After reluctantly leaving Koh Lipe, we spent the next night at Koh Rok Nok, another enchanting anchorage.  There seemed to be nothing on either of the two islands located there until early evening when the shore was suddenly lit up by a  string of what appeared to be small lamp posts.  When we finally discovered our pilot book, SAIL THAILAND, we found out that this island was once the scene of the French version of Survivor.  The infrastructure, hidden though it is, is probably now being used by backpackers.  On the other side of us the sea was alight with the high-powered lights of shrimp boats surrounding us.  However, it was very quiet- no longtails!

Our third night out we anchored just ten miles from Yacht Haven.  However, it was sunset when we arrived and the tide was not high enough to travel along the shallow north coast to the marina.  We almost made it to the pontoon party to celebrate birthdays for Susan and David on ENCHANTRESS, Jeremy on FAI TIRA and to say farewell to the gangs on MOONSHADOW and PETER PAN.

Just before we reached this night's stop over, Koh Haka Yai, we spotted a cliff-dweller's home at the base of an extremely steep-sided island.  This person lives up above the waterline and probably in front of a cave where there are particular little swallows whose nests, inside caves and stuck together by their saliva are highly prized for Chinese bird's nest soup.

The limestone islands are riddled with caves.  Unfortunately we did not have time to stop at the famous Emerald Cave.  This is located at Koh Muk, near Koh Rok Nok.  During the day it is inundated with tourist excursion boats.  In the late afternoon, however, one can don a life vest and carry a waterproof torch (flashlight) and swim through a dark entrance tunnel (about 80 metres long) to emerge into a hong.  Hongs are essentially roofless caves.  They form a pool surrounded by vegetation and give off a greenish light.  I am hoping we will be able to enter one of the ones in the Hong Group of islands.  They do not have an enclosed entranceway and one can canoe or paddle a dinghy into them.

There always seems to be a bit of drama wherever we go.  Tonight's was the sight of a burning fishing boat as we worked our way to our anchorage point.  However, no other fishing boats seemed upset about it and the crew aboard the boat seemed unconcerned, so we can only surmise the situation was less dire than it looked.

On Friday, as we motored up the channel to Yacht Haven, an outbound sailboat suddenly altered course directly towards us.  We had visions of superstitious Indonesian fishermen who, when the fishing is not going well  aim amidships at another boat, then stop abruptly to let the bad luck jump off their boat onto the other boat.  It was MOONSHADOW, heading back to Langkawi to leave her there until the next cruising season.  I am so glad we had a chance to see them one last time.  They will be sorely missed!

Upon our arrival, we docked safely, and then Dave lost all his energy.  It was very important to get signed into Thailand and to apply for our Indian Visas (last day to do so).  Tony took one look at Dave and decided it would be unsafe to have him drive to Ao Chalong (Chalong Bay) in his fatigued condition and drove us to the south end of Phuket Island and later to Phuket City himself.  We were under deadline for the visas and met several obstacles along the way (of course).  The biggest hurdle (other than traffic) was our arrival at the offices of the Harbourmaster, customs and immigration (one-stop shopping) just at lunch time.  We had lunch at Jimmy's Lighthouse, the original yacht club in Phuket, while waiting for officialdom to return.  As we were eating, we saw Dick and Sara walking past.  (MOONSHINER had decided to sail to Ao Chalong as they cannot check in to the Royal Phuket Yacht Club until Tuesday.  They were persuaded to apply for their Indian visas at the same time as us.  Accordingly, we all came back with Tony.

Meanwhile, Dave successfully got through the offices of the Harbourmaster and Customs, but Immigration was still not back 20 minutes after their stated return time.  Another very kind and efficient lady called the official up, then opened his office and gave us the paperwork.  When he arrived, he just had to rubber-stamp our documents!  We barely made it on time to the visa people and were soon on our way back to the marina to get ready for the Welcome Party put on by the marina. 

And what a party it was!  Great food (buffet), dancers, musicians, even audience participation.  here are a few photos taken before my camera ran out of power.

Saturday was supposed to be clean out the inside of the boat day and set up Christmas lights as well.  Unfortunately, the lights were under the forward bunks, necessitating moving all our food supplies and then replacing them.  This led to a food inventory for today's shopping.  Cleaning out the bins also led to a bathroom cupboard overhaul.  And food distribution led to a refrigerator defrosting and clean out.  (Cleaning will be tomorrow!)  Then we found the extension cord we had pulled out was the one dave sabotaged by cutting off one end for the transformer connection.  Out came the bins again!  (And I was wondering why my back was hurting this morning!)

Finally, the outdoor lights were up and the little Christmas tree was wired in place, the stockings were hung and the Nutcracker and Nativity Snow Globe joined the angels behind the sofa.  It still doesn't feel much like Christmas- but it is festive.

Here is a picture of ANGEL's Christmas tree and angel on deck.  It looks much better in the dark and is the only decorated boat around.

We set out on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn along with MOONSHINER and JADEN to complete our first and last overnight passage in Malaysia.  Despite the armadas of fishing boats and stormy conditions, it actually was not too bad.  JADEN turned aside north of  Padang to spend a few days there.  They are making their maiden voyage aboard their lovely new ketch and are doing things the hard way- starting off through the Singapore Straits!  We hope they will enjoy the cruising life.

Our destination this time was the northernmost area of Malaysia- Langkawi, which is located right on the Malaysia/Thailand border.  Dave and I have visited this fabulous area by plane before.  Coming in by sea is even more spectacular.  

There are dozens of islands forming a very sheltered watery playground where you can anchor virtually anywhere.  The karst limestone formations rise majestically from the sea, forming an enchanting backdrop to calm anchorages.  It is stunningly beautiful.  The only fly in this heavenly ointment is the exponential boom in tourism since our last visit.  As a consequence, all through this region and everywhere around Phuket in Thailand there are dozens of day-tripper boats rushing to and from the natural attractions.  However, before they get busy in the morning and later in the afternoons, it is idyllic.

We anchored at this lovely spot, sheltered from the southwest swells and the northwest winds.  It was the best night's sleep in ages!

We had virtually despaired of  finding a berth at a marina in order to check out of the country, but managed to gain one at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, right next to the international ferry terminal, which allowed us to do all the paperwork in one spot.  We also ran into the other laggards in the rally, MOONBEAM and ISLAND KEA.  It was great to have friendly dockhands who guided us into our berths and helped get us secured!

The clubhouse is quite spectacular and the staff very friendly and efficient.  We didn't find enough time to try out the pool, but other yachties seemed to be enjoying it.

Instead we hopped aboard a taxi and headed for a distant warehouse, where we searched among the jungle of cartons for bargains on duty free beer and liquour.  It was a great way to have a quick tour of the nearby villages.

Next up was a trip to the ferry terminal mall to hunt for bargains- and the final supplies of spirits.  Unfortunately, Sara and I got a bit distracted in a couple of shops and didn't see Dave leave ahead of us.  While we  sleuthing about looking for him, I managed to get a snap of the Langkawi Eagle in front of the ferry terminal.

Next on the agenda was a very frustrating attempt to use the internet to send off some blog entries and to try and do some Christmas Shopping on line.  Both of these efforts came to grief.  After the computer shut itself down because of low battery power, I was about to storm off to the boat in frustration.  However, my anger was diffused at the sight of these little charmers on the roof of the outbuilding beside the clubhouse balcony.....

We couldn't believe how Americanized this area of Malaysia was- Kenny Rogers Roasters, Baskin and Robbins, Seven-Eleven, KFC, Starbucks.  And that was just on one small street!

At 0800 we set off on Monday morning to start the last 180nm to Yacht Haven in northern Phuket.  Now we could have done this in an overnight sail if it was possible to travel directly.  However, from previous reports from fellow ralliers we learned that this was to be avoided at all costs- day sails only!  LUCY ALICE attempted the direct route and managed to become entangled in five fishing nets in one night!  Accordingly, our first "sail" was just 35 miles to Koh Lipe, barely out of Malaysia.  I use the term "sail" loosely, as, other than a couple of weeks good sailing in September along the Great Barrier Reef, we have actually been motoring since mid-August!  We are praying that the January northeast trades materialize.

This is a photo of the lovely cruise ship terminal as we left Langkawi.

Shortly after we left Malaysia, we finally caught sight of one of their infamous fisshing spikes.  Apparently fish like to huddle at the roots of vegetation.  The fishermen construct these spiky bamboo floats and then check them for finny food.

Just after we passed these spikes, we were surrounded by hundreds of jellyfish.  I was beginning to rethink the swim I had been promised when we reached Koh Lipe!  Then, just to make the decision more difficult, I saw a HUGE creature with a shark-like dorsal fin.  A few minutes later it was surrounded by many other similar (but smaller) fins.  SHARKS!  The biggest one eventually swam towards and underneath MOONSHINER.  Sara identified it as a whale shark.

