30th May - Pulau Bidung - return to Terengganu - off to Pulau Kapas

Friday 30^th May

Bamboo thicket (Terengganu)

We arrived back in Terengganu at 4pm, just in time to catch a taxi to the Immigration office at the airport.  They had lovingly and kindly saved all of our documents and had even put them in a larger neater envelope.  Whew!

Terengganu on the river - I particularly like the tall grey and white building 

Yesterday morning Pete went diving again with Dave and Jacqui.  Apparently it was spectacularly wonderful and…I missed out.  But never mind! 

Dave and Jacqui (Pete in the background, sorting his gear)

I went for a swim of my very own, towards the research station beach.  And I found a submerged caterpillar tread digging thingy, huge!  And covered with coral, abundant with sea life.  Happy times!

One of our new rally friends, Heather (NZ), sat next to me on the bus for a while when we were doing our Tour Of Terengganu.  They have been sailing continuously for seven years.  (The record, however, in this particular rally group, is held by Magnetic, also from NZ – Trevor and Yolanta have been sailing for 27 years!!  Not sure if there have been breaks in between – surely at some stage they would have had to stop to earn a few $$$s??)  

Heather and Mark have spent a long time around Langkawi.  Twice they have left her boat, Ajax, on anchorage in the Hole in the Wall, where they paid the caretaker 300-odd ringgits per month to keep an eye on things.  The first time everything was ticketyboo… The second time, not so much…  Their outboard engine had been chained to the dinghy, but well-equipped thieves had sawn through the chain and taken it.  They had also cut and removed all of the visible ropes, so when Mark and Heather went to put up this sail or that – quelle horrible surprise, no ropes!  Mr Caretaker shrugged laconically and took no responsibility whatsoever; they were not impressed!  It cost them $5000 to replace all of their necessities.  Oh and I forgot – worst of all; they stole the steering wheel!  For the next few months until they could get a new one from Australia they had to steer with a crescent spanner clamped to the centre where the wheel should have been…

This morning we are going back across to glorious Pulau Kapas, just for one night.  This will make me very happy; I loved it there.  All that coral, all those fish…and a very nice little restaurant along the way…

And then on Saturday – gulp – time to leave the East Coast of Malaysia and make our way across the fabled South China Sea…It should take us three days (approx. 400 nautical miles) until we reach an anchorage.  We are making up a little convoy of maybe five or six boats – safety in numbers!

29th May - Pulau Bidung - diving on wrecks

Thursday 29^th May am

Pulau Bidung was once “home” to 40,000 people – it is now uninhabited.  There is a university research station, and the abandoned beginnings of a large resort, mercifully left to rot into the jungle.*

The 40,000 temporary inhabitants were Vietnamese boat people, fleeing to a new life.  On the way they sent some time here, on beautiful Pulau Bidung, squeezed into whatever accommodation could be hastily erected.

A vaguely boat-shaped monument

I suppose if you have to live in a refugee camp…why not here?  The water is clear and sparkling, and very warm (31 degrees.)  The beaches are pristine, the jungle is thick and lush.

Very smoky at the moment...

Our cruising guide notes say:

The anchorage area is foul with wrecks of refugee boats scuttled on arrival.

We are on a big fat university boat mooring, so we don’t have to worry about getting the anchor tangled up in a wreck.  And, as it turns out, the wrecks are a bit of an attraction, so many years later… They have turned into very popular dive sites!

The only other boat here, also tied up to a sturdy mooring, is Jackster (UK.)  Lucky for us!  Jacqui and Dave are very keen, very experienced divers.  They have done literally thousands of dives all around the world, and in fact met on a dive boat in the Galapagos.  And they just happen to have spare kit on board…Pete has his own gear, which he bought second hand from a friend in Hobart, but which he hasn’t yet used.  He was very keen to try it out, with helpful Dave and Jacqui close by. 

Jackster

I was, as usual, very reluctant to go diving… As we made our way towards one of he wreck sites, Dave said he could tell I was apprehensive.  Maybe I am scared of the deep water?  Well no; I’m not frightened of what is down there; what worries me is…the equipment.  So much heavy stuff tied to one’s body, so much possibility for me to stuff things up and ruin the dive for everyone else. 

As it turned out…all went well.  Dave stuck with me and held my hand as we explored the wrecks. He had to hold my hand…I didn’t have enough weights on and every time he let go I inexorably began a swift ascent to the surface.  I am VERY buoyant, unfortunately.  Dave suggested that maybe I breathe too deeply and that I should take small shallow breaths instead.  Good advice; I’ll bear this in mind next time…

Just as a matter of interest...here is (cheery???)  Pete installing a most gigantic power plug at Ri-Yaz marina...our collection - Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear, Baby Bear - are lined up behind him.

They are going for another dive this morning.  They are trying to encourage me to have another go…maybe I should…but…maybe I will rest on my laurels from yesterday and just snorkel around on the surface without having to worry about buoyancy.

