Batteries, Bangkok and Bountiful Food

We have new batteries!  Our old ones were beyond help so the search was on for replacements.  The footprint of any battery is absolutely critical due to the limited space available but we finally managed to find suitable replacements so we're now back in business.  Yeah, I'm allowed to charge things again!

A few days after arriving in Phuket, we were met by old friends from South Africa who had immigrated to Australia back in the 80's, Neville and Tish Dredge.  

Over the intervening years, we saw Neville when he returned to SA for the 1995 Rugby World Cup and then again when we visited Mooloolaba in Australia in 2013 but hadn't seen Tish in over 30 years!  

They now live in Phuket.  Great to meet up again and jabber about old times.  We're hoping we can get together again before we push off.

When we were here two years ago, the island was overrun with Russians who didn't seem too popular with the locals.  Now there are very few.  The demise of the Ruble caused a significant decline in the number of Russians travelling here but Neville tells us that the ruling military have done their part in getting rid of them as well by issuing only 14 day visas to Russians extendable only  if they leave the country for over 72 hours.  It appears that the Russian mafia was getting into everything and were controlling the beaches, the clubs and most tourist attractions.  Once the military took over, they were given a short period of time to move off before bulldozers came in to plow their beach huts, stands, lounge chairs, umbrellas and all else that they had monopolised.  We're told the beaches are back to being clean and beautiful once more.  The island is now inundated with Chinese but they don't seem to like the beaches that much.

Speaking of the military, they seized power in a coup d'etat in May 2014, just after we left last time. Years of dissent with the ruling parties caused mass demonstrations and unrest leaving the country in political crisis.  After an earlier coup in 2006, a new government was elected but unrest developed shortly thereafter.  Two years after this latest coup, the country is still in the hands of the military despite promises to allow democratic elections.  Through all this, the King is still very much revered, having ruled Thailand for 70 years.

We have a very long-time friend, John Blackman, living in Bangkok who we wanted to visit as well as wanting to check on Paul's visa for Cocos Keeling so off to Bangkok we went.  

John showed us around some of the sights and introduced us to a myriad of food courts that serve an array of delicious dishes for incredibly inexpensive prices.  We seemed to have spent a great proportion of our time eating - I love Thai cooking!

We traipsed off to visit the famous Grand Palace but it was ever so crowded and also very expensive so we decided against it. We'd had the privilege of visiting it on previous occasions so weren't too disappointed.  Instead we took a couple of river trips, firstly down the main river Chao Phraya, the huge river meandering through the city and a major thoroughfare of traffic, and then through one of the smaller canals or 'Klongs', which were very enjoyable.  We stopped to see  several temples as well as the very elaborate Royal barges.

One of our stops was Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn which dominates the river skyline.  It's decorated with thousands of tiny seashells and Chinese porcelain.  Unfortunately, it was surrounded by scaffolding due to renovations but quite impressive all the same.

Bangkok is very much as we remembered from previous visits; full of tourists, night clubs, karaoke bars, lady boys, massage parlours and more eating establishments and shopping centres than imaginable.

We had a super visit with John and his lovely friend Chin who we'd previously met briefly in Singapore. Chin cooked us several delicious meals and seemed to love doing it.  I'd love to take her with us on board, think of the wonderful foods we'd receive!

However, after a week, we had to say goodbye to head back to Calypso at anchor in Ao Chalong in Phuket so we took a VIP bus back - 15 hours overnight, hmmmmm, not in a rush to do that again.

PHOTO ALBUM:

Ducks baking in huge urn

Food is available everywhere you turn

The Sky Train in Bangkok

The Erawan Shrine where the August 2015 bombing took place 

Wat Arun under repair

The magnificent Royal barges

Wat Arun

John & I at Wat Arun

Nighttime street markets

Homes along the 'Klongs' of Bangkok

Garlands to ward off evil spirits

Memories of Mom & Dad

It is with a very sad heart that I learned my dear Mom passed away last week in Canada at the age of 94.  She has finally got her wish to be free of pain and illness which she has suffered for many years.  In the sixteen years since my Dad passed away, she never stopped missing him; may they be together in peace now.  I always felt blessed to have my parents around for so much of my life and have missed my father so much.  And now my Mom.

To my sister Pat, who has borne the brunt of looking after my Mom especially over the past year, I say a huge and heartfelt thank you.  I can never really show my appreciation enough.  Hopefully once you have come to terms with your loss, you can get back to your own life and enjoy your new twin grandchildren.  

These photos of my folks are at various stages in their lives; the only ones I have on board and depicting the way I wish to remember them.  They bring back fond memories.

RIP Mom, give Dad a big hug from us.

