Trip to Malaysia

As I was in Philippines for a short time I decided to go visit my Malaysian friends in Lumut area. The trip started a bit roughly with us spending a day in Singapore and in evening taking the overnight bus to Sitiawan. It was not bad but the AC in the bus was freezing and I hadn't packed any long-sleeved clothes so ended up huddling all night whilst dog-napping. Whilst in Lumut we got taken around all the nice restaurants serving different Chinese cuisine as well other ethnic groups. Always nice to visit Malaysia for food. Below are some pictures from the few days spent there.

911 MB, not Porsche ;)

Project s/y Fanny Malaysia to Maldives

Having arrived Lumut safely Owner and us had some errands to tend to in Kuala Lumpur so we got a car loaned and drove up there. Turned out my errand was not needed so I got a few days off and a visit to KL. Impressive city but impossible to find a taxi unless you were booking via a dedicated app, so we rather ate from eateries close by the airbnb than taking tax to some other venue. We actually found a very nice Mexican restaurant. After 3 nights we headed back to Lumut and left Owner to tend to his own business. 

KL skyline

Project s/y Fanny - Thailand to Malaysia

 After having done the rounds in Phuket I one evening met a Malaysian chap that had been refurbishing a 10yr old second hand 45' Lagoon catamaran for the purpose of world wide traveling. 

P fwd guest cabin

Project s/y Fanny in Thailand

​In January​​ having arrived with Boadicea to Thailand I was ashore one evening having a few refreshments and was standing on the street near the marina at a local watering hole. 

It literally was a hole in the wall,  a small bar where the waitress handed out drinks and customers stood on the street. 

The extended stern

Diving Sembilan

Woke up next morning at 6am to get to my pickup. Ah Kong picked me up and we went to get some breakfast and duck for lunch. Soon enough we headed for the Lumut yacht club where Steven was now storing his boat. Last time it was at another location but I was told the Owner had gone off his rockers and was charging crazy money nowadays so all his customers had opted for better solutions.

Local fisherman

We went on with filling the boat with water, food and beer. After that followed dive gear, tanks, BCD's and the works. Then fuel and engines were checked. Soon enough all people were gathered and the boat was pulled in the water and off we went. The weather was very pleasant.

Pulau Hitam

By 0830hrs we were in position at Black Rock (Pulau Hitam) and we geared up. Chan handed me a spear gun and wished me luck. We all jumped in and dived Black Rock. The viz was not the best around and I eventually got a small snapper while Chan and Kong brought in 8-10 fish with the biggest being abt 4kg.

The fishermens catch

When moving to the next venue we came across a local fishing boat that was hauling in his net so we stopped and bought some shrimp, mantis shrimp and crabs from them.

Pulau Putih

Next in the program was White Rock (Pulai Putih) and same procedure followed. Unfortnately at 10m I noticed that I had forgotten the loading handle for the spear gun on the diveboat so I had to get up and went down again. In all haste I descended to 30m but came up to 10-15m. This time I did not kill anything as I did not come across anything interesting or I just simply missed.

Elvis cleaning shrimp

After the 2 dives we had enough fish to feed a platoon so we headed over to Pulau Lalang camping area and started unloading utensils and provisions. Soon enough the kettles were boiling and appetizing aromas were wafting through the air. It was time to feed. Fresh seafood as good as it gets. We all let loose on the delicacies and soon enough we were all sitting around contemplating the sumptuous meal.

Ah Kong and Ah Chan doing the tom yam

Tasting session

As other sat down and rested and chatted in Cantonese I took off to walk around the Island. I strolled down the beach looking at all signs of civilzation in the shape of discarded plastic bottles, slippers, tins, plastic bags and whatnot. After awhile the beach ended in a rocky outcrop and I found a path leading inside the Island. I did not need to venture far before the terrain started ascending steeply and I was going on 4-wheel drive in places. The higher I came the denser the brush became and I was crawling under the bush and over where it was suitable.