Today we were going to move on to Redang Island, not far away.  But…we have to go back to Terengganu…Sazli got hold of Pete on the phone a few minutes before we set off for our dive yesterday, to tell him that (embarrassed cough) he had left an envelope in Immigration at the airport.  It only contains…our passports and all of the boat registration and insurance papers…

* There are TOO MANY resorts in this part of the world…And it is a very nice concept to have an island or two completely devoid of tourism.

27th May - Terengganu - museum

Tuesday 27^th May

Local batik

The marina workers have tirelessly poured 800 litres of diesel into the thirsty fuel tanks of 2XS.  Today we had just one lone worker, Hisham.*  Thirsty work for men as well as for boats, so I took big glasses of icy blackcurrant juice up for Pete and for Hisham.  Hisham looked at his a bit nervously, and said, “Not alcohol?”  He was very relieved it was only Ribena…

Hisham

Today was a domestic day.  On the boat I washed bed linen and tea towels, and cooked two lasagnas for our passage across the South China Sea later this week.  And off the boat we ventured to Giant Supermarket to stock up, for the passage across the SCS…(Hence the cooking.)

I didn’t want to leave Terengganu without going to the museum.  Elizabeth (SV Labarque,) who has a very close connection with this town,** told me it was a wonderful museum, with fabulous gardens full of restored palaces, and old boats.  And indeed the gardens were wonderful, along the banks of the river.

There are lots of old houses (palaces?) which have been rescued from locations where they are no longer wanted.

All very beautiful, and serene, all that wood.

This Dutch house was my favourite

A bamboo thicket proved to be absolutely heaving with rapid squirrels leaping and scampering.  VERY pleased to capture at least one of them – a bit middle distance but never mind; it is a squirrel!  On my iPhone!

We found a rubber tree, leaking rubber, and I took a photo of Pete testing it with his fingers.

This photo came in very handy an hour or so later when I lost Pete in the vast museum complex…

Just a small section of this massive complex

He had left me with the children’s craft organsier, who was very keen for me to make a little dollything with her.

Yes!  I nailed it!  (With help...)

“I will just be in the gallery along there,” he said.  Well…he wasn’t…I ended up going back to the foyer and asking for help.  A very kind woman took pity on me and said she would find him on the close-circuit cameras, once I had shown her the aforementioned photo of Pete Avec Rubbertree.

And yes she found him; he had indeed been in Gallery B, but…he had found a small, hidden set of stairs not immediately obvious to me, and had gone down to gaze in wonder at a very tatty old collection of stuffed Malaysian animals…

Black panther, reconstructed!

Tomorrow we are leaving Terengganu, heading for another beautiful island (Pulau Bidung) about twenty miles away.  Ah…swimming in clear water!  I will be happy!

A beautiful bit of silk on display (the museum was full of random  items)

* He was very tickled when I showed him a photo of Hamish and he worked out that the names were anagrams…

** She taught here for two years, more than 35 years ago, when Malaysia was a very different place.

26th May - Terengganu Tour - boat building - crystal mosque - floating mosque

Monday 26^th May

It is 6.15pm and Pete and I are ready for Sleepyboboland…

This morning there was barely time to admire the beautiful sunrise and our bus was here, waiting to whisk us away for a Terengganu Experience.

Fist stop involved what our guide called A Morning Walk.  Very nice too, through an older suburb with pleasant wooden houses, fruit trees,

and a few boat-building yards.

These lovely boats, under very s-l-o-w and careful construction, were wildly popular with the men.

Some of us found it just too TOO hot and found it necessary to find shady spots to sit and look at the warm brown water.

Mosques featured large on the agenda, of course.  First the Crystal Mosque – VERY sparkly!

We were invited to come inside… I was not extra keen because we had to put on more layers of clothes, and…well, I was HOT.

Paul, from SV Calypso, on my left, has his cap tucked into his robes...

Our guide kitted me out, and said, as he tied the scarf under my chin, Oh you look so nice!  Well…I didn’t look nice*…and when he had a closer look he was a bit concerned and made me fasten my robes up to my chin and down to my toes – I was, he whispered, showing CHEST, and LEG!

Pete with Sazli

Pete too had to wear a robe because he was wearing his short and was thus showing leg above the knee…just.

Next mosque was white, and floating.  Very pretty!

We then went to Chinatown, which I liked very much.  But…not much time to explore; Pete and I had to go to Customs (Kastom) and Harbour Master (Jabatan Laut.)  Much filling in of forms… We still have to do Immigration, tomorrow at the airport.

(At least here in Malaysia bureaucracy has a kindly face… Today one of our sailing friends told us about some people who were travelling form one SE Asian country to another on their yacht.  They stopped near an island** for a swim and…were promptly arrested because they didn’t have entry papers.  And…they spent two days in prison.  When Pete told me I was horrified – in their BATHERS???)

At 4.00 we went to the splendidly named Paradise Excellence*** Restaurant for…high tea…(hi-tea).

Dave (Jackster) and Elizabeth ( Labarque)

We are now awaiting fuel in jerrycans…and…Sleepyboboland!  It can’t come too soon!

* I have a very nasty expression on my face…

** I’m not saying WHICH country.  But it was NOT Malaysia!

**  Maybe it wasn’t Excellence but…it was some such fabulous word!