2006 July - Kuching - City and Longhouse Visit.

Kuching City photos on Flickr
Kuching - City and Longhouse Visit.
So here we are in Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, on the end of school year holiday break. We have Liz's father Gil with us and the plan is to stay here in Kuching for 11 or so days and then head to Miri at the other of Sarawak to hop onto Reflections which is sitting in a marina there waiting for us.

Kuching is quite an interesting little city set on a river just a little inland. The history is based around an Englishman Charles Brooke who came and, with the help of a gunship, established himself as the 'white rajah' and had control of the area until it was ceded to the British and then became part of Malaysia. It's a small enough town to walk around and take in the sights, mainly an excellent cultural museum, and arrange plans for the rest of the time here.

Heres a bunch of photos of around Kuching. Kuching means 'cat' in Malaysian hence the multitude of cat statues around the town. Click on the photo for a larger copy - press back on your browser to return.

Dancers on a river cruise...

After two days we had found our bearings, planned out our stay and took off on the first leg.  This was a trip to a longhouse. On our way we stopped at Orangutan sanctuary. Only 20 minutes from Kuching it was very impressive to think that such animals were able to live in the wild so close to humans. A large reserve area houses them where they are free to go as they please. Each day food is laid out for them as a supplement. Even though there were many people there it was an excellent viewing set-up and worth going to.  Memories of our river trip in Kalimantan to the national park to see these and many other animals came flooding back.

The large photo on the end links to a QuickTime movie - it will take a long while to load and only suitable for 'broadband connected types'. (7Mb)

Further along the way to the longhouse we stopped at a market for a rest/drink and a look around. Having been to many markets in SE Asia, this one stood out as particularly clean with a tiled floor and decent roof and ventilation.

Next stop on the tour a pepper farm where we learnt a bit about how pepper grows - on a vine around a pole standing on a dry sloping hill. The spiral mill was neat how it separated the good from the bad peppercorns by centrifugal force. Apparently the only difference between white and black pepper is the husk is removed from the peppercorns to make white pepper. You learn something new every day.

So after four hours we reached the end of the road and a short walk led us to the longhouse.  The traditional lifestyle across the region is to live in a longhouse. These are often over a hundred metres long and many families share the house, each with their own living space behind a door which opens on to huge long common area. The one we visited held 28 families. The one we visited was traditionally built timber structure which are steadily being replaced with concrete ones. Interesting that as they 'modernise' they still follow the same housing practices.

The longhouse we visited was an Iban village with sea faring and hunting practices traditionally followed.

Generally people eat separately and look after there own section of the house, getting together for special functions.  Our accommodation was a longhouse of a kind with cubicles with beds and a verandah to eat on.  In more remote areas, visitors are always welcomed and housed in the communal longhouse, but this is a fair enough compromise with a constant flow of tourist traffic. In the evening there was a short traditional dance, a traditional 'get the tourist to join in and feel stupid' session, and then we sat down and drank some locally brewed rice wine and rice whiskey. The wine was OK but the whiskey was true firewater.






Next and final day of our 'well orchestrated but enjoyable all the same' tour, saw a demonstration of cock fighting (no knives attached and care to ensure the cocks didn't get too agro on each other) and a demonstration and a turn at using a blowpipe. We all managed to shoot a dart into the tree and some even hit the target.  The trip back started with a boat ride down the river in the long slender canoes which shot along in the shallow water with the aid of an outboard that the driver lifted up constantly to skim over the shoals.

Quite a lot packed into a two-day trip. Not something we've done a lot of before (package trips) but all in all it was worth it. After a night back in Kuching we went out to Bako National Park for three days.

Time for a new page Kuching - Bako National Park. or Home

Feburary 2006 - A week's break in the Surin Islands.

The middle of February is mid-term break and with a week off to the Surin Islands, 100 km north-west of Phuket. we departed on Sunday morning after a day of packing and visiting other cruising families on the Saturday.