Langkawi provisioning & on to Phuket

Since leaving Penang, we've done a fair distance.  First we stopped off at the northern end of Penang where we'd arranged to have our new debit cards sent.  They arrived but we still have to get them activated before we can use them and, just to throw a spanner in the works of our cruising life, they can now only be used to withdraw from specific ATMs and cannot be used to purchase anything online or in a shop.  Great, now how do we order any spare parts, top up Skype or book any travels?!  Whatever happened to "we are here to serve you"???  We're desperate for new batteries now and need to order them from Kuala Lumpur but how to pay for them.......?

Our journey to Langkawi was fairly straight forward.  We stopped at a lovely little island to break the trip so that we didn't have to do an over-nighter then arrived in time to book in with the Harbour Master and purchase some much needed refreshments of the alcoholic variety. Langkawi is a duty free island (a bit of a strange phenomena in an otherwise very Muslim country) and booze is approximately one third to one quarter of the price elsewhere.  If you take into consideration that it was nigh impossible to purchase anything other than beer in Indonesia and then in mainland Malaysia, the prices are prohibitive, this has been a long awaited and anticipated destination!

We stayed only long enough to stock up and buy a few spare boat parts before leaving on the 200nm leg to Phuket in Thailand.  Again, we opted to just do day hops; there are far too many unlit fishing boats, nets, traps and the like along the route to make it an easy passage. This part of Thailand has so many islands and most have suitable and beautiful anchorages so it was an easy choice to hop from one to the other leaving at daybreak and getting into a comfortable spot before the sun set each evening.  

The first bite

On our second stop, we woke to a solar eclipse in progress.  We were a bit too far north to get a total eclipse but it was fabulous to experience it all the same. The last time we saw one was in 2010 when we were in the Tuamotus in the South Pacific. That one had been almost 100%; spectacular!  This covered less but as the sun arose above the horizon, it already had a small chunk out of the upper right side which we could see clearly.  As it got higher, it was too bright so, not having the right equipment to view it, necessity became the mother of invention and the only thing we could think of that would fit the bill was some old mammograms - they worked perfectly!  So there we were, sitting in our cockpit, viewing the eclipse through x-Rays of my boobs!  Don't knock it, it worked.

Almost complete

We arrived in Phuket at noon on a Friday, just in time to book in without being subjected to their outrageous weekend overtime charges.  The last time we were here, the check-in procedure was a complete nightmare and fiasco.  This time however, everything has been computerised making it a much more efficient and smooth operation.  It still necessitated visiting the registration office, the Harbour Master, Immigration, Customs and Quarantine but, as they are now all next door to each other, what a pleasure.

First things first, buy a SIM card to access internet.  Sounds easy but for some obscure reason, it was quite the opposite.  A phone was no problem but internet access on the iPad caused blank stares.  In Indonesia, one trips over cell phone shops every few metres; in Malaysia, a little less but still they are everywhere.  Here we were told that we had to take a 35 minute taxi ride.  Common sense told us that that was simply not possible so after over two hours of wandering back and forth, we finally came across a little Chinese shop who could sell us the necessary items.  Voilá, we are in business.

Now to try to find some new batteries.

Beautiful Ko Phi Phi

Pulau Jerejak

The position where we're currently anchored lies on the south-east side of Penang.  We're just off the island (pulau) of Jerejak, an almost uninhabited island except for a small resort and a ship building facility on the far side.  Note: the little red arrow symbol indicates our anchored spot.

From our position, we can see the odd macaque monkey and the occasional monitor lizard as well as the beautiful white bellied Sea Eagle gliding above.  We've also been treated to a passing pod of dolphins.  It's a bit of a strange anchorage as, at the change of tides, we swing every which way with wind against current.  The waters in the narrow channel between the two islands can see some fearsome currents at times.

Some paths were actually navigable

Pulau Jerejak was once a tuberculosis and leper colony which was then restructured as a prison island for Malaysia's most wanted criminals.  It has now been returned to its natural state of a tropical forest preserve.  

That said, we, and Chris from Out of the Blue II, went for a casual hike one morning.  We were given a map to follow a few of the trails but reality was a vastly different scene to that shown on the brochure.  The many fallen trees on the so-called cycle path make it impossible to manoeuvre and the neglected and dilapidated trail we took simply ended on a beach far from anywhere.

 
 

Suffice it to say, we got horribly lost wandering through the woods and down along the shoreline with an incoming tide and no paths of any description to be found to get us back through the jungle.  We came across a floating fishing platform where several men told us there were no tracks.  Despite this, we tried a myriad of options, all dead ends, so eventually gave up and tried to retrace our steps - not that simple with the ever rising tide. 

Well, at least we got some exercise and, as it was mostly in a heavily treed jungle, it was pleasantly cool (well a cool of 30°C is all relative in this climate) but at least it was shaded.

The temporarily closed suspension bridge (probably been for years!)

Shrimp nets