Pulau Lalang beach and mangroves

More jungle

Another view from the top

After some time I came to the top of the Island but could not see much anything as my view was obscured by the trees around me. I decided I was too old and heavy to start being Tarzan so after catching my breath for awhile I started back down again. Needless to say it was much easier and faster and eventually I lost my cap in all excitement and while hanging onto tree branches as not to go into free fall down the slope.

One of the rainforest trees

It's a jungle

View from top

Once down I was bathing sweat so I just continued straight into the sea for a cooling dip. It was so refreshing. Same time I could see that the guys had started breaking up camp so I ventured back to the camp site and came just in time to leave. On the way back we stopped at a few buoys and tried some fishing but it turned out nothing. Soon enough we made it to the Lumut Yacht club and were towed up on land.

On the way back home

The loot

Towing the boat into the boat shed

Fish had to be cleaned, dive gear rinsed and the boat engines flushed. The boat was flushed with freshwater and cleaned out of garbage. Then the loot was divvied up and everyone headed home for a shower to later meet in a karaoke.

Sunset over Pulau Pangkor

Lumut

Next morning I got up and went hunting for cheaper lodging and soon enough I found a room down the road next to the Chinese temple at DJ Palace. I went down from 98RM to 75RM/ night. I have never been keen on spending on a bed as I only sleep in it (mostly).

Then next mission was to get my Malaysian SIM card working as the one I had bought in Ipoh had not activated for some reason. I waltzed over to the Maxi's offcie and got that issue sorted as well. Then it was time for some lunch and strolling around Lumut. It was a fast stroll as Lumut is still a one horse town and nothing much had changed from the last time.

Michelin Star Chinese Restaurant

In the evening I as picked up Steven and taken to Sitiawan Michelin Chinese Restaurant for dinner. As usual Chinese food is always spectacular and plentiful. I also met the rest of the hooligans, Chan, Kong and their better halves. There was no shouting of Cantonese expletives as on the dive boat. I had been a few times before in the same restaurant and the food is superb. After dinner it was time to retire as we had set the dive for the next morning at the Sembilans.

Those interested in the Michelin Star can click here. (Really delicious looking dish photos on the site).

Going to Malaysia

15th I was on the way to Hat Yai as my Thai visa was expiring and I needed to exit the Kingdom of smiles. I had a rendez-vouz with the hooligans in Lumut. I was dropped off in Hat Yai bus station where I bought a ticket to Ipoh as there were no buses to Lumut so I chose the biggest city close-by. I bid my friends goodbye and boarded the bus that soon enough filled up and we were on our way.

News clipping in bus station of how the city was flooded just a few weeks ago

After a couple of hours we arrived to the Thai-Malay border control and we had to get off the bus for immigration procedures. I guess something went wrong as I lost the bus crowd at some point and walked over to the Malaysian side. There is stood waiting for nearly an hour before the bus came. I was lucky I had not missed the bus as my bag was on it.

Border of Thailand - Malaysia

The journey continued and we stopped for a lunch break at a highway restaurant. I got some Nasi Goreng as it is pretty safe to eat and avoid Delhi belly, somehow people tend to get more sick in Malaysia than Thailand, maybe something to do with different bacteria or standards of hygiene. After lunch we continued, the highways in Malaysia are great, smooth, wide and straight and you can put your pedal to the metal and cruise although max speed is set to 120km/h.

Late afternoon we passed through Penang where we stopped and let off many passsengers as well as new ones embarked. It was late evening abt 7pm and we were getting closer to Ipoh and I told the driver to let me off somewhere it would be easy to get into town. He dropped me off at a highway rest station seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was a toilet and prayer room complex being attended by municipal cleaners and I managed through them to order a taxi as I did not have a Malaysian SIM card yet. It was notable that the young chap who called the cab for me declined a tip I was offering.