Finally, we did reach Koh Lipe (Koh means "island").  It certainly has changed since the pilot book was written!  Instead of a village and small restaurants on the beach, it now resembles a mini Las Vegas- with resorts and nightclubs everywhere.  It is very dramatic at night.

By day, there is a beautiful white sand beach with good snorkelling.  The main obstacle to overcome is the plethora of longtail boats.  These boats are ideal for travel in shallow waters.  The outboard motor has a shaft about 3 metres long and works like an eggbeater at the surface of the water.  dave says it is basically a car drive shaft with a propeller at the end.  Whatever it is, it is NOISY!

Anyway, to answer the question of whether or not I went for a swim....... most definitely!

We completed our first overnight "sail" in Malaysia.  Other than the three-hour thunderstorm during the night, we had no trouble with fishing nets.  We were very lucky.  We decided to stay at the right hand side of the shipping channel and only had one ship take up its anchor and pass in front of us.  It was very polite and signalled its intentions by horn.  It was a bit crowded in the narrow channel passing out of Port Klang to the north when four other boats were making the turn along with us, but we encountered no worries.  MOONSHINER travelling on the left side of the channel DID find miles of nets.

We were also very fortunate in that a cruise ship went straight up our chosen rhumb line.  Thus, we knew, if any of the hundreds of fishing vessels had placed nets there, they would have effectively disappeared before our arrival!

When we reached Pulau Pangkor we noticed two naval vessels circling about.  Apparently there are over 6,000 naval personnel and their families here as this is the centre for piracy control in Malaysia.  It really adds to the feeling of security!

It was necessary to call James Khoo at Pangkor Marina Island  before arriving as there are vast undredged shallows which must be crossed over to enter the marina.  A pilot boat was sent for us. 

What an amazing sight greeted us!

This is a brand new (not quite finished) marina and James is trying to make it known.  He could not have done more to make us feel welcome.  Everything is clean and the docks don't separate.  Staff are ready to help at any time.  Fuel is not yet available at the dock, but Affie, James' helper will arrange  to have jerry jugs filled at a local petrol station and returned to your boat.  Laundry is taken away and returned in very clean condition.  (We were DESPERATE!)  There is a ferry next door which will take you to the smaller island with the town of Pangkor on it for very reasonable prices.   James was wonderful to us.  When he heard we were going to take a taxi into town to the Giant Supermarket, he offered us a lift into town, waited for us to finish, and then showed us places we would never have found otherwise.  We stopped at a special bakery where bread is cooked over a wood fire.  This is the way it is cooked in Tanjing (sp.?).  The rolls are round and flat like a bagel.  The sweet  plain type are a little lighter and puffier.  There are also ones baked with onion and (our personal favourite) some filled with BBQ pork.  (James, and many other Chinese residents are Christians and can eat pork- AND sell beer- despite this being a Moslem country.)  This bread lasts a long time and was what his grandparents carried for nourishment when they were walking out of China many years ago.  He also took us to an out of the way Chinese restaurant where we enjoyed a scrumptious lunch.

The marina is part of an enormous resort and residential complex which is going up very quickly.  This is a model of what the resort will eventually look like.

At present, this residential apartment building is being run as a Best Western Hotel.

The entire complex will be designed around a manmade lagoon.  The pool is mostly finished at present and a small lagoon is beyond it.

The haul out area is under construction and a lot of dredging is going on.

James and his staff arranged for the boat that was already being serviced on his forklift-type haul out trailer to be removed so that they could work on ANGEL.  The work was done quickly and efficiently.  We were very pleased with the results.  The haul out trailer was totally new to us.  There is no separate tractor, it is self-propelled.  The "forks" slide under the hull on each side of the keel and then air hoses are inflated to keep the boat level and stable.  The boat is raised to a height of ten feet above the ground.  All our bottom work was done on the ramp.  Instead of waiting for the 10th to haul out, we were put back in the water on the 10th with glasswork and bottom painting (patchwork) completed.

With ANGEL safely out of the water receiving loving care and dave and Dick gainfully employed making sure we are not the first boat to sink because of a faulty toilet. Sara and I ventured to Pangkor via the ferry.

The ferry is a private one (a way to get around permit problems by not setting it up in competition with the main ferry company running to the mainland).  It is necessary to purchase an annual membership (5 ringgit) and then the return fare is 10 ringgit.  It is VERY popular and there is always some excitement.  We watched as staff members tried to wrestle a motorbike ashore with no ramp- just a set of steps!

The ferry arrives in Pangkor in about 10 minutes.

This is obviously a holiday destination with heaps of merchandise geared for souvenir collectors.

Around the corner we discovered (and heard) the local mosque.

I couldn't manage to get a photo without a motorcyclist's helmet.  Motor scooters are everywhere.  You even have to be careful on the sidewalks while looking at merchandise.  They travel there as well!

While exploring on foot as we didn't have time for an island tour, we scaled the hill to this building complex.  We don't know what it was, but the name was certainly intriguing...

There were bushels and bushels of many kinds of dried fish for sale everywhere.  If that doesn't appeal, there were also several restaurants and bakeries.  Dave would have loved to have some roti prata- with gravy!

We were very thirsty and went to a Chinese shop with a terrace where they sold beer.  We shared our table with a couple from Sweden who were just beginning an extensive tour of Malaysia.  While we were talking, Sara spied two hornbills in the electrical wires above us.  We didn't hear their call (the traffic was too noisy), but they were a magnificent sight.

We had to run to catch the ferry- in fact they were letting go the lines when we came dashing up- but they waited for us.  At the terminal on the other side, I took a mother-daughter picture with the mother's camera and the two of them posed for me as well.

These are the faces we saw everywhere in Malaysia, especially on  Pulau Pangkor.   (Note the little Malay girl logo on the little girl's dress- we saw this on other articles of clothing and on backpacks as well).  We have loved visiting this spot and will find it hard to leave tomorrow, but we ARE looking forward to a couple of days in Langkawi before setting out for Phuket.

On Saturday, November 27, we bid a sad farewell (again) to Singapore.    We were about to experience the other way of checking into and out of Singapore.  We received our clearance papers from the marina the night before. In the morning it was necessary to travel five miles south and west to the Sisters Islands to complete the formalities.  The ride to the meeting point was uneventful for us- not so for FAI TIRA.  They couldn't seem to decide which side of the reef marker to pass on and finally ran aground beside it instead.  Then they proceeded to run aground on the other side as well!   Meanwhile, the rest of us (eight boats) had called to Western Immigration and were awaiting the arrival of their boat.  This procedure saves time anchoring and weighing the anchor again, but it is a bit bizarre.  When the patrol boat comes up to your boat it is necessary to have your documents and passports ready in a plastic Ziplock-type bag.  Then, when the man on their bow holds out his fish net, you deposit your documents in it.  The documents are then stamped by immigration and returned to you, again by fish net!  I didn't get photos as we did not hand him the proper papers and had to scramble to find the correct ones.  It is a bit strange, but it IS effective, so long as you don't miss the net and lose everything overboard!

Next we had to cross ANOTHER major shipping channel before crossing into Malaysia.  We all had to play a bit of cat and mouse with the ships.  It WAS a relief to finally be through the worst of it.  However, when we examined the AIS blips, there were still hundreds of very large vessels out there!

We had heard that it is quite difficult making passageway through the nights because of local fishing boats stringing nets from the outside edge of the channel across the inside passageway. Besides, we were tired of racing to meet deadlines without stopping and, accordingly, decided to do some day trips along the coast.

Our first stop was at Pulau Pisang.  This was only 50 miles away, but it turned out to be a good idea.  Just before we arrived, MOONSHINER once again had a shredded alternator belt and need to be towed the short distance to the anchorage.  We were a bit hesitant, seeing that we only have a 56 horsepower engine and they are a bigger boat.  However, Dick had the technique down to an art and there was no problem at all.  We joined a Dutch-flagged boat in the anchorage and spent a very peaceful night.  Dick tried using a Volvo fan belt instead of the belts he purchased (at great expense) in the Galapagos.  Sure enough, he has not had fan belt problems since.  All of those new belts must have been faulty!

On Sunday morning we had some interesting races with fishing boats towing LONG lines of nets right across our paths as we left Pulau Pisang and headed along the edge of the shipping lanes to Pulau Besar in the Water Islands outside Malacca.  FAI TIRA had sent the fleet an email singing the praises of this gem of a city.  However, again, they ran aground on entry- and they draw less water than we do!  I have visited this charming city with its colonial Dutch architecture a couple of times, but couldn't persuade the others aboard ANGEL and MOONSHINER that they were really missing out.  Que sera, sera.  The island of Besar was lovely, with two resorts located there and we enjoyed another quiet overnight stay.

