We are in a new country today….Malaysia. The capital is Kuala Lumpur, and the population is 30.950 million people that speak Bahasa Malaysia. And some English too. It is a country of steamy jungles with wildlife, beaches, small islands, sensational food, and many diverse ethnic cultures. You can find colonial cities as well as tea plantations, and exotic Borneo with world famous orangutans.
Their number one industry is the production of palm oil along with tin mining and rubber products. Seven million people live in the capital and surrounding regions of Kuala Lumpur alone. The food unites many of the cultures with vendors, mobile carts, street stalls and cafes. Hawker stalls are abundant, and favorite dishes are asam or Sarawak laksa, which is thick or thin rice noodles in a fish or curry broth. You add shrimp, chicken, and a shredded omelet, and you have a meal. Hinava is raw fish marinated in lime juice and herbs. Maggi goreng is an instant fried noodle dish and a late- night snack for many.
Kuala Lumpur is a city of temples and mosques of the Hindus, Chinese Buddhists, and Muslims. Tours today included two 8 -hour excursions to Kuala Lumpur ranging from $120 to $140 per person. Shorter tours were 5 hours for $55 to $65 each. The longer tours would include seeing the KL Tower, the 4th tallest communications tower in the world. A visit to the twin 88 story Petronas Towers was also included.
So we arrived to the container port called West Ports in the dark well before sunrise. Port Klang is situated up a river that looked just like Phu My in Vietnam. The temperature was already 78 degrees at 7am. Delays were announced that local officials were coming onboard for a health check. We are just guessing, but we think they were checking the health of the crew and passengers to see if we had large numbers of illness-related problems onboard. Apparently, we passed and the ship was cleared by well after 8am, when some of the tours were supposed to go off. Because of the delays, our all -aboard time was changed from 4:30pm to 5pm.
Kimberly came on the speakers to ask people not to congregate near the gangway. We suspect that no one listened because she had to repeat the request. It poses a safety problem with congested hallways. There was disorderly confusion ashore as well. A line of dozens of folks had begun for the free shuttle to the Cruise Ship Terminal where we usually are docked. The excursion groups were mixed in that line as well. Now to complicate the situation, at 9am, a crew safety drill commenced. Then out of the blue, we heard a terrible noise while working in our room. It was life boat # 8, that had dropped on one side and was swinging sideways, causing a lot of noise. Some of the noise came from the crew under that boat. There were crew guys, then eventually some officers and finally the Captain all trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it. Hope nothing was broken because that's our lifeboat. Eventually it was pulled up, but it took over two hours to do it.
We left the ship after the mad exodus was done. There were plenty of shuttles to take us to the West Ports. The last few times we were here, we were docked at the cruise terminal and had complimentary shuttles to the Aeon Mall in Port Klang. It was about a 20 minute ride from the ship. It was fine for the folks that did not want to take the 90 minute one way drive to and from Kuala Lumpur. Been there, done that. It was a longer bus ride than we expected to reach the Cruise Terminal. We discovered that the Tui Mein Schiff 6 cruise ship was docked there. We wonder if they got the free bus to the mall? The guide on our shuttle mentioned that between the two ships, 80 buses were used to go to Kuala Lumpur. Our main reason for going to the cruise terminal was to get access to the wifi there. The Kindle needed updating, but connecting to Amazon games was not too successful. We did not stay very long, and re-boarded the shuttle back to the ship. It was so darned hot outside, no one wanted to linger far from air-conditioning. Once back at the commercial pier, we did get some good photos of hundreds of cattle egret in the mangrove trees across from the ship. We were back to our cool room by 1pm.
We had our usual lunch in the Lido, finding that many new waiters were working here. Perhaps they have switched jobs and are not new crew. There was supposed to be Block Party # 3, but it did not happen. Actually Block Party # 2 never happened after the Sydney folks boarded. There was no explanation as to why this was skipped again. Once again, we think it is health-related.
We had two jobs to do today. First was turning in copies of our Sri Lankan visas that we had obtained before the cruise in December. Another form arrived asking about independent over lands in India and Africa, urging us to supply the details to the front desk people. We have already filled out the forms and supplied the deviation letter back in January. So we doubled-checked on that one as well. Yes, they had all of the info. Then at 5pm, we had to return our passports to the desk at the elevator lobby, getting the receipts once again. Jobs done.
All aboard was 5pm, and the Captain came on with his talk shortly after that time. He predicted warm days ahead (an understatement if we ever heard one) and smooth seas, little winds, and low sea swells. Once we leave here, he had 18 or 19 miles to go to leave the river and head back into the Malacca Straits. He expected a lot of commercial ship traffic on the way out. We did pass the Cruise Ship Terminal and noticed that the Mein Schiff 6 was still docked there. We have a short distance to reach Langkawi tomorrow at a speed of 17 knots.
Captain Frank gave his Captain's Welcome toast at 7pm in the World Stage. Short and sweet, it lasted all of 15 minutes. That happens to be in the middle of most everyone's dining time.
There was a nice gentle sunset this evening, which ended with us going to dinner by 7:45pm. We had different appetizers of arancini, tasty smoked chicken, soup and salad. Mains were meatballs and spaghetti and pork belly with assorted veggies. Our meals were served hot tonight. A rice pudding with raisins and one scoop of chocolate coffee ice cream finished our meal nicely.
A vocalist named Tiffany Dissette was the entertainer tonight. She sang songs from theater to rock to opera.
Bill & Mary Ann
