The Kingdom of Thailand.

Monday 18th May

We checked into Thailand at Ao Chalong Bay on Phuket Island on the 20th February with a two month tourist visa in hand and not a clue where to go next. Having missed the window to the Red Sea by little more than a couple of weeks we were still trying to come to the terms of spending a whole year cruising here in Asia and what we would do with that time! After checking in we headed north towards the Burmese border and once out of the touristy areas we got to see some of rural Thailand where small fishing villages built on stilts still line the bays. The people living here are referred to as “Sea Gypsies” and play an important role in the fabric of Thai people.

For centuries the “Gypsies” have been the initial contact and buffer for the Kingdom in dealing with foreigners arriving by sea. Villages appear all long the coast line tucked in to protect them from the strong monsoon winds and assist their communal fishing activities. Most structures are small bungalow huts made from Bamboo with thatched reed walls and if prosperous capped by tin roofs. . Self sufficiency seems to be a theme as most live among live stock of chickens, ducks and the occasional cow. Fishing is the center of their lives and mostly done with gill nets and fish traps.

The traps are made of local saplings bent into a curved doghouse structure with a few banana leaves or reeds to cover the top. It acts as a little hut that fish enter to seek shelter and can not exit once past the opening in the front. Long lines of nylon cord are secured to the traps and tied to a float. The floats can be as simple as a few old water bottles or elaborate 6 foot poles of bamboo with flags of varying colors. These floats are found scattered just about everywhere and make for difficult navigation in the clear light of day and almost impossible for us to avoid at night, thus we stuck to making day passages and keeping a very good watch.

After sailing up the coast we headed out to the National Park islands of the Surin’s and Similan’s where we found some of the best snorkeling and diving we’d seen in a long time. With pristine reef and an abundance of tropical fish we spent weeks kayaking around with our snorkels finding new dive spots and great beaches. The national park charges a small fee which gave us unlimited use of the many mooring buoys which meant we didn’t have to drop the anchor once!! After running out of food we headed back to the famous party town of Patong on Phuket island to restock the fridge at the Carrefour supermarket and then headed east around the island into Phang Nga bay.

The islands of Phang Nga have been made famous as scenes in such movies as ‘The Beach’ and James Bonds “the man with the golden gun’. With towering limestone cliffs pitted with caves and gulley and the unique Emerald green waters and white sandy beaches every island is picture perfect. We spent our time exploring the hongs (bays inside the cliffs hidden from the outside) and watching monkeys scale the cliff faces until once again it was time to head back to civilization.

Since 1927 Thailand has been ruled by its longest reigning monarch ‘His Majesty Bhumibal Adulyadej’, still as popular today as when he first came to power eighty two years ago. The king’s influence can be seen throughout the country with his pictures lining most street corners and we even had to stand for a five minute ‘ode to the king’, including pictures of his life and his favourite music, before sitting down to watch a movie at the local cinema in Phuket. It’s obvious he’s extremely popular and it’s really nice to see a country of people who seem to genuinely adore their monarch.

The Thai people are kind and extremely friendly but obviously affected by the thousands of tourists who flock here each year to squat under umbrella laden beaches ordering cheap drinks and massages. We often felt like we were invading the local’s privacy as maybe one too many tourist has rubbed them up the wrong way. Or maybe it’s just the fact that so many white western males come here to date and often marry the local women making tough competition for the local guys and giving some areas a pretty seedy feel!

The Thai food has been a real treat. Most restaurants offering a menu the size of a small novel including everything from Curries, Local salads, noodle and rice dishes, an array of fresh seafood and even the more popular western dishes. The food is always fresh and very reasonably priced; we could buy a kilo of fresh prawns for the equivalent of US$ 6-10. Traditionally the Thai’s use ‘a lot’ of Garlic and hot peppers in their dishes which takes a lot of getting used to but still doesn’t hide the delicious flavors…It’s worth visiting Thailand just for the food!!

Chinese New year in Penang, Malaysia.

Tuesday 3rd February

Leaving Singapore we were finally able breath a sigh of relief that our engine worries were over...to kick back into cruising mode and enjoy being on the open road once again. 

That was over three weeks ago and since then it's been a whirlwind trip to rush hundreds of miles north to Langkawi just to make the decision that yes we are to late and we will have to spend a full season here in Asia!

Over the SSB radio and email we've said our goodbyes to all those friends we wont be continuing the adventure with this year and hope that they have a fantastic trip through the Red Sea. To Ingvil & Gunnar on s/v Helen Kate and Astrid, Jasper & Marijn on s/v Antares, we send all our love and will cherish the memories...Thank you (we also expect a room to stay in when we come visit you next year so don't think your rid of us that easily!!). ..Missing you already.

