Calypso's Journal: Kudat

There was Kuching, Miri, Labuan, Kota Kinabalu and then there's Kudat. Well, I take back all that I said about beautifully maintained cities and gardens at least when referring to Kudat. This is like being back in Indonesia. Everything is poor, rundown, dirty, broken, unpainted and generally a right mess but, like everywhere we've been in both Indonesia and Malaysia, the people are a delight.

We've been told that Kudat survives on smuggling all and sundry to and from the Philippines so there's a large military presence around endeavouring to catch said smugglers. There's probably a bit of 'who's policing the police' in this case but I think they're trying.

We anchored in a tiny bay called The Duck Pond where there's an equally tiny marina but, again, very friendly and welcoming. The marina manager didn't even know that the rally was coming but once he did, he pulled out all stops and went all out to provide us with a super evening of snacks and drinks as a welcome. How absolutely wonderful.

Serving fermented rice

The following day, we were taken across to the west side (in fact it was exactly to the bay where we'd had to precariously anchor just a short time before) to a homestay where we were treated to another evening of traditional dancing, music and delicious food. It really was extra special. It never ceases to amaze me at how kind and generous these people can be to a bunch of total strangers who they'll probably never see in their lives again. Everyone was given a traditional beaded necklace then snacks of a sweet rice in banana leaves, fermented purple rice (hmmm not sure about that one) and a scrumptious cake.

Dinner had to be delayed until much later as it's Ramadan at the moment; no food intake until night (us infidels and great unwashed were allowed to snack) so later in the evening, dinner was served with massive plates of grilled fish, chicken, ray, prawns and a selection of vegetables, all delectable. Some of us were then taken to collect mud crabs from nets in the little estuary which was a tad underwhelming but served to add to our education on the lives of the local population. A fabulous day all round.

Myra (Saol Eile) and I spent an entire day on her Sailrite sewing machine trying to repair our shredded spinnaker. It was torn considerably more than we'd initially thought but we managed to fix up the torn luff and leach quite well. I hadn't realised that it had also torn right across the entire sail horizontally about 4 to 5 metres from the top and this is going to require a little more than a lick and a promise. I'm hoping a big patch might do the trick but that will now have to wait for later. Thanks so much for all your hard work, Myra.

And the others

The official opening ceremony

During our time there, the marina had it's official opening so we were invited to the proceedings early one morning whereby the son of a sultan from another province in Peninsula Malaysia was to do the honours. True to form, he was over an hour late, did his thing then got whisked away in a military boat to heaven knows where.

School children on Pulau Banggi

A few of us were then taken on a parks board boat to investigate other anchorages across the bay. Would have been a great outing had it not been for the fact that it was ever so rough and we took a pounding going there and a worse one coming back. Bit hard on the kidneys. We didn't even really find anything suitable either but we did get to visit a couple of small villages along the way.