August 2006 Miri, Brunei, Labuan and Kota Kinabulu

Miri International Marina

Quite a name, and one day I am sure it will be as glamorous as the name implies.  Part of a massive reclamation project the owner Troy Yaw, part a Chinese Malay family who dominate Miri's business scene, has a passion for sailing and puts his money were his mouth is.  I first heard of Miri Marina from Jo and Noah off Cetacean, who left their boat here.  The marina has been built for two years but there has been no progress on the on-shore facilities, so at this stage the marina is still free. This was a great enticement to sail Reflections 1200 miles to this coast and leave her here for us to return for the July/Aug holidays.  It was a good move as it really attached me (Colin) back to Reflections and I feel that we are still getting value from her, although she isn't our home for now.

Miri town itself isn't much of a town from a sightseeing point of view, but it has lots of shops (shoppers from nearby Brunei frequent Miri) and has a bit of wealth from the oil industry as Miri is a major supply centre for the onshore and offshore oil industry. But to be honest it was nice just to be aboard Reflections and take things easy for a while.  The inevitable problems with 'restarting' a boat you live on took place. Putrid water in the tanks exacerbated by a failed freshwater pump. We spent two weeks there before moving on to Brunei.

During that time we got to know several other boats. Augusta with Cato and Christine aboard, had kept an eye on Reflections for us. Cato is a writer and it was wonderful to see the connection build between him and Courtney.  A large timber boat, Contessa had a large group of young people aboard.  Johnny Ambon the skipper from Indonesia , Jeremy, Aimee & Laura (USA) and Eddie from Fiji, were delivering the boat to Pattaya in Thailand.  While we were there Crystal Blue's owners, Neil and Ley, returned from Australia and Largo Star, with Vivian and Alistair from NZ, came in.  It was such as nice thing to be around other cruising boats and getting back to this lifestyle.

While Courtney seemed to hit it off with Cato, Anna became good friends with Laura, with the two of them spending hours out on the wave ski paddling round the marina and chatting. One of the truly pleasing things of this trip has been to see how well the girls can converse with adults and children alike.

     

Niah Caves
One of the main attractions near Miri is Mulu caves, but the budget had been knocked about after our stay in Kuching so we passed on Mulu, but hired a car and drove 100kms down the coast to Niah Caves. This is a huge cave that is one of the largest in the world. A long boardwalk brought us to the caves and it was neat, but a little eyrie, waking through the caves often in complete darkness. in the middle of the largest cave the sunlight giving a breathtaking sight.

       

Brunei    
So after a few weeks in Miri we realised we needed to move on. On the day we checked out, Laura asked if she could come with us to Brunei. She seemed easy going so we said yes.  We spent three very relaxing days making our way from Miri to the main harbour of Brunei. Easy 30 mile hops each day with a stop in the Kuala Belait the first night, a huge breakwater surrounded harbour built by the sultan's brother the second night and then into Muara to anchor off the Brunei Yacht club at Serasa on the third day. We even caught a nice Spanish mackerel on the first day. It felt so good to be cruising with the family again. And because we had a visitor, we behaved impeccably.

Brunei is a different place to visit. First up, there seems to be a different set of immigration rules for every country. US citizens (Laura) get a three months stay visa for free. Australians get a maximum of thirty days and pay roughly a dollar for each day you stay. Every other country gets a different deal,  and it seems to be the whim the sultan. The sultan of Brunei is the supreme ruler of the country. No democracy here. But the people appear happy with the situation as the oil money flows in, all citizens get free school, health and public servants get a very impressive pension. It seems that all work is done by Indonesian or Filipino guest workers. It was an enjoyable place to see but a place I don't think I'd ever really 'love'. The yacht club was 'the' ex-pat hangout, as it is the only place in Brunei where you can drink in public. They don't sell alcohol, but you turn up in the evening with your bottle of gin, and the staff cheerfully sell you your tonic, lime and ice. Over a really nice meal you can reflect on the day as the sun goes down. Most ex-pats  teach English in Brunei state schools, or work in the oil industry.

   

The capital of Bandar Sri Bandawan is dominated by two large mosques, commissioned by the present sultan and his father.  A huge water village occupies the other side of the river the city sits on.  It was the sultans 60th birthday a few weeks before we arrived so the city was still adorned with huge posters of his royal 'richness'. But possibly the posters are up there all time anyway.

   


We waited in Brunei for some mail to arrive. We went to visit the amusement park in Jerungdong, which is huge and full of great rides that sadly don't work any more. We knew this beforehand, but it seemed like a reasonable evening out and it was. Pretty sad really when people spend so much money to build such a good park and then just let it go.

