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 Malaysia is a bubbling, bustling melting pot of races and religions where Malays, Indians, Chinese and many other ethnic groups live together in peace and harmony. The mixture of cultures is reflected in the shops, restaurants, shrines, temples…

Located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore has long been a shipping/trading center. Even in the 11th to 14th centuries it was considered part of both Malay and Javanese kingdoms, but it fell from importance and the settleme…

We met Nikki and Cameron on Dreamer in Borneo(Kalamantan) and it was really nice to cruise for a while with another cruising boat.  They come from Australia and they have a 10 meter catamaran.  It was nice to have someone else pick anchorages…

The 3 day passage across the Java Sea started rough until we cleared the Raas islands north of Bali.  Once clear of the rough waters, the seas calmed with winds less than 10 knots and we made good enough time that we arrived a half a day early but…

The transportation was really inexpensive in Bali.  I could have rented a motorcycle for the day for about $5 or a car for about $25, but it did not make sense when the cabs were so reasonable.  There were free-lance drivers where you had t…

Balinese dancing is world renowned and we decided to make an effort to see quite a bit in our short time here.  We traveled north to the Batubulan village to see our first dance performed in a dedicated theatre.  We had front row seats for th…

Bali was so different from the rest of Indonesia that it could easily be its own country.  It has by far the most vibrant economy we have seen in Indonesia, and a very different, predominantly Hindu, culture.  Fields were cultivated instead…

We moved fairly quickly west from Komodo based on the limited decent anchorages on the North side of West Nusa Tenggara.  We did one overnight passage and all of the shrimp boats, fish traps and unlighted small fishing boats made for busy watch…

Once the galley was loaded, we headed first to Loh Buaya which is still inside the Komodo National Park area on Rinca Island, but is not as commercialized as Komodo Island.  It is located inside a deep protected harbor and we anchored right off …

Here is a sampling of what we have seen under those calm Indonesian seas so far.  We are now in Labuan Bajo filling the galley so we can explore the Rincon and Komodo Islands for a couple of weeks.  We were told that we will see the best divi…