a fixed price per table of 10 we had a smorgasbord of seafood - fresh fish, calamari, king prawns, crab, mussels, chicken, rice and a nice vegetable dish along with lychees for dessert. There was plenty of it and we all agreed that it was one of the best meals we have had since leaving Australia.

Last Tuesday (11th) Maree, Neil (Purnama), Craig & Sara (Crasara Cruisin) and us went across to Singapore for the day. Now that is quite an exercise! We caught a bus from Danga Bay at 7am for Johor Bahru, where we then got on another bus to cross the causeway. We had to get off this bus to do customs, immigration etc. and then get on it again on the other side of customs to take us across the causeway where we had to do customs and immigration for Singapore. We stood in queues for ages along with 1000's of other people (30,000 Malaysians go across each day to work in Singapore) before finally catching another bus into the centre of Singapore. We ended up spending most of our time around Little India and managed to get a few things that we needed and did a tour through the Sultan's mosque which was built in 1840 as a copy of the Taj Mahal and holds 5000 people.

By about 2pm Maree and I were foot weary and had it so the four of us then caught 2 buses to get to the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club to catch up with Gill & Brian on Destiny, get showered and then at 5.30pm we got a taxi to Raffles Marina where the Raffles Yacht Club put on a free meal and drinks for the Sail Indonesia fleet and some of their members. We were treated to a fabulous meal as well as good entertainment. They had a competition between Sail Indonesia and Raffles members and two of us had to go up on stage so Dave pushed me up. Well we had to make a paper aeroplane and see whose could go the furthest What a scream - I couldn't remember how to make them and mine was the worst but guess what, mine flew the furthest so Sail Indonesia won and I received a gift - a boxed glass replica of the ship Discovery! Yacht Clubs in Singapore are just fabulous but of course cost thousands to belong to - we certainly don't have anything like them in NZ.

The six of us left Raffles just after 10pm to go through a similar procedure back to Danga Bay but this time did bus, then train, then bus through customs, immigration etc. but this time we had no queues. We only just made the last bus across the causeway at 11.35pm by 5 minutes. Once in Johor Bahru we had to catch a taxi to Danga Bay so we were finally back on board Pied A Mer at 12.45am. A very long and enjoyable day.

Wednesday Dave and I went for a bike ride, supposedly a few kms away to the Giant supermarket but because of motorways etc. couldn't get there as it was on the opposite side of the road. However Dave did manage to find a way to it the next day but Maree, Sara and I went by bus that day and had a girls day there and caught a taxi back.

By Friday, most of the Sail Malaysia participants had arrived and most of them are the ones that were on the Sail Indonesia rally. Late Friday afternoon we had a Sail Malaysia briefing and afternoon tea, were given our information packs plus flags, polo shirts and sun hats.

Saturday we were ashore at 8am and went on a tour of Johor where we visited a mosque (but weren't allowed inside) and a bit of a drive around Johor Bahru. Visited a pineapple research station where we saw clothes made out of the threads of pineapple leaves. They were beautiful and apparently last hundreds of years as the thread is so strong. Our tour leader was good and explained a bit of the history of Malaysia and Singapore.

We stopped at a fishing village for lunch but when we arrived it was all under water as it was a spring full tide so had to wade through the water to get to an eating place. We went in to this seafood place for lunch and were very tempted to walk out as the smell was far from nice, however 20 or so of us did sit down for lunch and we shared a sumptuous meal of 1.25kgs of chili prawns and rice with Gill & Brian and they were delicious. Everyone who ate there really enjoyed their lunch. From there we visited a National Park which took us to the southern most tip of South East Asia (Tanjung Piai) which looks out to Singapore and the Malacca Strait.

We were then taken to a place that does home stays for tourists and the guests can partake in the every day lives of Malaysians, one of which was a bee place which sold honey - quite a different taste to our honey. We were given a drink and afternoon tea and watched Malaysian dancing and shown through the house.

Finally arrived back in Danga Bay at 6.30pm and I had a beaut migraine so there was no way I could go to the Gala dinner at 8pm which was put on for us all and which I was looking forward to. I tried to talk Dave into going without me but he wouldn't but apparently it was a great night and they had a lovely meal.

Felt much better Sunday morning and at 11am 16 dinghy loads of us went across the river which took about 45 minutes to a traditional Malaysian Muslim wedding. Once ashore we were welcomed with drum beats etc. and then walked up to the place where the wedding was being held. We were served a lovely meal which included prawns, chicken and beef which were all cooked in chili sauces but were very tasty and tender. We think the main wedding ceremony was the day before as after we had eaten the bride and groom arrived and were dressed in blue which is traditional for the groom's family to wear blue. After an official welcome they went inside and sat on a seat which was decorated up like a throne and there everyone filed past and gave them rice etc. Having done that we were all given a blue bag which contained blue artificial flowers with a very hard boiled egg wrapped amongst it, a small pot of relish and a fan. The couple had someone standing by them waving fans as it was so hot for them, especially the bride. However, you will be able to see photos when I put them up on the Blog. We all left just after 2pm and had the long dinghy ride back.

Monday, Gill and Brian and us did our final supermarket shop at Giant for an early start yesterday morning. Got back to Danga Bay and the heavens opened so had to sit outside under the eaves of restaurants to wait for the rain to stop before we could head back to the boat.

Once in Malaysia we thought the waterways would be a lot cleaner but no such luck. It is unbelievable the amount of rubbish that is floating around and the morning after we arrived in Danga Bay a dead crocodile floated by! Plastic bags are the worst things and one which we avoid like the plague as they can go up the exhaust or get caught around the propeller - both can cause major problems. One certainly could not swim at Danga Bay and yet they are promoting it as an upmarket beach resort!

Yesterday morning we were up and away at around 6.30am along with 21 other yachts in the rally and headed for Pulau Pisang for the night - a distance of 49 miles up the Malacca Strait. What I didn't say in the last news was that we had to go under a bridge which links Malaysia with Singapore just north of Raffles Marina. The height is only 25 metres from the water and only in the middle span so going up to Danga Bay it was a bit scary as it looked as though we wouldn't make it. Coming back was not at all daunting and I think we had about a metre to spare. There wasn't a lot of wind yesterday so we motor sailed all day but made good timing as we had the current with us most of the way. As usual there were hundreds of ships on the Singapore side but as we were more on the Malaysian side we did not have to negotiate them. We were up and away this morning at 6am and are aiming on doing a 70 mile trip to Pulau Besar in the Water islands which is just off Melaka which we plan on visiting. We are sailing just outside the shipping lane in the Malacca Strait which is very busy. 63,000 ships carrying 30% of the world's trade and 50% of the world's oil pass through the Malacca Straits each year making it one of the world's busiest shipping lanes so no wonder Singapore has so many ships there. We are motor sailing as there is very little wind and unfortunately we now have the current against us, although we had it with us for the first four hours.

While in Danga Bay we found a good computer guy and I was able to purchase a prepaid data card for my Vodafone Vodem modem which works so can have internet access when on the boat. When near major towns will be able to get broadband (3G - 3.6mbps) but otherwise the slower speed of 384kbps which is no good for skyping. For 6 ringit ($NZ3) we can use as much as we like for 24 hrs but have to text them each time we want daily broadband so we have to plan ahead and make the most of it. Most of the Australian yachties have had to buy the modem which cost 460 ringit as their Telstra or Bigpond modems are locked to that network.

You can see the Sail Malaysia itinerary on the web at www.sailmalaysia.net It is not as high pressure as the Indonesian rally although we have to keep moving to make Lumut but after that it is pretty leisurely.