February 13, 2007

One of the nice things about cruising is that you get to meet such great people; both other cruisers and dirt dwellers.  The only down side is that after a while they become just another name in your address book.  Cruisers are always on the move and keeping in touch by email becomes a time consuming task.  Yes, you include them in your Christmas card/letter list, but unless you visit the same port for the dirt dwellers or happen upon the cruisers in a port you visit, you never get to see them again.

Occasionally you do happen to meet people who are so special that you know you will become life long friends.  This happened to us when we met Steve and Geraline Salter.  They live just outside London but spend 3 months of the year at the Sutera Harbour Magellan Hotel in Kota Kinabalu.  The friendship began with a casual hello as we passed each other in the Club lounge and progressed to the point where we see each other almost every day.

They have taken pity on me since Yu-ching left for Taiwan and have included me in their plans.  On Sunday night they invited me to have dinner with them at a restaurant owned by a friend of theirs.  The owner (Ka-Yee) is a Chinese Malaysia who is also a US citizen and a former resident of Houston, TX.  After his children were grown he returned to Malaysia to be closer to his family and opened the restaurant.  I can say without reservation that the meal was one of the best I have ever had.  The Peking Duck was superb, meaty and tender. If you are ever in KK make sure you have dinner at King Hu restaurant.

Yesterday the three of us, Geronimo and Elvis took Alchemy out to do some fishing.  The waters around Kota Kinabalu have been infected with the Red Tide so we decided to go out to a reef that is about 25 miles offshore.  Unfortunately, once we cleared the islands that protect the harbor we ran into 8 to 10 foot swells.  They made things so uncomfortable (and some of the passengers green) that we decided to turn back and see if we could find a reef closer to shore that was not effected by the Red Tide.  We did some trolling and fished a couple of reefs, but had very little luck and certainly not enough for the dinner we planned.  I don't think any of us were disappointed through as we had a great day out on the water.

Photos of us at the restaurant and on board are posted under Blog Photos 21.