Ipoh and finally leaving 12/04 then to Penang 13/04 Lat. 5 degrees 20.4' North Long. 100 degrees 18.9' East

As we hadn't spent any time in Ipoh on our recent trip to the Cameron Highlands, and as our battery regulator still hadn't arrived, we decided to go back to Ipoh for a night in this interesting and historic city.
We hired the same car again and, after a visit to the Aeon Supermarket, we headed inland for an hour until we approached the outskirts. Almost impossible to find one's way around as the tourist map we had was useless and there are very few street name signs. However, after much asking we eventually found our way to the railway station which is Ipoh's colonial jewel in the crown. It's a very grand opulent building in the British colonial style and which can be found in almost any major city of a former British colony. We wanted to experience all this nostalgia at first hand by staying in the Majestic Station Hotel which is contained within the station buiding but unfortunately it was closed for renovations. Hope they're not going to "modernise" it! In the meantime we had met a Scandinavian girl who lives in KL and who was staying nearby. So when we found we couldn't stay at the MSH we rang her to find out how to get to her hotel. We then spoke to the manager and after much Malaysian English managed to organise that they would send a guy on a pushbike to meet us and then guide us to the hotel. This person duly arrived holding a black umbrella because by then there were the usual afternoon thunderstorms about. At least the umbrella was easy to follow in all the traffic!! We eventually found our way to a very funky hotel which appeared to be an old warehouse which had been gutted and refitted with stark modernist architecture. Exposed steel beams and brick work with grey concrete wall board everywhere. However, a comfortable room with a shower like Niagra Falls and a concrete basin you could drown in.
We had seen from the outside some more of Ipoh's colonial buildings but the whole effect wasn't that great - although interesting. Ipoh was built on tin mining and apparently the early Chinese settlors fought amongst themselves to establish their dominance in the industry.
The next morning we were on the road again back to Pangkor. One thing we have noticed in Malaysia everywhere we have been and indeed when we where here 3 years ago too is the number of unfinished or abandoned buildings. There are endless properties with shops below and (presumably) living above. Then there are many new developments either unfinished or only partly occupied while at the same time there are plainly deteriorating properties nearby. Why they don't maintain existing buildings we don't know - maybe it fuels the property development business. They just appear to move from the old poorly maintained buildings to the new ones - so then the old ones just sink into a morass of deterioration. Then there are other buildings just unfinished which appear to have run out of money. Either way there are many of these blots on the landscape and it seems that no-one cares. A good example is the development around the Pangkor marina. There is a very impressive collection of modern buildings but when you get up close they are all empty and the infrastructure is crumbling. There's a Japanese restaurant which never seems to have any customers - one wonders at the freshness or otherwise of their food and just how long they are going to last.
Anyway, we finally received our new Smart Charger and Faizul installed it. Finally we were ready to go on the 12th. and we had a final night out at the Capri restaurant in Lumut with Toni and Peter who are wrestling with replacing their curved windows on their catamaran "Tigger". We had a great night talking about all and sundry as usual and then were ready for the off at high tide. All went well and we motorsailed in the usual fashion to Pulau Talang where we had anchored twice before! This time however, after a somewhat sleepless night due to a thunderstorm at 1 in the morning, we weighed and proceeded at 0700 on the 13th. Heaps of fishing boats usually proceeding across our course which is why we did not leave before daylight. Nets and lack of lights make daytime coastal travel mandatory. Very little wind and what there was on the nose. Frustrating but we had the tide with us for the first 3 hours and then for the next 6 against. However, we managed to maintain an average of 6 knots for the 60 miles which of course made for a long day. We skirted the outside of a huge shoal off the coast (Kra Banks) then altered course around the northern end of the bank towards the strait between Penang and the mainland. The wind increased to over 16 knots around this time (very perverse) and we powered up past Rimau and towards the new bridge from the mainland to Penang (about 9 miles long with a central raised navigation span). This is the 2nd. bridge to Penang which is a smallish island off the coast with a population of approximately 700,000 - about half that of Auckland. If they can construct 2 impressive and very long harbour crossings what is the matter with Auckland with a much touted 2nd harbour crossing? Len and his cohorts must go and so must the ludicrous idea of an "inner city rail loop". A 2nd harbour crossing is definitely a priority. Asia generally puts our country in the shade with their energy and development. However, NZ is almost Asian now and it won't be long before we are fully Asian - we wouldn't give it more than 50 years. We need to bow to the inevitable whether we like it or not. Mind you the current policy of allowing all and sundry to buy property in NZ isn't helping.
We passed under the central bridge span of the new bridge which as usual looked far too low and then anchored between Pulau Jerejak and Pulau Penang (totally knackered) where we still are. Very sheltered and peaceful. We'll probably go ashore tomorrow and then we will go to the Straits Quay Marina in the afternoon when the tide is in our favour - about 15 miles north. This will mean passing under the original Penang Bridge where we drove over in 2010. We'll stay there for 3-4 days before sailing to Langkawi.
It is a matter of extreme satisfaction that we have finally arrived at Penang because it was here that we had the most enjoyable time back in 2010 and although we always intended to sail here, it is with a feeling of quiet achievement that we are now here on the old girl- "Tiare Taporo III". It's been a long haul but we are here. We are looking forward to being at Straits Quay and enjoying afternoon tea at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel which is just like a smaller version of Raffles in Singapore. Maybe we'll meet Somerset Maughan sitting in a dusty corner somewhere!! And in Jim's case he still harbours fantasies of the two female cops he encountered on that earlier visit with their tight uniforms, guns and big motorbikes!! One can always live in hope!!!
Enough from us for now.............
Hope all is well and lots of love,
Jim and Jean
www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com

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