First full day

Devout Muslim woman

       My research into Malaysia culture had indicated that it was predominantly Muslim.  In my mind, I envisioned bearded men wearing turbans and long robes, and women with the full-body cover with just a slit for the eyes, all scowling menacingly at the American infidel.  Well, it was not like that at all.  Yeah, I saw a number people dressed like that at the airport, and a sizable portion of women everywhere wore head scarves and dressed modestly.  But for the most part, everybody dressed like, well, like Americans, including the girls in skimpy outfits and short shorts.  (Side note:  Malaysian girls are pretty!)  And everyone I came into contact with was warm, friendly, welcoming, smiling, and gracious.  The whole cultural attitude seemed to be very laid-back and casual.

Brightly-colored flowering shrubs along roadside.  Note the deep, concrete storm culverts.

More flowering shrubs

      Driving along the Malaysian roads, it was clear from the lush vegetation and brightly-colored flowering shrubs that one was definitely in the tropics.  The weather:  80° F every day (oops, make that 26° C), steady easterly wind, partly cloudy skies with rain showers most afternoons.  Every road had huge, deep, vertical-walled, concrete-lined storm culverts along its sides - yet another reminder that one was in the tropics, and torrential rainstorms do happen.

Typical street in Bintulu.  Every other storefront is a restaurant!

      The pleasant weather encouraged outdoor dining.  Your typical Malaysian restaurant was basically a dining patio with a kitchen in the back.  And boy-oh-boy were there a lot of restaurants!  It seemed that, in most of the buildings, every other establishment was yet another restaurant.  You could easily eat every meal at a different place every day, forever.  I think my ever-gracious hosts intended to do just that!

Another street scene.

      The vast majority of the buildings were of the same exact architectural design:  three stories tall, the width of a city block, with a hodgepodge of storefronts at street level.  Businesses were a curious mix of everything imaginable, with no attempt to "organize" them at all; it was not at all unusual to see fan industrial supplier, a boutique, a grocery store, and a garage, all adjacent and sharing the same building.  Along with the ever-present patio restaurants, there were also a lot of massage parlors.  Up on the upper levels, air-conditioning compressors clung to the outsides, sometimes alongside laundry hung out on the rail.  Many of these building had huge advertising signs hung on the upper levels, which somewhat blurred the distinction between a "building" and a "billboard".

Many storefronts doubled as billboards.

A boutique adjacent to a garage (?!?)

  

There are four people on this motorcycle!

     Motorcycles were ubiquitous.  They were all compact, efficient, economic, quiet little machines, and as my hosts explained, are used here for commuting a lot.  No hulking, noisy Harley D's here (as one would find on the streets of Houston, where they are used, not for transportation, but for recreation).  


     I observed the motorcycle ferry, a rickety contraption if there ever was one, transporting bikes across the river.

Motorcycle ferry. 

       Now onto the hard part:  going into the fertilizer plant to get our system up and running.  Safety regulations therein required us to wear fire-resistant jumpsuits, hard hats, steel-toed shoes, and safety glasses.  Evidently, they were worried the plant might explode or something while we were there.  (I have reservations whether even all that stuff would really protect me from THAT.)  Well, the jumpsuit was hot as hell, and the workshop was poorly ventilated.  And we had to carry in the computer and the heavy electronics box which I had brought as luggage.  And my laptop and other accessories.  By the time we had lugged all that stuff to the sweltering workshop, we were all drenched with sweat.

       Well to make a long story short, we got everything all hooked up and the users trained, despite the terrible discomfort.  And at the end of the day, there was still ample time to eat, drink, be merry, and explore.

Pagotta at city park.  Fountain in the background.