The Long Haul (out) Continued

We returned to work on Anima (after spending a full-on week travelling with relatives through Malaysia overland) refreshed and full of renewed enthusiasm - we will get this done! Rene arrived before me as I had a job interview in Singapore. While he worked in the hot sun sanding the decks, I caught up with friends and made new ones. My interview went well - the strangest part for me was having to perform it barefoot! The preschool doesn't allow anyone to wear their outside shoes inside!

***After a month of trying to get an answer from the school's HR department regarding my payment package, I sent an email with an ultimatum: let me know your answer by Friday or I'll have to look elsewhere. The answer came back within a few hours. The job is on hold. I would have loved to have tried out being a preschool teacher, especially because the class size was only 8 children (very different to the 6 x 25-30 per day that I had in Australia).
I'm disappointed that I was led to believe the job was mine for so long. I could have saved money and not flown to Singapore for the interview. Now we are back to square one - sort of - trying to figure out our next move. More on that later.

I took the overnight bus from Singapore to Lumut and despite being woken countless times with lights on, random stops and too-cold aircon, I arrived in one piece. I set straight to work with Rene on the boat for a few days. We hit a new milestone when instead of painting Jotamastic 87 over bare steel, we moved on to the second coat - Penguard. This 2 part paint is toxic stuff. I felt my eyelashes curling from the fumes and after a few attempts at helping, Rene decided that it was too dangerous for me. He insisted on doing it all himself to save me from damaging my ovaries with the toxicity!! 

Rene painting and painting and painting

My job became chief taper. I've used up over a dozen rolls of masking tape so far, taping off the edges of paint areas, taping over things that don't require paint, re-taping these things after it rains and the tape glue disintegrates. Rene has been working like a demon, often until 8pm to try and get Anima painted so we can move on. 

So much taping!

We worked full-time for a week on Anima and progressed from sanding / painting over bare steel with Jotamastic 87, to painting the second coat of Penguard - and, in some areas, the final coat of Hardtop A.S.

Rene goes a little troppo.. paint fumes?

Rene:
Dealing with the rust spots has been a little bit like shaking dandruff from the hair - no matter how hard you try, there's always a few more. For the major spots, ie at least 2 cm x 1cm and deep, we used a technique handed down by my dad - a kind of 'band-aid' of tissue, soaked in pool acid (HCl or Hydrocloric Acid) with plastic to keep the fumes from evaporating, and tape on the edges to hold it in place. Left overnight, this will eat away at the rust significantly, cleaning out the small pores that are so hard to get at.

A cheeky rust spot

Rene inspects his rust-removal acid technique

The work continues! So much still to do but we're getting excited about sailing to Thailand next to enjoy Anima for a little before getting serious with work / life etc.

Anima waiting to return to the water

Whirlwind Malaysia Adventure

Kuala Lumpur

Our friendly hardstand neighbours, Des and Marilyn from Tasha D.M again offered to drive us into Lumut to catch our bus. Travelling with Sri Maju bus, the trip to Kuala Lumpur was smooth. Rene continued to work on learning Linear Algebra while I took the opportunity to sleep and look out the window at Malaysia. It's a beautiful country - if you shut your eyes while driving past the thousands of acres of Palm Oil plantations.

As our bus inched along in a traffic jam, I started getting a feel for KL – the capital of Malaysia. What I noticed was different to the smaller towns we’ve visited was the higher number of homeless men sleeping, sprawled out over benches throughout the city. I also noticed a lot more rubbish and LOTS more people. We arrived at a bus station somewhere and bumbled our way along trying to navigate the complicated train, LRT and Monorail lines. They don’t all match up and the tickets are not always transferable. I leveled up with my navigation skills and found the way to our hostel, the Matahari Lodge, near Pasar Seni station. We only got lost once. The hostel was welcoming and had a great little balcony lined with bamboo plants. Ben and Chihiro soon arrived along with one of Chihiro’s old school friends, Akame. She lives in KL and took us out to an up-market restaurant and performance venue. We were the first to arrive and dug into the wide selection of local and western foods available in buffet style. Rene and I gorged ourselves on lasagna – a deliciousness of cheesy wonder we’ve not been able to eat for over a year!!

