Lakes and Leeches

Tandem has taken a slight detour as we have discovered isolated, lovely islands off the NE coast of Malaysia that are much more appealing to us than the rivers of Borneo so we have changed our plans and will spend the next month cruising this coast and doing a lot of snorkeling. We are currently tied up in a marina in Kuala Terengganu, a small city (more like a big town) with a strong Muslim influence. Except for the local Chinese population all the women wear scarves covering their hair and many wear long dresses. The younger girls are sporting tight jeans but always the scarf. Our travels took us to a lovely inland lake, Tasik Kenyir, the largest man-made lake in SE Asia with virtually no one living on it's shores. Tourism in this country consists mostly of Malaysian tourists as the foreign travelers have yet to return after 9/11 so most places are underutilized which means that we had a lovely waterfall all to ourselves and the leeches were rather hungry!

Terengganu is full of shops with lovely fabrics and is the center for making Batik in the traditional manner with wax. Fishing boats travel out of the river every morning and return in the evening with fresh fish and lots of squid. There is a large central market with beautiful produce but there is also a large, modern shopping mall with two supermarkets stocked with everything you could wish for and more. There is a small Chinese section in town but not a noticable Indian population. Boat building is still done in the traditional method, of wood, and with the plans drawn in the dirt or created in the mind of the builder. The results are impressive.

Malaysia produces more than 50% of the world's Palm Oil and rubber has made a big comeback with the price of oil increasing. The govt. has more money than it knows what to do with so they are building to spend money and not necessarily thinking about how to manage the developments. Consequently we are in a marina that is empty most of the year and the hotel portion has yet to see a guest. The restaurant may have 2 patrons on a good night.

Provisioning Tandem

With 3 months of meat, fish, veggies, etc. secured on board we certainly hope that we are headed somewhere soon. Each day I trot off to the local market with my green bags and carry back as much as I can lift and there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel. The meat has been delivered, nicely frozen and vacuum bagged. The dry goods also have arrived but I'm feeling that I should have purchased more although we certainly aren't going to starve. If all goes well we'll be back thru Singapore in 3 months approx. and can go thru the entire process again.

The meat market, The Swiss Butcher, was a marvel with a dazzling selection of meats and also gourmet items from Europe and some great breads. It took 1 1/2 hours on public transport to arrive at their door and I could actually have ordered everything on the internet but wanted to see what I was getting the first time. My local market is not too bad if we go early in the day but the crowds in the late afternoon make shopping almost impossible. It's a small space and if I dig around and can usually find most of what I am looking for although I still don't know what some of the "greens" are as they have Chinese names that are unfamiliar. The fish are very fresh and all shrimp come with heads and tails on. We usually get Tiger Prawns and sizes are huge! Eggs are a little confusing as there seems to be a rating system that I can't figure and where they come from seems to affect the price. Most are brown and instead of a dozen they come in 10's and are never refrigerated. We love the little quail eggs that we eat for snacks, lunch or cocktails dipped in various sauces or salt or sesame seeds.

I'm including a photo of the busses we use, some of the cute shop houses in Little India, and finally, our favorite meal in Little India, the 3-ft. Dosai and a vegetarian platter for the huge price of about $3 US for both. Not much atmosphere but it has a sink to wash your hands since there are no utensils and the food is great.