Monday's journey was, again, a short hop to Port Dickson.  This is very much a commercial port and the marina was closed due to repairs.  We decided to anchor in the area where vessels such as small tugs and barges were moored.  It was either too shallow or very deep wherever we tried, but finally we were snug for the night between the commercial dock and the small island of Arang-Arang.  We got a good night's rest before attempting the more harrowing journey up a narrow river with STRONG tides and currents accompanied by huge freighters, tugs and tankers by busy loading platforms to Port Kelang (or Klang).

As we were journeying up the river, fearing we wouldn't make it before dark since our speed at full throttle had been down to 2 knots before the tide finally changed and the strong winds were no longer on our nose, we had to do some fancy "footwork" to avoid tugs which appeared from nowhere to assist freighters to the loading docks.  At one point a cruise ship was heading straight for us and two tugs were coming at us on the other side.  Then we ran aground for a couple of minutes in soft mud while trying to make the turn up the side river where we would find the Royal Selangor yacht Club.  The club is a private one, with very little docking space beside the lovely club house.  It has three floating pontoons, however, on the other side of the narrow river and offer 24 hour water-taxi service to get ashore.  It is DEFINITELY NOT a holiday resort.  It is a small oasis in a huge commercial port.  The river travels from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia.  It has huge tides and very fast currents.  It is a place where you can get on the train to visit Kuala Lumpur (KL).  It is also rather a fascinating little town.   Hans from NAUTIBOU described it as a non-touristy REAL city which reminded him of Rotterdam.  The grocery store was very good and the people very friendly and helpful.

Dick arranged for a man to come and look at his engine.  After arrangements had been made for the work to be done, the four of us took a trip to town to check into Malaysia and then boarded the lovely air-conditioned train into KL to see the famous Petronas Towers.   We managed to visit KL and travel up to the top just before we left Asia in 2002.  At that time these were the tallest building in the world.  They have since slipped to second place, but that doesn't make them any less impressive!

Alas, we were not to travel to to the top or even to the Sky Deck that day.  Apparently it is necessary to get your tickets very early in the morning and then return at your appointed time.  We did manage to stand at the foot of the towers and get the view from the ground up.  I also managed to get a shot through the window of the cab as we approached them.

 

Although we were a bit disappointed, we had fun checking out the gift shop.  Then we managed to get back to Chinatown, where we had had lunch- just before it POURED!!!!

We must be one of the few groups who descended on Chinatown for lunch and managed to eat at, of all places, a Rasta restaurant!  It actually DID have Chinese food and we loved the decor and the atmosphere.  

We had seen many small shops with fascinating wares and Sara and I wanted to return after the trip to the Petronas Towers fell through.  Dave nailed the weather properly, insisting on the visit before shopping as the afternoon teorrential rains would catch us in horrific traffic.  As we returned to Chinatown, the heavens opened.  There was a covering over the area, but the roofs drained onto the vendors' plastic tarps, just about drowning them inside!

We all needed to visit the loo.  We found a MacDonalds and assumed that all of those stores have standards for their lavatories.  We have now discovered that there is NO universal standard for the one in KL!  There were unisex toilets, old, rather dingy and of the straddle type.  I didn't dare lock the door as there was no handle on the inside and I didn't want to be stuck in there!  However, their ice cream has the same standards as elsewhere!

Sarah decided her daughter need something very special for a wedding gift next May......

After the rain let up a bit we did look about at many of the stalls.  I managed to find some delicious rambutan ("hairy fruit").  They have a thick covering with long soft tendrils.  They are great for the fruitseller to stack- they cling to each other rather like burrs!

There is a wonderful use of Moslem geometric patterns incorporated in the modern architecture of apartment buildings....

At the train station there were also more classical minaret-style architecture...

There also was at least one car on each train reserved for women only.  Most Malaysians are Sunni Moslems.  The women are to cover their hair and should also wear clothing that covers the shoulders and legs.  Most women seem to follow this dress code.  However, the uniform of the teenagers and younger adults seems to be blue jeans and t-shirts.

Back at the Royal Selangor Yacht Club we enjoyed a lovely meal of chinese food- delicious and very inexpensive.  The internet service was excellent at the club house- very fast - and free!  The clubhouse is lovely......

HOWEVER, the pontoons are another story.  There are no amenities (water and electricity).  There are old boats that seem to have been there since Noah's day- one even had plants growing around the windows and a tree growing out of it!  We discovered that rats come aboard your boat at night (they were probably left over from the Ark).  When we woke up in the morning, the tide coming down from KL left this trapped by our fenders...

But that was NOTHING compared to the load crack in the night beside MOONSHINER.  The high winds and current had broken apart the pontoon sections beside them.  They were tied to both sections, fore and aft, as was the boat beside them on the other side.  Between the two boats, they were keeping the entire pontoon from being washed ashore.  (Thanks, Dick and Sara!)

Workers from the club fixed the break with chains.  However, they also sandwiched MOONSHINER's dock lines into the join.  It took a LONG time for them to prise apart the sections to free it when they wanted to leave!

Port Klang was definitely a new experience for all of us.  However, on the positive side, we had fun, met some lovely people and Dick had a man fixing his engine until midnight the night before we left.  The engine has behaved itself well ever since.

There was also a travel lift there.  We were wondering what to do about ANGEL's hull repair work, not to mention the sea cock frozen open in the forward heads with a hose about to rupture attached to it.  There is no chance to haul out in any of the ports we will be visiting- all are fully booked with local boats.  We enquired about the lift here, but it was broken.  However, the chandlery owner told us about the new marina opening at Pangkor Island.  They have a lift but do not want to haul us before the 10th of December.  We will stop there and see if they can be persuaded to do the work earlier.  We can but try!

 

After the rally briefing today, we thoroughly cleaned and tidied in preparation for our Happy Hour aboard with Eunice and Guan.  I don't think they can really believe we live in such a small space- and are exceedingly happy about it!  They also couldn't believe how our kids have all grown and have families of their own.  (Wasn't Jonathan a teenager just a few months ago?)  They examined the family photos and remarked how everyone (except Trish) had changed.  Just when we thought we were finally able to return some of their magnificent hospitality, Guan brought out a chilled bottle of champagne!  She even managed to open it without damage to the boat.

After munching our way through some crackers, cheese, dips and sausages, we were off to eat again (of course- this IS Singapore!).  Tonight's adventure was in a familiar spot (Sammy's Curry House).  We used to eat there at this banana leaf restaurant in our old neighbourhood.  That is where all similarity ended.  Our house is still there, unchanged, although the entire neighbourhood has changed around it.  Sammy's still serves wonderful food (we chose South Indian dishes this time) and still on banana leaves.  However, the restaurant is much more upscale- no more long tables with benches squeezed in chock-a-block.

It fits in well with the new upscale neighbourhood of Dempsey Hill.  No longer are there tin-roofed shanties with carpets and Indonesian antiques for sale (a few remain in modern shops);  now there are street after street of fine dining establishments- even branches of the East Coast Parkway's favourite restaurants.  There is an exclusive butcher shop, an intriguing fountain with an enormous arowana and even a Ben and Jerry's ice cream emporium.

On Wednesday Dave was worn out and wanted to rest by doing some work aboard ANGEL and begged off walking around the Esplanade area downtown.  So the three of us had a girls' day out.  What a wonderful afternoon!

After finding a parking space, we set off to make a circuit of the bay.  Guan and Eunice pointed out some of the imaginative new edifices while we made our way towards the Esplanade itself- the Theatre and Opera House which was just completed before we left in 2002.  En route we stopped to admire the Merlion, the symbol of Singapore.  "Singapore" comes from "Singhapura", which means "Lion City" and, since it is one of the world's largest ports, a lion that is part fish was an appropriate symbol.

Singapore's Merlion in front of one of "The Durians", ie.e, The Esplanade

Another modern day icon is represented in this sculpture, made up entirely of Starbucks cups.

Singapore is also known as The Garden City and it still lives up to its name.  This photo is of the Law Courts Building framed, Singaporean style by flowers.

In the marvellous Esplanade itself there are very well-attended theatres and an opera house.  Upstairs there is also a public library devoted to the arts.  In the dance area, the library resembles a dance studio.  You can borrow music and could even dance there if you wished.  There is an upright grand piano in a sound-proofed room where you can take sheet music from the shelves for practice purposes.  There are hundreds of movie DVDs and Audio CDs  can be listened to at stations around the room.  Every newspaper imaginable is available in the periodicals area.  Membership is free and many people pass their lunchtime there.  However, it is closed in the evenings.

Singaporeans love durians.  This is a large rather prickly fruit with a very distinctive odour.  It is forbidden to carry them on public transportation.  Eating it has been likened to eating ambrosia while sitting in the sewers.  It is, therefore, very appropriate that the Esplanade buildings look like this fruit from a distance.

Following the walkway around the bay on your way to the Marina Sands Casino and Resort Hotel complex, you pass over the water via the Helix Bridge.  From above it does resemble a helix.  From inside it looks spectacular.

