Brief overview of Malaysian history

Archaeological evidence found in the Niah Caves in Sarawak in the country of Malaysia indicates that human beings began inhabiting the general area well over 40,000 years ago. Neolithic culture was well established by 2500-1500 BC. Most scholars believe the earliest settlers on the Malay Peninsula came overland from southern China in small groups over a period of thousands of years. These early inhabitants became the ancestors of the Orang Asli. During the 1000's B.C., new groups of migrants who spoke a language related to Malay came to Malaysia. The ancestors of these people had traveled by sea from south China to Taiwan, and later from Taiwan to Borneo and the Philippines. These people became the ancestors of the Malays and the Orang Laut and they settled mainly in the coastal areas of the peninsula.

Small Malayan kingdoms existed in the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, when adventurers from India arrived and initiated more than 1,000 years of Indian influence. About A.D. 1400, a group of Malay-speaking migrants came to the Malay Peninsula from Srivijaya, a trading kingdom on the island of Sumatra (now part of Indonesia). Led by a Sumatran prince called Paramesvara, these newly arrived immigrants established a commercial kingdom called Malacca and secured Chinese protection for the city-state. This Chinese societal influence continues today, especially in Penang and Malacca..

The Europeans arrived on the Malay Peninsula in the 17th century. First the Portuguese established trading centers at Melacca in 1511 and later in 1641 the Dutch established trading posts along the coastlines. The Dutch held onto the area for 150 years. The British acquired Penang Island in 1786 and established a settlement called George Town. They gained more and more territory and ruled the region for about 150 years. By 1914, Britain had either direct or indirect colonial control over all the lands that now make up Malaysia, which it called British Malaya. A movement for independence started after WWII. Independence was not gained until 1963.

"It was the British who recognized the strategic position of the Malay states and their abundance of natural resources, subsequently colonizing and controlling the region for over 150 years." Ha-ha-ha-ha!! That statement is taken from a website supposedly about Malaysia, and it is obviously written from a British viewpoint. This is utterly ridiculous! Ships from Egypt, Rome, Arabia, Africa, Persia, India and China had been using the area known as Malacca Straits and visiting and trading with what is now known as Malaysia for several thousand years before the Europeans arrived. They traded glassware, spices, camphor, cotton goods, brocades, ivory, sandalwood, perfumes and precious stones. They all recognized the strategic position of the Malay states and their abundance of natural resources. Only difference was that the British wanted to control the region and take those resources rather than trade, as the Brits did throughout the world during the time of their colonial empire.

During World War II, the Japanese invaded in 1942 and occupied the area for over three years. The Chinese Tong jungle fighters formed into bands of 10 men each and harassed and murdered Japanese soldiers during the entire time of occupation. The Japanese could not defeat the Tong because the Tong were so adept at jungle warfare. Before abandoning the area to the Japanese, the British handed out guns to the Tong and promised them land if they fought the Japanese. After Japan finally surrendered and the war ended, the British returned and insisted that the Tong return their guns but the Brits did not honor their promise of giving land to those who had fought. The Brits did a typical British thing and insisted that the Tong submit documentation of their orders to fight the Japanese and to substantiate their claims for land. Of course, there were no written orders. Even if there had been, there would have been no way to preserve a paper document in the wet jungle for 3 years during the 1940s -- not like plastic ziplocks had yet been invented. The Tong were ripped off by the British and did not get their lands. But the Tong were smart enough not to turn in their guns; instead, they turned in guns taken from dead Japanese soldiers. This enabled the Tong to remain armed to fight for independence from the British.

In 1948, the British-ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula (southern parts of Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and the Peninsular Malaysia) formed the Federation of Malaya. In 1957, after a decade of intense negotiations, the region gained independence from Britain. Malaysia itself was formed in 1963 when Singapore and the states of Sabah and Sarawak joined the Peninsular Malaysia Federation. Therefore, Malaysia today is divided into mainland Malaysia and eastern Malaysia some distance across the China Sea on the island of Kalimantan (Borneo) just south of Brunei. Singapore left the Malay States in 1965 to become a separate nation. There is a sense of anymousity today between Singapore and Malaysia, each preferring to think they are the better country.

