We left Kapas and headed to the small town of Terengganu only 10 miles away. We needed to stock up for when our kids arrive next week, and get some credit. Terengganu is a sultanate and state of Malaysia, and the city of Kuala Terengganu is capital of the state. We headed into the marina, which was incredibly muddy and were settled in by lunch. We had to check in and out of Terengganu which surprised us as we had not done so in any other state except Langkawi, so imagine our surprise when we were told we even had to go through immigration. We were already in Malaysia so it seemed very odd but we duly went along and they just looked at our passports, gave us a form to fill out and told us that in a couple of days when we left we had to come back and check out again! Luckily the port authority and customs were only a short dinghy ride away and all the formalities were completed in under an hour.
We explored this lovely little town, found their murals and funky little street signs that are so prevalent all over Malaysia and even found a western bar for a beer. We found a small narrow lane called Turtle Alley, which had been dedicated to conservation and the protection of turtles. Most of the artwork had been done by local children and it was lovely to see that the turtles are so important to them as turtle eggs are still stolen and sold in some markets.
The Crystal Mosque has the river as a backdrop so we went down by dinghy to get this photo. It really is incredible and glistens in the sunlight.
We spent a couple of days here, but after we had sorted out all the provisioning for the upcoming trip by our kids, we went back and checked out with customs and port authority and even went back and checked out with immigration who gave us another form to fill out. It took 4 immigration officers to check it was filled in properly! We then paid our marina fee, which was unbelievably cheap with free water and electricity and headed off to Redang Island -a six hour sail to have a bit of R & R before picking up the kids. So excited……………..
S/V Indian Summer 1 