20th November - Molucca - Port Dickson

Wednesday 20^th November

There are more activities planned for today.  A bus came to pick up willing participants at 9.00; goodness knows where they have gone.  I am sure it will all be very interesting but… I am too tired… Cheryl is a braver stronger woman; she set off at 8.45 with a big smile.

Today's Lego Land picture is - Lego Hoi An (Vietnam)

Pete and I also have a lot to do on the boat.  My tasks are easy – laundry in my lovely big washing bucket, and stepping up occasionally to hand a tool or a rope to Captain Pete.  He is at this very moment pouring 1,000 litres of lovely fresh drinking water into the empty empty tanks, with the aid of two very silent but friendly Malaysian men. 

This will cost about $100, or maybe less.  So when people say WHY don’t you have a watermaker on board, we can say, with perfect truth, that it is much cheaper to buy water whenever possible, as well as to catch rainwater from the roof.  As well as this… Watermakers constitute equipment and…equipment on boats is always breaking down.  Cheryl gave us a good quote yesterday:

The definition of sailing is: Boys fixing their toys in exotic locations.

More Molucca

The buses are also highly decorated.  Please tell me – how does the driver see through this very VERY busy windscreen??

I took many photos of the rickshaws.  How could I resist??  This one was particularly poignant… The poor driver had given up trying to find passengers and was slumped, fast asleep, amongst all of the pink froufrou-ness.

We not only saw the lizards mating under the bridge (fucking lizards, says Pete,) but we also saw several large ones swimming around very confidently.  And this whopper cheerily heaving himself out of the water, about to wander the streets.  They are obviously closely related to Komodo dragons but…they are not so fearsome!

This man was a world champion bodybuilder in his day.  He used his fame and the wealth he accrued to improve his home town of Molucca, and was one of the people instrumental in having it declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The river bank in Chinatown is decorated with these bright murals.  I think these walls used to be the back door of the shops on the narrow streets.  All of the rubbish would have been handily shoved out the door and into the river.  But not now!  The river was very clean, and full, as you can see above, of large wildlife.

Dutch cannon - history!

It would be good to spend more time in Molucca.  It has a fascinating history, with the Dutch and the Portuguese coming and going and many different people coming and fighting most fiercely for command of this very strategic location on the Spice Route.

HandSagas

I paid a price for volunteering to pull the plastic cap out of the propellers the other day.  All of those hitchhiking barnacles gave me a lot of grief.  The good thing is – the wounds are healing up quick smart, no infection at all.  I think this is because I immediately soaked my arm in water strongly laced with Dettol.  It is scarily easy to get infections in tropical areas and we are very quick with the Betadine and the Dettol.

I had a beautiful manicure in Singapore ($15).  This is something I like to do in different cities; it is always different, always interesting.  My lovely beautician in Chinatown was from mainland China, married to a local Chinese man.  She has three small children, who are in the care of some sort of (very low-paid, I fear,) nanny.  The youngest is three months old and she said, sadly, “My husband likes babies but I don’t.  All they do is cry.  My baby doesn’t even know who I am.”  She works from 10am till 9pm.  Her husband is a property manager but doesn’t make enough money for her to be able to stay at home.  So sad!  She made my nails so pretty but…a few days on the boat, a bit of a fight with the propellers and the barnacles, and they are just ghastly.  All of the women in the rally make some sort of effort to look a bit more glam than usual for these formal occasions, so I have to get to work with my bottles of Opi quick smart!

Tonight there is a welcoming ceremony but, strangely, no Gala Dinner!  I will have to do something about my appearance…

A sad tale of Pete’s Tilley Hat…

I wash Pete’s beloved hat quite often but today…my fingers went straight through the fabric.  It is no longer of any use for sun protection because his poor head will burn through this slit, sure as eggs are eggs.  I have given him mine, which is identical, except cleaner and more solid, but…it is not the same!  He has had so much joy from this hat…

Yes!  He has carried crayfish wearing The Hat!

He has sat at the helm in cold weather or hot, wearing The Hat!

He has hugged strangers, while wearing The Hat.  (The stranger in this case is actually Phil, who is, co-incidentally, Mr Cheryl.)

I am going to write to the Tilley company and see if they will offer a replacement, although we have lost the receipts in all of our comings and goings.  I think they will be pleased to hear how much publicity we have given them over the years, even if they can’t cough up a new hat.

I can't finish without a beautiful jellyfish