Day One started out in fine form. The weather was great but the main sail jammed in the track at the top of the mast and tore at the luff as soon as we started to tension it. So I spent the remainder of the day hand sewing it back together, while we motor-sailed with the headsail. The last time I had to repair that sail was five years ago when we were in at Frederick Reef, 200 nm East of Bundaberg in the middle of the ocean. That time I ended up driving the blunt end of the needle through the muscle at the base of my thumb to the bone, so Col had to finish stitching the last few inches. But five years on, that repair is still holding fast. This time the tear was above the old one and I have a new sewing awl that has a large timber holder for the needle. I managed to finish the repair before dark and with just very red hands and a few blisters this time.  A few hours into the trip and a pool of diesel fuel was spotted on the floor. A loose fitting was found and tightened, but the next few days the 'seep from the leak' continued - sigh....

 Surin Islands National Park brochure - (free) (in PDF format and quite large 1.5Mb)

Not long after, the wind picked up and we successfully raised the sail, turned off the motor and sailed the remainder of the trip. The highlight of the day was seeing a marlin taking several leaps near the boat. Not long after that we felt inspired to set a lure but didn't catch anything.

We were going to arrive at the islands in the middle of the night, so at dusk, we put one reef in the main sail and a partly furled headsail to slow the boat down as we needed to wait for daylight to approach the reef laden anchorage. We finally arrived at about 6:30 (Day 2) after 18 hours and were able take our pick of the National Park moorings as we were the only yacht there. That afternoon we snorkelled on the reef fringing the bay to find a stunning array of coral and fish. In the afternoon we headed into the park camp for showers, refreshments and dinner.



On Day Three we woke to a beautiful day and decided to head out to Richelieu Rock for a dive. It is 14 km east of the Surin Islands and is reputed to be one of the best dive sites in Thailand. We arrived at the cluster of pinnacles at about 9 o'clock to find three other dive boats already there. There was only one mooring and being the smallest of the boats there we were able to pick it up. Later we realized how close it had brought us to the pinnacles which lay just below the surface.


Col and I went for a dive, tagging along with a group of Japanese divers. It was a fantastic dive to 20 m with plenty of coral and fish to see including a pair of skeleton shrimp nestled amongst some whip coral. We also had sightings barracuda and three of giant manta rays just cruising past. Its a site where whale sharks are frequently sighted but we weren't lucky enough to see any. We resurfaced to find heaps more diving boats converging on the pinnacles. The casualty of the day was a large hole in one of the tubes of our inflatable dinghy. It seems that it must have been trapped under our windvane at the back of the boat as we were picking up the mooring, leaving it with the biggest hole it has ever had. We had arrived at the rock nice and early before the masses and as other smaller boats were now wanting to tie off our boat, we decided to head back to the islands for the rest of the day, mooring in the neighbouring bay. That night we shared the bay with a number of dive boats and local fishing boats. It blew quite hard in the night but the mooring held well. We woke to find our dinghy still a float, the dive boats gone and the biggest motor yacht that we had ever seen anchored in the middle of the bay, only 100 metres away.

So Day Four was dedicated to repairing the dinghy, watching the comings and goings from the motor yacht, wondering if and how we might be invited aboard and snorkeling on the fringing reef (this time we had to swim in as the dinghy was out of action). Well, we were well entertained watching the crew of Le Grande Bleu survey the bay for beaches, select and set up their beach umbrellas, relocate them to the next beach as the tide crept up. Then the owner ventured ashore only to see them pack up again after the next beach disappeared with the rising tide. They returned to their yacht and later headed to the neighbouring bay.

The intrigue of the boat dominated the day and suitably distracted us from the repair of the day. You see this motor yacht is 370+ feet long and has the most amazing toys on board. The visible ones are the 72-foot sailboat and the 68 foot powerboat that are stored on deck. In addition to this they also have a helicopter and multiple small craft inside and hanging off the sides, at less five of these were darting around the bay that day. When we got home we did a web search on it to find it had once been the largest motor yacht in the world (2000) but now is only number 9. It was previously owned by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, but is now one of the big motor yachts owned by a Russian billionaire.


So there we were in a Surin Island bay, just us on Reflections IV(43ft), a Russian billionaire on Le Grand Bleu (374 ft) and two Moken ( local sea gypsies) in a traditional canoe (10 ft). Sadly, in spite of our friendly waves and our respect for their privacy, showering and painting my nails, we wined and dined on board Reflections once again that night, but then again things could have been worse.




