Tuesday 26 November Pangkor Island

Today James of the Pangkor marina hosted the rally day out – a trip across to Pangkor island with lunch at a local restaurant. The organisation of the day was spot on. We all arrived in plenty of time for the ferry across to the island. There were 20 cerise pink minibus taxis waiting to scoop us up and drive us around the island.

Chinese temple

First stop was the ruins of a Dutch fort (with umbrellas because it was raining), from there to a Chinese temple with a fish pond with the largest Chinese carp I've ever seen. The grey, scaly monster must have been more than 2m long. We saw him better when the warden prodded him with a long bamboo cane and he surfaced in indignation. From live fish to dried fish at the fish processing plant. There were man and ladies hand gutting fish two inches long which were then put into the ovens to be dried, then bagged and sold at the shop. We tried some of the delights including deep fried jelly fish. An acquired taste which I've not yet acquired. The stop before lunch was at coral beach – the resort side of the island.

traditional boat bulding

If the idea was to encourage appetites with some sea air we needed it for the banquet we were presented with. Again James from the marina hosted; a seven course sea food banquet of fried fish, prawns, more fish, more prawns, soft shelled crabs, greens, rice, more rice, tea. With both Gary and David on our table there was no chance of a morsel being left over as the boys have healthy appetites.

David and Jason inspect

We rolled out of the restaurant back into our pink taxis for the last stop of the day, and the most interesting as boaters, local boat building. Right there on the foreshore they were building a new fishing boat which was 20m long and made entirely of local hardwood. The owner and master builder, an old man now, builds not by plans but by his 'eye' alone. When he's too old to build boats the skill dies with him as there are no apprentices wanting to learn the trade. The boat we saw being constructed was going to take 10 men two months to complete. When it was finished they would wait for a high tide and then tow it out into the water to launch. Quite different to the plastic or metal boats we float around in.

A big thank you to James Khoo at Pangkor marina for organising a wonderful day out.