Filed October 19, 2009 at 4:53 am under Boating by Administrator
Its been quite a while since we updated the site, and so this will be rather a long update!
We are currently anchored outside Yacht Haven, a small marina in the north of Phuket island, close to the bridge to the mainland. It is a good place to be because they have an arrangement where yachts at anchor pay 600 baht a month, about 60 shekels, and can use all the marina facilities, including their gym and swimming pool, hot showers ( the first hot showers we have seen since Egypt, by the way..) dingy tie up, drinking water from a natural spring and easy access to the road. The north of Phuket is much quieter than the south, no shopping malls or girlie bars, and the population is mostly Muslim villagers. There are some nice local restaurants though, and the best is Mama’s, which is right on the waterfront. Luckily they have beer and pork, since Mama isn’t a Muslim, and the prices are the same as in the rest of the local places, e.g. cheap! The countryside around the marina is nice, lots of green and plantations of rubber trees, lots of streams and water buffalo, and little villages with chickens running loose on the road and even monkeys sitting on the roofs of the houses sometimes.
Since we bought the scooter, we have done 5000 km on it, poor little thing. It has worked really hard, because apart from going all over the island on it, we have been to Phang Nga on it and even went quite a long way with Inbal as well, until we rented an extra scooter. People here tend to use their scooters as family cars, and we have seen entire families of up to 5 people on one scooter, new born babies over the mothers shoulder ( usually sleeping peacefully), people carrying planks several meters long, huge pots of food, two dogs on one occasion, and yesterday, two people with three songbirds in large cages. The law in Thailand says that the driver has to wear a helmet, and that writing text messages while driving is forbidden, an enlightened attitude! However, it seems to be accepted that scooters are exempt from most regulations- they don’t pay for parking, even in restricted areas, they often drive the wrong way even on main roads, and traffic lights are just used in an advisory capacity. Actually the scooter is the king of the road, because all the other traffic is always scared to death of hitting one. We load ours down with shopping, and have managed to get up to probably 30 kilos balanced round us at times, but we are still amateurs.
We have sailed into Phang Nga bay twice so far, once by ourselves and once with Inbal, who visited us last month. It is a lovely area, stunningly beautiful and good to sail in. The bay is well protected, and the whole area is shallow, so that you can anchor anywhere. There isn’t a long reach of water in any direction, because there are islands everywhere, so there are no large waves. This is lucky, because on the first trip, we sailed out of our anchorage near Ko Phanak straight into a big squall. Squalls here can be pretty violent, and this one had a good 40 knots of wind. Since we had been sheltered by Ko Phanak, which is a high, mountainous island, we had no idea of the squalls strength, and got hit unprepared, with sheets of driving rain and gusts of wind which threatened to knock us flat. But, in 6 meters of water this is less of a problem than it would be elsewhere- we just let the anchor go, got the sails under control and closed our trusty tarpaulin over the cockpit. In an hour everything was back to normal, although we did rip the genoa. It was an old one which we had found in Chagos though, and wasn’t actually much good even before it was ripped, so that didn’t matter much.
We returned to Ko Phanak with Inbal, because we liked this island particularly. Ko Phanak has 6 hongs, which are big caves, hollowed out of the limestone by waves and rain. Some are dry, above sea level, but the most interesting ones are entered by kayak. The largest is on the west side of the island, close to the northern tip, and it is about 200 metres long. If you enter it at half tide you can go all the way through and come out in an inner lagoon, which is completely enclosed by steep cliffs, overgrown with jungle and with the sounds of exotic birds and monkeys echoing round the walls. Unfortunately when we went with Inbal the tide was still too high, so we could just see the light coming from the lagoon coming through the entrance, which was still underwater.
Ko Phanak also has a big open lagoon with weird shapes carved out of the limestone, like rooms open to the air on one wall, and it is obvious that when these were made the sea level was much higher than today’s. The whole island is full of stalactites and stalagmites, and hundreds of bats roost in hidden caves, and fly out in huge flocks at dusk, bound for the fruit trees on the mainland. At spring tide, when we were there, the lagoon dries completely- we were glad we had anchored a bit further out!