The following day, our neighbours moved on and so did we. We made our way further around to the northern bay of the northern island to one of the best snorkelling sites we have come across. We spent the morning snorkelling and then after lunch and we moved on again to a secured bay on the western side of the island for the night.
Some where here I have lost a day but I guess that's okay. On Friday morning, we headed back to Phuket, motor sailing most of the day with calm seas and keeping a sharp lookout for fish trap markers and stick rafts erected by large fishing boats. This time we were treated to seeing a whale emerge near our boat- a Brydes' or Minke whale we think. The wind picked up in the evening and we were able to complete the trip back under the peace and quiet of sail. We finally reached Phuket and Bang Tao Bay at 5:30 in the morning where Col dropped anchor and went to bed.



So now we are back at the house, washing and contemplating school tomorrow. We had a great holiday and can't wait to go back to the Surin Islands again.

August 2005 - Moving into Phuket

Photo Slide Show

An email sent in August 2005...

For those of you who we haven't communicated with for some time here is a quick update. We have decided to stop in Phuket for, most likely, two years. Liz has a contract as a primary teacher at the British Curriculum International School here and the girls are attending the school as part of her package. The reasons to stop were manyfold but mainly a desire to have the girls attend a conventional school. Reflections IV is at Yacht Haven marina at north eastern corner of the island, 30 minutes away. We will put her on anchor soon and hope to get some use on weekends and holidays. The girls and I spent the last two months visiting family and friends in Australia and Liz spent the same time in NZ with her family. Sadly, her mother lost a long battle with cancer, but at least Liz was able to be there with her and spend some time with her father afterwards.

So now we've been back in Phuket almost three weeks and the routine is firmly established. We rented a house in the suburb, Chuan Chuen Lagoon, near the school and are pleased with how convenient it is. It's a two minute drive to the school and there are lots of kids around for the girls to play with. The estate has a lagoon in the centre and the houses encircle the lagoon with a small park at one end. There is no through traffic and has a security gate for access. It's an old house and for the same money we could have rented a larger newer house further away but it feels good to live in and has a bit of character to it. There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms and has open but separated dining and living areas. There is enough furniture to live but we are hunting for shelves, bookcases and desks, then some wall hangings to make it cosier. It is tiled throughout and the owner repainted it just before we moved in. It's amazing how much stuff we've unloaded off the boat and continue too! The kitchen is a basic 'Thai' model but has two large benches with tiled surfaces. We'll probably add some cupboards and some sort of oven/cooker arrangement. The owner is a doctor from Bangkok and was very easy to deal with. He put it a new fridge, washing machine, and bed linen.



There are air conditioners in every room but we find they aren't necessary 95% of the time as there is lots of ventilation and we bought pedestal fans for every room.

For transport we bought an old Hyundai Excel which bright red and very sporty looking. It goes well and most importantly the air conditioner works well.

Anna has settled into life here well. Each afternoon she is off playing with friends and arrives back on dark for dinner. Both girls are getting an increasing volume of homework to do and have been pretty good at getting on with it. Anna loves learning Thai as is Courtney. We hope that we all will end up with a decent grasp of the language. The girls both have Thai as a core subject. She is in year 6 and is keen to get to school each day.

Courtney also has had great start to her experience of Year 9 in an International school. She has had very positive comments about her teachers and the subjects. She is continuing with French which she has been doing for two years with Distance Education. She talks very excitedly each night of how each subject went.

From both the girls' experiences and Liz's observations from her position we can see very clearly that this is a great opportunity for the girls to get an excellent continuation of their already broad education.

Liz is working really hard and hasn't stopped since we arrived. The class is going well and she is working long days and nights to keep it that way. The standards expected of her are very high but she seems to be thriving on the workload. Her classroom (Year 2) looks really great.

I have been the “procurement/moving officer” and have been making regular trips up to the boat each day and lugging stuff back then trying to find somewhere to store it all. Once that is done, and the boat is set at anchor with most it's list of jobs completed , I will look at getting some work. It's a long time since I left the IT industry and may find it a struggle to break in. I plan to do some study through a university in Australia and also see if I can help at the school in voluntary role.

So the adventure continues, but now in a different format. All of you have an open invitation to come and stay/visit anytime.