Probably the most distinctive building in Singapore is the Marina Sands Hotel with its three towers supporting an observation deck and 100 metre infinity swimming pool.  It is awesome in every sense of the word.

As Eunice and Guan had never visited this incredible building, we took the elevator to the top.  The views are unbelievable.

One view before entering was also incredible- that of the workers currently working on the outside of the lotus-shaped future cultural museum.

Here are a couple of other views from the top of the "ship".

I wish I could have afforded to stay a night in the hotel in order to use the swimming pool!

For the less adventuresome, there are hot tubs on the other side of the "ship" with a feeling of more security- a plexiglass barrier.

We made it all the way around the bay back to the  heritage Fullerton Hotel before the heavens opened and the lightning and thunder were unleashed.  It was quite a sight to stare across at the new modern hotel from the comfort of a more genteel era.

While Eunice popped out to see about a new apartment, Guan and I did my grocery shopping in record time and then returned to Guan's mother's apartment for a wonderful family dinner.  Amid the marvellous collections of pottery and antiques Guan's father had amassed during his lifetime

we were welcomed by her 90 year old mother, Winnie and her sister and brother-in-law.  Her mother is an absolute treasure- spry and full of tales about her life in England during the war and while escpaing to Singapore with her babies in tow.  The dinner was fabulous and the entire experience an amazing treat.  We felt very honoured to have spent our final night in this special home with these special people.  We can't thank them enough!

I will end this entry with my favourite photo of Guan and Eunice at the Fullerton Hotel (before the downpour!)

Our plans for today included a bit of a hiatus.  Both of us badly needed haircuts.  It was really noticeable in a city where everyone is so smartly turned out.  We had been told that it might cost up to a thousand dollars for a stying session, but Maria from ASPEN and Lica from SOL MARIA found a reasonably priced salon at the mall closest to the marina, Harbourfront Mall.  We were comfortable seated when up popped Juliette from LAROOBAA!  Her Mom, Simone was also there.  (She is going to hate me for this, but I'll show the photo anyway.......

It was a wonderful experience!  Not only did I have a stylish STRAIGHT haircut, but we also were offered a marvellous scalp, neck and shoulders massage- all for S$30.00! Pampering is wonderful.

This was our special evening out.  Eunice and Guan were each bringing a car and we, along with Sara and Dick  (MOONSHINER), John and Gillian (SPIRIT OF NINA) and  Colin and Sarah (MOONBEAM) were soon on our way for a magical evening.  First stop was The Long Bar at Raffles Hotel for their trademark Singapore Slings.  

The atmosphere was wonderful- rows of self-propelled pandanus ceilling fans(at one time, a fan-wallah probably provided the propulsion), bowls of peanuts in the shells on each table and broken shells tossed onto the floor.  The hotel itself caused a lot of jaws to drop in amazement.  After paying S$25.00 for each drink, the male members of the group were happy to hear we only had a few minutes to get to our reservation at 10 Restaurant for dinner.  En route we saw many of our fellow rally members tucking into a very expensive curry dinner in Raffles' Tiffin Room.

10 Restaurant has relocated since we were last there.  It uses to be in a heritage hotel with lots of antique charm.  Unfortunately the hotel was sold en bloc and the owner of the restaurant was forced to find a new home.  The new establishment is clean and white and totally modern- a bit disappointing until we started tasting the food!  The menu is based on nutritious healthy and perfectly seasoned foods, good for your health, not to mention your palette!  We began with my favourite, potato nests with whipped egg whites and truffles.  Good for your complexion and fabulous!  There followed beggars' chicken (baked in clay to seal in the juices), the most fantastic cod fillets, seafood and vegetable dishes we had never heard of before.  It was an incredible feast.  As John and Gillian said, it was an occasion we will all remember when we are very old and sitting around saying, "Remember when..."

 

Today we faced one of sailing's ultimate challenges- crossing the Singapore Straits, the world's busiest shipping lane.  It was DEFINITELY one of our most memorable passages.

We were in the first group of four boats to (reluctantly) leave Nongsa Point Marina, thanks to Dave and all the other captains who queued to complete checking out procedures very early in the morning.  We quickly discovered that , since we have the older model of the Raymarine chart plotter (it is three years old), the system could not cope with the hundreds of AIS symbols and proceeded to freeze up completely.  We didn't even know where we were exactly.  Fortunately ASPEN has a more recent model and we were able to follow closely behind while Steve (our hero) called on the radio to warn everyone in the group about any vessels threatening us.  In these shipping lanes small sailing vessels have NO right of way.  It is simply a matter of constant vigilance and  anticipating danger.  Just to add a bit more excitement to the mix, the visibility continually worsened to just a few hundred metres.  THEN a storm started to build up with massive amounts of lightning and boat-shaking thunder.  Another waterspout sprang up about a quarter of a mile behind us.  (No, we didn't stop to take photos!)  This was the longest 20 mile passage ever!

Our route followed the northern coast of the Indonesian Islands westward until we came to the narrowest part of the sea lanes, south of Singapore's Sisters Islands.  At that point we said a prayer, held our breaths and started across the "highway".  Fortunately we suffered no terrifying incidents, just a few close calls.  It really was a relief to finally reach the "parked" freighters and to wend our way amongst them to the channel outside Marina Keppel Bay.

We really WERE the most fortunate group as we did not get hit by the worst of the storms.  Other boats experienced the AIS lockup and the visibility for them was nil.  MOONSHINER's engine started to fail and then quit completely during all of this.  FAI TIRA took up the tow with them for a short time and then LAROOBAA completed the crossing when FAI TIRA experienced difficulties.  Finally the Marina Keppel Bay launch towed them safely to the Quarantine dock and into their slip.

We had been trying for several weeks to contact Guan and Eunice (friends from our time in Singapore) to let them know of our arrival.  Unfortunately, they had changed their email address and did not answer calls from us (their was no message machine and they didn't recognize the number from our sat phone).  We gave it one last try the day before we arrived and managed to reach them!  Unfortunately, the reception was so poor we just told them we were arriving at Marina Keppel Bay sometime the next day and would be contacting them at that time.  Imagine our wonderful surprise to see them jumping up and down on the shore as we drove into the marina!  They managed to find the name of the boat through googling  Dave, Valerie, Allen, boat!  Then the marina let them know when were coming in and there they were in bright yellow and orange rain gear welcoming us back "home"!

Yes, we were back "home", but we would never have recognized Singapore if someone had dropped us here and asked us to guess where we were!  We loved this city before, but it had a reputation of being sleepy (NOT our opinion!)  No longer!  The city is vibrant with new construction everywhere and with the most imaginative architecture!  There are MANY more cars on the roads and some pollution haze is starting to develop over the city, but this is still minor.  This city is about to leave Hong Kong in its wake!

After the shambles and bureaucracy in Indonesia, Singaporean efficiency was a breath of air.  Normally there is a much more complicated system of checking in and out, but, since we were arriving en masse (in small groups so that the officials and marina staff could cope), arrangements had been made for officials to be at the marina.  After tying off at the Quarantine dock, Dave completed the paperwork in ten minutes in an air-conditioned glass hut on the pontoon.  Ten minutes later we were in our berth and being welcomed by the marina staff!  

What a marina this is!  It is just being completed and is located under the cable cars going to Sentosa Island.  The MRT (Mass Transit Rail), the fabulous subway system is accessible within a ten minute walking distance.  The cruise ships dock just upriver from the marina and we could watch these behemoths arrive behind us.  The marina is spotlessly clean, wifi is free, the showers are up to the minute and luxurious (but, curiously, lacking hooks inside the stalls on which to hang your clothes).  The staff threw us a lovely welcome party in the Wine Glass cocktail lounge.  Every morning a newspaper was hand-delivered to each boat and each evening there was a little gift- a plate of fruit, cakes, jellies.  I almost wanted to stay and find out what else would appear!

Here are a couple of pictures of the marina area.

Eunice and Guan were the most amazing tour guides ever!!!!  They took us under their wing and showed us the new Singapore (some of it THEY didn't recognize either!) and shared experiences with us we had not encountered in our three years there.  Unfortunately, we kept forgetting the camera the first two days, so I will have to try and describe them for you.

After a yummy lunch at the clubhouse, we were invited to take part at a Steamboat Dinner with Guan, Eunice, Angela (Eunice's sister) and two of their travelling friends.  We were told it was casual, and remembering past casual dinners at housing blocks, I dressed very casually in capris.  Well, THIS casual was in a lovely restaurant at a classy mall!  (I just remembered, Dave never took me back to the sweet shops and bakeries!  Probably all for the best).  The steamboat dinner is like a very fancy fondue.  There is a hot plate built into the tabletop and you order the food you are going to cook.  The large flat pan is divided into two parts.  We had seaweed broth in one side and chicken broth in the other.  Then the feast began!  We went through plates of prawns, thinly sliced beef, pork, fish, clams and vegetables.  (I am sure I have not mentioned half of the dishes.)  It is such a wonderfully sociable way to take dinner- with people helping prepare food for each other and everything absolutely delicious!  It was a truly unforgettable evening.  I had so much to eat I couldn't even THINK of dessert when the others stopped for coffee.

