Friday 29th August
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| Fruit juice at the market - cheery girls! |
Another busy Kudat
day. Well busy for Pete – he is rushing
hither and yon, filling the fuel tanks.
This is not as easy as cruising up to a bowser and pressing a lever on
the nozzle.
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| Light relief - flowers on the Kinabatangan River |
First he has to
ride his bike about five kilometres away, along the highway then up a leafy
country road. I went with him yesterday
- it was all very picturesque. But
frustrating, because once one has arrived at the required office, there are
many forms to fill out. To buy more than
20 litres of fuel at a time is strictly prohibited, unless…many forms have been
filled out at this little offshoot of the tax office. I couldn’t bear to stay listening to poor
Pete, patiently explaining that yes he wanted ANOTHER 200 litres. Please.
And another one tomorrow as well. The same as yesterday. Blink, blink.
So, Mr Robert William, you want
fuel? Well yes…Pete does want fuel,
yesterday today and tomorrow. And he is
not Mr Robert William – that is our friend Robert Snashall, another person,
another boat, altogether. He is Mr Peter
James. And the registration number of
the taxi is the same, yesterday today and tomorrow. Blink, blink… furrowed brows… Maybe you could fill in this form, Mr Robert
William? I couldn’t stand it… Pete
is much more patient than I am.
After the form
filling is done and dusted (for the day…) Pete has to ride back to the marina,
gather up the jerrycans, and get into a car with Peter the Taxi Driver, who
takes him to the nearby Petronas station to fill up with the allowed 200 litres
for the day. I went with them
yesterday. Peter the Taxi Driver is full
of life, full of opinions. He says life
in Kudat is MUCH better since the white
man came. (I actually thought the white man had come to Borneo further
back in the dim distant past…I THINK he means the yachties…) More money for him!
He is very robust in his views on the government, the constant call to
prayers of the Muslims, the voracious nature of the police, the ghastliness of
the government.. Half of what he says we
can’t understand at all so we make soothing humming sounds. Bu we did get the message when we saw a
police car up ahead and he snarled, Crocodile
police! Or police crocodile, not sure which it was, but we understood that he
is still deeply wounded at having received a 100 ringgit fine for not wearing
his seat belt.
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| I loved the Petronas girl..I snuck a photo of her, gazing dreamily into the middle distance, chewing gum... |
And then…can I be
bothered carrying on with the saga? The
jerrycans have to be lugged out to the boat, onto the boat, and then poured,
carefully, into the tanks. This is not
too bad – I can actually help, because there is dainty little wheelbarrow. It is all very much easier now we are on the
marina. When we were anchored out in the
duckpond poor Pete had to load the jerrycans into and out of the dinghy – MUCH harder
and more fraught with possibility of disaster and loss.
Pete is very happy
because he has met another Tilley Hat Wearer – Gary, from Inca II, (Sydney.) Inca II is built for speed – she has done a
few Sydney-Hobart Yacht Races, and a lot of racing in Hawaii. And now Gary is cruising peacefully around
Malaysia, where there is hardly any wind…
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| Another kindly face at the Kudat market |
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