April 2004 High and dry in Boat Lagoon, Phuket

The next day we lifted out and and found the bottom in pretty good condition. When we bought the boat we found a lot of bubbles on the bottom. When cracked open they were found to clean and no sign or smell of osmosis activity. Over the last two years bubbles started appearing on the water line and this was a worry so now it was time to fix it up so we would know for sure whether a problem was present or emerging.

   

We engaged Pro Yachting to do the work on the boat. Jill and Pro are a well know couple here with a good reputation for getting the job doen well, but not the fastest job. The choice for a quick quality job would be Precision Shipyard run by Scott. But the prices his prices are significantly more.  With the boat up and out the first task was to find somewhere to live. the units at Boat Lagoon are convenient and by western standards, cheap. A small motel unit is 7000baht  (A$250) a month plus electricity (A$50-100). After three weeks of hunting we organised a larger unit for the four of us at 12000baht and settled into our 'temporary home'.

First up on the boat the mast came down.  Then a tent was erected around the boat. Then just about every fitting on the deck came off. Most of them not without a fight as most had never been moved since installation around twenty years ago and many were sealed in with epoxy.  The bottom paint was stripped off with paint stripper and then the epoxy layer was ground off. This took two weeks with two workers on angle grinders. One with a small grinder took the epoxy layer off and the other followed with a larger grinder and 'faired off' the fibreglass.  Amazingly they produced a very smooth bare bottom. We could see a few wet spots but overall were please to find our bare bottom looking pretty healthy!


Over the next two months several areas started weeping around the ground out wet spots. These were chased out and five months laters we were satisfied all the problem areas were gone and the hull was dry enough to be sealed up again. They filled and faired the hull until it was very smooth and fair. Then on a near perfect day, a team of four worked their way around the hull applying and screening off the epoxy resin and went around the hull five times, moving fast enough to maintain a 'wet edge' all the time. So that's the hull story.

The collision with the ship at Port Klang left us with a twisted section of toerail. Attempts to find a similar section of toerail failed and we eventually got a stainless steel fabricator, Siphon, to repair the damage rail. This was pretty costly ($500) but at the end of the job we were very pleased.  Pro replaced the damage timber board and while the scars remain (on the boat and within us!) the imprint of the Port Klang adventure was lessening all the time.

Feburary 2004 A short trip to Phang Na Bay

Phang Na Bay is a large bay to the north and east of Phuket.  The large somewhat shallow bay is studded with islands that are 'karst formations' - limestone islands that rise often vertically out of the sea.  A wonderous sight and very much a visual highlight in our journey.

There are numerous caves and hongs (the thai word for room) in these islands. The edges  of the islands are eroded away to form an overhang. We spent many hours cruising along in the dinghy admiring the limestone formations in and under these overhangs. The hongs are (I think!) collapsed caves and are just amazing.

At our first anchorage at Ko Phanak there is a Hong that is accessed by going through a cave for 50 metres or so.  With a rising tide we rowed into the cave and switched on our torch as light from the entrance faded. As we moved along a green tinge of light on the water grew, showing the light coming from the Hong. The cave finished and a small airspace of a few inches could be seen with the daylight in the distance. Jumping into the water I (Col) ducked down and swam through a two metre long and metre wide passage to surface in the brilliant sunshine and a huge 25 metre round lagoon with shear rainforest lined cliffs rising hundreds of metres skyward. Just a fantastic to swim out of the dark cave into this sight.

Liz & the girls followed and I revelled in watching their expressions as they surfaced and took in the vista. The tide rose to close the air space and one of us stay at the cave entrance so we could find our way back.  Really good stuff!

From Ko Phanak we made a lunch stop at another Hong which was much easier to enter but still very beautiful and here we watched large numbers of day visitors being paddled through the Hong on kayaks with a reclining seats so the visitors can lay back and relax while touring around.  Many hundreds of people make a day trip out to Phang Na bay - and rightly so!

The big attraction in the area is the island known as 'James Bond' island as the film the "The Man with the Golden Gun" had scenes filmed there. We anchored a mile or so away for the night and watched the sun set and lit up the islands around us in a spectacular way.

 Next morning we moved close to James Bond island and went ashore before the influx of tourist. Everyone that goes on a Phang Na bay tour ends up here and they say it can be literally standing room only on the small island.  Our early morning saw us well outnumbered by souvenier stall owners - luckilly they let us get away with just buying an ice cream.  But once again the attraction, while it's a bit overrun by the tourism process, was worth a look.

