Australian Trip Easter 2011

The crew is in trouble.  She has been a bit preoccupied with family and has not updated the blog.  Apologies, here it is.  We are now back in Malaysia again after yet another trip to Australia - here is an update I wrote in Australia but did not get to post while there.    

The marina is now preparing itself for the next influx of boats from this year’s Indonesian rally and also several returning from the north not willing to take the chance on crossing into the Red Sea after the devastating reports of piracy.   Such a shame we cannot pursue our dreams due to the callousness of such mindless killings in the quest for money.  Our hearts go out to the families of those that did not make it.  On the bright side however, we are hoping to see some friends of ours who will join the rally from Darwin and then join us in Malaysia later this year. 

Quite a comfortable carriage

Prior to our departure this time we decided to spend a few days in Kuala Lumpur and instead of a local flight we booked a couple of train seats on the ‘express’ from Johor Bahru to KL Sentral.    The flight usually takes 40 minutes, the bus we are told takes 3 to 4 hours and the express train takes 6 hours.  Huh?  Oh well, it was a comfortable trip with TV entertainment to keep us occupied and we only had to reverse once to pull into a siding to let another train pass from the opposite direction.  

Kuala Lumpur is fabulous!  Fabulous shopping, fabulous food, fabulous tourism.  Our hotel was on a small street in Chinatown and was constantly abuzz with traffic and stalls and restaurants touting for business.  We would definitely like to go back for another visit.  The hotel “Swiss Inn” in Jalan Sultan (Sultan Street) was clean and comfortable and included a buffet breakfast – the cost A$35 per couple/night.  There are plenty of hotels and while we were there we enquired at a couple of other hotels close by to find that if you don’t book online and simply walk in off the street the rates are cheaper again.  There is no danger of not finding a room as the city has countless hotels.

Jalan Sultan

View from the front of the light rail

While in the city we took the light rail (a driverless double carriage), which is very handy to Chinatown, back into Sentral station and then caught a train out to the Batu Caves.  The Batu Caves are a limestone hill which has a series of caverns and cave temples, located about 13 kms north of Kuala Lumpur. It takes its name from the Sungai Batu or Batu River, which flows past the hill and is also the name of the nearby village.  The cave is one of the most popular  Hindu shrines outside India dedicated to Lord Murugan and is the focal point of the Hindu festival of Thiapusam in Malaysia. That’s your history lesson for this blog..  There are around 300 steps up into the caves and they are littered with small monkeys hoping for a feed.  

Statue of Hanuman 15 mtrs tall

World's tallest statue of Hindu Deity Murugan - 42.7 mt

A steep climb - but we did it

An elaborate temple within the cavern

The crew is small against the stalactites

A must-see while in Malaysia are the awe-inspiring Petronas twin towers.  Made of stainless steel and glass they are truly overwhelming when standing at the bottom looking up.  The mall inside consists of ‘name-brand’ shops and a food mall which overlooks the lovely parklands.  We decided to walk through the parklands just as a monster thunder storm loomed over the towers and one enormous thunder clap had everyone looking upwards (at the towers) hoping to find they were still intact before strolling on.  Phew! 

I have to tell you my fantastic husband (aka the Skipper) is cooking up a delicious lamb roast and I am so distracted by the aroma at this moment I may have to leave this a come back later.

I’m back.  Great meal, thanks skipper and Happy Birthday sister-in-law. 

Anyway, we also visited the old KL Sentral railway station – well worth a look and then wandered on through the beautiful parklands.  The crew decided she wanted to visit the dwarf deer enclosure in the park but on arriving we found it to be closed.  We checked and double checked the day and time and yes, it was supposed to be open but it wasn’t.  What do you do?  So we sauntered around the Orchid garden then back to the city to prepare for our flight to Australia.

Impressive Petronas towers

The lovely 'old' Kuala Lumpur station

Scenes around the Orchid Gardens in the City's main Parklands.

Another impressive building in the city

Unfortunately, we had an overnight flight with a couple of babies on board and we did not get a good sleep.  But Tullamarine airport greeted us with the usual trip to the Duty Free shop and then something a little out of the ordinary, a TV channel were filming “Border Patrol” and notices greeted us advising that if we did not want to be filmed then we should seek out the film crew and inform them.  But where are the crew and who can be bothered?  The skipper had a small hiccup with the electronic scanning recognition of his passport but all was smoothed over quickly until the crew lost her passport scan ticket and had to join yet another line.  By the time we made it to the front of the line the crew had located the lost ticket and we were able to avoid all the checks and leave without a hitch.  Why are you scowling darling?  I found the ticket didn’t I?  

Our wonderful children and family re-arrange their houses yet again to accommodate the wayward sailors and we have a lovely time seeing everyone.   The girls arrange a Royal Wedding night of course while the boys opt to watch the soccer. 

Our 'Royal Wedding' dinner

We have a few special occasions to celebrate this trip – 1. The crew becomes a British Citizen, 2. Skipper’s eldest daughter graduates university with a Master’s Degree, 3. The skipper’s parents celebrate their 60^th Wedding Anniversary (WOW) and 4. Grandson plays competitive basketball.  What a hoot!

The crew’s decision to become a dual citizen is prompted by the fact that we have another flight booked this year to the UK and Europe and travelling together on British passports should make for a smoother passage. (The skipper is a ‘Pom’ you see).   So our trip is filled with must-dos and want-to-dos and time just flies and all too soon we have to say farewell and fly back to the boat.  

The new Graduate and proud husband

Out for the count on a comfy lap

Here brings another story – our departure.  We arrive at the airport early as we have purchased some goods and would like to claim the duty back (we are taking them out of the country).  So, the goods are checked and receipted and we are told after we go through Customs we can claim our refund.  We approach the Jetstar counter to check-in only to be told our flight has just been cancelled (unserviceable aircraft) – alright by us as we do not want to fly in an ‘unserviceable aircraft’.  However, since we are the first to check-in they can put us on a Qantas flight to Brisbane with another Qantas connection to Singapore.  Great that will do nicely but we have paid for extra legroom as the skipper cannot sit in the normal economy seats for 8 hours.  Oh no problem we can refund your money.  Huh?  That’s not the point, his knees touch the seat in front, he cannot sit in the seats.  “Oh, I see” says the nice lady.  Well they’ll see what we can do.  So, they did DO much to their absolute credit.  We had exit seats to Brisbane (with morning tea), managed to claim our duty at Brisbane and yes, they had organised our extra legroom on the connection to Singapore.  All very nice thanks.  So here’s what we caught to Singapore…!!

With two meals (instead of the Jetstar ‘sale’ seats with only one meal), free alcohol, free snacks, free movies and an exit row all to ourselves with comfy cushions and a blanket.  I want to fly Qantas AGAIN PLEASE.

We had a little wait for our bus to Malaysia from Singapore airport – half an hour actually and as he was running late, the driver tried ever so hard to make up the time on the road.  Aarrgghh!  Eyes closed again.  But with a minimum of fuss we arrived at our lovely boat before midnight.   More photos below...  

I have also just posted an earlier update which you may not have read.  Click here

There's a good idea

We donated to the monks, so they give us a small token of appreciation - a wristband and a prayer

Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur

The budding basketballers - that ring is just too high!

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