Port Douglas and surrounds

Beautiful faces of Malaysia

In an effort to get to know each other better on the Sail Malaysia rally, we were invited to take part in a team-building exercise which proved to be a heck of a lot of fun despite our initial reservations.  It involved various team tasks which meant working out solutions together to complete them successfully.  The photo on the left shows part of the course but time, and probably age, determined that we'd only do some of the more simplistic challenges.  Free beers were on offer to the winning team and the oldest participant and, if Paul couldn't win it on expertise, he won for age and Paul is never one to pass up on a free beer.  I didn't complain either as, when the hotel manager invited him for his beers (plural), he offered me a glass of wine or two into the bargain.  The organisers couldn't believe his age, they'd never had anyone remotely close to that participating previously.

Me hopelessly trying to steer the rim

The day after our outing to Melaka, we were taken on another tour to the village of Jelebu where we started with a few fun and games followed by a visit to the cultural museum which proved very interesting.  After this, we went to a home stay where a traditional lunch was served with music and dance.

In Port Dickson and Danga Bay, we stayed in a marina, only the third and fourth ones we've ever booked into in all our years of travel.  Most of the time, we simply can't afford this luxury but have to admit that even for us, it's within reason here.  It certainly has it's advantages but on the negative side it means the boat doesn't head into the wind to get the cooling breeze (therefore too damned hot and lots of mozzies) and then there is the lack of privacy with everyone tied up cheek by jowl. On the positive side, we avoid those rather wet and bumpy dinghy rides and having to heft the dinghy up the beaches or over the rocks and coral.  And, this marina has a great swimming pool, showers and is a short easy walk to some incredible restaurants.

Malaysia is fascinating in that it is truly multicultural with about 51% Malay, 24% Chinese, 7% Indian, 11% Indigenous and the rest made up of a myriad of others.  The predominant religion is Muslim (about 65%) but all other religions are evident and fully tolerated.  Their list of religious holidays is quite impressive.  This interesting combination of cultures is very evident in the architecture, the fashions and most significantly, the food.  And wow, but the food is definitely something to write home about.  We thought the food was good in Indonesia but this is spectacular; a real taste sensation and, as long as one eats where the locals dine, incredibly inexpensive.

PHOTO ALBUM:

Roti Canai (flying bread) in the making

Marina (Kailani) trying out the stilts

Music and....

Dance