Straits of Malacca

 

We are now proceeding south in the Andaman Sea between Thailand, and then Malaysia on the port side, and the Indonesian island of Sumatra on the starboard side, towards the Malacca Straits. At midday we were only twenty miles away from Port Kelang, which is the sea outlet for Kuala Lumpur. Although the sea is as calm as it has been ever since we left the Suez Canal, there have been passing showers and the cloud formations on the starboard side have looked heavy. The air remains heavy with a temperature just below 30C. At one stage we saw tornadoes on the horizon.

 

We have now successfully completed the cabin move. I had slept so well that I had only woken as late as 9.30 and only just made it up on time to the buffer to have my breakfast. I brought down some fruit and a bread roll and butter for Albina, which is now regrettably becoming the norm.

 

We collected our passports for the Singapore visit tomorrow. I watched the news on the buy out of Credit Suisse by USB and the continuing question for the banking system world-wide. Unlike the 2007 crisis, this is not so much the result of human folly over buying bad real estate debt, as human aggression with banks battling high inflation spurred by the energy crisis resulting from Putin's suicidal war against Ukraine. Putin is gaining some allies but ultimately, he is relying on his mastery of Russian media to sustain his paranoic illusions and by the support of China on whom he is becoming more and more dependent. Xi, who is gaining a lot from this conflict, will be visiting Putin tomorrow will also be dictating a lot on the terms of his support for Russia.

 

At 4 o'clock I went to the Neptune Theatre to watch a combination of three guest events. The first performance was by the passengers’ choir, consisting of some 30 singers, starting with a nice rendition of Around the World in 80 Days. This was followed by a bizarre concert of another 30 or so ukelele players, many of whom had not even picked up an instrument before they came on board. Or so said their organizer. Sharon proudly took part in both groups. Finally, the Drama Group put on a strange, and imaginatively composed, farce which married the theme of Jules Verne’s book with bizarre snippets of daily life of a TV family in the sixties. Helen was one of the performers. She played a TV presenter. The theatre had never been fuller and while the occasional amateurishness grated this was a true tribute to how a common project can enthuse the lives of people idly spending many days on a boat.

One thing I had been looking forward to Sammie’s performance as Karen Carpenter in the Neptune Theatre that evening. She was a tru professional both as an entertainment manager and as a singer. Her rendition of Karen Carpenter was superb. Perhaps she lacked Carpenter's vulnerability, but she shared her lyricism and sense of vitality in the more robust numbers. Of course she knew her audience and their sense of nostalgia. Karen Carpenter's beautiful and ttagic life was shared by anyone with any sensitivity in our generation. I am sorry that SAlbina chose again not to go, even though I know she loved the Carpenters' songs, but she wanted to shower before she went to bed, and showering is always a great effort for her because of her disability.

I made an interesting discovery that afternoon about an observation deck existing at the front of our new corridor on the port bow. That night, just part midnight, Albina and I went out there just in our pyjamas with nobody seeing us. It was a strong wind but very warm. We were rewarded with a view of land and even of lights on both sides of the ship. We were advancing through the narrowest part of the Straits of Malacca wedged between Malaysia and Sumatra. Some 400 ships pass this way every day and it is one of the most sensitive potential bottlenecks in the world, as the main link between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. It was also a popular haunt of pirates some 20 years ago, but luckily it offers safe passage at the moment with strong cooperation of bordeting countries. We pass safely through and we retire safely to our cabin unseen.