Sunday 6th April

We slugged our way up The Malacca Straits which is the main shipping channel linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans carrying a quarter of the world’s goods (including 15 million barrels of oil) on 50,000 vessels per year between Asia’s major economies, so it’s a bit busy. It is a ten mile channel approach to Port Klang (posh people spell it Kelang because they think Klang sounds vulgar, but when we arrived at the Ocean terminal, written along the top of the terminal was “Welcome to Port Klang” so if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me). It is an apt name for this town because there was rusting metal everywhere. It is an industrial town as well as being Malaysia’s leading port and was formed at the confluence of the rivers Klang and Gambak relatively recently in 1857 when a group of tin prospectors founded the settlement after discovering tin in the region. Klang subsequently grew rich on the proceeds but as so often happens with industrial towns, the wealthy moved some 28 miles away and Kuala Lumpur was built on the wealth created in the port.

Klang has very little of interest for the tourist, other than a gigantic shopping mall and as we didn’t fancy the one and a half hour drive to Kuala Lumpur for a two hour visit (having previously stayed there for a few days) we opted for the mall. It turned out to be the better decision when we heard the tales from those who had chosen KL. According to them, they were whisked around the sites and then dumped in a market until it was time to head back through the traffic. Talking about shopping, you may have seen photos of Carol entering an M & S store in Singapore and leaving one in Hong Kong. These were taken as evidence that we come halfway round the world for Carol to shop in M & S. Though she did say that the styles were different and there were a lot of smaller sizes, so that’s OK then. Anyway we didn’t spend long in town before finding our way back on board. In the evening we went up to the Commodore Lounge for a couple before dinner and listened to the hair-raising account of William’s escape from Tower 2 of the World Trade Centre. I’ve got a graze on my chin from where it hit the ground when he was relating it. Island of Penang tomorrow, temperature predicted to be 37°C