The cab came and I told him to take me to down town Ipoh, while driving he was chatting away and weaseld out of me info that I was actually going to Lumut. Well, he made me an offer I could not refuse so we stopped in Ipoh to buy a SIM and continued to Lumut. It was not really that far, we arrived Lumut in abt 45min and I booked into the Waterhill hotel next to Jook's Joint Bistro. After settling in and washng off the dust I went out for a late dinner at Jook's Joint and I could not believe that I met people from 2 years back when I had drydocked Kalizma there. There were still plenty of Finnish expats working on the floating hotel project that by now I suspect was seriously behind schedule.

After a few relaxing beers and a pizza I headed back to my hotel room and retired for the night.

Footnote on the Lumut drydocking

After having voiced my and my offices dissatisfaction of what went down in Lumut I was approached by the Manager, Mr. Nick Coombes, of APS Langkawi to meet on the 16th to sort out some issues at hand.

Fortunately Cmde S.K.Mongia was also visiting Phuket at this time so I could coordinate to have a mutual meeting and saving a lot of emailing afterwards.

We met on the 16th at 10am onboard and went through the events of the DD and came to our grievances that eventualy boiled down to a discount of the final DD invoice.

To cut the story short I have the deepest respect for Nick by assuming responsibility of his bad business decision and granted us a considerable discount on his Company's expense.

The only party coming out of this mess "unscathed" is the main culprit "Grade One Marine Shipyard", they must've been laughing all the way to the bank.

Oh well, I'm sure they will now be missing many Yacht repair contracts as I'm sure APS Langkawi won't be promoting them as the place to haul out in SE Asia.

In case anyone asks me for a reference I'll give one too - a negative one. I have no positive thoughts whatsoever for this "run-by-night" establishment. In fact I have reported their disgusting antics to the Malaysian yacht and Shipyard associations.

Rainbow just off Yacht Haven

Drydocking Lumut

Years ago on m/v Columbus Caravelle where we once spent an annual docking in Guangzhou for 2 humid weeks I thought that was bad. Then in 2003 when I was working on Project m/y Turama I thought I’d seen it all. Last year in Langkawi Wavemaster I thought I had hit rock bottom but I was once again proven wrong this year in Lumut by Grade One Marine Shipyard that set records in shafting the Client.

Lifted up after more than 24hrs of wrangling

As you may have glimpsed in my previous blogs that our drydocking has not gone quite as smoothly as anticipated I am not exaggerating this. It is usual that there are always some squabbles that are then solved by giving a bit and taking a bit after some discussions. Not so with Grade One Marine Shipyard.

Weight dials on the shiplift put us on abt 350mt displacement

Asia Pacific Superyachts of Langkawi had recommended this yard as they had successfully lifted there abt 10 boats. I visited the facility in May and they visited us in Langkawi in order to work out a quote. The facility is new and seemed promising in my eyes. Once I left Langkawi again there was not much movement on the quote despite emails back and forth. It seemed yard only moved for us when John Orr went down to Lumut to chase them.

Furthermore, APS put themselves as a go between as agents and so in effect we were the client of APS and APS the client of the yard. My management expressed their dismay to such an arrangement and warned APS that they are putting themselves in a precarious position in case problems arise. We were told this is the only way yard wants to deal with yachts, via APS Langkawi, so we digressed. APS assured that there will not be any problems and floating will go smoothly. Well, as it happened all went to hell and relationship between vessel and APS Langkawi is discontinued indefinitely.

Yard has following muppets to show: Operations Manager Fuad bin Rasol, slick prick that promises even the moon from the sky in order to get you to his yard. Seems to have poor conception of reality and hence does not know what his labor is doing or perhaps just pretends to be that way. Haji Nasir, senior costing officer, promises that anything can be done in a blink of an eye, next day goes back on his word. Costing stooge Mahat, Nasirs right hand man, hopeless blabber and interrupts anyone who starts to give him facts or question his facts. Project Manager Azlan is as useless as tits on a donkey, unfortunately he was appointed to us. Shiplift supervisor Captain Ahmad, formerly known in Rebak, Langkawi as Mr. 10%, proud person, cannot take advice.

