Since I had never heard of Kota Kinabalu, let me start by explaining about where it is in the world. The Island of Borneo, which is the third largest island in the world, is divided into three countries – Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Malaysia is divided into two large pieces, one on the island of Borneo and the other on the Malay Penninsula between Singapore on its Southern tip and Thailand to its North. We will be visiting this later in the voyage and it is where Kuala Lumpur is located. There are two Malaysian states running along the Northern coast of Borneo separated by Brunei – Sarawak to the West and Sabah to the East. Kota Kinabalu (KK as it is referred to) is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.
After leaving The Great Barrier Reef, we travelled North to the top of Australia’s East coast and rounded Cape York through the Straits of Torres between Australia and Papua New Guinea proceeding North West into The Gulf of Carpentaria wending our way through various bodies of ocean and islands towards Borneo.
Thursday March 17, 2016 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day, where Guiness was half off and a fun filled St. Patrick’s Day Ball went on into the wee hours of the morning. For us it was a busy day with time in the Gym with instructor, followed by Graham Howell talking about Kota Kinabalu which was interesting to discover where it was as detailed above and something about the place. I don’t think I realised that Malaysia was divided into two large bits separated by some 1000 miles. Diana’s amazing “book” she prepared before the trip going into details about each of the places we are visiting, is extreemly useful and a great guide. Next, Hebert Kerrigan QC discussed many of the cases he has tried as an Edinburgh based Queen’s Counsel, focusing on Australian interaction. The always informative and entertaining Roy Hunt spoke about George and Ira Gershwin, their life as 2 of the 4 Gershwin children and their collaboration as well as independent work and impact on the music scene, not only theatre, but classical and dare I say opera / operetta – Porgy and Bess. As we know this was recently revived on Broadway and garnered Audra Macdonald her 5th Tony Award, equating Angela Landsbury. Her 6th Tony was for her Billie Holliday show, but I easily digress when it comes to Theatre!!! Gloria Barnett spoke on “Crazy Critters” – strange animals of the ocean. In the evening we retired to the Atlantic Room (set aside for people to gather who are on the World Tour and where a special concierge is there to assist us) but at that time of night (after dinner) we were the only ones there and thus enjoyed a few hands of Majong.
Friday March 18, 2016 – A day for “The Snooze” and “The Voice” as we nicknamed two of the speakers. Lindsay Murray – The Biologist (aka The Snooze) has fascinating presentations in the field of science, very informative, but his Edinburgh, monotone voice lacking any emotion causes the odd bit of snoozing! This time he gave a fascinating talk on the Nobel Prize for Medicine and spoke of some of the luminaries who have won the prize since it’s inception. Next came “The Voice” – Dale Templar, so named (by us) as she has a high rasping and distressing voice, although the content is riveting. Here again we have a fascinating subject, well illustrated, namely about the making of the landmark BBC series, “Human Planet” and with specific regard to animals in the wild and the trials and tribulations of filming them. Finally Herbert Kerrigan QC spoke of many terrorism cases and his involvement in the trials of some of these individuals. We decided to go to Todd English restaurant for dinner, so enjoyed “Love Letters” (a rich shellfish ravioli in a creamy cheese sauce) and “Surf and Turf”. Thanks to the travel agent, Howard, he has invited each of us to dine at Todd English 5 times – once each segment. The evening performance by Danny MacMaster – a comedian, singer, mimic (copying some 40 notable entertainers) was rather disappointing. He has obviously excellent talent, but many of the skits were perhaps too “inside baseball” as the Australians seemed to laugh, but few others knew what he was talking about. A very surprising announcement was made over the tannoy / loud speaker system throughout the ship, by the Captain just after midnight. He was asking for people who had a certain blood type to go to the medical Center and donate blood, due to an emergency. From what we were able to gather subsequently, apparently an older lady fell in the shower, broke her hip which caused massive internal bleeding. They had to operate to stop the bleeding and apparently there were many people who have blood donor cards identifying them as registered blood donors, who went to the facilities and gave blood for the woman to survive. This is still speculative, as we only heard this from another passenger and no official information given other than during the Captain’s usual Noon Navigational report, where he thanked the many people for showing up to give blood.
Saturday March 19, 2016 – Another full day at sea with Graham Howell talking about Shanghai, our next port of call after KK. The 23 MM populous city I am sure has changed drastically from the last time I was there 30 years ago in 1986. Apparently all the modern sky rise buildings have been constructed starting in the 1990’s, so it will be interesting to “update one’s mental file” during this visit. Next Roy Hunt gave a more somber, but nonetheless brilliant discussion on Ella Fitzgerald – a child, born out of wedlock, separated from her father then lived with her mother and the new man in mother’s life until her death when Ella was 13. She then had a rough life, but overcame all the adversity and became the superstar she was throughout her life. Herbert Kerrigan QC again spoke of penal colonies throughout history and the use of the USA then Australia as a place to house UK prisoners. After a nice lunch we had a restful nap on deck in the warmth of the tropical air, before working on photographs, dinner and the UK’s Number 1 harmonica player, and comedian, Johnny Stafford (of “The Harmonica Rascals” fame) performing an excellent show.
