Tioman – Kuching, Borneo - July 2010

View looking up the Kuching River as the sun sets

Rae and Sharon settled in quickly and enjoyed being back with the cruisers and back into the cruising lifestyle. There were at least three yachts we met along the way that they had met before and could catch up with.

Rae and Sharon getting in to the spirit of things....Laurel spots the turtle

Wildlife on Tenggol Island

The first priority was to give them a taste of the underwater activities before we set off to Borneo. We snorkeled at the Kapas islands and then sailed down to Tenggol Island for more. That left an overnight sail to Tioman Island. Sharon agreed that Tioman had a great ‘small town’ feel to it and easy to overstay. Swimming between the pontoons on Cool Bananas became a popular afternoon pastime.With Rae thoroughly sunburnt and Sharon with a healthy glow it was time for some shady days.

Friendly monkeys in Monkey Bay

Where did you say the reverse lever is? And away we go.........

The two night sail to Borneo was given extra attention as there had been reports of piracy in the South China Sea, close to where we were crossing. To cross to Borneo required us to sail through Indonesian waters where there had been recent attacks on ships. We plotted a course that took us away from any shipping channels and more than 35 miles from the islands that they thought the attackers hailed from. We then hid all most of our valuables, leaving out some sacrificial electronics and wallets, lit ourselves like a local boat and set off. The outcome – a bit more lost sleep than usual but nothing untoward to report, except I am still trying to remember where I hid my watch!! Certainly, having the extra crew for the watches, sure does help.

Sunrise coming into Santabong..................................On passage, finding the shady spot

Early morning skies over Santabong

We arrive to the outer islands of Kuching in the early evening and drop anchor behind a small island for the night. Typically we are all up early keen to get a first glimpse of a new place. We opt to sail in to the Santabong River where most of the fleet are already anchored. To our surprise ‘Tigger, a yacht we first met in Rarotonga, is also anchored in there. Rae and Sharon know them too. So the day is filled with catching up with Peter and Toni, swapping stories and gleening information on possible future destinations with a pot luck bbq a fitting end to a busy day.
Santabong was an old fishing village that had been an important trading port in days gone by, although our wanderings found little evidence of this. However during our wanderings we did get an invitation to a celebration in the village in which the Minister of Tourism was in attendence. Such hospitality.
Swimming is out of the question, though, as Fi on Three Ships spotted a crocodile swimming inquisitively around the boats. The water is pretty unappealing anyway as it is a dingy brown colour. We do however begin varying our boarding on and off the boat as apparently crocodiles watch for routine and then plan their attack!!!!

Rae and Sharon joining in with the dancing......Dancing tourists...amusing

Children in Santabong village.......................Traditional and the modern

The World Rainforest Music festival is next on the agenda. It has a wonderful setting in a tourist cultural village surrounded by rainforest. Sharon and I go armed with bulging wallets as it is rumoured there are many crafts to see and buy. We look in on a few workshops and shop, shop, shop…. The men soon drop out with a…..‘we’ll be in the Heineken tent’. By the time we catch up with them there is only time for a quick bite to eat before darkness descends and the music begins. In summary I will say it was a great day, the atmosphere was good, relaxing on a balmy night surrounded in music was nice….but I wouldn’t travel half way around the world just to be there.

Lady from the Orang Ulu tribe in Centrel Borneo.......Demo of some fine embroidery

Daryl getting into the spirit of the festival....................Our turn

Rae trying his hand at a local sape guitar.............Daryl and Sharon watching the musicians via a screen

Rae and Sharon’s time with us is ticking by so we need a plan…… We decide to go up into the Kuching River, to a small new marina, where we can hire a car and have relatively easy access to town. Kuching is a pretty, colourful city, even if somewhat touristy. Our first day trip we decide on visiting the Wind Caves and the Fairy Caves. It was great to get out of the city and see the countryside.

Daryl and I after a ten storey walk up into Fairy Cave.....Daryl looking down, down, down

Sometimes I wonder why I embark.....