Going back up to Yacht Haven is much harder than going down, because there are very strong currents which mostly sweep down the narrow channel between Phuket and the mainland. Going down, we were carried nearly all the way without any effort at all, but coming back the first time we had three different engine problems, including an exploding oil filter, which sprayed oil everywhere, including the salon, since the engine door was open. We anchored and fixed the sea water intake which was blocked, did another 2 miles against the current and anchored again to fix the slipping alternator belt, did 2 more miles and the oil filter exploded, anchored, changed filter, cleaned the mess, and eventually got back, and went to have a well earned beer at Mama’s! We were glad that the second time, with Inbal, all the possible engine problems had already happened and been fixed, and we actually got all the way with only a little heating up, probably caused by a crab in the sea water intake!
Inbal arrived at the end of August, and it was so good to see her. She has grown up a lot in the last year, and is working and living in Jerusalem . We went to collect her at Bangkok airport, which is probably one of the worst thought out airports in the world. It is funny, because the Thai are usually good at building, and are very aesthetic, but Bangkok airport is hopeless. There are lots of different exits for passengers, so that where-ever you wait you can miss each other, and when you finally do see each other you have to walk 200 meters in the wrong direction to actually get on the right side of the gate! Anyway, eventually we managed to meet, and had a day in Bangkok, seeing the Royal Palace and the Emerald Buddha Palace and visiting the Chinese Quarter before getting on a long distance bus back to Phuket. After a day or two resting and relaxing we toured the island, went to every beach, every shopping mall and up to the Big Buddha. It was fun showing her things, especially because we had had time to get to know the island, and knew where to take her. We had forgotten that Inbal lives mostly on pizza, pasta and icecream, all things which Thailand does not excell at, but we managed to find some good compromises, and Inbal discovered that she likes pad thai too!
After coming back from a nice two days sailing in Phang Nga bay, we took Sheva to a dogsitter ( a very nice place in a villa near Ao Chalong with an English-Thai family) and flew to Laos. This was mostly because we had to renew our visas, but it was interesting to see Laos too, although really it just resembled a poorer version of Thailand. Laos was intensively bombed during the Vietnam war for some reason, and is still a bit shell shocked, as well as having a slightly Marxist government which doesn’t help at all. From Laos we crossed back into Thailand and went by the worst long distance bus in Thailand to Chiang Mai. We really hadn’t planned to go there, and went just because Inbal wanted to, and we are glad she got us to go. Chiang Mai is a very nice town, full of Wats ( buddhist temples) and big markets full of cheap clothes and mementos, loads of good second hand bookshops. After a day walking round the town, we split up, and Inbal got her teeth filled for a quarter of the price it would cost her in Israel, Oren went for a massage, and I spent as long as possible looking for books before being dragged back out of the second hand bookshops.
The next day we took a guided tour to the hill villages, and saw the long neck tribe and two other tribes as well. It is pretty touristy, and their village is supposed to be just a set up so you think it is a real village, but it was interesting to see them anyway. One of the tribes have these awful old women who won’t leave you alone and want to force you to buy some bangles or something, they are really hard sellers but we didn’t buy any. We visited a huge cave with lots of buddha statues in as well. It would have been nice to spend more time there, there was a lot that we didn’t see, that is the trouble with guided tours. If we get time to go back to Chiang Mai we will go up there on a moterbike and spend all day.
The next day we went by local bus to Chiang Rai, and visited the White Temple. This is a modern Buddhist temple, built all in white marble, and has lots of wonderful, strange statues and paintings. There are even white fish swimming in a white moat round it! There are pictures combining Superman and Spiderman with traditional Buddhist motifs, and so much to see that it also deserves a second visit. It was well worth seeing , well done to Inbal who suggested it. We returned to Chiang Mai to our guesthouse, which was very nice, clean and quiet, central and had tv with cable for 250 baht for a double room and 150 for a single! This means that Sheva could have had a room for the same as it cost to have her dog sitted( or should that be dog sat?)!
