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19 June 2016

13 June Terengganu

It's been a week since we arrived at the marina in Terengganu.  No problem with finding a space - the place is less than half full, and of those boats, at the end of our visit, we were one of only two boats with crew on board.  The remainder were locked up and here on a long term basis.
Terengganu has gained recent wealth from offshore oil fields and from providing services to those fields. All along this coast there are newly built sea defences paid for from oil income.  Terengganu itself is going through a building boom with new multi storey edifices towering over the original two storeys and a new swing bridge being built over the entrance to the river harbour.  How that will work with the high volume of boat traffic and high volume of car traffic will be interesting.  The river is busy with incoming and out going fishing fleet and a steady flow of ferries from the islands, plus dredgers bringing in building sand for land reclamation projects.
construction of a swing bridge underway
Ramadan began last week which means the mullahs chant from the spires five times a day. The first call begins an hour before dawn and the last begins at sunset.   During the month of Ramadan no Muslim is supposed to eat or drink while the sun is above the horizon.  Luckily a significant Chinese population ensure there are plenty of restuarants open and serving food all day.  We quickly established a favourite spot - The Golden Dragon - in the heart of China town, close to the temple and I think they established us as their favourite clients.  Lady owner, Shuey, ensured there was a table whenever we appeared and sent over a complimentary dish each time.  First there was pineapple, next night a few frogs legs from a large plate ordered by a Chinese family and hardly touched, which came our way and then more fruit after dinner.  One lovely lady waitresses fell completely in love with David's baby blue eyes.  Eng must have been 50ish, spoke no English but giggled and blushed when he smiled at her.  She asked her friend to take photos of us and, call me suspicious, I'd swear the camera was angled to miss me from the frame!
Although we are in a marina we still have to use our dinghy to cross the river to reach the town which is on the opposite bank.  Terengganu marina is part of a large resort on Duyong island.  Your choice is either a 2 mile road trip or a 2 minute dinghy ride with a perfect placed jetty to safely tie to and right by the main market.  We took the dinghy every time.
the art of coffee
On our first visit to town  we went straight to the post office to establish contact for prompt delivery of much awaited parcels.  Pos Malaysia put the Service in Customer Service. At one point we had five assistants helping us to track it on their computers and phone calls to Customs in Kuala Lumpur. Not there today, but one of the lovely ladies phoned an hour later to advise delivery would be in four days time.  Two days later and we receive a text to say our parcel is here and we can go to the post office to collect it which is when we  discover there is another offce, the sorting office which is a taxi ride away.  The lady helping us goes more than out of her way to write down the street address and apologises for not being able to drive us there herself, but as we can see, as we are now outside the building looking for a taxi, her car has been blocked in by another car.
It was a quick taxi ride and as we walk in we are at the back of four lines of customers.  However, the staff must have been advised we were coming because as soon as they spotted our foreign faces, big smiles and we were beckoned forward.  'Here's your package, please sign and thank you for using Post Malaysia.' Back on the road and taxis have become as rare as a correct weather forecast and big, dark rain clouds are gathering and coming to our rescue, a very kind man with a smart SUV offers us a lift back to the town centre.  He's on his way to the mosque for prayers and it's really not out of his way.
We found the people of Terengganu to be universally friendly and welcoming.  The two stories of the restaurant and Post Office are only two of the many kindnesses we received during the week we were here. In addition to the thoughtfulness of strangers we were also able to complete the lists of wants and needs we always jot down before coming in to a big town.  We found the right parts for boat jobs at reasonable cost, had our international gas bottled filled without having to do handstands and leap through hoops, Polly visited the vet and had her annual innoculations for the fraction of the cost if we'd been in UK. Between them two large supermarkets stocked all the items on my list, except for a particular brand of mayonnaise we prefer, and we were able to fill up with diesel ahead of our trip up to Thailand.
Our last but one task to do before leaving was to visit harbour master, Customs and Immigration to clear out from Malaysia, bound for Koh Samui.  The final task to settle our account for the marina and then it was time to throw off the lines, say au revoir Terengganu (we'll be back in August) and begin the next journey.

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