Indian-Malay Dancing

Indigenous Malay performance

The performances were professional and well costumed, the MC was a very flamboyant gay man with an interesting way of pronouncing some English words. ‘Selamat Datang, Welcome, ladies and gentmen’. Both Rene and Ben thought he said ‘men’s testicles’ but Rene asked and he actually said ‘men tease the girls’. I had fun taking photos with my new camera, enjoying the 14x zoom and rapid shutter speed. The performances displayed dances and costume from each district and cultural group. I loved the Indian dances and the Dayaks who wore feathered head pieces and fur, reminiscent of Native Americans. One of these performers demonstrated shooting a blow dart to pop balloons. The MC asked for a volunteer to have a go at shooting with the blow dart and I looked over to Rene who was already on his way up on stage. He never lets an opportunity to perform pass by! Ben, Rene and Chihiro all ended up on stage with some other volunteers to learn some dances and try out a bamboo jumping technique.

Ben, Chihiro and Rene learn some traditional dance moves on stage.

Full of food and with the song ‘Malaysia, the heart of Asia’ in our heads, we walked out towards the Petronas Twin Towers – formerly the tallest buildings in the Southern Hemisphere (Taiwan has now taken the lead). These towers are pretty spectacular – I ended up with a sore neck from staring up so much. Inside them is big-name brands and we looked around a little before heading back home using the LRT system which is a monorail over the city!

Kuala Lumpur - Us posing in front of the Petronas Towers

All too soon it was time to wake up and take another train, this time to Batu Caves. These caves are special for Hindus, so are decorated with colourful statues of various gods and their mythology. The most spectacular being a giant aqua monkey opening its heart to reveal Sita and Rama inside – and an even larger golden Buddha, nearly as tall as the mountain. We walked up, behind this golden wonder, scaling the steep stairs to reach a large limestone cave above. The air was deliciously cool – a welcome reprieve from the oppressive heat and humidity of KL. More statues decorated nooks and crannies of the cave, devotees were blessed by Swami’s – some having their heads painted gold beforehand. Monkeys ran about fighting over food and water dripped into people’s eyes as they looked up to see the cave ceiling. Pretty magical.

Batu cave floor

Batu Cave - outside

Can you spot Rama and Sita inside his heart?

Batu Cave - inside

Back on the ground again, we introduced Ben and Chihiro to fresh Coconut juice and Roti Canai before heading back to our wonderfully located hostel for a nap!

The afternoon saw us braving the sweat-inducing heat to explore Chinatown. Chihiro wanted to visit a particular restaurant advertised in a tourism magazine and Ben tried his hardest to find it. This usually easy task (in Australia) is incredibly difficult in the ever-evolving KL – a city with only the occasional street sign and maps that become outdated within months of being published! He persisted nonetheless and we stumbled upon some cool sights.

Beautiful floating incense coils discovered in a random Chinese temple - KL

KL is crazy - Cars, taxis, busses motorbikes and pedestrians all swarm along in a chaotic rush. In order to cross the road one must make a desperate dash. Getting off the train means pressing against all of the people rushing in while taking care to avoid the large gap down to the tracks below. We saw an accident outside of the restaurant where a motorbike was struck by a car. There was no blood but he was very shaken (I reckon in shock) and the car driver was irate!

KL accident - the roads here are dangerous!!

 The rest of the week we spent travelling with Ben and Chihiro passed in a blur of go gogogogogoogogogo! We visited KL, Malacca and Penang all in 6 days. We visited so many temples and historic sights. We ate sooo much delicious food. We walked a lot and I took over 1000 photos. Rather than explain our journey, I've decided to simply tell it through photos (with captioning). For my Facebook friends, some of these images are repeats to the album 'Whirlwind Malaysia Adventure' but I've tried to include different ones too. Enjoy!

Cool temple scultpure

Buddha salutes the sun!

Something about this photo is awe-inspiring

Beautiful. Simple.

New Year's resolution - donate to friendly street-beggars who are selling something

Brothers having their feet cleaned by fish.

I much preferred reflexology foot massage to fish eating!

The small balcony towards the top, middle of this image is the Matahari Lodge where we stayed in KL. Busy busy!

Guesthouse in Malacca

The oldest stool in the oldest Chinese temple in Malacca

Ben was always captain navigator!

Cool architecture in the old Portugese district, Melacca

Sunset over the Malacca Straits viewed from the old fort

Chihiro loves cute cafes and coffee

Sailbirds find a birdy boat!

Asleep on the job - a common sight here.

Eating in Malacca is serious business!

Sunset on the water in Malacca listening to Reggae

After an all-night bus trip to Penang, we arrived early morning in darkness.