I REALLY regret not taking the camera for the next step in our journey through Singapore.  We drove down Orchard Road to see the Christmas lights.  It was the official lighting up ceremony and the sight was spectacular!  We remember looking forward to this time of year when all the shops displayed their special lights.  However, at that time, the displays were generally of the slightly hokey type- tastefully tacky (with some notable exceptions, of course).  Still it was FUN.  Now, the entire area has become ultra-sophisticated with majestic trees and all the overhead displays colour-coordinated with blues blending into purples and then  into pinks.  If you would like to see some great photos of them, please look at FAI TIRA's blog on this same blog.mailasail .com site.  (Check the headings above the google earth map.  Find the tab dealing with All Boats.  When you have the list of all boats, click on FAI TIRA and go to their reports on Singapore.  They write a wonderful blog!)

On Sunday we certainly did not take a rest!  I don't know how Eunice and Guan keep up this pace.  They had just arrived back from an extensive tour in China and were expecting more friends to arrive at the end of this week!  They may be retired, but they ARE younger- it makes a lot of difference!

In the afternoon we were whisked away to the newest golf course in Singapore- the one belonging to the trades unions.  It has a spectacular view over Marina Bay and all the development there.  We sat on the terrace and enjoyed some fabulous gelatin-based desserts over shaved ice.  (Sorry, Guan and Eunice, I have forgotten the names- and Dave is not much help in this either!)  What a lovely refreshing break in the heat!

Next we drove around some of our old haunts- and recognized basically nothing!  Even Holland Village is now mostly indoors and has very limited parking.  My old school is in another spot altogether!

Singapore now has a huge "ferris wheel" similar to (but bigger than) the London Eye.  It is called the Singapore Flyer an is the largest in the world (until a larger one is completed in China).  None of us had been up one of these before and found it rather amazing.  In the first place, there is no sensation of moving at all.  (Dave was glad to discover this).  Each "car" holds many people and is completely air conditioned.  One can even book a meal aboard- or a wedding, if one is so inclined!  For a half hour we had a spectacular view of the waterfront development and at a very reasonable price.  Apparently, the Flyer had its problems at the beginning of its career, where the entire machine stalled and people had rapall down with the help of the armed forces after several hours of imprisonment.  (Perhaps that is why the price is reasonable.)

This is a photo taken from the ground during the day when Guan, Eunice and I walked around the Esplanade.

Next stop was a visit to one of our favourite eating spots- The East Coast Parkway for chili crab and other seafood delights.  We seem to be determined to eat our way through Singapore!!!!

As you can see from our position, we have, once again, crossed the Equator.  We are back in the northern hemisphere again.

You will also notice that we FINALLY made it to Nongsa Point- and on time!  We received a note from rally control stating that we had to notify our "agent" in Bali about our arrival times in Nongsa Point.  A later email from this agent warned us that if we were more than 24 hours before or later than our stated dates, we would be penalized.  Rally control got around this by warning him that small yachts cannot give definitive arrival times as they are subject to the vagaries of weather and breakdown much more so than are commercial vessels.  But, if the agent needed up to date estimates, Tony was very happy to email him 22 arrival times in separate letters every day until all the boats actually arrived. And he did!

We continued our motorboat rally quite confident that we now had enough fuel.  However, we became a little bit nervous once the last jerry cans had been transferred to the tank- with another 36 hours left to go!

One night Dave was on watch when he suddenly realized ANGEL was passing between two white floats just 15 feet apart (we are 13 feet wide)!  Then, when he looked, there were white floats as far as the eye could see.  Fortunately, the engine didn't seem to have become fouled in a net, so he called MOONSHINER immediately and warned them.  They decided to go around the obstacle instead of trusting to luck.  They had to travel 3 miles out of their way to get around! Speculating on what it was- it seems too big for a net, we think it might be long lines suspended over a long distance.

As we drew closer and closer to Batam and Bintang there was more and more freighter traffic.  One had to be constantly alert.  And yet, despite the sea turning into a superhighway, the fishing boats were still out in force.  Even tiny canoes were sitting nonchalantly in the middle of shipping lanes calmly fishing. It is unbelievable!

One morning Dave managed to capture this waterspout on camera.  It was only about a quarter of a mile away.

And then finally........ Nongsa Point!

What a difference from Bali Marina.  Suddenly we were in paradise- clean, new, a fuel dock (not just a pump with a bucket at the side catching the fuel that spilled out of the perforated hose), a swimming pool, walkways, gardens, air conditioned meeting rooms, free wifi.  The pictures tell it all!

Mind you, the mie goreng ayam was not nearly as good as that in Bali!

The wait at Bawean was actually worthwhile- despite the lack of sleep.  Where others had experienced huge winds on the nose and very strong currents against them, we had a very peaceful journey.  Unfortunately we arrived just a bit too late to get all the way up the river before dark and opted for anchoring out in the bay, hoping that the freighters and barges would not hit us during the night.

We slept the sleep of the just - no rocking, no mosquitos- BLISS!!!

As we set out in the morning, we noticed a catamaran had joined us a couple of miles away, but thought nothing of it until we later learned that SPIRIT OF NINA had attempted the river at night and had both of their propellers caught up in fishnet.  They were cutting one engine free this morning and the other was freed later on in their journey.  Apparently the fishermen like to string their nets right across the river.  They remove them when they see large vessels coming, but small vessels have to take their chances.

We had a delightful trip up the river and got a very close look at many types of large vessels.  We thought we were going to a VILLAGE and were amazed to find a large PORT when we arrived.  Of course, most of the waterfront was unsightly freight buildings, but there were some lovely mosques ashore.

With so much freighter traffic, we knew we would be able to purchase diesel.

We had been calling an agent, Harry, en route reserving fuel and we thought that was the man who first approached us carrying our boat names on a sign.  Actually that was a freelancer, Mr. Bynes, who took our money for 300 L of diesel and a speedboat trip to Camp Leakey for Sara and me.  Then, along came Harry, the nicest, gentlest person, who had told Mr. B. of the arrangement and the names and then been forced out by the competition.  Nevertheless, the service was extremely professional.  Dave and Dick did not want to see the "people of the forest" and there was no time to take a two night/ three day tour on one of the local klotoks, so they opted to see to the fuelling while we got out of their way and spent a wonderful day.

While we were speeding down the narrow and shallow river debouching into the Kumai River, we passed several of the klotoks.  These are tall narrow boats capable of pushing aside stumps and branches floating down the river.  The guests are fed and sleep aboard the vessels on the upper deck.  The entire deck is covered in a mosquito tent at night.  They also visit the Leakey Centre but travel along several branches of the river as well.  It is a very relaxing time and a chance to be pampered a bit.  En route we passed the JACKAMY klotok.

When we arrived at the Centre, we paused for lunch and watched the "parking lot" fill up with klotoks.

The passengers aboard these boats dined at leisure, but their view was certainly not as fascinating as ours!

After lunch we walked along the boardwalks towards the interpretive centre at Camp Leakey.  Right in the middle of the walk was a sleeping mother orangutan and her baby, who was just a bit bored with this sleeping bit.

The baby kept trying to slip away to play in the trees, but, just as he sensed freedom, Mom would reach out and grab him.  Orangutans only breed every 8 years.  The babies are carried on the mothers' backs until they are 5 years old.  This little fellow has a bit more growing to do before Mom will let him get further than arm's reach away from her.

His dad also was standing guard nearby, albeit in a rather unorthodox pose.....

The interpretive centre was very interesting and we learned a lot.  Man, of course, is the greatest threat to the orangutans.  Logging and forest fires and single use plantations, such as palm oil estates, destroy their arboreal habitats.  During the major fires (accidently set by lightning or cased when people use fire to clear land for logging, etc.) of the mid-1990s more than 20,000 orangutans were killed.  The Leakey Centre is a transitional stage for babies found orphaned.  Since they rely on their mothers for survival for such a long time, the infants needed to be taught the necessary skills to survive in the rainforest.  Many have been rehabilitated and returned to the wilds elsewhere in Kalimantan (formerly called Borneo).

Camp Leakey does have feeding stations and these are designed to supplement the food the rehabilitated orangutans gather in the woods.  Some days there are very few visitors to the station.  The day we visited there were quite a few.

Some are not "official" visitors, but hang around anyway.

Here are a few new friends we met at the feeding station.

Needless to say, we had a marvellous time, the men were happy to have their fuel and we were all set to push on to Nongsa Point, Batam.

