Next morning we were up and packed, and a really nice cycle back down the river to Jerantut. Which is nice cos it ended up being our last real cycling day... you see during the last week or so we had been back in touch with the Aussie's sailing their boat back home, and they invited us up to Langkawi to meet in person and discuss plans. Exciting stuff! This all meant that we had to get back up to the north of Malaysia pretty quickly. So after a night in the pleasant town of Jerantut we missioned it with a lift to KL (a crazy party thrown in to the mix), a bus to Alor Star, and a ferry crossing to the island. Next day we gave Mike and Tracey a call and met up with them for a chat. The boat stuff all explained and the route as it stands etc discussed and all sounded pretty good from our end. Next day we went over to the island where their boat lives at a marina attached to a swanky 4 star resort. Managed to take the bikes apart and store them away on the boat which we were happy about - very weird not to have them around though - end of an era. The next 5 days or so we mucked in where we could on the boat, settled in to our cabin and started to learn what life on board a boat is all about. Bit of free time to enjoy the beach and resort perk's too! Tomorrow is set to be the departure date, although Mike has come down with a bad case of the flu. So, bike the world becomes sail the world... a new journey begins!
Life on the deep blue sea begins! We had a smooth passage out of the Rebak marina and got great views of the steep rocks and hills of Langkawi as we headed south. Sailing was not quite as I had imagined it. In my romantic vision we would be pulling on ropes, climbing the rigging and navigating by the compass. The reality was slightly more mundane, if a lot less work. There was no wind so the 2 motors propelled us forwards, there is a computorised autopilot controlling the navigation and steering, and apparently there isn't any rigging to climb (what is rigging anyway?). The closest we got to living the dream of life-on-the-ocean-wave was standing on the stern deck (or should that be aft deck? the lessons in sailing terminology passed me by somewhat) peering out to sea through oversized binoculars. When we saw a fishing buoy, flag or boat in our path we had to tell Captain Mike who would take evasive action.
The plus side of not really having to do anything was that we got to read a lot of books, relax and chat. It took a bit of getting used to this after cycling every day, but was Ok. I was hoping to learn a bit more about sailing but the Malacca Straights is notoriously calm, and when the wind did blow is was from the south, so just slowed us down.
On day 3 on the boat we passed by Pulau Pinang and went underneath Pinang bridge. Later on in the day a flock of
20 or so noisy sea birds followed the boat giving us a great show of their fishing skill by diving into the wake
and coming up with tiny fish. Later still the swell and wind picked up and it poured with rain. We had a bit of a
sleepless night with the boat being buffeted about and an electrical storm taking place over our heads but I
managed not to fall out of bed or get sea sick.
It was fun having a swim off the boat at the end of the day when the water wasn't looking too scummy, and on a
few occasions the anchorage was close to an island so we took the dingy to land and went exploring on foot. It
was great to stretch the legs and get the circulation flowing.
On Pulau Besar, off Malaka, an Indian Muslim
festival celebration had just finished and the virtually uninhabited island was teeming with about 500 people!
We actually nearly had a problem on that day...whilst we were exploring the island the calm day had turned a bit
stormy and the anchor on Sea Drive (the catamaran we were sailing on) was dragging and pulling the boat dangerously
close to the rocks. Luckily we got back to the beach just in time and Mike came in the dingy to get us, then moved
the boat to a more sheltered location. It was a nice island but I'm glad we didn't get stranded on it!The scenery from the boat is pretty different than from when we are cycling (duh! obviously) but often we had spectacular skys, and were passing small fishing boats, and in some cases large container ships. At Port Dickson, after 5 days anchoring off small islands we stopped at a Marina. It was good to get a shower and felt a bit funny being on ground that didn't sway. Must mean I am getting my sea legs! Mike and Tracey were planning on relaxing and Tracey was just recovering from the flu that was getting passed around so we headed (by land) to the historic town of Melaka.
307 malaka, st pauls church
311 malaka, traditional blowdart playing
315 tradition womans game
Inspite of it being quite a touristy town we walked around for about 4 hours before we found a place to stay, but it meant we got a good idea of how it was laid out. The town was colonised first by the Portuguese back in the C14 and then later by Dutch and for a short time by the British. There is quite a large, longstanding Chinese community too, and it was in Chinatown that we found a place to stay. The town has the mixed blessing of being a strategic spot for trade between the east and west and this has led to its turbulant history. Nowadays the traditional and pretty shopfronts of Chinatown house interesting art and craft studios-cum-shops, trendy boutiques and upmarket souvenir vendors.(pic shops?) It was a great area to wander around and admire the terraced buildings and browse the shops, as well as the obligatory eating of street snacks! Nearby Little India was pumping Indian tunes from the record shops and the lure of veg curry served on a banana leaf was too much to resist! We also visited the museum, St Johns Church (its old and on a hill that used to be a fort), the night market and the shopping mall before the 2 nights were up, and then headed back to the boat.
