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My Personal Sailing Adventures - with land trips on the side: Revealing a hidden temple in the jungle
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I could smell incense. So I parked my motorbike on the side of the road. And carefully threaded my way down the treacherous slope.
I crossed the dodgy bridge to where I could glimpse some buildings in the jungle.
A hidden Hindu temple
Aah I thought so. A
temple. Run down. With empty Tiger beer cans, crushed cigarette
packs and other rubbish lying around. I
like the lack of reverence. Opposite to
my strict Catholic upbringing. “Sshhh
don’t talk during mass or you won’t get an ice cream after”.
In Hindu tradition, there is no dividing line between the
secular and the sacred.
Ganesh on my radar
As I wandered around the hidden temple I recognised Ganesh,
the elephant-headed god. He is the god
of wisdom and learning.
I keep a small statue of him on top of our radar on Yana de
Lys. His job description is “remover of
obstacles”. I’m not sure if I have our relationship right though because I can’t get my radar to work.
This week I had a local Moslem guy helping me
with the trouble shooting. When he saw
Ganesh there he said “That’s why it cannot on”.
(“Cannot on” is the technical
term in SE Asia for anything that won’t work).
I have an email pen friend at the Furuno office in Singapore. He’s been giving me trouble shooting
ideas. His latest advice is to bring
the unit in for his people to check out.
Looks like another trip to Singapore coming up. Any suggestions for art galleries to visit?
Going green
I drive past the temple entrance on my way home from Permas Jaya town
to Senibong Cove Marina nearly every day.
Recently I was intrigued to see a frenzy of motorbikes and
cars parked there as I rode past. This went on for some weeks. A work party.
They’ve chopped down the jungle which gave it atmosphere. It’s not a hidden temple anymore. Everything is in plain view. And painted a nauseous shade of green! Oh dear.
Hidden temple in the jungle before...
...and after
Moving right along...or not
While I was meditating at the no longer hidden temple in the
jungle, I started thinking about my blog. (I have to admit I didn't meditate long. I was attacked by a swarm of non vegetarian mosquitoes.)
Are my readers disappointed that my adventures are all “Land
trips on the side” lately? Rather than
sailing on Yana de Lys? I’m still living
on Yana de Lys. Still living the dream,
still loving living in Malaysia.
But the
reason we’re not moving on just yet is that old chestnut: money. I used to have a virtual job in the
Australian mining media, but the downturn has put the kibosh on that one.
The other captain is working in Australia. And I’m try to figure out how to reinvent my
career as an online writer. So if you
happen to share my blog there’s more chance we can go sailing
again sometime soon. Just saying…
