Happy Happy people on the platform and don't Play Play

December 9, 2009
We heard that phrase at least a hundred times yesterday on the subway from the automated voice messages as the doors open and close. "Don't Play Play" means the people waiting on the platform to board should let the exiting passengers get off before they try to enter the subway cars. "Happy Happy people on the platform" means the exiting passengers should not push or shove those people trying to board the subway cars. In other words, act polite when entering or exiting a subway car. Sort of a cute way of saying it. Play Play and Happy Happy are used on signs and videos on various things all over Singapore; so it must be a commonly used local expression.

Yesterday we made another bus trip from Puteri Harbour Marina to Singapore....just for the day. Had a blast! Considered it my birthday present since the previous day was my birthday. (December 7, a day which will live in infamy (but not because it marks my birth). Not sure exactly why we enjoyed the day so much unless maybe it was just a very relaxed day with beautiful weather and we now knew the routine for clearing in and out both countries. And we did our bit for the economy by shopping for hours at Sim Lim Tower and Sim Lim Square and finally finding a few electronics items to buy.

The EPIRB was ready to be picked up...new battery in place and inspected and recertified for another 5 years. Bill had done some prep work on the internet and had mapped out routes from the MRT (subway) station to NOAH Marine Services out in the industrial section of Singapore (not far from Raffles Marina). Thanks to Google maps and the online bus schedules and route maps that Bill had printed, this was surprisingly easy. Singapore has excellent, excellent public transportation. Bet we wouldn't even want to own a car if we lived in Singapore because a car would be more of a hassle that a benefit. This little island country is probably about the geographic size of metropolitan Houston. Houston needs to take mass-transit lessons from Singapore and get with the times.

While at NOAH we learned that they also sell flares and re-certify fire extinguishers, including fixed-system halon. Now, THAT was good news. Can't get halon in the States anymore. Our watertight engine room has a remotely activated fixed halon fire extinguisher system. Since the boat is nearing 7 year of age, it probably is time for the halon system to be checked and serviced. We will bring the boat over to Singapore at some point before heading toward Phuket next autumn and get fire extinguishers serviced and buy new flares since ours will be expired by then. NOAH also will inspect and recertify our inflatable life vests. So glad we found this place.

After NOAH we returned to the subway and went to Little India. Knew exactly where we were going for a change. We shopped 4 floors of Sim Lim Square looking for a new monitor that had all the various types of video imput like our current monitor, but no joy. Next stop was Sim Lim Tower, where we found a "TV" that has every video imput that Bill could want. This looks exactly like our old flat-panel monitor except larger and with the newer widescreen, but they call it a TV. Not a TV for us because we have no TV signal receiver on our boat, nor do we have cable pre-wired. (Nor is there cable TV service available at the marina so that is a dead issue for now.) This "TV" can be used to watch DVDs played on our DVD player or computer or radio. And if we ever get to a place with television signals, we have the option of then buying a receiver or cable. All that said, to me it is just another monitor. Wanted this replacement before our old one failed since watching DVDs is our major source of onboard entertainment, besides reading.

While in Sim Lim Tower we found a money tree.

Always wanted one of these but have no place to put it on the boat.







Saturday, December 12, 2009
We awoke to the sounds of gunfire this morning. But don't be alarmed, it was just the Malaysian Army having drills. The military range is just north of Puteri Harbour Marina. And the Singapore live ammunition range is just across Johor Strait. The marina staff were joking that maybe the Singapore army and the Malay army were practicing against each other. Guess the F16s will be circling Singapore again all afternoon. Singapore is an awfully tiny island country for those F16s to circle and stay out of Malaysian airspace. Malaysia does not like it when the Singaporian F16s violate Malay airspace......tight circles, guys, tight circles.

Received an email this morning confirming that our friends on S/V FREE SPIRIT have sold their boat. Congratulations to them. We hated to see them sell the boat and become landlubbers again, but this is what they wanted for this point in their lives. Paul and Michele and their kids Merric and Seanna will be moving back to the States. Seanna has never known a land home because they moved aboard and started cruising when she was only 8 months old. I am willing to bet they end up back out cruising again sometime in the future. We will miss you!!!

Tomorrow around noon we will take the marina shuttle to the Gelang Datah bus station and begin our long travels home for the holidays.

