Tag: wildlife

Cruising the Malacca Strait

The Malacca Strait is the body of water between the west coast of Malaysia and Indonesian Sumatra, and it connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans. A very busy waterway 560 miles long, it is one of Asia’s primary sea routes, with almost 100,000 vessels passing through each year. Read on for our experience cruising the Malacca Strait. Malacca is pronounced Muh-LAK-uh.

Post Puteri Harbour Anchorages

A few days after returning from Kuala Lumpur, we untied our lines and left the Puteri Harbour dock. We day sailed for the first two days, stopping at the small islands of Pesang and then Besar. I don’t remember much about either, so they must have been peaceful and boring, which is good.

Sunset on the Malacca Strait, Malaysia
Sunset at anchor at Palau Pisang, Malaysia
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Puteri Harbour, Malaysia

Malaysia is its own unique country, and what we’ve seen so far we like. Our first stop after Indonesia was Puteri Harbour, Malaysia. A bay carved out of the mangrove jungle just across the narrow channel from Singapore, Puteri Harbour offers a marina, restaurants, and some good provisioning nearby.

Checking In to Malaysia

Checking in was so easy because of the proximity to the ferry terminal, which brings visitors from Batam, Indonesia daily. Once we docked, we sat on our boat until the Pine Tree marina team retrieved us in their golf cart for the short drive to the ferry terminal. At the terminal we had a very brief meeting with a government agent representing customs and immigration. We gave him our paperwork and he briskly stamped us into the country. Welcome to Malaysia in a few minutes. One of the easiest check-ins to a country ever!

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Kalimantan Indonesia

One of the wildest places we’ve visited in our 7+ years living on a sailboat is Kalimantan Indonesia. With jungles and rivers and lots of wild animals, Indonesian Borneo is an incredible part of the world! We spent a few days anchored, and a few days on a riverboat tour to the Tanjung Puting National Park, one of the few places to see orangutans in the wild.

About Kalimantan Indonesia

Indonesia shares the island of Borneo with Brunei and Malaysia, and Indonesia’s portion, 73% of the area, is called Kalimantan. We visited Central Kalimantan, sailing up the Kumai River 25nm from the Java Sea to the town of Kumai. We anchored there for its proximity to the Tanjung Puting National Park, one of the best places to see Indonesian orangutans.

Male Bornean Orangutan
A male Bornean orangutan

Getting to Kalimantan

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