Wednesday 4th February, Teluk Nipah

So yes I did drive the scooter for the first time in my life today, what a laugh! Like falling off a log, but - happily - not like falling off a bicycle.

The parting of the seas occurred in the morning, just like Moses and the Old Testament Israelites really, only that it's a predictable event that occurs annually for a few days before Chinese New Year. So we joined the happy crowds and waded up to our thighs from the 'mainland' to the tiny 'Pulau Giam' island and back, just a couple of hundred metres, all very down with the locals and all (not forgetting Uncle Tom Cobbly, obvs). I had a fun chat with the 5 policemen who came to supervise the unruly rabble, showing them the family photo of my maternal grandmother with her clearly Asian-featured mother and siblings. That amused and intrigued them for sure; I look so white.

How do you like the designer handbag?

Scootered back to the port town and visited the 'Floating Mosque' (actually on stilts) in the afternoon. Cover-up clothing handed out at the door by laughing ladies!Read more