Sunday March 20, 2016 – Palm Sunday and Abbi Albans wedding day – Early this morning at 4:52 AM we crossed the Equator, this time from South to North and thus, we are now back in the Northern Hemisphere which we left in late January. Also during the night another call by the Captain over the Loud Speaker due to a burst water pipe. In the noon briefing he explained that one of the officers had stated that as we passed from South to North the water turns in the opposite direction (as in toilets flush clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the South) and that was the cause!! – Belive it if you want!!! The activities of the day started at 10 AM with the Palm Sunday Church services led by the Captain (The Jewish service was the night before with the Catholic and Protestant at 8 AM and 9 AM respectively). Followed by Herbert Kerrigan QC on Murder – The stranger the more sensational, recounting some of the murder trials he has been involved with and one which nearly caused his own murder as payback being clubbed 45 times in the head! Lunch today was a big success as they had a “Taco Stand” – flour tortillas with chicken, picadillo (ground / minced beef), vegetables, salsa and guacamole – delicious, except for the flour tortillas. Each day they have a featured food in one section of the dining area which recently is mainly oriental food. After lunch, The Polywog / Shelback / Neptune show was repeated at 2 PM, which was fun to see again, but bakingly hot. We arrived 3/4 hour early on the 8th deck to get a standing position under the bit of shade in the 40C (104F) hot humid weather. The judge, Neptune and wife plus mermaids and pirates paraded out and after judge, jury and conviction were rendered in quick succession on such major infractions / charges as saving a seat for a spouse in the theatre or taking a muffin out of the dining room for future eating, the “prisoners” received their punishment. Actually 15 volunteer guests and a few staff volunteered for the “prisoner” role all who had never crossed the Equator. The. Punishment was putting “slop” / left over food, pasta etc from the earlier meals of the day over their heads after kissing a smelly 3 ft long fish! Then all were thrown into the swimming pool. A fun event to watch! We needed a pint of beer after the event to regain our strength so retired to the pub at 3 PM – a good time to start and watch a part of the auto race – The Austrailian Grand Prix. The afternoon lecture by Roy Hunt was on the entertainer – Al Jolson with lots of “sing along” to many of his well known songs and gaining further insight into the man who was so scared of going on stage that he had to have two buckets backstage to throw up before making his entrance. However once on stage he was brash and treated others poorly and was difficult to get off stage. We all recall that he was the son of a Russian Jewish Rabbi, but used “black face” in his act, painting his face black with exaggerated white lips, making many to think he naturally had black skin. For dinner we went to The Piazza restaurant (an area of the cafeteria transformed into a specialty (Asian, Indian, Italian, American) elegant restaurant for the evening. Maynard, our favourite chef we have got to know over time and the “Chef de Cuisine” of the cafeteria with 32 sous chefs under him serving about 8500 meals a day 24 hours a day, prepared our food personally at our table, which was very special.
Monday March 21, 2016 – Last day at sea before getting to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. A fun day at sea with the usual series of lectures – QC, Voice and Snooze, gymnasium and evening show. Herbert Kerrigan QC, (the Edinburgh based barrister) was very amusing talking about odd laws and odder lawyers, recounting actual lawyer jokes and amusing anecdotes from his practice. We then saw the final presentation by “The Voice” – Dale Templar on the Human Planet, this time focusing on the humans that form part of the planet and their ways of life. She showed many clips from the amazing show and one particular one that stuck with us was of a group of people (I believe Innuit) who catch a certain type of bird and place it in a seal skin under rocks for the summer. Eventually they get these birds which the narrator described as smelling like rotten Gorgonzola cheese, but apparently was much worse than that, so they eat outside. They then eat, as a real treat and delicacy, the birds raw, as they come out of the seal skin in a decomposing state. It was a good prelude to lunch then gym and the afternoon was with “The snooze” – Lindsay Murray whose Edinburgh monotone and immobile delivery give forth to a fascinating talk on Zoos. Are they a good or bad thing? He has worked for many years at the London and Edinburgh zoos as well as other nature preserves, so has a good perspective. The conclusion – Old zoos caging animals – No good; New approaches to saving animals, a research and good Vet practice, with ample natural space for the animals to roam – good. After dinner and libations at our favourite bar – The Commodore Club – we saw “double header” show. First the talented Australian mimic – Danny McMaster and the brilliant musician (piano & guitar) and superb singer – Ben Mills who ended with a standing ovation after his encore – one of the best acts so far on the voyage. A little computer and picture sorting work in between, took up the day. So to bed as we are excited about tomorrow visiting Kota Kinabalu.
Roger & Anne Travels 
It is all so fabulous. Enjoy Malaysia.
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