Malaysia is located In Southeast Asia, just north of the Equator. The exotic, tropical islands and lands of Malaysia contain some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet and a collection of unrivaled rainforests and national parks. Unfortunately for us, those beautiful beaches are on the eastern coast. We will be sailing up the western coast, which is not known for any beautiful beaches. We will be sailing northwest along the Malaysian coastline through the Straits of Malacca toward the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal.

The Straits of Malacca are the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The narrowest point is Phillips Channel near Singapore where the passage is only 1.7 miles wide. Over 94,000 cargo ships and oil transports transit the straits annually. The staits are relatively shallow and are filled with shipwrecks that create traffic hazards. The shallow depth and the narrow constraint of Phillips Channel dictate the maximum size of ship that can transit the Malacca Straits, especially for oil tankers. This size ship is called a Malaccamax. The larger oil tankers today cannot transit the Malacca Straits and must go west around the Indonesian island of Sumatra and north through the Lombok Strait at Bali in order to reach the South China Sea. That just happens to be the route we took through Indonesia.

If pirates or terrorists or some other disaster were to block the Malacca Straits, then nearly one-half of the world's shipping fleet would have to be re-routed around the western side of Sumatra and through the Lombok Strait. That 50% number was found on the website of the Energy Information Administration of the US government reflecting World Oil Transit Chokepoints. There are a couple of major pipelines under construction at this time which will eventually reduce the amount of oil transported via ships. One pipeline is being built from Saudia Arabia to China, paid for by China. Another pipeline is being built along the southern border of Thailand and through northern Malaysia. Construction began in 2007 This $7billion pipeline should reduce the oil transport traffic through the Malacca Straits by 20%.

There has been another canal proposed. China offered to pay for construction of a canal across the narrowest point of the isthmus of Thailand. But the Thai government feared the possibility of separation of north and south Thailand and that the southern population (which is mostly Muslim) would soon want independence. Thailand cited environmental concerns as well as inability to govern their country effectively if Thailand were separated by such a canal; and that canal deal now appears to be a dead issue. That is a shame. A canal across Thailand would not only be great for shipping but would also be cherished by cruisers like us. It would open up a cruising area that is seldom traveled today. Only a few cruisers take the northern route through the Federated States of Micronesia and the Philippines, an area we wish we had had an opportunity to see.
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This and that and nothing much

On Saturday 7 Nov the marina sponsored a regatta. About a dozen boats participated; S/V BeBe was not one of them. Racing is just not my thing. Bill would have crewed on another boat but the opportunity did not arise so he was out of luck and stuck ashore. There was no wind that afternoon and the boats basically floated down-current to the Tuas bridge and then turned around. Coming back there was a tiny bit of breeze from the rear quarter. All the boats put out their spinnakers and we were told that it was a pretty sight with the colorful sails on the narrow Johor Strait. We will have to take the participants' word for that since we could not see the racing boats from the marina. The boats got a radio call from the marina telling them to slow down (they were only going about 4 knots in the first place) because they could not re-enter the marina until 4:30. The racing boats pulled in their spinnakers and drifted about in the current until allowed to come back into the marina at 4:30.

The reason they couldn't return until 4:30 is that the marina did not want any interruption to their signing ceremony for the new phase of the family-oriented indoor theme park. After all, they had Barney, Bob the Builder, Hello Kitty and several other brand name characters on stage and participating in this signing ceremony. This signing ceremony is probably a Malaysian custom; after all, this country was occupied by the British for many years, and everyone knows how the British love paperwork. Copies of documents were all signed and distributed to the various parties. Then the boats were allowed to re-enter the marina.

That night the marina sponsored a free dinner and band with dancing. We have been here 5 nights and already the marina has done this twice. It was a lot of fun both evenings. The people here are so friendly and nice, almost always have smiles. We saw a mock-up of the entire city they are building here. On the model board this marina facility looks tiny and lost in the vastness of what is planned to be built. This is a mega-billion dollar project.