We traveled back to Bangkok by sleeper train, really the best way to travel. For 700 baht you get a bunk with fresh linen, pillow and blanket, and sleep all the way to Bangkok! I loved it, much better than the bus. We had another day in Bangkok, went up and down the river by ferry although it was a bit noisy, and went to the biggest mall in Thailand, where Inbal lost her phone and managed to find it! Then we had a go on the sky train, and Inbal had a foot massage by fish as a finale before we saw her off at the airport.
After getting home we spent the next week or two just recuperating!
After getting back to normal, we are still doing yoga, and are actually getting quite good at it. We seem not to be losing weight any more though, and this may be because I have started to learn how to cook Thai food. We like it so much, and Oren says my green curry and red curry is actually better than Mamas! This is because I put more meat in and give him more rice too. Actually it is very easy, because I buy curry paste which is most of the work. We have bought a polystyrene box, and get ice from the village, so we can buy vegetables and meat for three days, it stays really fresh. We go to Thalang, which is the nearest town, take the laundry which we do for 20 baht a wash at the laundrette, get all the meat and veg at the market and beer at the supermarket, and wobble back fully loaded!
Filed July 5, 2009 at 1:22 am under Boating by Administrator
We arrived in Thailand about two weeks ago, and are anchored in Ao Chalong bay, the best anchorage in Phuket. This is a big bay, well protected from all sides, and quite shallow, in fact you have to be careful not to go aground on sand banks and can’t get very close to shore. The holding is good, mud mostly, and it is a pretty good place even to leave a boat for the long term- there is a yacht near us which seems to have been here for ages.
To get to land we have to go about 1/2 a kilometer, which isn’t really too bad because the water is quite smooth most of the time, but Oren has built a dingy anyway. It won’t really move without a motor, unfortunately- it took us ages to paddle it to shore on its maiden voyage. It does stay a bit drier than the kayak, though!
On shore there is a kind of touristy road, with lots of bars and a rather active “bar girl” population. After that, there is a roundabout and the real Phuket starts, with prices about 10 times lower. The problem is that it is so hot that some cruisers never get to the end of the road ( well, thats their excuse, anyway!). So we have bought a little scooter, and are free to get to all the interesting places on the island, or farther if we want, although long distance buses are cheap and good here.
The best thing about Thailand has to be the food, which is cheap, plentiful and very very good. The pork and shrimps are really outstanding, and there are lots of different kinds of noodles, vegetables and fruit which we have never seen before. Every meal we try something new, although I have got stuck several times on pat see you moo, which is a kind of wide, sticky rice noodle in soup with pork and vegetables. It is extremely tasty. Restaurants here range from the ordinary kind where you sit inside, to stalls with tables outside ( often the best value for money, since you get a glass filled with ice and a big jug of water with the meal) to market stalls selling kebabs and other finger foods for about 1 shekel each, to mobile sidecar stalls, which sell all kinds of food. One thing we haven’t tried yet is oysters- we have seen mobile oyster stalls with big heaps of huge oysters, but haven’t had a chance to buy any. The average meal in Thailand costs 40 baht, which is about 5 shekels, but if you are really hungry, you can go to a buffet, where there are lots of big pans with different kinds of stews and curries. You get a plate of rice, and depending on what you take, you pay between 60-80 baht. The one we go to has very very hot dishes though, and you need plenty of green leaves to ease the burning. The leaves are part of the meal, a side dish.
The other incredible thing here is the shopping. The malls are huge, and they are everywhere. There are expensive ones, but also cheap ones, like Big C, which has a huge supermarket, a food hall with good prices, and lots of computer shops, mobile phone stands, clothes shops and so on. A laptop here costs from 15000 baht, much cheaper than Israel, and clothes too are very cheap and good.
So I have to admit- we have been here more than two weeks and so far have only seen restaurants of all kinds and shopping malls. However, that is because we haven’t seen any of these for months and months! We hope to get around to see some islands, hongs and so on soon. Also we will take some pictures eventually, keep posted!