View through our rudder pintles

The only persons that really earned recognition for good work and ability to problem solve was Mr. Saeran and Mr. Teoh, the first is in charge of mechanical issues and did our rudder and props, the latter is underwater hull supervisor from cleaning to painting. Especially Mr. Teoh never vacillated on any job at hand, he just did it.

Project Manager Yin was the only PM that seemed to know what he was doing, he was appointed to do all the other government ships that was being overhauled, when at times PM Azlan lost his only marble the yard sent Yin over for few days and this kept on going during whole yard stay.

As a conclusion of our visit I can say that we have been had totally by APS Langkawi and Grade One Marine Shipyard and I am thoroughly disgusted by their antics. It was not probably the brightest idea to come and do a drydocking in a muslim country during their fasting month but we were assured that it would not affect productivity as they also employ staff from other religions. I initially planned arrival 1^st August but it was changed for budgetary reasons. Seeing that the yards clients mostly consists on government vessels from the marine police, coastguard and navy I assume they just do a shoddy job, charge it triple or quadruple and get paid for it, no adjustments are never asked for as it is a government job and bureaucrats just sign whatever is put in front of them.

Finally on the way to be floated

Needless to say we will never ever visit this yard again, one can only take so much of being overcharged, held for ransom and being blackmailed.

Around Lumut

Having spent over a month in Lumut I have gotten to know the area a bit. Obviously the biggest attraction here is the Pangkor Island resorts and Pangkor Laut where movie stars visit. I did not visit there as I am not that keen on such places, seen one beach, seen ‘em all…

Lumut itself is more like a thoroughfare for tourists on their way to Pangkor although there are numerous hotels and restaurants in the area. The town itself has only one main road that passes in front of the ferry terminal for Pangkor. The road is lined with souvenir shops and stalls, at end of the road or edge of the town is a big Nasi Kandar where you can get a cheap Indian or Malay fare.

This restaurant was often frequented by my crew. Behind this Nasi Kandar (you need to go behind the stalls) is a side road that leads to a restaurant called Rockefelle, it has a nice and fairly cheap menu that caters for foreigners, on Sundays they do a BBQ. Staff is friendly, mixed Thai and Malay.

Towards the other direction from the Nasi Kandar you can see Jook’s Joint Bistro that also sports a foreign menu and a very active Malay staff that tends to your needs. I recommend the chili con carne with nachos that is not featured on the menu. Pizzas here are also very tasty.

Behind Jook’s joint is an Italian restaurant called Capri, although the food is excellent (at least the pizzas) it is quite expensive, for this reason I ate there only twice.

North of the International Lumut Marina are 3 restaurants that are managed by an Italian Owner, Massimo, and his Singaporean wife Judy. Only the Italian restaurant is open and staff is from Myanmar. The pizza topping was great but the crust was made of wrong kind of wheat flour and not so tasty compared to Jook’s or Capri.

Front of Lumut International Yacht marina

Coming down south next to Massimo’s is the Marina and after them is Lumut Country Resort where I stayed during the visit. The resort is really basic and a bit run down but the ambience is nice and you get warm shower and aircon as well as a breakfast with the daily paper. Rooms went for 105 RM a night. They also have a swimming pool if you fancy that.

Going further south from the resort is Jook’s Joint Bar, the only place in town where expats go for beers and demi-mondaines. Almost opposite Jook’s is The Green Door.

The Green Door is a Chinese restaurant run by Ah Pau (look for sign that says “Restoran Kepala Kari Ikan”) where you get a delicious fare. Pork is also on the menu, pricing is a bit over the top in my opinion. These are my recollections of any note worthy restaurants in Lumut, I tried a few others too but the food was bad.