♫♫ ♫ All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go! ♫♫ ♫

A weekly update

The day after Thanksgiving both of us began to feel sore throats and general aches and pains. Miracle of all miracles.....I was better within 2 days. Usually upper respiratory things turn into infections and I am sick for a couple of months. This time it was Bill who had trouble kicking it. He is finally feeling better but still not 100%.

On November 3 we had left our EPIRB in Singapore for routine maintenance check and battery replacement. We would have preferred to take the EPIRB back to Houston since we will be there a month and have it serviced there, but it has a lithium battery and cannot be transported on a passenger plane. There is a newer model that has a "safe" battery, but ours is an ACR 406 and that model has the "dangerous" lithium battery. The dealership in Singapore did not have a battery in stock for our model and had to order one. They tried to talk us into purchasing the newer model with the safe battery but we were not interested in spending the additional money unnecessarily. After all, why spend $1500 Singapore dollars when we could replace the battery in our perfectly good 4-year-old EPIRB for only $550 SGD. The new battery will be good for another 5 years and technology night change again by then. We were supposed to pick up the EPIRB this week but Bill has not felt well enough to make the trip. We must go to Singapore next week and collect our EPIRB because on Sunday December 13 we will begin our month-long vist home to Texas. Certainly cannot expect the service center to hold onto our EPIRB until mid-January.

Bill needs to go up the mast and remove the wind instrument. He planned to do that today but it is raining yet again. It is always a good idea to remove the anemometer any time a boat is berthed in a marina or in a boatyard for a long period of time. It is also a good idea to remove it periodically for thorough maintenance inspection. Bill noticed during our basically windless passages from Darwin to Singapore that our anemometer sometimes did not turn during very low winds. Once the wind is up to at least 5 knots then it begins to spin. I would probably never have noticed this as I don't spend a lot of time looking at the top of the mast. Bill contacted the B&G service center in the USA and thinks he knows which little part is beginning to fail. That replacement part is waiting for us at our son's home in Houston. Bill needs to disassemble the anemometer to make sure there are no other parts that need replacing.

There are very few people left in this marina and we are getting bored already. There are a lot of boats, but very few people. This is a popular place to leave a boat while traveling home or doing land travel in SE Asia. Earlier this week I planned a trip to Cambodia for us in early in February. Travel on Air Asia is so inexpensive that we have decided to make several round-trips to the various countries rather than flying to one country and continuing onward from there. It makes much more sense for us to do a one or two week round-trip to Cambodia one month; come back to the marina and get bored again; then maybe round-trip to Vietnam the next month; and repeat this process until we have visited all the places we are interested in seeing. That will be much easier than packing and being gone for months. That isn't for us. Might work well for others but we would get homesick and want to return to check on the boat. Doing separate trips will work much better for us, especially since we will be in the area for almost an entire year. Why cram all that travel into just a couple of months when we can leisurely spread it out over many months at no additional expense.

Unfortunately, the Air Asia website is programmed incorrectly at this moment. We cannot purchase tickets online because their website will not process any of our credit cards. We contacted our bank after the card was declined online and learned that the problem is on the Air Asia website. Our bank said the charge is not even being submitted to the bank; it is being declined strictly on the Air Asia website. We have talked with Australians and they have no problems using credit cards on the Air Asia website that are issued by Australian banks; but our credit cards issued by USA banks are not processed. How annoying!! It had taken me over a week to get a hotel reservation for agreeable dates for the trip to Cambodia, and now we couldn't purchase the airline tickets!

But Puteri Harbour Marina saved the day. I asked the front desk if they could take us to Danga Bay so we could personally visit an Air Asia ticket office. The next morning we had a fast boat ride up to Danga Bay. The boat driver walked with us to the Air Asia office, then walked with us to find an ATM, and back to the Air Asia office and waited while we purchased the tickets. All for no fee and he also refused to accept a tip. Cannot say enough compliments for the staff at Puteri Harbour Marina. They really go out of their way to help the cruisers in any way needed. We probably could have taken our dinghy to Danga Bay, but the current in the Johor Strait runs very strong and it is not somewhere we would feel comfortable traveling in an inflatable dinghy. Hopefully Air Asia will correct the programming problem soon so we can book future trips. I am so ready to start planning trips to Vietnam, Thailand, Maccau/Hong Kong and China.

