Friday, 12th December 2008

We were originally only going to be in Tanjong City Marina, Georgetown for a few days, however we are enjoying Penang and all it has to offer that we have been here longer than we expected. Also our anchor chain was rusting badly so along with three other yachts we sent our anchor chains off to be re galvanized and they only arrived back last night.

Georgetown is in the process of all the original old buildings being gradually restored to their former glory. There is more than two centuries of history here and Georgetown was a recipient of a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in July this year. Most days we have been out walking enjoying the sights, sounds and smells (food) of Penang - a very interesting place. The day after we arrived (Wednesday, 3rd) the Sail Malaysia fleet were picked up by bus which was sponsored by Penn Marine who took us to their boat yard to show us all what they had to offer in the way of boating facilities, repairs etc. From there we were taken to a War Museum which was quite different to the usual museum in that you walked around this hill which was used during the war to defend Penang from the Japanese so all the buildings etc. are still there. It was most interesting. From there we were taken to the owner of Penn Marine's house and entertained and fed. There were over 100 of us and we had the most wonderful meal which was a mixture of all the various cultures in Penang's food plus plenty of cold beer. There was also a promotion for MM2H - make Malaysia your second home which is being widely promoted here in Malaysia. Foreigners wanting to come to Malaysia to live are given a 10 year Visa along with a few other incentives. Not sure what happens after 10 years if people want to stay permanently.

Last Thursday at 6.15am we had a surprise visit from Janine & Garth (Catala) who are still in Sebana Cove but they were on their way to Bangkok by train to stay with a friend and had to change trains with a few hours wait at Butterworth so they came across on the ferry and paid us a visit for a couple of hours which was great.

Last Friday Musketelle and us caught a bus to visit Tescos (supermarket) which was also a small mall and then that night we had the Sail Malaysia dinner here at the Marina complex in a marquee. It was a really enjoyable night with a nice meal, a children's (10-12yr olds) drum band who were fantastic and also a band so we could get up and dance if we so wished.

On Saturday Barbara (from Musketelle) and I caught a bus to the Queensbay Mall and had a great look around the Mall and I got myself a pair of Tiva sandals which had 50% off for $NZ40. Have been finding my crocs too hot in the heat which make my feet sweat which in turn gives me blisters and also the soles have worn smooth which makes them very slippery in the wet. Looking around we find good clothes etc. are expensive, although shoes are generally cheap and books are expensive.

Friday and Monday were holidays for the Malaysian Muslims so all the small shops etc. in Georgetown were closed. On Monday Dave and I got the bikes out and we headed off to the Botanical Gardens which was quite a distance, stopping off to look at a few sights en route. We enjoyed walking through the Botanical Gardens, although for a lot of the trees and plants it was out of season and was interesting watching he monkeys. Penang's water supply comes from the top of the Botanical Gardens and the treatment plant is the oldest in Malaysia having been built in 1800 but of course has been upgraded several times since. On the way back we stopped at the Gurney Plaza and what a mall! Have never seen anything like it before - eight floors but very up market and expensive. The supermarket was something else with a huge selection of imported goods but very expensive - Norwegian salmon at MYR109 per kilo. We finally arrived back at the marina at 5.30pm after having left at 10.30am - a most enjoyable day. I expected to be all stiff and sore on Tuesday but I wasn't, so that was good.

Yesterday Gill (Destiny 111) and I did some sight seeing and visited two old stately Chinese homes that have been restored - the first one being the Pinang Peranakan Mansion which was fabulous and was all furnished etc, as it would have been in the early 1900s. The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Leith Street was not as ornate and the bedrooms are now being used for boutique homestays. Traditional methods and materials have been used to restore it and was awarded the Most excellent project award at the UNESCO Heritage awards in 2000. From there Gill and I browsed amongst some of the Chinese and Indian clothes shops and it was good not having our other halves with us!!! You just can't look at things the same when the men are around!

We are looking forward to getting up to Langkawi and it's surrounding islands to nice clean water where we can swim and relax. The West coast beaches are like sewerage ponds so swimming is out of the question. Most of it is natural pollution as it is so shallow here with a muddy seabed. To all you non yachties it may sound like that the last eight months we are having a lovely lazy time but in actual fact it is all hard work and very tiring. You might notice in the photos that Dave is looking a little thinner - in fact he has lost 12kgs, unfortunately the same does not apply to me, although I haven't gained any.

Once in Langkawi we are going to be catching up with Wendy Chin who was a farm helper with us for a week or so in 2003. She is really looking forward to seeing us again and can't believe that we have finally made it up here. She also stayed with us on Pied A Mer for a weekend when we were doing the refit.