Filed May 30, 2009 at 5:17 am under Boating by Administrator
We have been in Sri Lanka for 3 weeks now, and have had an interesting time. We entered Galle harbour on the eve of the biggest holiday of the year, Buddhas birthday, which also was Orens birthday. Of course he was very modest about that, and didn’t go round showing the date of birth in his passport to anyone…..
The week after that, the war ended, and there were big celebrations, street parties and motorcades through the streets of Galle. I had ‘flu, and stayed in bed, but Oren was swept off and placed on top of a statue of fallen soldiers and placed a wreath over their heads. He was on the evening news in Sri Lanka! The feeling in the island is very positive now, and we hope for the Sri Lankans that peace really does last. We would love the same to happen in Israel too, of course.
After getting over the ‘flu, we went up to Kandy, in the mountains- actually it isn’t very high, and the climate is just nice, not cold.The temple complex where a tooth of Buddha is supposedly kept is impressive and there is a lot to see. We were lucky to have a guide who really knew the complex, and unlike most Sri Lankans who offer themselves to guide or help you, he didn’t ask for any money ( so we gave him some, unlike the ones who are just on the look out for gullible tourists!) We didn’t get any pictures because we forgot the camera, and the next day a torrential thundershower started in the afternoon and carried on all night, causing a powercut through the whole city for hours. We were glad we hadn’t gone out!
From Kandy we went to the Botanical Gardens, and now do not want to see any more flowers, trees or shrubs for a long time- it is HUGE. We stayed at a nice little bed and breakfast place and the next day went to see the Elephant Orphanage, which is really very touristy and not worth the money, but we did see a lot of elephants, not many of whom looked like orphans. There was one with three legs though….
We will be off on our way to Thailand next week, hoping not to get too wet. The weather is quite nice now, but another lot of squalls will probably come in soon, so its fingers crossed!
Filed April 24, 2009 at 1:48 am under Boating by Administrator
We are sitting in the anchorage in Gan, back from 2 wonderful months in Chagos. The journey there was a little eventful, as usual- on entry the engine wouldn’t start, and we came in to Salomon Atoll under sail, and anchored in the only spot possible, near Isle Fouquet. Unfortunately this isn’t a really safe place, since the frequent squalls that come sweeping through the area put you on a lee shore, and the holding is rotten, since it is on coral, with no good heads to wrap around. We came in between squalls, and hoped for the best. We had a good nights rest with no squalls, but the next day started to be squally again. Oren put out four anchors in all, and all our chain, and we prepared to be beaten about. As we battened down, a dingy came puttering up and we met two of the nicest cruisers we have ever met. Ron from Tigger and Humphrey from Brumby had come up from the safe anchorage four miles in to see if we needed help!
After hearing our engine, they quickly diagnosed sea water in the cylinders, caused by overloading Chasamba with supplies- it is something which happens to most long term cruisers at one time or another, apparently- and helped Oren to get the engine drained and working. We weathered the night, which was very squally, set the anchors again at 3 in the morning because of dragging, and the next morning when visibility was reasonable set out for the anchorage where all the other boats were. Of course, we had to have a big squall come over on the way, so we couldn’t see anything- there are lots of coral heads in the lagoon and it’s a bit dangerous to come in blind, but we had no choice, so we carried on and were rewarded by the sight of Humphrey sitting in his dingy in the pouring rain, holding a mooring line attached to a coral head!
After this slightly traumatic arrival, we had a good rest, forgot about it all and started to have a good time. The cruisers in Chagos are mostly the ‘hard core’ – people who really know how to do things, and have lots of experience, and like helping the less experienced (us) to survive! During the time we were there, Oren made a new saddle for an injector ( one broke) from a piece of iron bar, tied our spreaders to the shrouds with steel wire, was given a mainsail and helped to get it trimmed, we were given a bit of rf ground wire and the ssb now has a range of 2000 miles ( it had about 100 miles before), replaced a seacock which was stuck open with one which came from a wreck, and fixed the toilet ( again).
