The beginning of Q2 found us shivering, half freezing
in 9 degrees C. We had just arrived in Fukuoka, Japan (by air, not over sea)
from Langkawi via Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei and - not
surprising with so many stops - our bags with woollies and long sleeves got delayed.
They showed up 24 hrs later as they were delivered to Myoko’s house in
Meinohama, where we were staying. Brrr!
Not all of the Alishan crew suffered. Nori and Wakame,
who would have been much better equipped for this, were warm and comfortable
onboard ALISHAN in Rebak, Langkawi, the island group on the NW coast of
peninsula
Getting our new passports stamped and driver’s license
extended took 2 days and we spent the rest of the week catching up with
friends. It was cherry blossom time and we came prepared to party!
On April 4th it was time to say farewell again to our
‘hometown’. Thank you to everybody, specially the Nishijimas. You opened your
house for us and treated us like family. We had a wonderful time and you all
contributed to our motivation to head back to
There was Papa-rin with grand-daughters growing taller and taller.
A ladies’ night out with Nobuko ended in an okama bar. The he/she-s were already in their late fifties – and a lot of fun!
We met Hana, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Shinkai and Marina Athletes Club’s youngest member. Hajimemashite, yoroshiku!
Usagi-san specially opened his restaurant to treat us.
Jaap-chaaan! With the gyogyo ladies (not go-go) at
Myoko’s house.
See the Hina dolls in the background? Kirei!
When we returned to ALISHAN we spent a couple of days getting ready to move on. Updating Q1, varnishing the toe-rail, patching up the dinghy cover. Just little things, so easy in Rebak’s yacht harbor.
Nori and Wakame watching the harbor activities from their favorite possies.
Me-chan getting her yearly shot from dr. Tim at the Bonton Animal Clinic.
Hair-cutting session on B-dock, starring Moe of s/y Alchemy.
After Rebak we went around the corner to Telaga for 2 weeks of nature walks, photography and more social gatherings.
Nature
guide Aida of Dev’s Adventure tours, pointing to a very poisonous scorpion that
was out hunting at the spa of the Berjaya Resort.
We recommend Dev’s team for all sorts of outdoor activities, see http://www.langkawi-nature.com/
The
mountains with primary jungle just off
Motoring or motor-sailing around Langkawi. Sadly, there is hardly ever enough wind for a good run under sail only.
The
Bella Vista hotel in Kuah where nobody ever seems to be staying. One of the big
white elephants of this country. It makes a nice picture, though.
We spent a day or 3 in Kuah town, shopping for spare parts and saying goodbye. On April 26 we left Langkawi for good. At least for this year.
Scroll
down for more Langkawi wildlife photos.
The
first day-sail took us to
On the way to
Street scene in India-town
A shoemaker, practicing his trade on the sidewalk.
Tanjong City Marina, a yacht harbor in the middle of
One
of the many temples, this one mostly hidden in an old complex at
Nori
‘socializes’ as well. Here he is challenging the neighbor’s dog to jump on the
pontoon. Wakame usually watches from a distance.
We had our last
walks around
From here southwards we entered unknown territories.
On the way up from Johor a little over a year before, we sailed this trip non-stop,
but this time we wanted to see a bit of the west coast of
We cannot say anything about Port Klang since we didn’t feel like going ashore. But at the next place, Port Dickson we did. Here we stayed in the local yacht harbor for whole a week. There were very few other cruisers and actually not much to do, but Marijke took the chance to travel to Fraser’s Hill and sort out the wildlife over there.
Alishan in Admiralty Marina, Port Dickson.
A little temple in an obtrusive corner just behind the marina.
Inside the temple. Is this Indian? Chinese?
The cats had a chance to stretch their paws again on the jetties, but we had to keep an extra good eye on them. A pair of Sunbirds had built a nest in the middle of the cockpit of s/y Windy Lady, who was moored right across the pontoon from us. The parents flew back and forth all day to feed their 2 little chicks, whose hungry cries could be heard from far. David and Arlene onboard made a great afford not to disturb them, by staying inside most of the day. They mailed that the babies successfully flew out the day after we left.
The nest seemed to be made of bits of rope, that came off an abandoned catamaran in the harbor.
Fraser’s
Hill is a very old hill station at 1200m elevation, about 100 km from
I
checked in at
These birds were hard to miss: the Chestnut-capped Laughing Thrushes (L) and (Greater as well as Lesser) Yellownapes (R).
