I don't know which is the better photo: seeing the Quest crew happy with cool drinks relaxing in a shady spot  - OR:
Our floating home tied happily at the dock in a safe marina after a successful voyage!

Who wooda thunk that Borneo would look like this? Quest is docked at Sutera Marina in Kota Kinabalu. The marina is part of a golf, swimming, sailing, tennis complex with two large multipool swim areas. There are two large luxury hotels on either side of the marina. It's the most upscale place we've visited - including Los Suenos and The Ritz Carlton.

We stayed in Sutera Harbour, which had all the conveniences and then some! There were three fingers for yachts. On either side were the docks that you see in the photo for smaller and commercial boats. We stayed on this dock until another opened up on one of the fingers.

While we were at the Sutera Marina the dinghy sailors joined a race. Here's Vivian out in front showing the guys what she's all about! (left)

Scott & I had a chance to attend a festival of native dancing and crafts at the adjacent hotel. We loved both and here's a beaded belt I have enjoyed wearing (and the lady who made it!).

I have so many beautiful photos of this event. I'm going to try to show you some of my favorites.

The dancers were enjoying the attention they received from folks in the hotel lobby. Everyone was entranced!

We have seen so many instances of traditions and accoutrements used by native people across the Pacific that are mimicked by our native peoples in North America. What does this headdress on the lead dancer remind you of?? How about the use of feathers in a headdress? Am I in North America? - I kept asking myself.

I couldn't resist this couple on the right.

I think the musicians should get as much attention as the dancers!

We had a couple of nice respites at the Kinabalu Yacht Club. They are located west of Sutera beyond a reef system. They're on the beach which is great for small boat sailing, beach bar-b-ques and general family fun. Conceivably we could have anchored Quest off of the beach in front of the club, But we were interested in being at a dock where we had amenities, security and power.

We exchanged our Del Rey Yacht Club burgee for a Kinabalu YC burgee. Their logo is a bat! The board was very welcoming and stressed the difference in the reality of Malaysia to the image that seems prevalent in the US.

The KYC members were very interested in letting us know how happy they were at our visit and the opportunity they had in changing the perception of their country.

Jean & Scott posing at the Kota Kinabalu Yacht Club. The club is located right on the beach. The sun is setting behind the offshore islands.

YES! We visited the Orang Utans! The reserve we visited had only juveniles. We went back twice to get these photos! We were rained out the first time and were told that these fellows don't like to come out in the rain any more than we do.

You can tell, we loved our time with the Orangys.

It takes a long time to raise these young ones so that they're ready to return to the wild. There's a lot of bonding that has to occur and then they must be taught how to provide shelter and food for themselves.

It is thought the the ideas of the "wild men from Borneo" were actually these orang utans. You can see by looking at this individual on the right where that idea might have come from.

From watching lower primates we turned to the (so called) higher primates.

The question is, "What do yachties do as they try to immerse themselves in the surrounding culture?" Well, of course, we just act a little crazy. Is it the days at sea? Is it the slow service at many restaurants (that is, not like the American "move 'm in and move 'm out" restaurants!). Or are these just some of the skills one learns as we travel about. Dennis assured us that he had seen a guy hold FOUR peanuts in his chopsticks! WOW! ;-) We were also told later by an expat that the Chinese line up a whole string of peanuts horizontally along their chopsticks! Now, isn't this information that will enrich your soul and cause you to ponder the meaning of life? :-) I guess this comes under the heading of "Yachties just gotta have fun!"

We went into town and ate at a local cafeteria. We ended up putting all kinds of things on our plates, just to see how everything tasted. It was pretty interesting. As you see (left), many of the women wear headscarves. This is a Muslim country, we were told, but there are a fair number of other people, some of whom were wearing crosses. Actually, in this area (Sabah) the Christians dominate.

On the way to the Sutera Harbour we saw some upscale condo complexes, also quite a number of stilt houses like we saw in the Philippines.

Guess what else we did that was pretty neat? Here's Vivian and Jean making a safety stop on the way up from down below.

Here's the major highlight of our dive! This beautiful green turtle and barrel sponge gave me a real thrill.

AND...here's Nemo!!! Actually a false clown anemonefish in some bubble anemone.

We got some pretty good shots of nudibranchs.

More weird creatures - actually nudibranchs (Dorids).

On the right, a little varicose wart slug (top center) and a tubeworm (below center and right).

Do you like this little humbug damsel? (left)