With those happy memories of our Bali tour to improve our feelings towards Bali, we were ready to leave for Nongsa Point.  Now that we qre legally in the country, we actually have very little time left to explore.  Nongsa Point is a thousand miles away and we have to leave for Singapore by the 20th of November.  We will need a fuel top up en route, but that is really all the time we will have for stopping.  Hopefully, we will be able to stop at the Kumai River to see the orangutans, if only for a few hours.

Our first stop will be Pulau Bawean to the north of Java.  The capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, is located on Java.  It is also the island for which the colloquial name for coffee is derived.  I must say that our arrival in Indonesia has not brought good omens to the country.  As we were travelling to Bali, we heard, belatedly, that there had been a massive earthquake off Sumatra and that the tsunami warnings had been cancelled.  (Fortunately, we were at sea where we wouldn't have been affected anyway.)  Then, when we arrived in Bali we learned that the volcano on eastern Java (about 100 miles from the marina) had erupted and caused damage to the Yogjakarta area.

Unfortunately, we planned our departure from Bali Marina for a Friday- traditionally a bad luck day for beginning a journey.  Well, we managed to get caught in the aforementioned Hallberg-Rassy jinx.  As we were approaching the final red marker in the channel out to the sea, we were having difficulties locating the buoy.  Somehow we managed to stray from the path and ended up with NO water under our keel- AGROUND!  Luckily it was a sand bottom and we worked our way free in about 15 minutes, but the other boats back at the marina could see us and we took a fair amount of ribbing about all three HRs running aground in that channel!

As we were approaching Pulau Bawean, Dave noticed a freighter two miles from us was belching smoke.  Another small vessel was near it and neither was responding to hails.  We called another freighter ten miles away and asked them to contact the freighter as it had no AIS signal and was most likely an Indonesian vessel.  These local freighters do not carry the mandatory AIS and they will not respond to English.  The crew of the distant tanker could speak Indonesian and discovered the vessel was about to be towed.  The tow lines must have been a mile long and the freighter was being towed backwards (probably a good idea since the fire was in its bow- much safer for the towboat).  We then warned MOONSHINER as they would not have enjoyed running into the tow lines.  They had to divert a mile to avoid the lines!  They DID get a firsthand view of the flaming bow and noticed the crew were still on board, apparently enjoying themselves.

Our next obstacle came in the form of unusual fishing floats.  We had already been battling HUNDREDS of fishing boats everywhere each night, including ones with extremely intense white lights which were followed up with flashing red and green lights- definitely not listed in the vessel identification charts.  They resembled Christmas tree lights more than anything else.  There had also been unlit nets and bamboo structures en route.  Floating plastic bags had managed to incapacitate at least one of our fleet after being sucked into an intake through-hull.  Now we discovered something new.  We were in danger of being holed by massive logs, each sporting a jaunty vertical palm leaf or, occasionally, a small flag.  They looked like floating miniature islands.  We are guessing that nets or line were attached, the logs towed oput to sea and were collected when they drifted back to shore.  They formed a veritable minefield !

We managed to reach Bawean intact and settled down for a good night's rest.  We were hoping to purchase fuel here before continuing to Nongsa Point.  WRONG on both counts.

LAROOBAA had spent the previous night here and had been for a five hour tour of the island, courtesy of Mr. Customs, the customs agent ashore.  Because of language problems they were unsure how to obtain fuel.  It cost 5500 rupiahs (about 55c) a litre, but they couldn't figure out how to get it.  So, it looks like Kumai River is going to be the next stop.

As for sleep- forget it!  Suddenly the seas came up and we hobby-horsed and rolled violently all night.  Then, instead of leaving the next day, we decided to wait another day because of the terrible weather conditions other boats were experiencing ahead of us.  Besides, the seas had been calm all day.  We would sleep well tonight.  

WRONG again!  After two nights of no sleep we are finally going to Kumai and (hopefully) the orangutans!

As we were wending our way to the breakfast buffet this morning, we watched two of the hotel staff performing their religious rituals.

There are many shrines in the hotel grounds, as well as a large temple and these devotions are held at each one.  We were glad the priest had shown us the proper manner in which to pray and that Madu had explained why for us.

After breakfast we set out to watch the drama of the Barong and Kris dance.  This was more drama than dance, but was indeed spectacular.  The explanatory notes we received were a little peculiar, so I will try my best to tell you about the story.

The play represents to eternal struggle between good and evil.  Barong (a mythological animal) represents good and Rangda( a monster) represents evil.

The play begins with a struggle between three frightened palmwine growers and the barong and his friend, the monkey.  In the struggle one of the palmgrowers has his nose bitten off.  Two girls, servants of the Rangda appear, looking for the servants of Dewi Kunti who are looking for the prime minister. One of the Rangda's servants becomes a witch and makes both of Dewi Kunti's servants angry.  Dewi Kunti and her son, Sadewa, arrive.  Dewi Kunti has agreed to sacrifice her son to the Rangda and he is tied to a tree after a witch makes dewi Kunti angry.

Then Siva, the god, arrives and gives Sadewa immortality.  The Rangda tries to kill Sadewa, in vain.  The Rangda repents, is killed by Sadewa and goes to heaven.  One of Rangda's servants tries to receive redemption as well, but is refused by Sadewa; she becomes angry, changes into a boar, and, after defeat in that form, into a bird.  After another defeat, she becomes a Rangda herself and Sadewa becomes a Barong.  Followers of the Barong appear to help Sadewa.  At one point the Rangda enrages these men and they try to kill themselves with their krises.  In the end, the Barong prevails.

As you can see, the plot is quite complicated but made for wonderful dramatic theatre at the outdoor temple.

We then toured through the countryside, obsering the rural way of life typical of most of the inhabitants of Bali.  Many people were dressed to go to festivals at the local temples.  However, most people were working in the rice terraces.  We did not visit the huge ones where most tourists go, but watched farmers plowing and planting young rice plants.  Fields of chrysanthemums are grown simply for the daily offerings to the gods.  Ducks and geese searched for food in the rice fields.

We stopped for lunch is a small village and ate local food- red rice, suckling pig, tea and dessert- for $6.00 for the three of us!

Then we were off to a little coffee plantation by the side of the road.    If you didn't know it was there, you would never have noticed it.  Many of the plants and trees were identified with information signs.  We got a very close look at .......

I wondered what was the significance of this civet and was informed that the luwak eats coffee berries whole and passes them through its digestive system.  When they are evacuated, the berries are cleaned, roasted over a wood fire and ground with a huge mortar and pestle into luwak coffee, which is apparently very chocolatey in flavour.  It is very expensive, but I purchased some for Dave.  I am SURE he has never had THAT before!!!!

As we were leaving, some schoolchildren returning home for the day caught our eye.

As the afternoon wore on, we realized we needed to buy some fuel for the car.  However, nearly all the service stations seemed to be empty.  It was necessary to top up the tank enough to get back to the marina the expensive way.  Local stalls all have bottles of petrol for sale, primarily for the hundreds of motor scooters.

Our last stop of the day was up to a lake, we have no idea where.  On the way we stopped to admire the mountain view.  Under the plastic in the foreground are strawberry plants. 

The lake was beautiful, probably a volcanic tarn.  There are Hindu shrines as well as a Buddhist temple.  Most of the visitors were local people.  Sara and I were delighted to be able to buy batik dresses (with a lot of the gold paint) for $6.00 each ($8.00 for a long one).  

The beauty and peace here made it very difficult to return to our grotty marina.  (Unfortunately, the ONLY marina in Bali).  However, we had such wonderful memories from even such a brief visit.

It was such a treat to see Sara's face when she was introduced to the most foreign environment she has ever experienced!  She couldn't get over the fact that every possible surface is ornamented.  The Balinese are a nation of craftsmen.  There are entire villages dedicated to various arts- stone carving, painting, wood carving, batik making and metalworking, to name a few.  

There are Hindu temples everywhere.  There are public ones and private temples and shrines as well.  Religion is a central part of everyday life.  Incense and offerings for the gods are omnipresent.  Each home and workplace has a small woven palm container placed in front of it filled with flowers.  The lives of Hindu gods and heroes are depicted everywhere.

Our driver, Madu (sp.?) was keen to show us his country and to explain its customs.  Our first stop was a batik factory.  Batik is created very much the same way as Ukrainian easter eggs- using a wax stylus to draw patterns, then dying the rest of the fabric and repeating the process for each colour used, working from the lightest to the darkest colours.  It is so labour intensive, but most of the fabrics are sold very cheaply.  

We also visited a silversmith's factory and watched the women working on delicate and intricate jewellry.

Our favourite stop of the day was at Goa-Gajah, the Elephant Cave.  This is a grotto with a man-made cave for worshipping the chief Hindu gods of Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. The view on the hike down is arresting.

We were told it was lucky to bathe our faces in the sacred pool- and , of course, we did so.

Inside are the niches for worshipping the gods.