Thanksgiving in Malaysia

November 27, 2009, Friday
One day last week Teh surprised us with the gift of a wok with a lid and steamer tray. We had discussed at lunch one day the fact that I had given Bill's sister my old large wok (which also had a lid and steamer tray) when we moved aboard because it was too large to fit in the boat cabinets. Teh called from the store to confirm the width of our boat locker doors so he wouldn't buy one that was too big. He knows how much both Bill and I enjoy fish steamed the Malaysian way. The wok Teh gave us fits perfectly in a drawer beneath the settee. Now we can prepare this delicious dish at home on the boat. In fact, sometime before we fly home for the holidays next month I will steam the last portions of fish in our freezer. We still have some Spanish mackerel that we caught, and that should steam nicely. When we leave the boat in a marina slip to travel for a few weeks, we always turn off everything except the battery charger. So the freezers/fridges must be empty before we fly home.

Yesterday Teh surprised us with some Malaysian flags and some great fly swatters. Flies are a constant problem here. We had commented at lunch one day that the Malaysian courtesy flag that we had purchased from Bluewater Charts & Books in Florida was not correct. The proper Malaysian flag looks quite similar to the American flag. It has horizontal red and white stripes of the same color as the US flag; and a dark blue rectangle in the upper left corner with a crescent moon and a star-burst sun where the US flag has the 50 stars. Malaysia has (or had, I'm not sure if this is still true) 14 sultanships. The Malaysian flag has 14 stripes, 7 red and 7 white; and the star-burst sun shape has 14 points. Both the 14 stripes and the 14 points represent the original 14 sultan regions of Malaysia. In the USA, our flag has 13 stripes which represent the original 13 colonies. Our flag has a red stripe on top and a red stripe on the bottom. Because the Malaysian flag has an even number of stripes, it has a red stripe on top and a white stripe on bottom. Anyway, after that very long explanation, the very expensive Malaysian courtesy flag we purchased from Bluewater for $74.95 USD was missing the bottom white stripe. It is a very well-made flag; but it is not correct for this country. We needed to buy a correct Malaysian courtesy flag. We contacted Bluewater and they agreed to give us a refund when we ship the incorrect flag back to them. But we were having difficulty finding a replacement flag locally. Teh remembered that conversation and went to the trouble to find us a courtesy flag. In fact, he brought us a streamer of many Malaysian flags. We cut the strip holding the flags together and that left strips of fabric to tie the flags to a halyard. We split this bonanza with S/V B'Sheret. These flags are made of heavy plastic and we have never had a plastic courtesy flag before, but this worked perfectly. And we have several spares if the first flag begins to wear in the wind.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in the USA. As there is only one other American boat in this marina at the current time, we invited them over for Thanksgiving dinner. The supermarket did not have any turkeys so I opted to roast a chicken instead. Probably could have found a duck but I have never tasted duck and have no plans to develop a taste for that bird. Since this is not USDA country, I followed my cookbook (circa 1930) and cleaned it the old-fashioned way by thoroughly coating in baking powder after first washing. Then thoroughly scrubbed off the baking powder and used lots of lemon juice to clean the interior cavity. Rather than do stuffing, I stuffed the chicken with lots of celery and small cut limes and seasonings and trussed it. This seemed to work well as it tasted pretty good.

As I cooked in the hot kitchen, Bill enjoyed a few glasses of wine. I cooked the roasted chicken, my famous cornbread dressing, gravy, green peas, candied yams, and a homemade fresh apple pie. Our guests brought the wine, a delicious cold vegetable salad, fresh fruit salad and cranberry sauce (canned, from Panama). Turned out to be a fairly traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Amazing since many of those ingredients/foods are not available locally. We cruisers do have well-stocked larders.

We enjoyed dinner with Michael and Linda from S/V B'Sheret. Bill and I have a lot to be thankful this year. Both of us still have good health even though we are in our sixties now. Our cruising budget is holding up to our projections and Bill is now collecting Social Security to supplement that budget. Our Amel boat has suffered none of the various maintenance issues faced by all the other cruisers we know. All our family members are healthy and still employed during this time of financial uncertainty. And we look forward to seeing them in just a few weeks. Life is good!

November 28, 2009, Saturday
Both of us awoke today with scratchy throats and feeling rather crappy, though not really sick. We are taking it easy and staying inside our cool boat and drinking lots of vitamin C juices and sipping soups and hot teas while it rains. I was playing jigsaw puzzles on the computer in the forward cabin when we heard and felt a crash. Went running topsides to find a a sailboat crazily trying to get their sails down as they were being blown sideways into our bow and into the bow of the Japanese boat berthed on our starboard side. This boat did not have an engine and the wind was blowing about 15 knots straight into our bow.

