Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Return to Malaysia, January 2018


Sorry, It has been almost a year since the last post. I will catch up soon.  

We returned to Malaysia at the end of January 2018.  Booker got hassled by Kuala Lumpur Airport Immigration and only was given a 14 day visa instead of the 90 day visa which everyone else gets, including myself. She supposedly had to be investigated for some such nonsense. No reason was given but we suspect that the Immigration official had a problem with the US Muslim Ban and was retaliating by hassling Americans. 

Thanks Trump, actions do have consequences.

Lunch at the Lam Fong Biscuit Shop, Ipoh
We were instructed to go to the closest Immigration office within 14 days and they will do an 'investigation'. We went to the office in Ipoh, the Capital of Perak State. We also gave a ride to Claude and Georges from the sloop CARIAD. They are French and needed a visa extension.

The 'investigation' went fine and Booker received the remainder of her 90 days as a visa extension sticker in her passport.

Claude and Georges were not so lucky. Apparently the EU is banning Malaysian Palm Oil for use in their biodiesel. In retaliation, Malaysia is not granting visa extensions to European Union Citizens. Georges and Claude must now leave the country within 2 days.

Our next errand was to make the 8 hour drive to Johor Bahru (JB) to arrange for a new supplier for Gelcoat. JB is across the river from Singapore. We could also use some more Duratec Additive which is only available from our source in Singapore. Since Claude and Georges now needed to go to Singapore and then re-enter Malaysia to get another 90 day visa, the next step seemed logical. 

We're all driving to Singapore.