 

Time was against us with our visa running out soon so it was back to Ao Chalong to check out and head down to Langkawi. The intention was to go via Phi Phi Island but this turned out to be a dumb idea as the wind was right on the nose.   After punching into six miles of sloppy sea we anchored behind an island for the night and then decided to just overnight straight to Tulaga Harbour on Langkawi. This turned out pretty good as we had strong winds but  at a good angle and had a reasonable trip.

The trip back to somewhere you've been before is always much easier as the pressure on working out the right approach and quite often we have our previous track stored in our navigation software.  Going into Tulaga harbour for the night we treated ourselves to KFC for dinner.  The next day I went to the new immigration/customs/ports offices to check into Malaysia but was only able to do half the job as there was not Ports officer.  Apparently they opened the office with much pomp and ceremony a few weeks before and when the first boat checked in they 'clicked' that the Ports administration hadn't allocated someone to work there.  Hmmm...

We met up with Don & Jean off Katrine and were told there quite harrowing tale of dragging anchor back onto a reef and only just being able to get the boat away when the wind shifted for a few minutes.  Luckily this doesn't happen very often and they admitted that it was a bad place to anchor and though 'it'd be okay just for one night'.

After stocking up on beer, chocolates and Nutella we checked out and then rounded Langkawi to go into the 'Hole in the Wall'.  This is a long narrow passage, almost fjord-like on the north eastern corner of the island.  While you can take the boat straight up in there, we were told that is nice to anchor in the harbour around the corner and then head up a side river by dinghy.  The river is connected to the Hole ain Wall area by a man made cut through.

This was a top idea.  We enjoyed a beautiful anchorage in the bay and then spent all day in the dinghy going up the river, through the cuttings and into a cave in the dinghy.  The new motor performed faultlessly.  A short walk down the road from the main jetty at the Hole in The Wall is a gallery dedicated to the recently retired Prime Minister - Dr Mahatir.  It is a 'glorious monument to their glorious leader' - I'm sure that must be written.  The main collection of the gallery are all the gifts to Dr Mahatir from other countries, companies and individuals seeking favour or good will.  All that said it was worth a look.

January 2004 Similian Islands

Koh Similan National Park

We left Patong beach early for the 54 mile run north-west  to 'the Similans'. These islands are forty miles off the Thai coast  and run north - south.  The north-east wind blows hard most mornings and we left with a fully reefed main and quite a few turns on the headsail furler.  For the first few hours we charged along at 7.5 to 8 knots, but as the day went on the wind died away and after a short effort with the spinnaker we motored the last twenty miles to Koh Miang, the first island with anchorage possibilities.  A large pod of dolphins joined us for the last mile into Koh Miang - good stuff!

Every other shop in Phuket seemed to have ads for diving the Similans, so it was no surprise to see lots of dive boats. There are moorings at most of the dive sites and the two most protected anchorages. We picked up a mooring and jumped into the water for an late afternoon snorkel. The first thing was the water clarity - it was stunning. While the coral and fish life weren't spectacular, it was still very good.  On way back to the boat we watched in amazement as a marlin repeatedly shot out of the water and kicked it's tail wildly.

That night we rolled around terribly as the swells seemed to come from all directions.  A trip ashore in the morning found a beautiful beach and a campground  ashore. This would be an excellent holiday option - camping on this island or Koh Similan. Moving up the chain of islands we came to Koh Similan, the largest island. At the northern end there is a protected bay. Once again moorings are available and there is plenty of competition for a spot. We soon realised that patience pays off, as the dive boats move on to the next dive site every few hours, freeing up the mooring.

This anchorage became our base for the next week. This is also a ranger station and has a small restaurant, tents for hire and showers ashore. We were all very keen to try out our dive gear so the next day Liz wakes up with a head-cold. This ruled her out for a dive so Courtney and I prepared for the first dive off our boat.  We went around to the south eastern corner to a site known as Breakfast Bend. This was named as the dive boats do this as the first dive of the day. We picked up a mooring and with the boat tossing wildly Courtney & I stepped off the boat into a beautifully clear scene of coral and fish.  Swimming against the light current we made our way along sand banks that contained fields of small garden eels that sit up out of there holes and slowly descend as we approached. As we got toward our maximum depth of 18metres we found coral outcrops teeming with coral trout and gropers. A large Leopard shark was spotted and a good look in a darker hole found a two metre moray eel.  An excellent dive. On our return Liz and Anna we feeling pretty lousy on the madly tossing boat, so we quickly made our way  back.

