Deutsch
Malaysia/Kuala Pilah Round the world trip 2007
7-20
Over the river and through the woods…Oh no just over the bridge and on to the island we go in search of builders of local sailing and fishing boats. In Kuala Torrengganu yesterday, we had read about these wood craftsmen building boats without plans, just work of mouth passed from father to son. As we criss-crossed the narrow lanes, we came across a ship building yard which looked like it had what we were looking for. We packed Bici out front and went in to poke around. WOW. We found a treasure trove: beautiful wood boats, both sail and fishing, being built. While admiring a dream of a seventy foot with two masts, a voice from above invited us to come aboard and have a look around. The voice turned out to be that of Christoph Swoboda (German) project manager and skipper of the Nago Pelan II. Chris took us on a tour of the Malaysian classic pelangi style sail boat he has been building for the last three years. He told us the story of how the local craftsmen are dying out and their traditional boat building skills will soon be gone. Their construction techniques are unique. They use special barks to seal the cracks between the pegged together planks. Another unusual feature is that the frame work of ribs are added into the hull after the planking has created the form. Chris had a boat built here many years ago and came back to live in Malaysia with the idea of developing a charter boat service. What he found was a dying local industry, so he approached the Malaysian government telling them about the imminent loss of their cultural heritage and convinced them to fund his project, the Rainbow Dragon, to train the local young men in the tradtional boat building skills. Presently, the locals have lost their knowledge of sailing: they build but have no idea of how to rig a boat or why something should be done a particular way. This is to say the least a labor of love by one man to save for future generations the skills and knowledge of building these magnificent sailing vessels. For further information on the project visit the web www.naga-pelongi.de. Next year you can catch a ride on a very special ship.
7-21
It is raining and has been for hours. I can barely hold the pen to write, my hands are so wrinkled and shriveled up from our long time in the water this morning snorkeling. For the past three days we have been marooned on this deserted tropical island off the mainland of Malaysia. Well not exactly deserted. There are fifteen cabin/chalets stacked up the jungle mountainside over-looking the most pristine bay. We are a 30 minute walk from the local fishing village. We are rather isolated but easily accessible by water taxi. The electricity is off from around 9:30 am to 5:30 pm so most of the guests sit along the beach or as today on the covered porch where we receive our meals, reading, playing cards or boards games. It is warm as we sit in our swim suits listening to the patter of the drops hitting the tin roof. I guess that is to be expected during the southwest monsoon season.
The snorkeling here has been outstanding. Water is warm and relatively clear as we swim through forests of coral formations both soft and hard. Huge boulders of gold, dotted with purple lips (clams) and large patches of waving hair with clown fish peeking their heads out. Large bright parrotfish pecking off mouthfuls of coral; schools/clouds of fish of every color imaginable swimming before our masks. It is like swimming in a large aquarium fantasy world. We have spent over eight hours snorkeling here and each experience seems to out do the last. When we finish our two to three hour stints we are spent, cold, tired and ready to eat. At night we come down for dinner at around 7pm, order and our dinner arrives 45 minutes to an hour later. While waiting, we play cards and sip our beer. Lights off by 9:30, we sleep soundly. The only noise is our air conditioner and the rain.
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July 16 Malaysia/Cherating Weltreise 2007
Over the river and through the woods…Oh no just over the bridge and on to the island we go in search of builders of local sailing and fishing boats. In Kuala Torrengganu yesterday, we had read about these wood craftsmen building boats without plans, just work of mouth passed from father to son. As we criss-crossed the narrow lanes, we came across a ship building yard which looked like it had what we were looking for. We packed Bici out front and went in to poke around. WOW. We found a treasure trove: beautiful wood boats, both sail and fishing, being built. While admiring a dream of a seventy foot with two masts, a voice from above invited us to come aboard and have a look around. The voice turned out to be that of Christoph Swoboda (German) project manager and skipper of the Nago Pelan II. Chris took us on a tour of the Malaysian classic pelangi style sail boat he has been building for the last three years. He told us the story of how the local craftsmen are dying out and their traditional boat building skills will soon be gone. Their construction techniques are unique. They use special barks to seal the cracks between the pegged together planks. Another unusual feature is that the frame work of ribs are added into the hull after the planking has created the form. Chris had a boat built here many years ago and came back to live in Malaysia with the idea of developing a charter boat service. What he found was a dying local industry, so he approached the Malaysian government telling them about the imminent loss of their cultural heritage and convinced them to fund his project, the Rainbow Dragon, to train the local young men in the tradtional boat building skills. Presently, the locals have lost their knowledge of sailing: they build but have no idea of how to rig a boat or why something should be done a particular way. This is to say the least a labor of love by one man to save for future generations the skills and knowledge of building these magnificent sailing vessels. For further information on the project visit the web www.naga-pelongi.de. Next year you can catch a ride on a very special ship.
7-21
It is raining and has been for hours. I can barely hold the pen to write, my hands are so wrinkled and shriveled up from our long time in the water this morning snorkeling. For the past three days we have been marooned on this deserted tropical island off the mainland of Malaysia. Well not exactly deserted. There are fifteen cabin/chalets stacked up the jungle mountainside over-looking the most pristine bay. We are a 30 minute walk from the local fishing village. We are rather isolated but easily accessible by water taxi. The electricity is off from around 9:30 am to 5:30 pm so most of the guests sit along the beach or as today on the covered porch where we receive our meals, reading, playing cards or boards games. It is warm as we sit in our swim suits listening to the patter of the drops hitting the tin roof. I guess that is to be expected during the southwest monsoon season.
The snorkeling here has been outstanding. Water is warm and relatively clear as we swim through forests of coral formations both soft and hard. Huge boulders of gold, dotted with purple lips (clams) and large patches of waving hair with clown fish peeking their heads out. Large bright parrotfish pecking off mouthfuls of coral; schools/clouds of fish of every color imaginable swimming before our masks. It is like swimming in a large aquarium fantasy world. We have spent over eight hours snorkeling here and each experience seems to out do the last. When we finish our two to three hour stints we are spent, cold, tired and ready to eat. At night we come down for dinner at around 7pm, order and our dinner arrives 45 minutes to an hour later. While waiting, we play cards and sip our beer. Lights off by 9:30, we sleep soundly. The only noise is our air conditioner and the rain.