Celebrating good times at a Hawkers Market

Rene was obsessed that we go here because of their promise 'where the enjoy never ends'. It wasn't enjoyable though, just a loud, smoky arcade-game level with shopping levels below.

A lucky shot - the clouds looked amazing just as I was passing under this cool dragon-topped entranceway.

Another temple (left) and another cafe (right). I liked the cafe more :)

By freeing this bird, I released one of my worries. Trying out a traditional practice.

It seems the more incense burnt, the better. Check out the furnace of incense to the right!

Serenity at the floating mosque, Penang.

A nice moment at the beach on Penang Island

Where the forest meets the sea = my bliss

Brothers unite after a hard day at the wheel in Penang

Wow - what a week of travel through this crazy country called Malaysia. It was so good to catch up with some relatives and to escape the monotony of boat work. Thanks for visiting Ben and Chihiro!!

Christmas in Langkawi, Malaysia

The prospect of celebrating Christmas in the shipyard sent me to tears every time I contemplated it. Without the available funds to fly home to be with family, we instead opted for the next best thing - to take public transport up to Langkawi Island where Nick and Jan from Yawarra 2 are anchored. The trip up took 9.5 hours in a car, two buses, a taxi and a ferry. Malaysians get one day off for Christmas because it fell on a Sunday so everything was full-on busy. Some buses were full and we ended up waiting for long periods but it all worked out in the end and it was fantastic to meet up with family here. We celebrated with sunset drinks onboard Yawarra II in the beautiful Kuah anchorage.

Nick arrives to collect us from the beach in Langkawi

Christmas Eve was fun with Nick and Jan hiring a tiny car (for only 40RM) so they could fill up their diesel jerry's and we could see some of the island. We explored winding roads and popped into places that caught our eye. The Galleria Perdana was incredible. It showcases the gifts, awards and souvenirs received by the fourth Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad from world leaders during his tenure. The gallery/museum is huge and we could have easily spent an entire day there. 

Stunning ceilings in the Galleria Perdana

We also really enjoyed the craft and arts centre where we were lucky enough to observe glass blowers making sculptures and a Batik painter at work. The glass blowers worked together almost as if performing a dance as they moved to and fro from the glowing hot furnace wielding molten glass tipped steel rods. They all wore thongs or sandles which shocked us and upon asking about it, one of them explained that the molten glass just burns right through shoes so it makes no difference! The Batik painter was a soulful guy who said that the (gorgeous) images he painted were all stored in his mind. I envy the dreams he must have.

Amazing local Batik artist shows us his techniques

Freshly made glass swan. He made it look so easy!

About 30 yachties gathered together onboard Sunflower for a Christmas Eve party. Rene and I were definitely the youngest attendants and kept being reminded so by people saying 'oh, don't worry about it, you're so young!'. We are the age of most yachties children and to them, we must seem so young and youthful. To us, we are getting older by the minute and need to start getting serious! 

Christmas Eve party onboard Sunflower (currently for sale)

Christmas day was fun. I upheld the Mitchell tradition of eating croissants filled with fresh mango and smoked chicken while drinking champagne for breakfast. Nick and Jan kindly gave us some Rum, chocolate and a glass rooster (our Chinese birth year symbol). Some other yachties came over for a big Christmas feast (complete with turkey and trimmings) and we all ate and drank far too much (always the sign of a good Christmas!). I only felt homesick a few times - so the strategy of getting away from boatwork to relax with family was a success!

Merry Christmas!! Champers for breakfast :)

Nick, Rene and Jan on Yawarra 2's back deck.

The buses back to Lumut were all fully booked for Boxing Day so we spent an extra day onboard Yawarra relaxing. I learnt how to play Backgammon and Rene learnt how to do Sudoku. A special connection was rekindled when Rene met some yachties who had cruised with his parents many years ago. Ginseng pulled out their guestbook and Rene got to see photos of his younger self (and parents). Looking through the book, we were struck by the difference in the cruising community now. Twenty years ago there were far more young people. Now, there are barely any. We've met about 4 boats during 5 years owned by people under the age of 50. Us sailbirds are definitely a minority!

Rene reminisces about his childhood

Langkawi is a beautiful part of Malaysia and we're so glad that we made the big overland trip to visit relatives for Christmas. We're very grateful to Nick and Jan from Yawarra 2 for being such generous hosts and doing their best to ensure we had a special time. Thanks guys!

A beautiful Boxing Day sunset in Langkawi