We wandered for a long time among the groves and peaceful gardens.  A priest at one of the small temples showed us how to pray Hind style.

We really did not want to tour by car for nine hours, as suggested by Madu and went to our absolutely gorgeous hotel instead.  We stayed at the Tjampuhan Hotel and recommend it highly to everyone.  We were wishing we could have stayed longer!  Since it was off-season, the rates were quite low and the service impeccable.  We felt like visiting royalty!  This is a view of our room on the second storey.

The hotel is a series of villas extended along a river.  It goes on forever!  There are gardens and rainforest views everywhere.  There was a lovely lotus pool just below our room and two beautifully landscaped swimming pools.  The one we swam in was ornamented with stone monkeys and frogs.  each had its own personality

Our room was not terribly ornate, but was tastfully furnished with lots of room, a terrace and AIR CONDITIONING!!!!

There was even a breakfast buffet included in our room rate.  We took good advantage of this offer!

Our intention that night was to attend a dance performance and were delighted to find the hotel could suggest an excellent one AND provide a free shuttle bus to get to it.  The driver even abandoned the other passengers to make sure we purchased our tickets safely.

While waiting for the performance to start, we wandered about the area of Ubud nearest the temple and admired the handicrafts, an art gallery and even went into a DVD shop.  It was HUGE and every DVD in it was pirated!  We decided to eat after the dancing and stopped at an attractive restaurant.  Even though Ubud is a major tourist centre, our meal came to only $6.00 for two of us!

Our vist to the Legong Dance Performance at the Pura Dalem in Ubud was fantastic!  Even the setting was impressive.  It was held outdoors at a temple (pura).  As everywhere else in Bali it was elaborately decorated with infinite care taken in all details- even to the placement of flowers along the edge of each step.

The music was provided by a gamelan orchestra.  The gamelan instruments are unique to Indonesia and are percussion instruments, except for hollow reed flutes.  The musicians work in pairs.  The xylophone type instruments are struck with a mallet and immediately damped with the other hand to prevent a muddy sound.  The instruments are handmade and beautifully finished.  The instruments work, basically,  on  a pentatonic (5-note) scale and somehow mange to blend wonderfully.  All music and dance is dedicated to glorifying the gods and are intregal to worship.  There have been minor modifications over the year for tourism, but, in fact, the performances are really religious in nature.

We watched six different dances, each very different from the others.  The opening dance was called Panyembrahma.  It is a dance of welcome and ends with the dancers showering the guests with flower petals.

The Kebyar Terompong dance highlights a talented dancer who also plays a row of pot gongs very skillfully.

In the Baris dance, a warrior depicts the courage and virtues of an admirable hero who is going to war.

The Legong Dance, the highlight of the evening was performed by three girls telling the story of King lasem in which the king desires the unwilling daughter of his enemy, whom he is planning to slay.  The king himself is subsequently slain in battle.

The Oleg Tambulilingan dance is one with two dancers depicting a girl and boy bumblebee.  It is charming.

The Barong dance represents the battle between good and evil.  We watched the drama of the entire story the next morning

We finally reached Bali without being arrested!  What a relief!

Our careful calculations about tides and currents paid off with a bonus this morning.  When we looked out to the channel as we weighed anchor, we saw a huge standing wave right in our chosen path.  Dave and I opted to follow a local boat which headed north to go southwest and avoided most of the turbulence.  MOONSHINER attempted the direct route and found themselves travelling backwards at one knot!  The bonus for us was when we turned south to get back on track we found ourselves being propelled along at 11 knots!  What a great experience while it lasted!

We VERY cautiously approached the shallow channel upriver to Bali Marina.  We had heard that the other two Hallberg-Rassys in the fleet had managed to run aground by cutting corners here and had waited for hours for the tide to turn and lift them off.  We felt rather smug that we had broken the jinx (more about this later).

Having arrived safely we were rather shocked at what we found at the marina.  It certainly contrasted with the beautiful scenery around it.  This is a view of the anchorage with Gunung Agung ("large volcano") in the distance.

The marina pontoons were totally inadequate for the number of rally boats.  As a result, we were rafted to each other.  ANGEL was the third boat in a raft.  This caused a lot of difficulties in transporting articles to or from the boat- especially the jerry cans of fuel.  The other two boats certainly did not want us to tote jerry cans over their lovely teak decks!  Dave got around it by lowering our dinghy and pulling it around the stern of the other two boats to load up the cans we managed to lug with a trolley over very uneven pontoon sections.

Fortunately for us we DID purchase and jug our fuel from the marina.  Several others decided to save a few cents a litre by purchasing diesel from a local service station.  This was all right for most of us.  However, PETER PAN had to stay after everyone else left to await his new crew.  The marina had no diesel available and told the crew to go to the service station.  After a while, the skipper, Jakob, received a visit from the police saying his crew had been arrested for buying government subsidized fuel.  This is illegal for foreigners, apparently.  Since he was the skipper, he would be the one to be jailed for two years!  When Jakob protested he had an agent who sent him there, our very expensive agent denied he had anything to do with the boat!  (HE would have been jailed in that case! ) The alternative to jail was a fine of US$1300.00.  I'm sure that is the highest priced fuel in history!

Checking into and out of Bali was an interesting process also.  Instead of quarantine and immigration coming to the marina, as in Kupang, each boat crew had to go into town to check in with quarantine, immigration and port authority (in THAT order).  Next was a trip to another island to check in with the navy.  Finally, we paid US$500.00 to the marina agent (withholding $100.00 until we reached Nongsa Point) to clear customs.  The customs agents spent about five minutes aboard each boat and that was it.  Of course, the whole process was repeated in order to clear out of Bali later.  It really cuts into your visiting time jumping through hoops for two days!

The docks were certainly inferior at the marina (apparently the marina can only lease them for six months at a time and therefore, they don't make any improvements there); however, the restaurant makes the best mie goreng ayam we have tasted and the office was efficient and the staff lovely.  Laundry was done quickly and everything was ironed!  Also, it was a treat to watch local life going on around us.  We have found that fishing techniques vary widely throughout Indonesia.  here are two of the ones employed in Benoa.

There was quite a bit of excitement one day as a small whale had managed to come all this way up the channel and gotten stranded when the tide went out.  Local boats worked for hours urging the youngster back to deeper water.

Speaking of "stranded", we met one couple we had seen in Kupang, travelling on their own.  They were staying over near the naval base in Benoa and had become stranded with their dinghy and were awaiting high tide to get back to their boat.  They were shocked to find the rally boats gone when we made our mass exodus.  They spoke to someone ashore who told them to wait until the next day to check in with Customs.  He said his brother was a customs agent and would meet them at a small restaurant to process their paperwork.  The cost for this service- US$25.00!!!!

Another frequent complaint was from those cruisers renting cars.  Five minutes after leaving the rental agencies they were being stopped by police who attempted to extort money on nebulous grounds.  My favourite was Jaume's experience (BIONIC).  He and Carmen were stopped and told they were being fined for not wearing helmets- inside a car!  Corruption, anyone?

Dave did not want to tour Bali and Dick on MOONSHINER was still having work done on his engine, so sara and I decided to hire a car and driver and booked a night at a hotel in Ubud.  She COULD NOT leave Bali without learning that Bali Marina was not typical of the rest of this amazing country.

Today we arrived at one of the most beautiful spots in Indonesia.  Gili Air is one of three very small islands at the northwest corner of Lombok.  We carefully followed each other like five ducks in a row through the narrow passage between the easternmost islands and followed LAROOBAA'S advice about rounding the hidden coral reef safely.  Soon we were all snuggly moored on the Oceans 5 mooring balls and relaxing for a change.

Lombok is Bali's next-door neighbour and is, apparently, the way Bali was in the 1970s before the massive tourist influx.  We didn't go ashore on the mainland to see the historic parts of the island (since we were still fugitives), but we certainly enjoyed the peace and simplicity that Gili Air had to offer.

Gilli Air has been a favourite of scuba diers and day-trippers from Bali for several years now.  Apparently there are only three families living permanently on the island.  They stil follow their traditional lifestyle of fishing, but have branched out into running small restaurants and shops and supplying labour to the larger hotels and numerous dive operations now located here.  Prices are still more than reasonable and the people extremly friendly and willing to help.

We had a fantastic lunch at Scalawags restaurant then strolled about the island with Sara and Dick from MOONSHINER.  Since we forgot our camera, these are some of Sara's photos.

We celebrated Guy's birthday with cocktails at a beach bar and a fun time was had by all.  Somehow, every time rally members get together it seems like a party!

Then it was an early night for all before our last stretch to reach Bali and become legal visitors to Indonesia!

