MALAYSIA

For the photo album go to: Borneo through South Africa 

August 7, 2006 (updated 01-31-2016)

With the previous report I left off just before my May 6th departure from Nhatrang, Vietnam to the Malaysian part of Borneo.

I sailed straight for Kudat, on the North Eastern corner of Sabah, where I arrived on early Saturday May 13. I crossed the Spratleys, a large area with shallows and reefs in the South China Sea. At least 4 countries claim territorial rights to it.  The advantage was that it is avoided by fishing boats and commercial traffic. The last two days I caught strong S.W. winds that were being sucked to the depression over the Philippines from, the very early, first typhoon of the season.

This same weather system also spoiled part of the fun of that Saturday evening's outdoor concert near Kudat, at the "Tip of Borneo".

This annual event is timed for a nearly simultaneous sun set and full moon rise. But all we saw was dark clouds and a white capped ocean. The concert was, nevertheless, a real treat.

My impressions of Malaysia are somewhat of an anti-climax after the exciting experience of my Vietnam visit. Compared to former French colonies like Polynesia and Vietnam I find the marks left by the British in Malaysia, PNG and the Solomons are rather unexciting and bland, in the architecture, food and entertainment. Wheat bread and decent coffee are unavailable in those countries. As a small city Kudat has little going for it. The majority of the Malays are Muslims and the large Chinese population is mostly Christian or Buddhist. In the Muslim eating establishments, no alcoholic beverages are served; and many of the Chinese restaurants serve no pork. The main dialect spoken by the Chinese here is Hakkah. Hakkah is spoken in the rural areas close to Canton and Hong Kong. But all the Chinese also learn Mandarin in their state and private schools. Some Malays attend these schools as well, because they usually have a higher standard than the Malay state schools. Hakkah was also the dialect spoken by the Chinese in Tahiti.

The second day that I rode my new Vietnam bicycle to town, it was stolen.

Kudat has one of the best boat haul out facilities in the South West Pacific. The Penuwasa Shipyard, P.O.Box 448, 89058 Kudat, Sabah, Malaysia  phone 60-088-671-326 (or 325 thru 328) fax -614-273. They have a 25- ton travel lift. Rates currently are 1000 Rimini for haul out and in and pressure washing. Daily rate 25 Rm. Or storage on a monthly basis of 600 RM if more than 3 months. The Rimini is worth roughly US. 30 cents.

They have a full-fledged machine shop and welding facilities. And a basic supply of marine hardware, mostly for the commercial trade. This is outside of the typhoon area and quite a few people leave their boat here while making a trip home. I found the service excellent. The one drawback is that it is a very hot place, so close to the equator. They have bathroom and shower facilities. I spent less than $ 400 for 10 days in the yard, after my $ 2500 Cebu haul out rip off. Coming into Puerto Galera in the Philippines, I hit a reef and it turned out that beside damage to the keel I also had a good scratch in the bottom plywood.                            

I also was not happy with the refinish of the clear finished mahogany plywood hull job that I had done in Cebu, in the water at the Cebu Y.C.

So, I did a thorough sanding and epoxy job and managed to find a good substitute for Awlgrip in a two part Linear Polyurethane clear.

The yard is located inside the basin in front of the Kudat Marina and Golf Resort. This is a man made harbor with a great protected anchorage.                           

The entrance is at 06.53.47 N 116.51.78 E.  There is no charge for the anchorage. It is a 2 Rimini bus ride to town.

Across from the Marina Hotel is the Kudat Golf Club where we met the other yachties frequently for an inexpensive excellent dinner or a cold beer. A beautiful setting overlooking the Pine shaded golf course. I was not aware of the good anchorage and first anchored off the city at 6.53 N 116.51 E with good holding ground and protection from that typhoon generated Westerly.

I took a day trip from Kudat to see the Rungus long houses, near Kudat, with a local school teacher, I met at the quay.

Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah and a good size city. Some of you might better remember it as Jesselton, the name prior to the 1963 independence from Britain. I took a weekend trip there and rode a bus to the park entrance of Mount Kinabalu. There are very large attractive mansions in the hills above K.K. but the city itself is not very attractive. Along the attractive bay front there are a number of world class hotels and a good size marina is adjacent to one of the hotels.    One striking building is the city Mosque, on the water front and all surrounded by water.

We had one late afternoon of excitement in Kudat when a water spout rose over the bay. This is quite unusual here. See photo album.

