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.