Thus our year in Asia has begun and After spending a week in Langkawi discovering all the great duty free stores; where a bottle of rum will set you back 28 Ringgit (roughly US$8 or 5 British Pounds) and every kind Chocolate you can imagine is stacked to the ceiling at ridiculously low prices, we hired a moped to check out the main island. We found some great anchor spots and marinas which I'm sure we'll become familiar with over time and enjoyed the spectacular scenery with almost a hundred islands covered in lush green vegetation and snow white sandy beaches...Heaven.

Our bliss was slightly obstructed, however, when we found out that we would need to pick up a visa if we wanted to spend longer than a month cruising the Thai islands. So we upped anchor and headed back 50 miles the way we'd just come to the island of Pulau Penang where the Thai embassy is located. The city of Georgetown is the business end of the island and was once the hub of the British east India company when they first arrived in Malaysia. Unlike Singapore, Penang didn't fair well with the decline of the British Empire and has left an interesting mix of Chinese and Indian cultures without the high tech attitude. The architecture in the old town is beautiful, though slightly neglected, it gives an eclectic feel with narrow streets crammed from top to bottom with colourful decorations and a temple or mosque at every corner.

For those of you who aren't up with your knowledge of Chinese cultural events the 25th of January is Chinese New Year's eve and for all those born in the year of the 'Ox' this is your lucky year! Unfortunately we weren't here in time for that celebration but we were lucky enough be in town for the Jade Emperor God's Birthday on the 1st of February which also marks the end of the week long holiday.
With over 10 thousand people packing the streets of Georgetown it was a fantastic night of Dragon dances, stage and puppet shows on every corner, craft fairs, 'a lot' of incense burning and my favourite....street vendors selling an array of delicious food! Georgetown is great at any time for finding yummy meals but on this night the chefs were out in force selling everything from Smoked salmon kebabs to squid stir fry and steaming bowls of Curry mie to giant spring rolls packed full with who knows what. The celebrations went on all through the night with fireworks and singing that we could still here from the boat in the early hours...these Chinese really know how to have a good time.

The next day, however, was back to business as usual and so with visas in hand it's time for us to head back to Langkawi to do a final stock up before sailing to thailand... but not before we have one last curry of course!

Haul out in Singapore! (5th Dec.2008)

After almost four weeks of waiting we finally get hauled out of the water in Raffles Marina, Singapore.

Corrosion caused by serious electrolysis weakened the bronze propeller strut, it sheered off after we hit something in the Malacca straights off Malaysia.

Grinding out the base of the old strut.

The bronze base of the old strut is attached to the hull with four bronze bolts.

The New and the old!

It took a full day to build up the Fibre glass around the new strut.

...The finished product!

After eight days in the hard we finally get dropped back in the water to give Blue Moon a test run.

The wild man of Borneo!

Wednesday 15th October

As Blue Moon slowly wound her way up the chocolate brown waters of kumai river we sat back and took a moment to breath in the sights and sounds of a real life Rain Forest. We were heading deep into the heart of Kalimantan, the southern part of Borneo island belonging to Indonesia, to visit our closest living relatives the Orangutans. Seven years ago I made this same trip and it was an experience that I was really excited to repeat.

Our ultimate destination is Camp Leaky; in 1971 a young woman called Birute Galdikas persuaded Dr Louis Leaky, along with help from the National Geographic Society, to fund a research camp in Borneo so that she could study the illusive Orangutans. Dr Leaky who is famous for discovering fossils of early humans in Africa was also supporting Diane Fossey in her studies of Mountain Gorillas and Jane Goodall with the behaviour of Chimpanzees. Galdikas set herself what many scientists claimed to be an impossible task, tracking wild Orangutans through some of the most inhospitable jungle in the world. Nevertheless she succeeded and would spend days living and following these amazing animals through the canopies while she wallowed in leech filled swamps and fell ill to malaria numerous times.

As night fell over the jungle we motored up river and dropped anchor off the town of Kumai, the base for organizing our trip into the Tanjung Putting National Park. We'd just missed the Indonesian Rally's official stop here so there were still a lot of cruising yachts anchored in the river which was great as we were able to catch up with a lot of friends who we hadn't seen since Lembata nearly two months ago.

