Catbalogan, Leyte and the return of the Swedes

Catbalogan, a city on the island of Samar was where we were to pick up our old crew Robin and Pontus. Amanda again attempted unsuccessfully to find more clothes that might fit. Nearby the local brigade was trying to put out a fire... A fire sale?

Pontus who for the last 3 months has resisted a haircut seriously gave it some thought, but decided that a 50 cent cut might not be his style. Robin was recruited for the task of cleaning pig intestine for a batch of Beef and Guinness sausages.

Bilaran is an island covered with steep hills, rice terraces and waterfalls. We went against the recommendation of our motorbike taxi driver to take a guide and headed out alone after receiving directions by way of a mud map (a map drawn in the mud by someone with no English). Our 10-minute walk turned into a 1.5 hour slide through muddy jungle. Yep we got lost.

We did get there eventually after finding some farmers who pointed us in the right direction.

Knowing the way back to town we decided to walk. Along the way a truck stopped, I guess to offer us a lift? Once we all jumped on they would have realized we wanted a ride if that’s not the reason they stopped!

Snake cave is our next destination.

Bintulu to Miri with the Yii's

After leaving the mouth of the Lassa at the very civilized time of 11am we traveled through the night to our next stop at Bintulu. After hearing about yachts before us having stuff stolen off them while anchored in the river we opted for the secure port 10 miles further north. From here it was a pain in the ass to get to town involving a long trip in the dingy through the Port before, in the words of the port official, hijacking out on the main road. The 24hour security made up for the inconvenience.


The weather being unsettled we stayed 3 days. When in town on day 1 we got sausage-making ingredients and filled in the other days making sausages. Hippy Amanda went all out even attempting to make Feta cheese as well as other things.

Another overnighter saw us through to Miri, arriving early in the morning with a blood splattered hull after catching 2 fish and running into a 35 foot long log in the middle of the night. After walking into town we found that Miri does not have anywhere to hires a motorbike. Everywhere we went I asked the locals if I could hire their bike for 4 days until we found a spare one. With wheels we found a great electrical shop that should have Avalanche danger signs posted and of course the friendly local Butcher.

Yii, the Butcher was a little surprised when we turned up wanting Pig intestines but after explaining what they were for he ordered them for an early pick up the next morning. He must have mentioned the crazy tourists making western sausages to his wife as we then got a message inquiring if we could do a sausage making class for her and her friend. Sounds like fun.

After a batch of Old English Pork Yii and his family took us under their wing and couldn’t do enough for us. We mentioned taking our bike the 100kms down to Niah Caves, but they would not hear of it insisting on driving us down.

After only 1 wrong turn we found our way through the cave system to the paintings on the other side.

Being a weekday not many people were about therefore the bats, cave Wetas etc were relatively undisturbed.

Once back at the marina we thought since the Miri Marina was full of boats, a taste test evening would help present our superior product to the marketplace. It ended up being such a success we did the same the following evening managing to sell out (24 half kilo packets) as well as back orders. This caused a delayed departure to make more sausages and Amanda was keen to go out with Yii’s wife and family while I got the boat prepared. Their plan of sneaking over the bridge to Brunei had its problems I believe.

A week later with sausages in the freezer again we headed off for Brunei. Thanks Yii and family for the great time we had while in Miri.

Sausages in Sibu

Sibu is a bustling town of about 250,000 residents who are largely Chinese, servicing the small towns up and down the 100’s of miles of riverbanks.

The Market place here was the biggest we ever seen and your chicken could be purchased in a variety of packages but not with chips.

Here may go down in history as the birth of the worlds best sausages available to mostly cruisers. Tired of life without a decent banger we have decided to manufacture our own and share the fruits of our labour with other people afflicted with the same addition. 2 days on the Internet gave us the know-how and off we set to purchase our equipment and ingredients. Synthetic casings not available the 100% natural sausage was the obvious choice. How did I end up with the job of sorting these?

Our first run of Old English Pork had a few teething problems such as bursting on the BBQ caused by over stuffing, but the taste was definitely there. The second run of more Old English Pork and fresh Chorizo was far more successful.

A couple of other cruisers came up from Santubong by ferry for a visit (think they heard about our sausages) so we hit the town before lifting anchor again and heading back down the river.