Monday January 28, 2029 – At Sea between Malacca and Penang Malaysia cruising the Malacca Straits which lie between Indonesian Sumatra to the East and the Malaysian/ Singapore peninsula to the West.
Overnight there was a thunderstorm and today is a day to “feed the brain” with multiple lectures.
First, a briefing by the captain on security specifically – piracy and what to do if the alarm is sounded with two long blasts or the code “Sea-horse” is spoken over the loud speaker system. The side of the ship has razor wire to prevent unwanted access by pirates who have roamed these waters for some 500+ years as well as high pressure water cannons. At night the external lights are blacked out to increase stealth and in the highly unlikely attack we are to go to the well protected Marco Polo Dining Room so that the On-Board staff can take care of the external threat and not worry about whether a person is a “friendly“ passenger Or an unfriendly pirate. The likelihood of this occurring is very low due to the speed of this vessel and the access height above mean high water. Also the 500 mile long Malacca Straits are heavily patrolled by Indonesian (Sumatra on one side) and Malaysian military which is on the other side of the strait due to the very high traffic. Some 230 ships a day pass through th Straits which is a “short-cut” to China and the East. Heavily laden oil tankers with deep draft have to add the extra thousand + nautical miles to get to the orient.
We then attended the first of many informative lectures.
1) Nigel Cox – A long time member of the Diplomatic Service and Clerk (CEO) of the (UK) “Fishmonger” livery (like Trade Union established in the 1300’s), spoke brilliantly on “Seas of Tranquility? The Malacca Strait and China’s Maritime Strategy”.
He discussed the global economic importance of the Malacca Strait, it’s historical background and the prospects for regional security and stability in the context of China’s territorial claims and its rapidly growing economic influence and naval strength: – What does China Want? the answer – long term power and world domination through trade. Through the financing and installation of many port facilities around the world China is assuring the safe Harbour for it’s merchant vessels. At the same time it is strengthening and expanding its military power – now just in the Navy, with 2 aircraft carriers and several hundred naval vessels, for example. Since it can maintain a long term view of projects due to its stable one party system, the plan is to achieve dominance by the 100th Anniversary of the Communist Revolution in 2049.
He gave an example of Chinese company setting up a large port, storage facility airport etc on the East coast of Sri Lanka in the Prime Minister’s home region / riding. This despite the high volume of sea traffic in Colombo on the West Coast of Sri Lanka. Then due to loan default on the joint venture by the Sri Lanka government, another Chinese company took over the ownership and completed it with only some 5 vessels using the port vs several thousand in Colombo. However, this now assured China will have a port and possibly stage part of its navy there with wide access to the Indian Ocean.
Other tactics are the claiming of uninhabited Islands that are being transformed into air / sea facilities and perhaps based in the future as well as claiming large areas of the south China seas and places like Taiwan.
The talk was very informative and very alarming at the speed that China is achieving its objectives following the open market system adopted by the prior and current regimes.
2) Sandy Primrose – A Biologist – Orchids, Oddities and Obsessions. This part of the world is one of the world’s hotspots for orchids, another is the Andean region of South America. Orchids are plants that have obsessed men (mostly) and resulted in foul deeds.
First an Orchid is a monocotyledon (growing just one leaf from the seed as opposed to the frost sprouts from the seed leading to two leaves in dicotyledons). Second it has three petals to the flower with the lower one being significantly modified. Third the leaf veins run parallel to the leaves and whereas other flowers have multiple grains of pollen on easily accessible anthers, Orchids have 2 Polonia – two tightly packed pollen sacs that affix themselves to the proboscis of insects and alter their form so as to more easily add pollen to the next Orchid the insect flies to for continuation of the species.
There are some 25,000 Orchid species of which in Malaysia there are 800 represented of which 650 only grow in Malaysia. In Thailand 180 of the more than 1200 species are unique to that country and in Myanmar it is 800 of the 1000 or do species that can only be found in that country.
Some of the more “exotic” species are no bigger than a fingernail while others can individually weigh more than one tonne. Some require the insects to have proboscis of 11 inches, others grow underground and only emerge as flowers for pollination. In literature orchids are considered aphrodisiacs and indeed the name comes from the story that Orchus, the son of Bacchus who was going after a lady for illicit purposes was found and hurled to the wolves who destroyed him and from the remains the orchids were born!
Over time there have been many stories of sculduggery with Orchid hunters being sent all over the world to collect samples for propagation and sale by merchants (initially in the UK) and the battles between these individuals. One of these more recent avid Orchid collectors now has a large world garden (after being released from 9 months of captivity by terrorists) in Kent, England some 5 miles south of the M25 At Lulinstone Castle – something to put on the “to do” list.
3) Bob Taylor – The Emergence of South East Asia Until the Second World war, ‘South East Asia’ was unknown. To the extent that they were considered, the countries between India and China were largely seen as a hodgepodge of insignificant dependencies. Now, thanks to their importance in post-war international politics and growth of academic interest, South East Asia is widely known. While the individual was rather full of himself and his accomplishments, the underlying historical perspective was very interesting.
The area we now know as South Easy Asia has been, in history, known as Further India; then Indo-China; Spice Islands; Balkans of Asia (due to it’s multiple wars) and only in the last 75 years as SE Asia.
The western world has had very low expectations of the area thinking it to be a primary producer (eg Tea, Spices, Lumber etc) yet many are technologically advanced with Singapore having a higher per capita wealth than the UK. Other impressions are that they are plural societies absorbing people from the outside and having an ethnic division of labor and that the people and economies are “lazy”. However, in this last point, chroniclers tended to expect western hours to be kept yet locals were governed not by a 9-5 regime, but more to the cooler part of the day. So by 10 or 11 the people are resting, which the chroniclers considered peak work time yet at 5 am the locals were very active!
The name originally came from the South East Asia Command (SEAC) set up in Kandy, Ceylon under Lord Mountbatten. Eventually this led to the SEATO – South East Asia Treaty Organization, but this included many non-SE Asia powers (Pakistan, Australia, Nee Zealand, UK, France and the USA, but only two local powers – Thailand and the Philippines. In 1961 ASA was formed including Philippines, Thailand and Malaya. A couple of years later Maphalindo – Malaya, Philippines, and Indonesia all having Malay as the common language. This had the primary focus against the annexation of Saba and Sarawak provinces on Borneo forming Malaysia.
Ultimately in 1967 the ASEAN – Association of Sough East Asian Nations was formed by Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines and Singapore. Brunei was admitted in 1984; Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar added in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999. This alliance has worked as it does not pretend to delve into the internal matters of the fellow countries (given their divergent religions, rulership forms and politics). The objectives include Defense Cooperation, Economic Integration, Manage SE Asia relations with the rest of the world, links with Europe, North and South America and dealings with it’s Norther counterpart – North East Asia – China, Japan, Korea (N&S) etc.
The Captain’s cocktail Party and introduction of the officers and dinner ensued, before retiring for the day.
A port lecture was also given but will be discussed tomorrow with our day in Penang, Malaysia.
Roger & Anne Travels 