From Port Dickson we travelled for a further 3 days down to Singapore and back up around to Malaysia. It was pretty
hectic coming round Singapore because it is such a big port and you have to travel in the shipping channel with all
the big ships. We made it without any close calls and ducked up a river estuary in Malaysia but on the east side to
another marina, Sebana Cove. Spent a day relaxing by the pool, and then the following day went to explore Singapore,
a short bike and ride away.Singapore
We were both pretty intrigued by what we knew about Singapore. The highly controlled society seemed totally opposite to other parts of Asia we had visited. Going from months in places with no discernible traffic rules (at least none enforced), where people smoke, eat, piss and sleep where they feel like we felt quite weird going to a country where it's illegal to jaywalk, sell chewing gum or leave the toilet un-flushed (allegedly). Since spending some time in Singapore we have also learned it is illegal to offer somebody a cigarette and illegal to have more than one pet. Despite all these regulations and threats of fines I can now report that crossing a road on a red man will not result in your arrest, and we have even cycled the odd one way system the wrong way without any consequences (what rebels!). In fact it is rare you even see a policeman.
We have found loads of nice people to stay with, through couch surfing and warm showers and meeting and chatting with people has made our stay. Our first 3 nights were spent at the apartment of a fellow cycle tourist, Harold. We chatted about cycling in Singapore and he took us out to Sami's, a famous Indian restaurant in converted British army barracks, where we had a truly delicious banana leaf curry. Afterwards we walked off the food (banana leaf curry is always bottomless. Dangerous!) in the beautiful Botanic gardens. Whilst at Harold's place we got some news that altered our onwards travel plans in quite a major way. Mike and Tracey were not going any further with the boat and were flying back to Australia instead.
We knew that this outcome may come about sooner or later, but were hoping for later rather than sooner, at least after Borneo. So, back to the drawing board. How to cross from Asia to Australia or New Zealand without taking the plane? We missioned to the two marinas in Singapore and chatted to the yachties and staff there and got our "Crew Available" notice put up. And now we have resorted to the Pelni-ships-then-hang-out-in-Bali plan.
We spent a while longer in Singapore before going back to the boat to collect our stuff, this time with a couchsurfer host recommended by the Pinang couchsurfers. Geoffrey and his family hosted us for 3 nights, and helped us to wholeheartedly embrace one of Singapore's national past times. There is only 2 national hobbies - "eating" and "shopping" and I will let you guess which one we have taken up! It was truly amazing how much we ate; each dish "hand-picked" from hawker stands as the best example of that food. He even took us back over into Malaysia to experience the best of Malaysian food, and we spent a day exploring eateries and hanging out on a floating fish farm. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that both me and Claire totally fell off the wagon as far as being vegetarian goes and not only are some fish, but also ate mussels, flower crab, prawns, crayfish, abalone, and even used a hook and line to catch the fish we ate! In fact I think we left Geoffrey's place at least 5 kilos heavier than when we arrived!
(pic Suet) We also met a fellow cycle trainer, trained by Cycle Training UK, my London employers. Suet is providing cycle training for Singaporians, and I was given her contact whilst in London a year ago. She was surprised to hear from me because she had been expecting us sometime last year, so I explained that we were running a little late! We had a great night chatting with her and her friend, eating at a famous hawker centre and exploring the Esplanade area, where we saw the famous Durian building (a theatre) and got our obligatory tourist shot with the Merlion.
(pic Durian 384) The rest of our time in Singapore was spent wandering around Little India, Kampong Glam (Muslim area) and Chinatown, as well as some shopping malls (Singapore is full of them) and getting our legs back in shape with lots of cycling around. It is true that life is very ordered here - the streets are free of litter, the apartments are modern and without graffiti, the public transport is fast and efficient and the roads are not too congested. Crime is low, and we have enjoyed not having to be so vigilant over our belongings, and there do not seem to be that many poor people here. The cultural mix is interesting, with good diversity of food and lots of different influences on society, but it is also a bit like being in a whole country like Canary Wharf or City of London. Everything is a bit too polished and sterile for my taste.
We cycled over the Causeway to get back to Malaysia and spent a night with a nice couchsurfer host on the outskirts of Johore Bahru (back in Malaysia for the third time!). After we collected our things from the boat and said our farewells to Tracey and Mike we came back to Singapore and did something I cannot imagine doing in too many other cities in the world - we camped the night in the park. It is actually a popular activity here, with at least 50 other tents perched on the strip of park between the highway and the sea. We camped next to the lake and watched wake boarders get pulled along by revolving cables. The hawker centre was about 100m from our tent so we got 'take out' and sat watching park life pass by!