Danga Bay March 2011

We are back in tune with our life at Danga Bay and surrounds.  Our friendly shopkeepers were glad to see us again and made us feel happy to be back.  The skipper has been very busy with the little fiddly jobs that did not get done before we left Darwin.  Strange that, you just never get around to ALL the jobs.  He has put in extra power points, fixed the main sheet self-tailing winches, put up the security fly screen in the forward cabin, had his head in the bilge and under the generator and places that no air circulates and is feeling very chuffed with himself.  Well done!  Oh there’s just one more job……

In between the jobs we decided to try to expand our Malay vocabulary and came across some children’s flash cards (you know the type you used in primary school) which we thought would give us a good start with local language.  Looking through the cards we discovered, as you would expect, local fruits and vehicles, animals and everyday words that were quite useful.  However, the following cards gave us a giggle………

Neither of us were aware that the Polar Bear was local!!! Pawpaw maybe but Polar Bear?

And we think that the letter ‘Q’ gave them a particularly hard time but they did eventually come up with something………

 

 Phew!  However, maybe this butterfly is local.  

On our next trip to Australia we also fly out of Kuala Lumpur and this time decided it might be nice to take the train from Johor Bahru to KL rather than the very efficient local airline.  Seriously, I’m not being funny the flight from JB to KL we found to be fast and efficient.  But why not have a look at the scenery from the ground this time and as we are going to have a couple of days in KL city prior to our departure we opted for the train.  You need to pre-purchase the train tickets so we decided to have day in the city of Johor Bahru and act a bit like tourists again.  After taking a ticket and a seat at the station we were summoned to the counter and purchased our second-class tickets (fingers crossed) then walked on to the small Chinatown precinct for a lovely lunch of Chinese fried rice and a couple of cans of drink with the locals for the princely sum of RM13 (approx $3.80 for both of us!) and a quick look around.   

Part of Johor Bahru's Chinatown precinct

The other part of Chinatown

We often eat out along the Danga Bay Beach area which is at the end of the Marina precinct.  The meals here are very good value and tasty and the atmosphere is lovely.  We are getting to know the waiters well (or should I say, they are getting to know us well).  One waiter knows when the crew approaches exactly what she is going to order.  “Chicken Satay?” he says, yep, the Chicken Satay is the best!  The skipper is however, way more adventurous with his Chilli tastes and braver with the menu.

A favoured spot - note the outdoor air conditioning (Fans)

The pleasure cruisers lit up at night

Sometimes we join friends at the Marina restaurants and enjoy the entertainment.   Sounds like all we do is eat!  Well, it’s too hot to do much else really.  And so, life goes on in Malaysia until the next trip to Australia…..which is coming up very soon.

The view from our stern in the marina