Sunday morning Teh knocked on our boat and presented us with a gift -- a mean-looking small jungle machete. That was a surprise! We sat and visited at the marina cafe for an hour or so. And we were yet again pleased with the opportunity to have a conversation with such an interesting man. Later in the day Bill talked with a company that was doing gel coat repairs on another boat and he arranged for them to repair several tiny gel coat chips on our hull. These were ever-so-tiny chips caused by native wooden boats approaching too rapidly while we were anchored in various places. Unfortunately, their white repair product was not the exact same shade of white as our gel coat. In fact, it wasn't white at all. The idiot used gray gel coat material. Now everywhere we had a tiny inconspicuous nick in the gel coat there is a large circle of gray. Bill is not happy about this, to put it mildly. Needless to say, we did not pay for this botched job.

Wednesday November 11, 2010
We worked 5 hours compounding and buffing the rear quarter of the port side of the hull after Bill sanded away the gray gel coat repair mess from our white hull. Tough job. Using an electric buffer while standing in a dinghy is not easy on either of us. I stood in the dinghy and held onto the toe rail to keep the dinghy close to the boat while Bill used the electric buffer and compounding liquid. So he is pushing the dinghy away from the boat while I am holding it close to the boat. Both of us had aching backs by day's end. The messed-up gel coat repairs on the stern will require a lot of sanding and will have to wait for another day.

Last evening I brought quesadillas to an Australian boat for Happy Hour -- some filled with just sauteed onions seasoned with oregano for those who don't eat spicy foods and some filled with very tame jalapenos that I think barely have any flavor. They thought the jalapenos were hot. I think even my small grandchildren would not consider those jalapenos hot. An Australian cracked me up when she asked if I made my own "burrito bread." Thought the whole world knew about tortillas by now.

Today the marina has arranged for two 200 liter barrels of diesel to be delivered to our boat. Marina staff will hand-pump the diesel into our main fuel tank, and we will top it up with diesel from jerry jugs that we purchased in Bali. It is best to leave the fuel tank full since the boat will be sitting here for months plugged into shore power. And, I must say, it is so nice to be in this marina enjoying air-conditioned comfort on the boat. I'm sure we will get bored but for now it is great sitting in the air-conditioned boat and playing on the computer catching up on friends' blogs. We have been researching on the internet and think we have figured out the bus system and train system, both to Singapore and also to Kuala Lumpur. The local airport is a hub but most of the flights to points of interest in Asia depart out of Kuala Lumpur, and it appears that it is best to take either a bus or train to KL instead of taking a puddle jumper flight to KL

A day in the country

Yesterday we spent a very enjoyable 12 hours with a local Chinese gentlemen, riding around in his car while he checked on his plantations. We met Teh the previous day while at a large shopping mall. He was ahead of us in the cashier line of a supermarket. He looked at our cart and asked in perfect English if we were from the marina. Guess our purchase of a case of beer and a couple of 6-packs of Diet Coke was a dead giveaway. Most beer in this muslim country is sold by the individual can. This led to a conversation and an invitation to accompany him on his excursion today. Teh had already invited another cruising couple to accompany him and there was room in his car to hold 5 people. Sounded like a plan to us. Let's go see the countryside. The other couple is from Australia, Reese and Linda on S/V Windy Spirit. They own a catamaran which they built themselves and this is their first year out cruising. This was our first time to meet Reece and Linda.

Teh is an impressive man. His specialty is economics but he also is a history buff. Bill and I also enjoy history and we spent hours talking about the Tartars, Ottoman Empire, the various dynasties of China, Persian wars, all of Asia with an emphasis on Malaysia and many other topics. His stories of the Tong people fighting in the jungles against the Japanese invaders and occupiers during WWII were particularly interesting. I can't remember when we have spent a more enjoyable day discussing such a wide variety of topics with so intelligent and friendly a man. Teh filled us in on a number of local customs and mind-sets which might help us from performing some unintended faux pas. Teh is from a wealthy Chinese family so thus was afforded a quality education. He has traveled worldwide and has homes in several countries. He is a joy to talk with.