The following morning we set straight to work finding a Klotok (wooden river boat) and river captain who could take nine of us on a two day trip up to Camp Leaky. Brenda and Brian on Galliano had just come back from a trip and recommended their boat to us and for just $80 per person for two days including all our food and drink so we organised the trip for the following day. In the afternoon we jumped into a bemo (minibus taxi) for a 40 minute ride to find an ATM in the bigger town of Pangkalanbun. Pangkalanbun is a really interesting bustling town with the river at it's heart, the people live on it's banks and use it for transport, washing clothes, bathing and just about everything else you can think of!!


At 7 am the next morning we were picked up by the klotok from our boats and a guy dropped off who would stay on the boat while we were gone for security...we just hoped it wouldn't rain as he had to sleep in the cockpit! Our Klotok was probably the nicest on the river with teak furniture and a covered toilet and Separate shower. This may not sound surprising but many a time we pulled up to another boat and had a clear view of someone in the shower! We slowly wound our way up the Sekonyer River and as cruisers sat back to enjoy being passengers on boat for a change. The scenery was beautiful and constantly changing with pampas grass and swampy forest becoming thick secondary forest...more green than we've seen in a very long time.

With our eyes peeled for fresh water crocodiles, Dugongs, leopards, all kinds of monkeys and of course the Orangutans themselves. We enjoyed a lunch of local delights that our cook produced from the tiny gally below decks. Our first stop was Camp Leaky itself, after four hours on the boat it was great to finally get to walk into the jungle to explore. There are three camps in total but camp leaky is where we were to find most of the Orangutans. After walking down the long wooden board walk we visited the Information center to meet Tom the current king Orangutan.

Orangutans live most of their lives alone only coming together to mate or by accident...here at the camp it's slightly different as many of these were rescued from captivity by Galdikas as babies. One of the greatest threats to the Orangutans is illegal logging and the destruction of lowland forests. Often the young orangutans are taken from their parents by the loggers and sold as pets. Galdikas would hear of a house keeping a wild Orangutan and with the help of local officials would rescue them and reintroduce them back into the wild. Each day the foundation provides a feeding for the orangutans consisting of bananas and milk for those who are not yet fully self sufficient.

While waiting to be taken to the feeding station we were blessed with a visit by a young male who came to have a look at everyone and grab hold of whatever he could! Jimmy had a close encounter with a rather large adult male on his way out of the toilet (Jimmy on his way out of the toilet not the orangutan!). The assistants employed by the Orangutan Foundation are mostly men from the local Dayak tribe, once known as head hunters they now enjoy working to preserve the wildlife around them.

At the feeding station we didn't have to wait long before the trees were crashing down around us and a group of female orangutans carrying babies came to feed. They have very little fear of humans and were a lot less interested in us than we were of them. Orangutans share 98% of our genetic make up and are our closest living relations and it's easy to see when they walk standing up. They're hair is a beautiful Auburn colour that curls in the rain and makes the babies look adorable! We sat and watched them for over an hour and then were escorted back to the camp by a mother and baby out for a stroll. Astrid had a fright when the mother grabbed hold of her arm but the ranger quickly told her to hand over the water bottle she was carrying and the orangutan unscrewed the lid, drank the contents, put the lid back on and handed it back!

Camp leaky was our only stop the first day so we had time to wander around the camp watching the gibbons playing in the trees and hoping to catch a glimpse of 'Princess' the female orangutan made famous by national geographic and the fact that she can use sign language to communicate with the rangers...but no such luck. So it was back on the boat to move back down the river to anchor up for the night in a spot all on our own. As night fell we watched DVD's of documentaries made by Julia Roberts and Joanna Lumley who both visited the camps. Our captain took them both up the river and shared stories of the filming and some close encounters they both had with the orangutans. That night we fell asleep under our mosquito nets listening to the Proboscis Monkeys playing in the trees and the chorus of sounds coming from the jungle!

Our second day we visited two more camps and hiked into the jungle to the feeding stations, at these the Orangutans are more wild and so we were really lucky to get a glimpse of more mother and babies and one very large male. The Orangutan population may have fallen by 50% in the last ten years and with 50,000 to 60,000 remaining in Borneo and Sumatra. It's important that they do not become to familiar with humans as we are their greatest threat so its good to see that fewer are coming to the feeding stations and are supporting themselves instead.

The jungle itself was beautiful with Birds of Paradise and wild orchids hanging in the trees and such a diverse amount of vegetation, great to know that someone is out here trying to preserve it for future generations. We arrived back at our boats by night fall and had an amazing trip, if we could do it again we'd probably do the three day trip but I guess that gives us a reason to come back!!

If you want to know more about the Orangutan Foundation just go to www.orangutan.org