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
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