After driving for what seemed like forever we arrived in Sungai Rengit in the Pengerang area of Johor, where we enjoyed a superb lunch at the Jade Garden Seafood Corner. This is the sultan's favorite restaurant. It is not fancy; the decor is simple plastic chairs and basic large round tables and a tile floor. This is typical throughout Malaysia and also in Singapore. People are concerned only with the quality of the food, not the ambience and decor of a restaurant. Oftentimes the best meals are found in less-than-impressive or dumpy establishments. The Jade Garden is one of those.

Our meal was wonderful. The 5 of us shared 5 dishes: fried jumbo prawns coated in rolled oats (absolutely delicious!), steamed fish (to die for!), stir-fried prawns and vegetables (always good), homemade tofu (lightly breaded and fried and served with a sweet sauce and vegetables -- very tasty combination), and ostrich with spring onions and ginger. The ostrich was my least favorite dish, but it was okay and the others liked it more than me. It was a bit heavy and rich for my taste. All the seafood dishes were much better in my opinion. Linda does not eat seafood so she preferred the ostrich. The steamed fish was fabulous. It was very mild and served with a blend of dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and sesame oil with unidentified spices. It was a large freshwater fish called a Kurau. I have no idea what that is. This was quite a feast.

After lunch we drove to Sebana Cove Marina. No real reason, just to see what it is like. Reese and Linda might go there eventually as they plan to go up to Hong Kong. But going to Sebana would mean backtracking for us and we have no desire to go backwards. Sebana is on the northern side of Singapore, which would mean going around Singapore island and up the shipping channels before turning west to reach the river that leads to Sebana. Pretty little marina but not for us.

Then we finally drove through Teh's plantations and he checked on the health of his palm oil trees and Josephine pineapples. On the long drive back to Puteri Teh pointed out a couple of buildings that were built to house swallows for the harvesting of birds nests to be used in birds nest soup. One of these buildings belongs to a man who was not able to get a permit for a commercial birdhouse or birds nest farm house. So he obtained a permit to build a residential house. He built a concrete house, complete with non-functional windows. I don't see how anyone inspecting this "house" even with a cursory drive-by inspection could possibly consider it a human residence. It has little holes all over it for the birds egress and it doesn't look like anything a person would inhabit. But, hey, this is Malaysia. The inspector probably wouldn't care as long as the proper donation was made to his favorite cause.

BTW, the name of our marina is strange to our western tongues. Puteri is pronounced POOT-tree. The "e" is not totally silent, but the voice should skim over it ever so lightly -- as if saying lottery with a very soft southern accent making it only 2 syllables. Bill talked with the marina manager and worked out an agreeable rate for long-term berthing. The marina is complete (and totally filled with boats at the moment), but there is still lots and lots of other construction going on in this development. Basically, they are building an entire new city; and the province or state government offices of Johor have already been relocated to their new buildings nearby. Another phase will be the travel lift and hardstand area near the marina. Another phase is a large shopping mall. Another phase is an indoor family=oriented theme park or amusement park. Plus several types of residential habitations covering quite a large area. All of this is under various stages of construction; the streets and roads and freeways and utilities have already been completed. So there is quite a lot of construction nearby. We are paying for 9 months in this marina at such a bargain price that we won't feel a whit wasteful if we leave months early. This should give us plenty of time to research and do some Asian land travel. Guess we ought to start figuring out where we want to visit and when.

