Big city life at anchor

Yawning emptiness stares at us from our fridge.

That's probably it for the time being with the loneliness, we have to go to the city to get new provisions.

Kota Kinabalu is one of my favorite cities in Southeast Asia, you can get almost everything you don't need here. Mostly Made in China, but you get it. 

We carefully feel our way through the reef labyrinth in the city's harbor and anchor between adventurous soul sellers who are anchored here quite unkempt with the clinging smell of decades of fishing.

The anchor bottom is dirty with plastic and we get a plastic rice bag in the propeller and I have to dive in the broth first to pluck it out of the prop. Not pretty!

Anchoring becomes a game of patience, because again and again our iron loses its grip on the dirty bottom, but at some point we have made it, the anchor is in place!

We find a place between plastic and other garbage where we can land with the dinghy.

Again and again on this trip we have to realize that the environmental idea has not yet spread worldwide and that a lot of garbage simply ends up carelessly on the street and then in the sea.

The ban on plastic bags and the ban on plastic straws are of little use if everything is packed in plastic anyway and there is no sufficient awareness and functioning waste disposal in these countries.

Enough complaining!

We learn at the market that it will soon be the national holiday of Malaysia and that a big parade is to take place there.

Sounds interesting, so we  decide to stay here in the "idyllic" harbor for some time to experience the event.

School is cancelled for a whole week and the students practice for the parade.

Fire brigade, soldiers, police, car clubs... in short, everything that moves is pulled together for this event.

Man, that must be great, we think.

Stages are set up and thousands of flags of Sabah and Malaysia fly everywhere.

The parade is supposed to start early at seven... what? 7 o'clock in the morning??  Yep!

Ok, we go ashore a little later to witness this ecstatic moment.

The school classes are apparently already through, now it seems to be the turn of the car clubs. Minni Cooper club... Aha... Toyota Hilux Driver ... Oh... Subaru Friends... Oh no... we retreat to an air-conditioned shopping center for a while until all the car brands are through.

All the fire brigade cars follow, (hopefully there is no fire anywhere), all police vehicles (hmmmm... ) and finally you have the feeling of having landed in the middle of a civil war when all the heavily armed military vehicles with Rambo figures of the same figures in combat suits on tanks behind machine guns wave to the masses. 

No, there are no foot soldiers, too warm to march!

Well... that was probably the highlight. Almost like the carnival in Rio, ....just completely different.

A fun event in Afghanistan couldn't be funnier.

Ok, I know what you're thinking now: ....yes, we should have gone to the parade earlier, then we could have admired the students in their pre-military suits waving flags.

Well give us a chance,  we'll do it next time. ;)

Now we are taken care of again and will look for a quiet, beautiful bay again in the next few days to finally be able to jump into clean water again.