Chagos itself is an amazing place. It is uninhabited, except by cruisers, and has a population of about 3 million coconut crabs, which start life as hermit crabs and gradually get bigger and uglier until they discard their shells and turn into Jurassic Park extras. The big ones are nocturnal, and can be 5 kilos, but luckily they aren’t agressive and just have a bit of a problem getting their legs to go the right way to run off.Apart from crabs, there are lots of rats, actually nice clean ones though, and of course thousands of coconut trees. In the main part of the island, there are wells and you can do laundry, and there are paths to walk round the island. We even baked bread, and in the evening everyone would gather for a drink and a chat. Paradise! The weather was mostly hot, with squalls every week or two, so we had no shortage of water, and drank only rain water. One day we filled 600 litres of water in 5 hours!
The fish is also abundant, wahoo, coral trout and tuna especially, and we also tasted barracuda, which is very good. There are lots of sharks, mostly black tip, some white tip and a few nurse sharks. They aren’t aggressive though, usually. The remora fish are worse, and try to stick on to you, it’s really horrible!
Our biggest problem was time, surprisingly. We were busy all day, every day, and the time just dissappeared. Two months was not enough, although it is nice to be back in a place where we can buy supplies, since we ate most of our goodies.
Now we will be in Gan for a week, and depending on the weather we will be off to Sri Lanka, so next update will be from Galle. Meanwhile have a look at the new pictures in the album.
Filed February 2, 2009 at 1:13 am under Boating by Administrator
We are still here, lounging around, snorkelling and generally on holiday, which is the main raison d’etre of the Maldives. The snorkelling is good, there are lots of reefs with a good selection of fish, and so far we have seen sting rays, a small reef shark, several turtles of various sizes, large groupers, unicorn fish, a large seahorse, morenas, and one large crayfish which Oren nearly caught! Visibility is fairly good, and when there is no wind the water is crystal clear, and you can easily see the bottom 10-15 metres down.We tried a night dive but didn’t see any lobsters, but we will try again, maybe today, because we know there are a lot of lobsters here, since we got a lift on a lobster truck taking them to the airport.
Out of the water we finally got organised and hitched up to the “capital” , Hithadoo, which is on the last island. It was a bit of a waste of time, because it looks exactly like Gan, where we are anchored, except for a slightly larger minimarket! Basically, there are no hills, no valleys, and only one main direction to walk or drive in – along the island chain and back. The Maldivian women go for walks every evening, along the road to the end of the atoll and back- that is the only walk!
The Maldivians are really nice people, very friendly and open. Two young men paddled out to talk to us in a little blow up dingy, and were intrigued by Sheva- they had never seen a dog before! The next day they brought us an enormous amount of papayas, coconuts,bananas and mangos! The coconuts here are the best we have ever tasted, as are the papayas.
Sheva seems to have resigned herself to a life without solid earth, and doesn’t even ask to get off any more. She doesn’t seem to be suffering too much, and she loves coconut, which must be a consolation! We give her a piece of coconut still in part of the shell, and she treats it like a bone, working away at it until she has got all the meat out.
I have uploaded more pictures, they are in the album with the link on the right hand side of the page.
Filed January 27, 2009 at 9:06 am under Boating by Administrator
We arrived here on 25th January after 10 days at sea- a really good, fast and comfortable passage. The entrance to the atoll was quite scary, with big surf only opening up to a clear channel close to the reef, and we were glad of our maxsea charts. Inside there was still quite a chop, and anchoring outside the harbour was very bumpy, luckily a fisherman told us not to worry about the entrance, which looked shallow, and we finally anchored inside. The atoll is beautiful, clean, with white pristine sand and lots of tropical trees and plants. The people are incredibly nice, everyone says hello, and want to help us with things. Now we are anchored in a nice, safe harbour between Gan and Feydoo islands. The water is completely clean, and we have swum every day so far, although there was a big squall last night with rain and high winds, then it was overcast all day with a bit of drizzle some of the time. The Maldivians say it is unusual for this time of year.
Sheva is fine, although she is a bit fed up that she can’t go for a walk- we tried to explain to her that there are no dogs allowed here, but she doesn’t really believe us, and thinks we are just getting too lazy to take her in the kayak!