Settled in at Puteri Harbour Marina

The 30 mile trip from 1° 15 Marina in Singapore to Puteri Harbour Marina in Malaysia was easy since it did not involve crossing the shipping lanes again. We circled in the Western Quarantine Immigration Anchorage for about 45 minutes waiting for the officials to come out to our boat so we could legally leave Singapore. Then we stayed well outside on the western side of the shipping lanes as we headed toward the Johor Strait that separates the island of Singapore from mainland Malaysia. We saw literally hundreds of large cargo and LNG and other types ships. There was a favorable 2+ knot current almost the entire way. As we approached the Johor Strait the current became neutral and then was 1 to 1 1/2 knots against us; but this did not last a long distance so it was a non-issue. We turned north into the Johor Strait at the top of the tide and made our way northward up the strait during the descending tide. Current was again a non-issue. That was a relief. Bill had been a bit worried that we would have a strong current against us and that it would take hours to go just a few miles.

However, there was one major difference in reality than what was shown on our 2005 C-map chart and also what was printed in our 2006 sailing guide. The guide and the chart both indicated that we should go beneath the Tuas bridge on the eastern side rather than go beneath the center. The chart indicated an extremely shallow spot right in the center of the bridge and that the height clearance was greatest on the eastern side of the bridge. T'aint so, folks!! That was the old bridge.

Now there is a new Tuas bridge and the center of the strait has been dredged to a depth sufficient for almost any sailboat. There was a sign on the eastern side of the bridge and we slowly made our way towards it until Bill could read it with the binoculars. The clearance where the chart and guide book said to go beneath the bridge is now only 12 meters. The mast clearance is 25 meters at the center of the bridge. The mast height on S/V BeBe is 20 meters. The tides in this area rarely exceed 3 meters, so there should be no problem fitting our boat beneath this bridge at any stage of tide.

There are 2 radio antennas mounted on top of our mast, but there should be sufficient clearance for those also.

This was our first time to take our yacht beneath a bridge. Our friend Pam has sailed on the Chessapeake Bay and has gone down the ICW and is familiar with going beneath bridges in a sailboat. She had warned me that it often looks like your mast is going to hit the bridge. So I was prepared to just ignore that altogether and deal strictly with driving the boat, and let Bill deal with taking a few photos when we went beneath this bridge.

I aligned the boat with the 25-meter sign on the side of the bridge and drove straight beneath that sign while Bill took several photos.









He also took a photo of the sailboat that was following us. We do not know the owners of S/V Brio so we cannot forward this photo to them, but you can see that it sure looked like a close clearance when they went beneath the bridge at an angle rather than straight beneath the 25 meter sign.

After the bridge it was a short motor up the strait to the entrance of Puteri Harbour Marina. There was a lot of dredging work going on at the marina entrance, but getting in was not a problem because they sent a boat out to guide us to our berthing slip. Again, the C-map chart was incorrect. Since that chart was produced there has been a huge amount of development in this area. A Dubai company is sinking many, many millions or billions of dollars into developing this area of Malaysia. Puteri Harbour Marina is part of that development. There are gorgeous new buildings of government offices near the marina, all part of this development. The marina is isolated and quite a distance from the nearest town or city. The marina staff are the nicest people imaginable and go out of their way to accomodate guests. They have several shuttles and cars and provide free transportation to numerous places, including the airport and bus station and shopping malls.

Tuesday evening we went in the marina shuttle to a local Night Market. There have been night markets in Australia and all through Indonesia and are the same here in Malaysia. There are several night markets at various small towns in this part of Malaysia, but the marina only provides transportation to the one on Tuesday evening each week. We walked through all the stalls of produce, cooked foods, clothing, DVDs and CDs, and all kinds of things for sale. We ate dinner there and bought a sim card for the phone so now we have a local phone number.

Wednesday evening there was a party at the marina. Many of the boats participating in the Sail Malaysia Rally are berthed here in Puteri and in Danga Bay Marina. They were supposed to depart on 1 Nov but many still have not yet departed to sail up the western coast of Malaysia. They do not stay together and instead tend to follow their own schedules. Several of those cruisers play musical instruments and they wanted to get together Wednesday night for a jam session. So the marina quickly put together a potluck dinner. They provided the grilled meats, salad, juice drinks, plates, cutlery and napkins. All for free. And they brought in a local band for some real music. The cruisers had their fun playing music but weren't very good. Then the local band played and they were much better than the cruisers. One band member looked like he was a Willie Nelson wannabee. We really liked him.