That night the girls rented a tent ashore and had a great time 'camping out'. Liz progressively got sicker with a good dose of flu and over the week we all succumbed to the bug. But before Courtney and I did another dive, this time from the dinghy with the families on Uhane Kai and Brilliant II. The highlight of this dive was swimming with a turtle and making our way up, around and under large boulders.

The cycle of the day here was very consistent. A quiet start to the morning with a few of the dive boats moving out, followed by a steady influx of high speed powerboats (mostly with three 200hp outboards) carrying day trippers who would set up on the beach. With dive boats coming and going the day  trippers would leave and the evening would calm down with the sound of dive compressors filling the void till just after dark. The large boulder in the photo was a favourite vantage point for watching the sunset.

Not feeling well certainly put a damper on our stay in the Similans but it was still a very enjoyable stay. We left with little breeze but sailed most of the day to get us back to Patong Beach just before dark, then the next day heading around to Ao Chalong to do some 'town' things.

A short stay   in Ao Chalong saw Liz head off for several interviews for possible jobs. One at a large resort called Le Meridian sounded good but the interview turned out to be a bit of a farce.  Another a small college training people to teach English went well but the manager only needs some one if more enrolments come in. The third was at a private primary school teaching English to the predominately Chinese students. Once that was done we had just enough time to go up to see some of Phang Na bay before heading down to Langkawi to renew our visa

A short trip to Phang Na bay

January 2004 Phuket Thailand

So the year started in Langkawi, Malaysia and after a week or so we cleared Custom and Immigration and headed for Thailand. Most people spend a week or two making their way to Phuket to check into Thailand. We were keen for Courtney to have her birthday with some kids so did and overnight sailed straight from Rebak Marina to Nai Harn at the southern corner of the west coast of Phuket.  The north-east monsoon winds blew well and we flew across with twenty knots of wind on our beam (the wind at right angles to the boat).

We met "Dave the Cat" and they were able to supply four children for the birthday party, their own kids Shannon and Simon and two visitors Craig and Lisa. The bay was crowded with yachts and the beach was teeming with tourists, with whole beach lined with umbrellas and sun lounges for rent. Courtney wasn't well the day of her birthday so a party was held over til the next day and at the next beach up the coast, Kata Beach. Just as pretty with fewer boats anchored but just as many tourists on the beach.  

While at Kata beach we spent two days running around Phuket island to check out options for slipping Reflections. There are two main yards one at Ratanachai, close to Phuket town, which is very traditional slip and the other Boat Lagoon, a resort style place with a very clean open yard and units to rent. With charges very similar we decided on  Boat Lagoon.

A short move up from Kata beach brought us to Patong. This the 'night-life' capital with streets full of bars and girls and middle-aged western tourists. Definitely the place to go if you're in need of a bit of 'sleeze'.  That said Liz and I went in one night without the girls and had dinner and wandered round - got bored and went home to bed!

For a cruising yacht, Patong is not the bay of choice as there are heaps of jet skis buzzing around. Inexperienced riders going really fast, really close is not conducive to a relaxed afternoon at anchor!  We heard of several other boats with kids aboard and soon heard one of the yachts "Uhane Kai" on the VHF radio.  They told us that they and "Brilliant II" each had a twelve year old boy aboard with another boat "Raptor" having a twelve year old girl.

Also they told us about a dive shop selling off it's equipment.  With the thought of meeting more kids and possibly getting dive gear we ran the 12 miles back down to Kata beach to meet up with them.  We fulfilled all needs with the girls meeting up all the kids described above and we bought two sets of scuba diving  gear.

The two boys Dylan off Brilliant II and Kai off Uhane-Kai had recently completed dive course and were also heading to Koh Similan National Park. This is the main diving destination around Phuket and we were all now well equipped.

Next Page: Koh Similan National Park