   

Labuan and Kota Kinabulu
From Brunei we sailed across to Labuan. An island straight off Brunei but part of Malaysia, and duty free. So time to stock up on alcohol and chocolates! This Mosque in Labauan was described in the guide book as Darth Vader's summer house.  When we left Labuan the weather forecast was not great with storm cells about. An hour or two out and a nasty squall got us unprepared. Unfortunately the wind came up very hard before we could roll the headsail up and I had to winch it in while it flogged madly and opened up lots of seams. A repair job was done in Kota Kinabulu and all the seams were reinforced with an extra row of stitching. The sailcloth on the outer edge  is too far gone and either we do another repair or get a new sail soon.  The original intention was to stop at Tiga island on the way but the rotten weather kept up for the next two days as we headed to Sutera Harbour in Kota Kinabulu, Malaysia.



The marina in Sutera Harbour was really nice. It is a no discharge marina so valves are shut or holding tanks used so the marina has the clearest water I've ever seen in a marina pond. We enjoyed the last few days of the family holiday here before Liz and the girls flew back to Phuket to start the new school year and for Anna, the start of High School.  I stayed on for two weeks at Sutera, doing uni work, before heading back down for the start of the yacht race.

 

July 2006 Kuching - Bako National Park & Rainforest World Music Festival

Photos on Flickr - Bako     Photos on Flickr - Music Festival
Kuching - Bako National Park

After the long house visit (Kuching - City & Longhouse Visit) we had a night back in Kuching before heading out for a three day stop in Bako National Park which is 45 minutes out of Kuching on a headland. After spending some much time in Thailand it is natural to compare the two countries - Malaysians drive at a much more relaxed pace and generally the 'oh my god we're gonna crash' event is much less common. We caught a mini bus as the deal was only slightly more than the bus and no wait for the next bus. Safely delivered to a jetty we hopped on a long-tail style boat but with a quiet outboard. Long-tails in Thailand are very unique and culturally significant, but so bloody noisy!  15 minutes later we are wheeling our suitcases, backpacks and plastic bags along the path looking for the parks office. Sounds like an ordeal - 200metres dragging bags in the sun is!  We booked a lodge which was sort of clean and sort of tidy and many of the lights worked - but nice to be in a detached house surrounded by forest with a nice view of Mt Santubong in the distance across the bay.

The national park is home to lots of animals and macaques are very common as are proboscis monkeys and some sort of wild pigs that are particularly ugly.



The main activity here is walking, then recovering from the walks.

First day we had a short walk of an hour and a half in the late afternoon to small beach and saw lots of proboscis monkeys and generally enjoyed the walk. Hot and sweaty at the end of course. Next day a much bigger walk, with a long climb at the start, a long walk to several lookouts and a long section of dry light forest, many unusual pitcher plants, then a seemingly never ending, climb down.  Absolutely buggered at the end! A really still day didn't help for tropical bushwalking.

     

After three enjoyable days at Bako we headed to Santibong for a taste of luxury as we stayed at the Holiday Inn - Damai Beach.  These photos are of the rooms on the headland. We stayed down at the beach level and we only 300metres walk from the Sarawak Cultural Village - venue for the Rainforest Word Music Festival.  We had been told by Michael, one of the teachers at the school, that he had gone last year and enjoyed it so much he was coming again.

After three wonderful days we wholeheartedly agree with Michael's comments. If circumstance allow, we'll be back again next year. The cultural village is set around a small lake and .has a several longhouses built to demonstrate the way the different local groups of Sarawak live. These longhouses became the venues for daytime workshops and a natural amphitheatre, with a high forest backdrop was the venue for the concerts each evening. The workshops were a mix of individual bands demonstrating their musical styles and groups together who explored a certain aspect of the commonality of their music. For example, in one workshop a  musician from Madagascar demonstrated how the local instrument from his country has its roots in a musical instrument from Sarawak. Trading across the Indian Ocean must have taken the instrument to Madagascar centuries ago. Another was a "Bollywood" style dance lesson with an Indian-Malaysian drum band.  This was great fun. We all enjoyed the three days and found we went our separate ways to attend different workshops that interested them.

   

So for three days we stayed in the luxury of a five star detached villa, ate excellent buffets each morning & evening, and spent our days at a truly memorable world music festival. good stuff!

 

After the festival we spent a few more days exploring Kuching, and discovered the old town much more, especially the Chinatown streets that are closed to cars for most of the day. Gil flew home on the last day of the festival and we feel sure he enjoyed the whole thing as much as we did.

   

We stayed at an expensive hotel for a few days, due to a earlier panic session over accommodation, but then moved to lovely cheaper guesthouse call Singgahsana which was much more our style. We left Kuching feeling very pleased with our discovery of this excellent city to visit.

Next we flew to Miri to rejoin Reflections. Miri, Brunei, Labuan& Kota Kinabulu or Home

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.