Monkey highjinks.......................................Richie, the king

More antics......

Rae and Sharon are keen to see the orangutan’s and we weren’t about to say no. The rally organised a great trip to Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. Like Camp Leekie, that we visited last year, the orangutans are free to visit the centre but if they are well fed in the rainforest there may be not come in for some time. Luck was on our side and many came in the afternoon we were there, including Richie the 29 yr old king. I think they are beautiful creatures and I never tire of watching them. That day we also visited a local pottery factory with a Chinese flavour and Sazli (Sail Malaysia) shouted us a wonderful Chinese meal.

Sharon and Daryl trying their hand at potting

The next day at sunrise we were off on a two day expedition to visit a traditional longhouse on the Lemanak River five hours away. We had looked in to doing a tour but they had seemed quite expensive so decided we’d see how we did ‘going it alone. The end result was we stayed the night at the luxury Hilton Longhouses, including dinner and breakfast plus packed lunch, a longboat ride to a longhouse and a visit to a secluded waterfall for about the same price as the basic tour with shared accommodation. Well done team!!

Slumming it at the Hilton Longhouse

View entering the longhouse communal area....Daryl examining the 100year old warrior skulls

Relaxing during the longboat journey upriver Lemanak River

Child at the longhouse.......................Changing times

All too soon we were saying farewell Rae and Sharon and then farewell to the relative safety and comforts of the marina and begin the 300 miles of day sailing to reach Miri.

Our next visitors are Lyn and Dynes Mc Connell from Tauranga, NZ and they join us in Kota Kinabalu at the end of the month.

Final dinner at James Brooke Restaurant in Kuching ......and final farewells

Kuching Marina where the tide runs at up to 4 knots...Almost the last to leave

East Coast Malaysia - June 2010

The weeks roll by and Cool Bananas rolls on. Tioman Island was a great stop. It reinforced our passion for cruising in environments where we can swim, snorkel, dive and explore the shoreline. We are enjoying the added variety of having monkeys in and around the beach.
Tioman had a quaint village, albeit a tad touristy. Daryl had managed to find himself a Chinese restaurant where he had established himself as a regular customer. It is so pleasant and easy to be where the people are so warm and friendly.






Once I had recovered from the jetlag and had my fill of warm water to bathe in at leisure we headed in to Kuantan on the coastline of mainland Malaysia to catch up with rally activities. First up was a trip to the mall to provision up now that I was back in charge of galley duties. I must say these are somewhat light duties as we eat out so often. Although, there are some things that are produced on board Cool Bananas, like fresh fruit smoothies and bacon and eggs, that we find hard to beat.
We soon establish that the trip up the east coast of Malaysia should be an easy one as the winds and tides seem to be in our favour. I begin to be a little apprehensive about how long it will take to beat our way back down, although the conditions compared with the Pacific are very light. We now get pretty excited if there is enough wind to sail without the aid of the motor. We are pleased that the fuel costs are low because the consumption is up. We’re ok with being a motorsailer for the time being.
We look forward to our next stop which is the island of Tenggol as we’ve heard the diving conditions there are great. We arrive late afternoon, meet with the dive tour operator for a beer, and then the next morning has him say the weather forecast isn’t great and he advises us to move on. Bugger!!!! Another time.
We had a few days at the Kapas islands doing more of the same – swimming, snorkeling, diving, and beach parties. When the weather deteriorated we decided to make a mad dash for a space in the marina in Terengganu so we could have free flowing water and power. These commodities greatly assist in the clean up and preparation for the imminent arrival of our first visitors, the Devitt family.
Terengganu was also a rally stop and they were thrilled to have 38 boats, the most yachts they had ever seen at any one time. We were treated to a beautiful buffet meal with dancing for entertainment. The tour included visiting a traditional boat building workshop, mosques and a batik demonstration.


