The Mallaca Straits aren’t known for being a spectacular destination for cruising sailors. Its fame instead comes from its history of rampant piracy, which fortunately for us, no longer is a concern. Sailing here these days is mainly about getting through the Straits without hitting anything, and stopping at the four or five semi-interesting places along the way, with the main goal of getting to the more interesting waters of coastal Thailand now just a few miles to our north. The additional concern at this time of year is the southwest monsoon now in full force, meaning foul weather can be expected on most days and the risk of vicious squalls is looming issue.

And so our journey up the Straits has been a fairly typical one… boring at times from a touristic and sailing perspective, but fascinating in some unexpected ways. Around the cities we’ve seen construction and infrastructure development happening at a pace we’ve only ever heard about… cranes swinging from half built skyscrapers, brand new billion dollar bridges, and what appear to be new fully developed city suburbs without a single resident (we believe the funding coming mainly from China). We’ve read about places like this, but to get a glimpse of it first hand has brought new meaning to the phrase “developing world”.

On board Tamarisk the consuming issue has been the weather, with only a few hints of sunshine during the past week, and thunderstorm dodging being a daily routine. As we approach the Thailand border here in Langkawi we’re now entering a more scenic sailing area with rugged lush islands appearing from all directions. Although we haven’t done much exploring on them yet, we’ve found shelter from the weather and enjoyed the view from their leeward shores.

We’ve completed our outbound clearance from Malaysia and fully stocked the boat with “duty free provisions”…. a boom industry here in Langkawi. In practical terms, that means we have a huge amount of alcohol on board that we purchased at about a third of normal store prices, and if we can smuggle it past the Thailand customs agents without getting levied there, we’ll have saved a handsome sum. Phuket is the first port of entry in Thailand, and legally we’re obliged to go straight there for quarantine, immigration, and customs clearance. Like most sailors who make it up to these parts of the developing world though, we interpret these rules loosely and will be spending a few days exploring the more southerly Thai islands before making our formal arrival in Phuket. So with that we’re hitting the “publish” button and casting away from our last Malaysian port, and putting our 42nd country astern.

We used to take a lot of things for granted about how the world works before taking up the nautical lifestyle we’re now living. Buying an iPad, filling up the car with gasoline, or switching on an air conditioner are examples of things we might have done without thinking too deeply about what made them possible. We just do these things knowing that a few dollars will be gone from our bank account, and if we can keep the dollars flowing, so too will the iPads, petrol, and cold air. But that’s a simplistic and ignorant way of thinking about commerce, and things are really much more complicated than that. The reality is that we (westerners) mostly occupy a position at the very endpoint (the consumption end) of a long and complex commercial chain. Resources are first mined or harvested from the ground, then made into consumable products, packaged and shipped half way around the globe, and delivered to us for automatic and almost mindless consumption. Our experiences at sea frequently reveal this more complicated reality, we peek behind the curtain and see how the world really works, and again realize the narrowness of our own ways of thinking about the world.

Since leaving Borneo almost a week ago, we’ve spent most of our time at sea, moving a fairly large distance across the Java Sea, then across the southern part of the South China Sea. Yesterday we cleared out of Indonesia and made our way around the tiny island country of Singapore on our way to Malaysia’s port of entry, which sits just across the narrow channel separating Singapore from Malaysia. This 10 hour hop took us through perhaps the most heavily trafficked commercial shipping lanes in the world. As we crossed shipping lanes and rounded the Port of Singapore, dodging every imaginable type of commercial ship, we felt a bit like a baby chicken crossing a busy interstate freeway. And as the countless ships passed by, each one broadcast its own interesting story, quite clearly visible by its shape, features, flag and labels. Oil tankers, car haulers, cargo ships, natural gas tankers, and earth movers all went about their routine business, each carrying out a vital role in making the world work the way it does… too far up the commercial chain for us to ever bother thinking about until now.

The rest of the crossing here from Borneo was largely uneventful, which is exactly what we’re always hoping for in any of our sailing passages. We’re arriving here in the southwest monsoon season, so we’ve been getting a fair dose of foul weather as we move further north, but nothing we haven’t seen before, and so far none of the nasty 60 knot “Sumatra” squalls that this region is known for. From here on Malaysia’s southern tip it’s an easy drive across the causeway into Singapore, and the public transit system there is supposedly some of the world’s best. So so we won’t miss the opportunity to pause here for a few days of exploring Singapore before making our way up the Malacca Straits and diving into Malaysia.