Turns out this boat had left the slip directly in front of us on the next dock windward. They had put up both their mainsail and their foresail while still tied in their slip because they have no working engine. The wind caught their boat and blew it back toward our bow as their boat turned sideways in the wind. We yelled at them to get their dinghy running and to use it to move their boat off ours and the Japanese boat. The marina staff came running down and we all used fenders to keep the boats apart. Marina staff quickly came in their large orange inflatable boats and towed the engineless sailboat away from the slips, where the 3 men on the engineless boat again raised their sails and departed the marina. Supposedly this boat is going out just to "assess" something on their boat and will be returning to the marina later today.

The Japanese boat sustained gel coat damage when that boat hit their anchor. Good thing the anchor was tightly tied into position or the Japanese boat would have sustained greater gel coat damage. Our boat sustained 2 scratched places in the brown fiberglass rub rail. We do not want money from the boat that caused the damage, but we do want them to repair these scratches. Hopefully, the scratches will compound out.

Another thing to be thankful for -- the damage could have been much worse than just a couple of small scratches.

Salt Egg Crab -- YUMMMMMMM!!!!

A few days ago our Chinese friend, Teh, invited us to accompany him to a large shopping complex in the big city of Johor Bahru. Michael and Linda on S/V B'Sheret joined us for what turned out to be a very enjoyable day. We weren't much in shopping mode but it was good to see more of the area. Both Teh and Bill needed new leather watch bands for their everyday watches, and each was pleased with their selection. After shopping in the large mall, Teh brought us to the Alam Seafood Restaurant. which is built out over the water on the Johor Strait. The thin tree trunks supporting the large sprawling restaurant building out over the water looked exactly like one would expect to see in this part of the world. This place was well off the beaten path and we would never have found it without the assistance of a local person as there were no signs directing traffic on those narrow country roads. There was another restaurant nearby, also built over the water. There were fish farms with float markers in straight rows all around these 2 restaurants. This was great!!!

Teh explained that these fish farms and restaurants are owned by a segment of Malaysians who refuse to convert to Islam. For that reason, they can receive no assistance from the government. I do not remember the name of this group of Malaysians; but they stick together and live in poverty and manage to eek out a survival form of living, usually along waterways. Owning a restaurant and fish farm is to be considered wealthy among these people.


It is so nice to go to these restaurants with someone who speaks the local language. We would never have been able to order so well in English. We selected the fish we wanted steamed and which size prawns we wanted from the live tanks. Teh discussed various methods of preparations with the restaurant manager, as well as what additional dishes we might enjoy. Three of us prefer spicy food so we added an extra dish of spicy calamari which turned out excellent. This soon turned into a feast. Linda was impressed with the flowers made out of food and dyed with food color that decorated our serving plates.

We were afraid that we had ordered too many dishes. Normally a group of 5 would order 5 dishes which are served the typical Asian communal style and shared by all at the table. We sort of got carried away and ordered:
1) steamed fish
2) prawns fried with rolled oat coating and also fried with normal crispy coating
3) spicy calamari
4) broccoli with oyster mushrooms
5) mangrove crab prepared typical Malaysian method in a tomato-type sauce, not spicy
6) mangrove crab prepared salt egg method
Plus we each had the normal individual bowl of steamed white rice

Thank goodness the fish we had chosen was on the smallish side, otherwise I would have filled up on that. Bill and I have discovered that we really like the steamed fish. It is steamed with the skin attached; sprinkled lightly with grated ginger and chopped coriander (cilantro) and maybe slivers of spring green onions; with a very thin sauce made of dark Chinese soy sauce, regular soy sauce and sesame oil. The sauce is poured onto a large deep platter and the steamed fish is placed on top, then sprinkled with small amount of additional thinly sliced spring onions and chopped cilantro. This is amazingly good! And very low-calorie and healthy as long as you don't need to watch your sodium intake. Regardless of the size of the fish, it never takes more than 20 minutes to steam a fish in the Asian manner in a wok. Obviously, certain fish are better than others. Strong tasting fish would not taste or smell good prepared in this manner. But it is an excellent way to prepare any mild flavored fish.