The predominant religion in Malaysia is Islam. Bill said he likes the local version of Muslim-light. Women have a choice whether or not to wear a hijab. Women drive cars and scooters. We haven't seen any women covered head-to-toe but would guess about half the women do wear hijabs. It seems odd to see a woman in tight jeans driving a motor-scooter and wearing a hijab on her head. They look happy and joke around just like women in the western countries.

Today we took the marina shuttle to a shopping mall. While checking out at the supermarket the man ahead of us asked if we were from the new marina. He introduced himself and offered to take us with him when he drives out to check on his plantation tomorrow. How nice of this total stranger! We plan to take him up on his offer. He explained to us that people of his generation speak English but that the younger generation does not. Malaysia had a strong British influence for many years but after gaining their independence the government stopped requiring citizens to learn the English language and stresses Malaysian in the schools now. They are also trying to stress Mandarin Chinese as being the new international language instead of English, but that program is not very successful at this point in time. I know that Mandarin Chinese is also required today in Australian public primary schools, so maybe there is something to the idea that it will be the new international language. If so, the US schools need to get on this bandwagon ASAP.

Every day there are several F-16s that fly overhead. Seems like they are going round and around Singapore. I am surprised that these fast-flying planes can turn so tightly as to encircle the island of Singapore; it isn't very big. It does seem a might silly for F-16s to be circling Singapore. Cannot imagine what purpose this could possibly serve.

It is raining. And raining. And raining. And then I bet it will rain some more. It has rained every day since we left Indonesia. Not all day most of the time, but it has rained at least part of each day. At least there isn't any lightning with today's rain, as there has been every other day.

But, ah! There it is! I hear the rumbling of thunder in the distance. The lightning should arrive soon. And it isn't even monsoon season yet.

Leaving Singapore, but not going far

Today we met our friends Michael and Linda from S/V B'Sheret at Vivo City for lunch and to say goodbye. They will be staying at Raffles Marina at least another week and are not sure where they are going next, maybe to Puteri Harbour Marina or maybe start working their way up to Langkawi. Rather than go to China Town on this rainy day, we opted to eat lunch in the food court beneath Vivo City shopping mall. The food is just as good as in China Town and is less expensive, plus it is air-conditioned and not out in the rain. I finally had an opportunity to try Bee Hoon, which is a very popular dish locally. It tasted okay but was not what I expected -- too much like a soup filled with thin clear rice noodles.

The four of us walked around talking for a couple of hours. Bill and I did a tiny bit of shopping. Our toaster died yesterday and we have gotten spoiled and wanted a new one. For the first 2 1/2 years we made toast in a skillet until we finally bought a toaster in New Zealand almost a year ago. These cheap appliances certainly don't last long. Then our friends headed off for Raffles Marina and we returned to our nearby marina. I really do like being in this centrally located marina on Sentosa Island once we figured out the buses and subway.

Today the marina handled our clearance out of Singapore. We will leave the dock in the morning, move to the nearby Immigration Quarantine anchorage and submit out clearance paper; then motor the 30 miles to Puteri Harbour Marina on the Malaysia side from the island of Singapore. So we can still take a bus or taxi into Singapore whenever we like since it is just across a bridge.

A couple of days ago Bill spent several hours dealing with Emerites airlines, Continental airlines, hotels in Birmingham, England and in Bangkok. Net result is that we canceled our original flights from Bangkok to Dubai to England to Newark to Houston and will now fly on the same dates from Singapore to Tokyo to Houston. Even after paying all the penalty fees the net result cost us nothing and this will be a much easier itinerary. If only we had known we would stop in the Singapore/Malaysia area for months instead of pressing onward to Phuket or Langkawi. That is what happens when you plan things so far in advance. This is a far better place to be based for the land travel we hope to do in Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. Heck, Bill is even thinking of a short trip into China while we are here, although I doubt that is going to happen.

Next posting will be from Malaysia -- just across the bridge.