I left Kudat on June 22nd for Sandakan, to the south.

I anchored each night on the way down. The second night at Pulau Tigaba at 6.53 N 117.29 E. The last night at Pulau Laukayan at 6.29.800N 117.55.300 E. A patrol boat came along side and told me that I was in forbidden territory. The "reef guards" told me that this was part of a protected area called "S.I.M.C.A." for Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area. This includes the Billean Islands, Tegaipil Islands, Chambers Reef and Lankayan Island. Their main concern is the protection of the turtles and the coral reefs. Anchoring is Tabu. Turtle Islands is just to the south of it.

I had visited Sandakan in 1963, when I was 24 year old. My boss at the lumber importing company in Santa Barbara, paid for the flight from Saigon, so that I could visit several of our sawn lumber suppliers in Sabah and Sarawak. I had just been discharged from active duty in Saigon, the end of January, 1963.

I found the hotel where I had stayed but was difficult to recognize with all the changes and expansions in these 43 years.

The Sandakan Yach Club was a great place to anchor. 5.50.430 N 118.07.420 E. They charged RM 10 per day for the use of the facilities. It was one of those grand colonial places with an enormous veranda and high ceilings and a swimming pool on the beach side.

It has a few, dry stored runabouts and a relatively active junior sailing program in Optimists, Lasers and Hobies. But the majority of the members are there for the social aspects. It serves excellent food and has a well-stocked bar.

"Fleetwood" was the lone visitor. A visit to the Orang Utang preservation center was very worth while. A commendable effort is made here, mostly from private contributions, to rehabilitate young monkeys that become separated from their mothers and to remove Orang Utangs from people encroached forests to the center and then to larger protected forests.

Clearing out was a bit of a challenge to find the right places. And for the benefit of those sailing to Sandakan, emigration (imigrasie) is at the new port, west of town, in the passenger ferry arrival terminal. And to get your port clearance you need to go to the Harbor Authority in old Sandakan port, next to the fish and general market. The name of the authority is: Ibu Pejabat Laut, Jabatan Laut Sabah.

I departed Sandakan on June 30, direction Sulawesi in Indonesia. I had heard about a side trip into the Kinabatangan River, just south of Sandakan.  I had imagined sailing into a tropical jungle and I had hoped to get a glimpse of the Monyet Blanda (literally Dutch Monkey, so called because of its orange hide) or Proboscis Monkey. They have an unusual long hooked yellow nose. 

But the directions were vague and the river had a number of tributaries that were difficult to distinguish and I never made it into a hardwood forest. All that I saw was a lot of Nipah palm covered river bank. In the mouth of the river there were some settlements, Sea Eagles and Ibis colonies and a few fishing boats dragging for bottom fish. And lots of drifting logs and floating patches of river bank, complete with their Nipah palms. I anchored for the night in a narrow tributary and so far away from civilization it was eerily quiet.

The next and last stop in Sabah was at Pulau (island) Tambisan, anchoring at 5.27 N 119.08.725 E. on the mainland side across from Tambisan Island; right at a fishing village. Next to it was the site of an abandoned sawmill. A Filipino fisherman invited me at his stilt supported house for tea and coconut milk.

The next evening, I stopped at one of the most southernmost Philippine islands of Tawi-Tawi and its adjacent island, Bongao.

Technically I would have needed another visa and entry clearance for the Philippines. But I was not questioned. Tawi Tawi was a small paradise of simplicity, beauty and harmony. It had a beautiful tree lined university campus, a branch of the University of Mindanaho. 

The city on Bongao reminded me much of Surigao on Northern Mindanaho. A very busy port with fishing boats, small commercial vessels and inter-island ferries. I did some re-supplying, including the $1.00 a fifth excellent Tandui rum. In the Muslim country of Malaysia it is hard to find any rum at all. A young man insisted on being my guide. He sat next to me while I got my haircut and, over a cup of coffee, when I asked him for his name, he pulled out his membership card of the NLF National Liberation Front. The ones that are fighting the Filipino army in Zamboanga and ransom the occasional American. He wore a typical Arab head gear and a long kaftan. He sure gave me the creeps.

I have started the Indonesian report above. I will finish it off before I leave Bali in the next ten days. You will see a marked difference in the photo albums. There is just so much more beauty and well-preserved civilization to record here in Indonesia.