Puteri Harbour Marina Jahor to Admiral Marina Port Dixon

Gaviota
Wed 23 Nov 2016 07:21
02:28.527N 101:50.715E

We had decided to leave early Wednesday morning 9th November so it was up and away by 8.00am.   Back under the horrendous bridge (not so scary this time!), and out into the crazy shipping lanes once again.  We had enough wind to sail so mainsail and genoa went up and away we went.  It felt very good to be back out on the sea again.  Our first stop was 38 miles away at some lovely little deserted islands called Pisang Islands.  The sea was remarkably clean so first job after anchoring was a swim – lovely.  Quite a remarkable place as we were no more than half a mile from the main shipping lanes but it felt like the middle of nowhere.
 
A very early start next day as we had a long run 66 miles on to the Water Islands off the historic City of Malaca. We managed to sail for about 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon – the motor was on for the rest of the journey.
 
Another early start and onto Admiral Marina at Port Dixon where we arrived early afternoon – more motoring!  Admiral Marina is a marina within a Hotel complex and we had the use of the Hotel pool and gym which was a nice bonus.  Unfortunately it was not close to anything else so off came the bikes and as they had been sitting on the back of the boat getting rustier and rustier they needed rather a lot of TLC to make them rideable (neither of them have working brakes any more but luckily there are not a lot of hills around!)  We cycled the 10 kms into Port Dixon to see what the supermarket had to offer and find out bus times for our planned trip to Kuala Lumpur.   On our way back it started pouring down so we found a bus shelter – soon several locals had joined us and as rain is a normal part of life in Malaysia we started talking to a very friendly Malay Indian gentleman called Jeya who invited us to visit the nearby International School where he was in charge of maintenance.  After our visit he invited us to join him and his daughter for dinner the following Saturday.
 
On Monday, 14th November we headed into Port Dixon again and caught the bus to Kuala Lumpur where I had booked a Hotel for 3 nights to explore the City.  The bus journey was interesting!  We had not been told we had to change buses at a place called Seramban so when we arrived our driver kindly pushed us off his bus and onto the KL bus – bus drivers in Malaysia are treated as demi-Gods,  they decree when a bus leaves and if it arrives where it is supposed to, also where he decides to stop.  Our designated demi-God for the trip to KL was a cool dude who sported a handlebar moustache and beret, he settled himself in his seat with his supply of food and drink and announced that we were to be treated to ‘Hotel California’  Did that mean we could check out any time we wanted but never leave???????  The TV set dropped from the ceiling of the bus and – Oh no it was karaoke!  After joining in with 2 versions of Hotel California – the third was just too much, the music continued with a stream of ghastly one hit wonders from God knows when.
 
Kuala Lumpur has a traffic problem like most major cities and our journey took a lot longer than we had expected but we were not disappointed when we checked into our Hotel and were shown our luxury apartment on the 29th floor complete with floor to ceiling windows , 2 huge flat screen TV’s, fully equipped kitchen, gorgeous bathroom and even a brand new washing machine and tumble drier – all this combined with a view overlooking the 2 most iconic buildings in KL, the KL Tower and Petronis twin towers, wow they looked good in the day but at night it was stunning watching the KL tower light show from the luxury of our suite.  Hotels in Malaysia are cheap and 5 star luxury comes at the price of an average B+B in UK.  The Hotel also had 2 swimming pools, one a 50 metre one and a very well equipped gym.  Breakfast was served on the 48th floor with it’s amazing views of the City and it was excellent.
 
Our 3 nights in KL turned into 4 – it was hard to leave!  We explored the City, did lots of shopping, spent a day on the hop on hop off tourist bus and visited the butterfly gardens in the beautiful Botanic Gardens.  We ate every night in the famous food street in Bukit Bintang where you could sample Chinese, Thai and Malay food very cheaply.  I went to the top of the Petronis twin towers which was awesome, although it is no longer the tallest building in the world it is still the tallest twin building in the world and an amazing architectural feat.
 
We returned from KL on Friday and spent Saturday preparing the boat to leave on Sunday.  Saturday night our new Malay Indian friend Jeya and his gorgeous daughter Neesha arrived and took us to the nearby town of Lukut for a wonderful Chinese meal, they ordered and we ate.  Afterwards they took us and showed us the beach area at Port Dixon.  The hospitality they showed us was incredible and we look forward to meeting up again and hopefully being able to take them for dinner next time.
 

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