A (Common) Green Magpie, colorful but not easy to spot.
One of many Barbets: Fire-tufted and a young Mountain Bulbul with (maybe his first self-caught) insect.
Silver-eared Mesia, coming out of the bushes to look for crumbs around the hawker stalls.
I still haven’t got a book on insects, so sorry, no names. These two came out when the rain let up a bit.
And so did this Himalayan Striped Squirrel.
The leaf-monkeys looked different from the ones we saw in Langkawi. The leaves they were eating too. This is the Banded Leaf Monkey.
The rain brought out a lot of bugs and I loved the moths and night flies.
A Spiny Tortoise next to a Bamboo Orchid.
Fraser’s Hill is a great place. I’d like to go back one day, in a better season.
In
Port Dickson we rented a car and drove south to see Malacca for a day. This
small, historical town has lots of reminders of its Dutch heritage. Of course we
walked around the
There
were the Dutch Stadthuys and
It happened to be International Museum Day, so we got free tickets. Nice!
Across the river we found HEEREN HOUSE
Of course we admired some of the old buildings and old crafts (beaded shoemaker, black smith, coffee branderij) in yet another…
…
We
bought Portuguese egg tarts, very popular on ALISHAN since our trip to
Malacca
also became a UNESCO World Heritage site last year, together with
Our
passage through the
The
last part of the Straits went fast. From Port Dickson to the bridge of the 2nd
entrance to
Approaching the 25m high bridge
between West Johor and
Arriving
in Dhanga Bay (DB), part of state capital Johor Bahru, we were in for a pleasant
surprise. There is a new marina, but it is not completely finished yet. At the
time there were no facilities like showers and toilets ashore and no proper
office. But, there was water and electricity on the pontoon and it was all FREE
of Charge! That made us change plans soon. Staying in any marina in
From
this marina we could easily make daytrips by bus into
So we saved up for the big day, the day of PEPPERCRAB.
So what was the surprise? The people. We found a good bunch. A bit like the old days, when there were not many of us and we didn’t have internet and email, no cell phones, no movies nor tv series, not even GPS. We relied on each other for many things and a small group tended to get quite close, like a family. Here was that feeling again.
Long discussions. About food, health, boat jobs and and mostly computers.
It
all surmounted to the real thing when Italian yacht SORA ALICE arrived, which
we knew from 23! years before, when we had just that: A tight social knot with
the people of the very only other yacht around in the wilderness of
Marijke with Antonio of s/y SORA
A few years are showing , but we’re cruising friends for life.
Needless
to say we were not in a hurry to move. Just as well, because we had our radar
fixed at Rico in Singapore, and though it was only the brightness of the screen
that we could not adjust anymore, it took 3 weeks and a lot of Singapore $$$.
We made several trips in town, to get the ever needed oil and filters, canvas and other materials for covers, cheese, yoghurt mix and other gadgets, and a new computer for Marijke.
We fixed (partly successful) the leakage at the mast with a new collar and lots of glad wrap. Made a new bag for reefing lines. Replaced lights for better, brighter and more economical LED ones.
Wakame helping with the electricals.
The
whole
Never mind the road constructions, we hauled the old bicycle ashore to do some exploring and I found a little niche of swampland. Guess my surprise when I discovered lots of big birds! Great Egrets, Grey Herons, Little herons and Milky Storks and even the rare Painted Storks, feeding on little fish caught in a fishing net at low tide.
I went back many mornings and late afternoons, and saw them following the path of a fisherman moving around the bay setting his net, like they were his pets.
The Johor version of Monitor Lizard
Just a big moth (19cm)
In
Musea,
Nature Parks (very nice and clean, without all that rubbish you find in
Jaap
with an old acquaintance (see Q4 2008) and the bar at Sentosa’s Café
We
met up with friends Heiko and Rose with whom we shared
the BIG PEPPERCRAB meal.
See more of
Boat Quay
A mosque in
Bukit/Little
Little
Colorful shops in Little India: materials for sari & bangles .
One of many little temples on the sidewalk outside Chinese shops
Restored buildings near
See a similarity here? It’s Durian, Jaaps favorite fruit and we were eating it almost daily when it was in season.
This building is the train station downtown JB. We
passed it on the way to immigration each time we ventured in and out of
Back “home” in the marina we had our socials at the pontoon.
The best one was Laurence of s/y Ty Armor’s birthday bbq.