Now going out of Lumut towards Sitiawan you will arrive to a crossing with a KFC on your left side (this is the ecenter of Sitiawan), turn right and continue for abt 1km, keep your eyes focused on left side for a restaurant called Bei King (I suppose it means Peking), the food is excellent and reasonably priced.

Near the Grade One yard, at the first light crossing towards Lumut, is a restaurant called Hai Lam Village, we got most of our lunches there, very affordable and good food. Eat inside as outside is a lot of flies coming from neighboring chicken farms.

Furthermore for shopping drive towards Sitiawan or Ipoh and you will many supermarkets where everything is available. For technical stuff you can’t find near Lumut - go to Ipoh (60minutes drive). Same applies for sightseeing more of Perak.

Voyage Phuket - Lumut

We left Phuket on the 22nd Aug in order to be in Lumut a day before haul-up so I could sort out any problems from yard side as well scout out the area where I was going (it is un-charted).

Impressive clouds at Phi Phi Island

The weather was not too bad when we left but became increasingly poor the further south we went. By the time we were passing Langkawi Island it was pouring down cats and dogs and whatnot.

View to Phangnga Bay

John, our agent, who was driving down south called me and told the weather had been equally poor on the highway, only after Penang had the rain let up a bit. At sea we got westerly swell from our sb quarter that was not making the going any easier. As we had plenty of time on our hands I decided to enter from south of the Pangkor Island, the channel is wider there and I had been here in 1998 before so I sort of knew the waters. High seas were still rolling in from the Straits but as soon as we were in shelter of the Pangkor Island it stopped. The mainland side had been developed with tens of highrise buildings compared to 1998 there had been nothing there.

The Navy Colony on mainland opposite Pangkor Laut

Also the channel was better marked than in 1998, there is a 90degrees bend about halfway in the channel. Once cleared we were passing massive naval installations and greeted by the odour of a fertilizer factory that also closely resembled the smell of a brewery. I anchored in front of the Lumut International yacht club that consists of a 2 small piers and a collection of small craft. In front was also anchored a laid up navy vessel, Rahmat, that seemed it had been there a long time.

We launched our tender and took ashore Kalpana who needed medical attention as her wisdom tooth had started acting up. John met us at the pier and I got my clearance papers handed over as well. After this we headed up the channel to scout the “un-charted” area. We passed a flour mill and cargo piers until we reached a fork and took off right, shortly after, we arrived in front of Grade One shipyard. The 75m double pier where the lift was going to happen was flanked by three 60m long offshore vessels. We surveyed the waters in front of the pier and found ample water there except to the immediate west where we discovered only 3-4m of water, it appeared to be a mud flat just at the western pier end. Having done this we headed back to the ship and it was time for me to meet the yard people.

At the yard I met up with the lifting Engineers and we went through the way they wanted to lift up. It was the same as in Langkawi last year, stern first until we were inside of the piers, then stop. It appeared that the shore side was a bit shallow too. Instead of hauling the next day the yard wanted me to arrive same day at 1530hrs. Oh well, said and done, I was happy to get the show on the road. John dropped me off at the marina where I got a refreshing rain shower on the way back to the ship. We hoisted back our tender and anchor and sailed up river.

When we arrived the lifting piers I had a westerly current and wind going on and I saw it was not going to be an easy task to get the boat in with all elements at my broadside. My first attempt failed as I could not keep my bow up to the wind and current so I had to abort and try again. My 2nd attempt I was keeping my bow well up wind and tried to approach with my stern and then let my bow turn when I was easing her in between the piers. Easier said than done, I got stuck in the mudflat just west of the piers so I had to redo my approach. My 3rd attempt was successful, Saini was giving me good instructions of the situation aft and I backed in with speed. My bow fell again but I was in before it was too much. No damages either. We handed lines ashore and the yard started to position the shiplift and prepare to put is on the hard stand. My next story will about our works in Lumut, until then…