Singapore,
being a combination of Country, Island, and City, is a fascinating place. It’s
plusses are multifold, including, but not restricted to, the following;
scrupulously clean, magnificent affordable public transport facilities, Trees
and other plant life blooming everywhere, Commercial building architecture that
must be the envy of the world. But despite having travelled around this
relatively small island a reasonable amount, I cannot remember seeing a
domestic home that was not part of a high rise apartment block. I am not saying
they do not exist at all, but they are definitely few and far between.
Of course
we did the “Bucket List” essential of visiting the famous Rafflles Hotel Long
Bar, and paid a small fortune for an equally famous, or is that infamous “Singapore
Sling” drink, part of the fame, apart from the Hemmingway connection, of
partaking of this frankly disappointing and extremely expensive beverage, is
apparently that whilst in the “Long Bar,” it is possible to discard the empty
shells of the free peanuts offered, on to the floor. This for the foreigner may
seem like small change, but in a land that is cleanliness and litter paranoid
even to the point of not allowing the sale of chewing gum due to it’s litter
risk, this is really something special; the high they get from littering
without the threat of an astronomical fine for doing so, seems to be close to
orgasmic.
As
mentioned in our last letter, we were able to see, at a local sports bar, all 4
of the World Cup quarter finals, and both the semi finals, and of course the
final.. In a maybe futile attempt to avoid my blood pressure once again
reaching record levels, I will not go into detail of my opinion of certain New
Zealand and French speaking Irish referees, but suffice it to say that of the 4
semi finalists 1 of them (Australia) should not have been there, and in the
final another (France) shouldn’t have been there either. In order to avoid a
complete travesty of justice, for once in my life I was on the side of the All
Blacks, something I am sure will never be repeated.
Well, the
world cup final has come and gone, with New Zealand nearly snatching defeat
from the jaws of victory, and France probably playing their best game of the
tournament. One thing to be thankful for is that the refereeing standard was
back to normal acceptable levels. However, the IRB just had to add one more
bazaar twist to the whole debacle, by fining the French team $U.S. 16000-00 for
facing up to the New Zealand Haka war dance, and not cowering like frightened
children. What is the world coming to? Nanny mentality gone mad.
Well we
arrived here in Danga Bay Marina Malaysia, having left Raffles Marina in
Singapore some 2hrs 30 minutes before our arrival. This constituted the
official start of the “Sail Malaysia Rally”, and so far the experience has been
first class .The official welcoming banquet / entertainment evening was
exceptional, with each facet of the evening being of the highest order; i.e.
service, food (all 8 courses) local entertainment, comprising local dancers,
and musicians (live western music all evening) plenty of dancing for those
energetically inclined;
So today
we take our leave of Danga Bay and begin our journey Northward up the West
coast of Malaysia (via the Malacca Straight) We will try and keep our stages
daylight ones on this section, in an attempt to avoid any more incidences akin
to that we experienced in the Singapore Straight, this also has it’s down side,
as we will, (in many cases) have to anchor off shore overnight in relatively
shallow waters. But everything in this lifestyle is a compromise of some sort.
So until
the next time
Taff,
Shirley and Rubbish.