We would not recommend Dhanga Bay Marina for its features. The place itself is not pretty, very noisy and traffic is the pits. Buses to and from town are frequent though and the Dhanga Bay waterfront can be entertaining in some way, if you like karaoke, games, rides in carrousels and other sorts of merry-go-rounds, little trains circling the entertainment strip and family sized bicycle-carts, decorated with strings of LED lights, horns and bells. The starting points for these carts was on the dock in front of our jetty and in the evenings there were always kids trying them out. The best solution seemed making lots of noise ourselves.
One
problem was: rats. They had their own all-night parties. On the pontoon and on
the boats. But not on Alishan! Was it Nori and Wakame? I don’t know. We lock
them in at night, so they couldn’t hunt. The cats didn’t seem excited about the
the rats at all. They were much more concerned about the dogs Jake and KC off
Of Durian.
Jaap
with his daily portion. He loved it, but it was a lonesome joy: he could not
get anybody to join him.
We
left DB on June 19 and sailed back to the bridge on the west side of
Not
so. The tides didn’t cooperate at all. I must admit we had not done the
planning properly and had not realized that tides here can run weird. Like 10
hrs against you! When we got to the other side of
A fish
farm between
We slept very well. So well we decided we needed a whole day to recover from DB Marina. Thus we stayed another night. But that following morning we left bright and early. Only to discover that we had a problem. There was no wind so we motored and 2 hours underway Jaap checked the engine. The bowl under the diesel filter was full of sediments! We turned around, dropped the hook at exactly the same spot (Maxsea is so convenient) and cleaned and changed the fuel filter. It was calm here, so it didn’t take long and 2 hours later Alishan was on the move again. By mid-morning we passed our point of return and crossed the shipping lane near Horsburgh Lighthouse.
Horsburgh, aka Pedra Branca
We
made better progress, the tides weren’t that strong anymore, but at the end of
the day, the filter bowl was full of (sorry) shit again! By now a little breeze
had picked up and we could sail, but not more than a few hours. At midnight the
wind dropped, the engine was needed and Jaap went on his knees. The diesel from
the bowl was just as black and dirty as the previous time. This didn’t look
good, but as long as it was calm, the fuel-filter routine was not too much of a
strain. It had to be repeated a couple more times and Jaap got quite fast at it
in the end.
But
then... Clouds started packing, squalls came from everywhere and we sailed
right into heavy thunder and lightning. The wind picked up, rain poured down
and we could only have a little bit of foresail up. Luckily, the direction of
the wind (and waves) was good, so we kept up 5+ knots in the right way, but the
bolts of lightning were very frightening! We disconnected our electronics as
far as possible, stowed computers and GPS in the ovens and hoped for the best.
There was still some traffic of container ships, oil tankers, tugboats etc
around us, hidden by the squalls and almost invisible on the radar screen due
to the heavy rain. We both had to actively keep a look out all night.
This
was no fun. But the good thing was the WIND, so we didn’t need the engine. The
following day the storm subsided and all went back to normal.
Sharing watches, sharing bunks.
After
4 nights we reached the entrance of the river leading to Kuching, the City of
Exciting!
By
now it’s the end of June, the end of this episode. Next time we hope to tell
you more about this place. We are getting ready for the Rainforest Music Festival
in July and after that Alishan intends to sail further north.
Bye!
Remember you can follow us on our Blog at http://syalishan.blogspot.com/
More of Marijke’s wildlife
The Great Hornbill, 1.5m tall.
Even such a giant can get chased by a ‘small’ drongo.
Dark-necked Tailorbird, 12cm
The babies of the dusky leaf monkeys are bright orange.
Sunskink
golden dragonfly
Flying Lemur at Berjaya, Langkawi
Red-wattled Lapwing
Flower of the Cannonball Tree
Two tiny bats under a banana leaf
White-throated Kingfishers
Collared Kingfisher
Baya Weaver on nest
Common Tailorbird
Eyeing a morning snack. Don’t they look yummy?
Big Netter looking for fish
Cargo to and from
Very low freeboard, seas are seldom rough
This tanker is carrying his own tropical
Cargo heading to
Some Floats have legs
What’s this?
Two sister ships lying side-by-side.
Soo many floats for anchor as bizz is very slow this year.
Sportfishing float, Kuching.
FUNNY
What are these shop dolls having such fun about?
With
In case you couldn’t tell.
A sign in
Jaap with his own travel agency.
And Alishan with its own cans.
WILD OATS Guys, WILD OATS!
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