Prices here are good, a bit more than India but still very reasonable, and the restaurants are good, with both Indian style and western food, served in a very aesthetic way. Canned goods are also good, much better than India, and fuel is much cheaper than India. I have put some more photos in the album, go in and have a look!
Filed January 14, 2009 at 6:29 am under Boating by Administrator
Just a last update before we leave. We have received our Chagos permit, thank goodness, and are planning a slow, relaxed cruise past the Maldives up to Chagos. We may stop in Addu atoll, the last atoll before Chagos, depending on our schedule, but if not, we will be out of touch until we get our satellite phone, hopefully in April, fromEnglish friends who will bring it out to us. We leave tomorrow, and already have our exit stamp and clearance certificate. We have stocked up on all kinds of staples, and have 20 kilos of potatoes and onions, a bushel of bananas and several pineapples. Today we will get some little watermelons, and cigarettes for Sri Lankan fishermen! We have 1000 litres of water, some beer, although we keep drinking it all, and a crate of cola. This has to last 3 months, but on Chagos there is water for washing and also some rainfall, so that should be ok.
Thanks to everyone who has sent us emails, it is really nice to hear from everyone, and those of you who are in Israel… we hope for the best and keep up to date with the news, keep safe!
There are some new pictures in the album, by the way.
Filed January 6, 2009 at 12:38 am under Boating by Administrator
We have had a good time in Cochin, done lots of work getting Chasamba looking and feeling like an ocean going yacht again, but now we are nearly ready to leave. We have added another fuel tank, and now have 400 litres capacity, changed the propellor to one with better pitch, fixed the hydraulic steering, fixed broken stanchions, changed one shroud which was showing signs of wear, fixed the swim platform and painted the topsides. We now have our name painted on the stern! And a shark mouth, which is too small for my taste, on the bow! We have enlarged the battery banks by 100 amphours too, although some of the batteries are getting old and will probably fail soon.
We have enjoyed the food here, and the prices of course, with a good mutton biriani costing about 1.5 pounds sterling for two people. ( Biriani is a rice dish, and comes as a big heap of tasty, buttery rice covering hunks of whatever meat you want, and little dishes of salad and pickle on the side). The spices are incredible, and contrary to our expectations we haven’t had any stomach problems despite eating and drinking at local restaurants. The fish is also good here, and we have bought lovely mackerel and baked them with garlic and ghee- great!
There are lots of cruisers here, 15 boats today, but most are thinking of moving on, some in our direction and some up the Red Sea. We will miss them, it has been a nice community here, with Christmas and New Year celebrations and lots of booze! Some we hope to meet up with again, either in Chagos or in Thailand, but most we will probably never see again- that is one of the special things about cruising, meeting people and then saying goodbye so soon.
We will leave on about the 15th of January, and head for the last island of the Maldives, hoping that the situation in Israel won’t affect our reception. The dog doesn’t help either, as they don’t like dogs at all. Oh well, we will just hope for the best! After that we will hopefully head for Chagos, although it is proving to be very difficult to get permission, and quite expensive. It is one of our oldest dreams though, and we won’t give up easily! So far we have filled out three different forms, given an undertaking to agree to be removed by the army(? ) if we can’t move ourselves, done travel insurance to cover airlifting for medical treatment, arranged a bank transfer of mooring fees….. does anyone have a feeling they really don’t want visitors?
After Chagos, where we hope to be for two months, we will wander up to Sri Lanka, arriving some time in May, and after a month there its off to Thailand for a bit of a rest, hopefully for 6 months. That is the plan! We should have a satellite phone soon, we have bought one in England and Rachel and Paul of Lynn Rival will bring it out to us, meeting us in Chagos hopefully. It is a Thuraya, which SHOULD have coverage there, but no certainty. If we can get the occasional email out and get weather information thats all we really need. Thanks Mum and Dad, by the way, thats where my birthday money went!
After a lot of hacker attacks, some of which caused us to have to remove all the photos from the site, I have moved all our photos to photobucket.com, there is a link at the right side of the page which should lead straight to the album- go in and have a look!
Filed December 1, 2008 at 8:39 am under Boating by Administrator
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