Malaysia

We left Singapore on 23rd November and motored out with a strong tide through what is probably the biggest ship ‘parking lot’ in the world! Huge tankers and container carriers are moored awaiting their chance to enter Singapore docks to load or unload. Many people are surprised that we sail round the world in our small boats but if you are unsure what a sailing yacht looks like beside a these freighters, here is Valhalla (just a couple of feet smaller than us) passing a super-tanker at anchor

Our first stop was Port Dickson from where we took a taxi to the ancient city of Malacca (now usually called Melaca) where we found the people trying to make something out of their past which has all but disappeared. A few crumbling remains were being swarmed over by tourists and would be tour guides; all rather sad but the trishaws and their drivers were very colourful

The other thing I found interesting while we were walking around was this huge monitor lizard in the river under the bridge. At least 5ft long

Then we moved on to Port Klang and took the local train up to Kuala Lumpur a city that is as grand as Melaca is dowdy. These Petronias Twin Towers are the flagship buildings, all in stainless steel, but there are countless others to impress.

We just had time to take a taxi out to the Hindu ‘Cave temple’ about ten miles out from the centre, where this enormous Goddess stands guarding the entrance to the cave which we entered by climbing the hundreds of steps behind her, where a huge cave opens up that is now full of temples and icons.

Next stop North was the island of Patong. We took a tour and one of the ‘attractions’ we visited was the Snake Temple. As the sign says, all the snakes are live and visitors are asked not to ‘prod or harm’!  The air in the temple is kept thick with joss sticks as this makes the snakes sleepy and lethargic. (or so we were told)

Since we are on the subject of temples, here are some more; this one is a Hindu temple at the top of the funicular railway that climbs the mountain behind Patong City. The intricacy of the plaster work depicting the Gods and the stories about them are amazing to see...

...But the Buddhist temples with their decorations, finials, ornamentation and all their gold relief work are in a different class altogether.

And inside the Buddha is always a work of art. My picture lacks anything to judge scale but this one’s hand was about the same size as me

The grounds of the temple are ‘guarded’ by other creatures which have significance to the worshippers (unfortunately all the interpretation was in Chinese characters so I can’t tell you what the significance is!)

Then it was on to Langkawi where we also toured the island visiting some caves by boat. We were urged to go quietly so as not to wake the thousands of bats hanging from the roof just above our head. (although these bats must have been so used to visitors and their flash cameras that I think we would have needed dynamite to wake them before sun down.)

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