Terengganu Heritage Marina


Rally dinner entertainment


Batik craftsman.............................Dressed for the occasion


Traditional boat builders at work


A magnificent mosque

Terengganu is a fairly conservative Muslim area and was delightful. Once the Devitts we comfortably on board we hired a guide and headed out to explore. The guide soon established that we were interested in local culture so he took us to his local market and we had great time interacting with the stallholders and the guide was able to tell us about the produce and baked products. And of course we can away with a variety of foods to snack on. I had fresh lychee which I had never tasted before. Yum, sweet.
Further on we made an unscheduled stop when the guide recognized a wedding in progress. After seeking permission we were welcomed like celebrity guests. The photos will probably tell the story from there. We were given gifts, invited to photograph the bride and asked to share a meal. What a privilege. The guide assured us that the family felt privileged to have us there so the experience was mutual. We gave the couple a gift of money, thanked the family profusely and we were back on our way.


The bride on her wedding morning....................The marriage bedroom


Family cooking the wedding feast.....................Green was the theme. Note my honorary rosette


Daryl with the brides father


Boaters attracted to boats

We did a boat trip across their hydro lake and it was lovely to ‘feel the cool wind in our hair’. We stopped at an island that specialized in growing plants for traditional herbal medicine. Honestly I swear there was a plant for absolutely every human affliction imaginable!! A single plant cured multiple, seemingly unrelated afflictions. There were separate samples for the men and woman to drink, his to improve virility and ours for our ‘womanly’ wellbeing. Enough said!!
On up into the hills we travelled to visit an elephant sanctuary. Only two elephants in residence but hey…. That’s got to be good news, right? Actually it was a new sanctuary with very limited resources. For us, the opportunity to see a local elephant up close and personal (and not too touristy) is what we like. Our guide spent time in the last few years working for the govt. forestry and did a 2 month trip into the rainforest. While in the there he saw a wild tiger and rhinos. It is good to know at least some wild animals are surviving in their ever reducing habitat. I have asked many locals for their opinion on the amount of forest being chopped down for the growing of palm oil. Few seem bothered, seeing the wealth from palm oil as more beneficial. I think they see our intense interest in nature and the conservation of it quite odd.


Up close and personal with the elephant




Chinatown lures us for a few meals and a quick visit to the butcher for some fresh pork. By the end of our travels I think I could put out a book titled ‘Chinatown’s outside China’. They are such a big part of the culture and history wherever we are.
I enjoy the excursions where we have something slightly obscure to hunt down, like batteries for the weighing scales or dive flippers for large feet. It creates some interesting interactions as the hunt continues. Luckily taxis are cheap so dead ends aren’t costly and satisfaction is great when the mission is accomplished.
The islands fairly quickly lure us back onto anchor and away from the air conditioned comfort of the marina. We head north east to the island of Redang. Luck placed us on a mooring buoy in the afternoon and we find ourselves amongst copulating turtles. It was close to a full moon so we spent a few hours on the trampoline in the evening hoping to glimpse the turtles making their way up the beach to lay their eggs, but to no avail. The next morning we went in to the beach and saw evidence of where there were fresh diggings. We saw masses of tiny tracks which we excitedly presumed were baby turtle tracks but later found out from the national park worker that they weren’t, merely crab prints it seems. Later that same day we were visited by a very agitated man who, in broken English, explains we were not supposed to be there in the afternoons because we might disturb the turtles (we didn’t think the turtles were particularly bothered about us witnessing their frolicking yesterday but who’se to say…). The young park worker comes over and was all apologetic, explaining the man was his ‘big boss from the mainland’. We regard it a bonus we got a two days/one night there. The water was crystal clear and we had a coral garden straight off the back of the boat.



Daryl with Kevin, Erika, Abby and Mary.







The Devitt’s stay came to an end all too soon. We dropped them at a resort in the Perhentian islands and sailed back into Terengganu with one hour to spare before the next visitors trudged down the docks with matching packs on their backs. Rae and Sharon, who we first met in 2006 in the Pacific, where they were cruising on their yacht ‘Mustang Sally’. Fun times ahead.
Now starts our sail back down to Tioman Island from where we are going to hop across the South China Sea to Borneo.


Rae and Sharon