The Malaysian tomato-type sauce preparation method of the mangrove crab was okay, but extremely messy. The video at the bottom of this posting illustrates how messy it can be. Bill and I are accustomed to eating blue crabs and know how to pick them clean. I wasn't about to deal with picking a crab that was submerged in this messy sauce, and Michael and Linda did not know how to pick crabs. They are from Wisconsin/Chicago and did not have the advantage of growing up on the Texas Gulf Coast. So Bill got the job of picking the crab meat out for everyone at the table except Teh. Teh ate the crab in the Malaysian fashion, which is to just suck the meat out and break the crab shell with your teeth a little at a time. Teh calls this munching food.

The best dish of this meal was the salt egg crab. Absolutely fantastic! The mangrove crab is very large so there are large chunks of mild white crab meat. This method of preparation uses duck eggs mixed with salt. The crab is cleaned and broken into pieces, then dipped into the salted duck eggs, then quickly deep fried. The salted duck egg batter with the sweet white crab meat makes each bite pure heaven. It is now a tie which is my favorite Malaysian food -- either the steamed fish or the salt egg crab.

Every restaurant we have been into, including KFC and A&W and Pizza Hut, has had a sink for washing your hands -- right inside the restaurant. It is customary to wash your hands before eating and then again after the meal -- right inside the restaurant in front of all the other diners. This restaurant was no different; and we were glad to have that sink after eating crabs with our fingers.


There is a local custom at restaurants that tourists should learn about before traveling to this area. Very often a restaurant will serve a small plate or two of peanuts to a group of people. This is added to your bill and normally costs only 3 or 4 ringitt, which is roughly 90 cents to $1.20 USD. Westerners sometimes complain that they did not order the peanuts and don't want to pay when they get the bill, even though they usually eat the peanuts. Or they send the peanuts back because they don't want them, and then make sure the peanuts are deducted from their bill. Either action is a big faux pas. The cost of the peanuts is the tip for the server. One does not tip in restaurants here; it simply is not done. But the owner of the restaurant gives the retail price of the peanuts to server. So if the customer sends the peanuts back or refuses to pay for the peanuts, then the customer is really screwing the waiter for his tip. Of course the local people are too polite to say anything about this gross insult. So file that in the back of your mind in case you ever travel to Malaysia. For this large meal we were served 2 small plates of peanuts, one sweet and one salty. As you can see from the photo, we managed to eat them all.

Later in the week we made a dry run to Singapore for the day. Our flight home next month departs from Changi Airport in Singapore, so we wanted to figure out how to get there from our marina in Malaysia. The marina staff are wonderful about taking us wherever we need to go, which is a great thing since this marina is very isolated and a long distance from any town. Michael and Linda on S/V B'Sheret accompanied us on this day excursion so they also could learn this routine. The marina van dropped us off at the Gelang Patah Interchange (bus station) and we took the CW3 bus over the Tuas Bridge, which is localy known as the Second Link bridge. The main bridge to Singapore is the Causeway at the big city of Johor Bahru and we wanted to avoid that if at all possible because traffic on the Causeway is horrendous. There was virtually no traffic on the Second Link.

We cleared out of Malaysia; re-boarded the bus and crossed the bridge; cleared into Singapore; and re-boarded the same bus. That bus dropped us off at the Jurong East station on the green line of the MRT. Very inexpensive and easy way to get to Singapore, although it took 2 1/2 hours from the time we left the marina. The bus was standing room only, so doing this with any luggage could be a challenge. We took the MRT (subway) to Little India and ate lunch at the Tekkah Market; then walked a few blocks to the Sim Lim Tower and Sim Lim Square, which are large buildings full of electronics stores. Believe me, consumerism is alive and thriving in Singapore! There might be a recession world-wide but people are shopping and buying here.

Bill was in heaven in the Sim Lim Tower. He found numerous items that were on our shopping list for our trip home next month. Good! Less to pack and bring back on the plane! He could have stayed there an entire day. Sim Lim Square is basically a block-sized shopping mall that is at least 4 stories tall and filled with retail computer and electronics stores. You can find anything you might want in that place, but you should go there prepared with the knowledge of what you want and what the price should be. One is expected to bargain for prices at Sim Lim Square. The normal discount should be 15% from the marked price.

We reversed the MRT and bus back across the Second Link bridge and were soon back in the marina. This was a learning trip. I'm sure we will be doing this again.

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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