Sunday, November 04, 2012
Port Dickson to Pangkor
We arrived in Port Dickson and were helped to tie up by Urs from Better than Shares—yet another cruiser from the past!! We had met him in Vanautu but had not seen him since.
We arrived at 4pm tired and grubby and assumed that we would do our clearance in the morning but apparently the powers that be have decided that yachts need to clear as soon as they arrive. The marina phoned the various agencies and arranged for us to get a taxi in and do our clearance.
At least we would not need to go in the next day. We were back by 7pm and Urs and Maggie were leaving the next day but invited us for an enjoyable dinner.
The following day my intention had to be to laze at the pool but the skies clouded over and after a quick dip the rain came down and it poured the rest of the day. The rainy season seems to have arrived.
The next morning we caught the bus to Melaka which was a city we had not had time to visit previously.
It is a UNESCO World Heritage City with an amazing colourful history.
It had been a small fishing village but in the early 1400’s was discovered by Cheng Ho of China. He was a eunuch of the emperor and voyaged 7 times to establish trading routes. He would travel with an armada of over 200 boats and 2800 people and Melaka became his favourite base. Although he was Muslim and solidified the religion in the area many of his crew were Buddhist and he built temples for them.
When a new emperor came to power his “closed door” policies stopped the trade which held for centuries and allowed Europe to enter the trade corridor.
In the early 1500’s the Portuguese laid claim to the region for the next 150 years. They imposed Catholicism in the area.
As the Dutch consolidated their hold on Indonesia they forced the Portuguese out and held it for the next 150 years. After this time Holland was occupied by the French and the British “looked after” their territories for them. Britain managed to exchange it with them for a port in Sumatra and then held the corridor along with Singapore and Penang until Independence of Malaysia.
As Singapore became more important Melaka reverted to a fishing village and later into a tourist mecca.
Of course it was central to the piracy in the Malaka Straits which was prevalent right up until 2009 when it was “cleaned up” by local enforcement—oh if only Somalia was dealt with in this way.
It is a lovely picturesque town centred on a vibrant Chinatown. It was reminiscent of Antigua in Guatemala and Cusco in Peru with its old buildings which have been restored and immaculate little streets.
It houses the oldest functioning Mosque, Catholic Church and Buddhist Temple in the country attesting to the tolerance still found today.
It has a river running through with a lovely path along both sides and tourist boats travelling up and down—we enjoyed the happy waves of all of the local tourists as they rode past us as we walked.
Highly decorated trishaws was the other mode of transport.
We loved the little stores and wonderful eating places and spent 3 days happily wandering around.
The museum of Cheng Ho took up several hours and was astonishing. The sizes of the boats built at that time in China were massive compared with anything coming out of Europe. They had rudders to steer and used a variety of navigational tools. It certainly gives pause when considering the hypothesis of Gavin Menzies with his book “1421” in which China discovered the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.
On the third day we caught the bus back to Port Dickson and cleared out of customs for an early morning departure.
The first day was long but uneventful and we anchored for the night in Port Klang. The following day was nasty with thunderstorms, choppy head seas and headwinds and we had a long uncomfortable wet day. Ken had a bad cough and was feeling ill so I had to deal with the squalls as he tried to sleep. Thankfully we reached a secure anchorage just before dark—the highlight of the day were the birds who were used to returning fishing boats cleaning their catch as the came in so assuming all boats should do the same frantically flew to try and get what may be thrown from the boat—sadly nothing!!
The next morning was a short trip to Pangkor where we will spend a couple of days where hopefully Ken will recover from his flu and I can avoid catching it.
Singapore to Port Dickson
This is our third time into Singapore and we did the drill of clearing immigration at the anchorage where the officials come to your boat and process your documents as you float.
One15 marina was full so once again we went into the rocky noisy Republic of Singapore Yacht Club. The small ferries bringing crew in and out from the tankers at great speed which makes the docks wave up and down. You can almost get seasick walking out to your boat and the monohulls roll incredibly.
We were in a quieter space than last time and were tied up alongside several cruising boats. We invited Peter, an Australian teaching in Singapore living on his boat and Peggy, a Canadian waiting for her husband to return from a family visit to Cop Out for happy hour. We had a great time and once again the happy hour went way beyond sunset.
Next morning along with Peggy we caught the bus and train and cleared in at customs at the “One Stop” this meant we did not pay any fees to the marina—they charge an exorbitant amount for the easy clearance. We managed to avoid the fact that although now Singapore requires AIS we do not have one. I think that we were lucky and it will become harder to just omit the number each time we are asked for it.
Deepavali (the Indian festival of lights) is approaching and Little India was bustling with noise and colour. It is one of the highlights of Singapore and offers lots of great photo ops.
The one thing we still had not done was to go up to the top of the “boat” so as the sun was setting we went up to the top. There are two options, one is to pay $20 and go up and the other is to go up to the bar at no charge but pay their exorbitant drink charges. We opted for the “drink option” and joined the multitudes of the “young upwardly mobile” Singaporeans for our almost $30 drinks. After one drink and the obligatory photos we headed back down and back to the boat.
We spent the next few days picking up small gifts for family and Ken bought a spotting scope ready for hunting next fall. He had ‘loaned” his to Aaron and he is not sure who now has ownership!! Also bought a Blue Ray DVD player as in this part of the world they are unlocked and we will be able to play all of the DVD’s collected from various parts of the world when we get home.
A final highlight was the arrival of Migration with whom we had been trying to coordinate one last visit before we become “landlubbers”. We had first met them in 2006 in Tenakatita and we have sailed on and off with them since that time. We spent time in Ecuador and Panama with them and they had been in NZ for several summers with us as well. We have spent many happy times with them over the years and they will always be part of our wonderful “cruising family” memories.
They had been frantically trying to get there from Indonesia and we were happy to wait one more day for them.
We had an enjoyable dinner with them on Cop Out and then a last waffle breakfast with them on Migration before we set off again sadly bidding them farewell. They are from the US so we do hope to see them in Canada in the not too distant future.
We set off for the Western Immigration Anchorage once again to clear out and then back into Malaysian waters to go to Puteri Harbour to fill with diesel. At 90cents a litre it is a lot cheaper than the $1 40 in Singapore and we wanted to get enough to take us to Langkawi.
As we pulled in we spotted Atlantia in the marina. After being invited for supper by Will and Margaret we got permission from the marina manager to stay the night even though we were not checked into Malaysia.
We had another great evening with them; we had first met them in Vanuatu and have been with them on and off ever since. This return trip of ours has been rewarded by meeting up with “old friends”.
Early the following morning we set off for the passage to Port Dickson. We were helped along with some strong favourable currents making it in two days.
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