Little by little our armada was reduced from the time we left Kupang on Wednesday as various groups of boats headed for different destinations.  Indonesia is a HUGE country with thousands of islands spanning as much territory as the distance between Texas and California in the U.S.A.  It would have been impossible for the fleet to vacate the entire country in 48 hours.  Everyone planned his or her destination around avoiding built up areas where customs officials might be stationed.  Technically we, the cruisers, were legally in the country, but our boats weren't.  We planned our first overnight stop on the island of Rinja or Rinca, which is situated between Flores Island and Komodo Island.  As you can probably guess from this last name, we were in search of the komodo dragon.

One incident which was very off-putting, especially since it was due to my carelessness, was that we ran aground on the south shore of Rinja.  Unfortunately I was too complacent as we had not seen any other vessels in days and since we had been using auto-tracking en route, vigilance had not been necessary.  Unfortunately, this time the autopilot was simply on AUTO and this does not compensate for sideways drift, just alignment of the boat.  I was very involved in a difficult knitting pattern and did not look up until we were ashore on rock.  Fortunately, there was no surf and the only damage was cosmetic, butit will definitely be the last knitting accident we have!

Rinja is absolutely delightful.  The anchorage was so huge and had so many little bays that a dozen of us were hardly aware of any other boats nearby.

We shared our little bay with the "Moonies"- MOONBEAM, MOONSHADOW and MOONSHINER, as well as LAROOBA and TALISMANO.  The water eas so inviting I was all set to jump in for a swim when suddenly an enormous school of LARGE fish began leaping out of the water all around us.  This went on for about fifteen minutes.  Obviously something even bigger was chasing them.  I quickly decided against going for a dip and had a shower instead!

When MOONSHADOW arrived in the afternoon, they were short of fuel and water.  MOONSHIBER offered them fuel and then they came alongside ANGEL for a water transfer.

We kept a lookout for large lizards on the beach- in vain.

Later in the afternoon everyone dinghied over to ENCHANTRESS in the next bay to plan our departure the next day.  The channel between Rinja and Komodo is notorious for very strong currents which become even more formidable when a tidal current is added to them.  Timing is very important.  Many odf the others in that bay had already spotted a komodo dragon and told us their tales.  Steve from ASPEN runs every morning.  He had done so that motninng, but paused to pull ashore an animal skeleton floating by.  Someone later that dmorning watched as a 4 metre long komodo dragon pulled it along the beach for a snack.

I was SOOOOOO disappointed that we would be leaving without catching sight of a dragon when, just before hauling up the anchor, Dick fromMOONSHINER reported a very large lizard on the beach behind their boat!  We could see it with binoculars, but we were too far for a good photo.  Accordingly, these shots come courtesy of MOONSHADOW.

We managed to hit the current in the channel at the optimum time.  We, who usually motor at about 5 knots were zooming along at twice the speed while travelling with the current.  Where the tidal and regular current met there were eddies everywhere.  As we neared this cruise boat, the two currents were spilling over each other in what are called overfalls.

MOONSHADOW and ANGEL decided to keep up the brisk pace we were experiencing and stop over at Pulau Medang at the northwest corner of Sumbawa for a few hours- just enough for lunch and a good swim.  What a welcome break from motoring it was.  It was marvellous to really exercise and see some lovely coral and sea creatures for a change.  I even found a couple of lobsters on my travels. 

 Even with the break, we managed to catch up with the rest of the group before they reached Gili Air in northwest Lombok.

We arrived this morning without incident about 0400 in the morning.  Fortunately, NAUTIBUOY TOO and ENCHANTRESS had left on their lights and AIS  units on and we felt our way in to anchor in the dark.

After a few hours rest we were boarded by the Quarantine squad and managed to check in  with Immigration at the bar on the beach.  There we received the first indication that all was not right with the world and Blue Water Rallies in Indonesia.

Up until two years ago there was no customs fee or Temporary Import Tax for the previous six rallies who passed through.  Unfortunately, two years ago three boats from Rally Indonesia decided to overstay their tourist visas and then tried to sell their boats without involving Indonesian Customs.  This led to the impoundment of their boats and the creation of the aforementioned tax.  Last time BWR reached Indonesia, each boat had to pay US$600.00 for the privilege of using their boats to pass through the country.  This was in lieu of paying a percentage of the boat's value- supposedly to be collected upon departure.  No one with any knowledge of the country's record of "refunding" money would ever essay this option.  The import tax was probably originally intended for ex-pats importing their own vehicles from their home countries for use during the years of their stay in Indonesia.  It was certainly not intended for small yachts staying only a few weeks in the country.  However, it has turned out to be a good money-making scheme and has continued to be enforced.

Our rally directors, with good intentions and high hopes, essayed to negociate a lesser sum or even to obtain a complete waiver from the tax.  However, they did not know that in Asia it is necessary to negociate BEFORE the event and quietly as the authorities cannot afford to lose face by being seen to back down.  It was impossible to get anyone to stand surety for the rally in Kupang and it was too late to deal with anyone in Bali, as the previous rally did. 

 Richard spent hours in meetings while the rest of us explored Kupang and enjoyed socializing at the Beach Bar.  One large group managed to rent motor scooters and headed out for nine hours of touring, accompanied by two local English students and a convoy of police escorts.  They had a great day- if a very tiring one.  Phyllis had a wonderful time until she was thrown from her scooter and joined us for sundowners looking like this.....

We had all been invited by the local officials to a dinner at a local wedding hall.  The people were wonderful to us, offering us home-cooked food and presenting us each with a small ikat, a sample of the local weaving.

After dinner a group of adolescents invited us to join in a circle dance.

Despite Richard's attempts, we were still personae non gratae in Indonesia, as the Customs people would not budge in their stand regarding the import tax and this delightful Welcome Party turned out to be our Farewell Party as well.

The next day Richard informed us at a briefing at the beach bar that we had now overstayed our time in Indonesia.  We were now at risk of being imprisoned and going to jail.  The alternative was to leave by first light and he would make arrangements with their former agent at Bali Marina to be our agent and check us in again in Bali.

It seemed very ironic that we were being turned away at the very spot where Captain Bligh and the crew left with him after the mutiny on the Bounty, who rowed 3,000 miles in an open boat from Tahiti, at last found refuge!

We had all ordered t-shirts made up to be delivered the next day, but somehow it seemed more important to get away than to worry about the shirts!

Accordingly at 0500 the next morning the anchorage was deserted and we found ourselves in the midst of a mass exodus.......

We managed to get some good photos of other rally boats.  Here are a couple of nice ones of ANGEL.....

A couple of positives on the situation- it was the last time for weeks that we actually managed to SAIL and the t-shirts were NOT lost.  ENCHANTRESS, ASPEN and LUCY ALICE  received a phone call at midnight asking them to come over to the broken jetty.  There, the t-shirt manufactureres tossed them the packages of finished shirts!  They had worked all night to have them ready ahead of time.  The people of Indonesia are wonderful!

 

Today's tour was not as dramatic as the billabong tour, but I found it very interesting ans a great way to spend a quiet day.  We drove south of Darwin to the Cox Peninsula and the Territory Wildlife Park.  This is modelled very much along the same lines as the Singapore Zoo and has been built and maintained by the Northern Territory Government.  It is lovely and well planned out and there are very few people there.  It is a wonderful way to learn about the wildlife in all the various climactic areas in the Northern Territory.

Visiting the Nocturnal Animal display is rather like playing Where's Waldo.  There is a sense of satisfaction in being able to locate the various animals in their dark display cases.

There is a little electric train to transport you from one exhibit area to the next, but it is faster and easier to walk (better exercise as well).

I particularly enjoyed the monsoon forest with its thunder and lightning and rainstorm.   There were about eight pods showing different plant and animal communities at various levels of the rainforest.

The most dramatic display was at the Birds of Prey pavilion.  Guides displayed raptors very close at hand and allowed them to fly in the superstructure of the viewing area.

We had planned also to vist Litchfield Park with its many beautiful waterfalls and pools and its large magnetic termite nests.  However, we seemed to run out of time and energy.  The termites in the Northern Territory are very interesting.  They help with cleaning up rotting debris. Their gigantic nests (like anthills on steroids) are everywhere and are so strong dynamite is necessary to destroy them  The Magnetic Termites do not build the castle-like structures one finds elsewhere, but rather  pinnacles with four distinct ridges on the sides- one pointing in each cardinal direction- North, South, East and West.

After our rally briefing on Monday the 11th of October, we, along with most of the fleet, will be leaving Tipperary Waters marina for Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia.  We plan to have to motor the entire way and to arrive on Friday, October 15.

ANGEL has been scrubbed inside and out, we have new batteries aboard and now we are ready to explore!

Several of our cohorts have driven to Kakadu National Park for three days, overnighting in a hotel.  The summer Jonathan turned 18 we travelled to Kakadu for a weeklong hiking and camping tour.  It was spectacular and, we feel, the only way to visit it.  This way one learns some of the way of life of the Aborigines and truly experiences the beauty of this wilderness.  One also senses the spirituality attached to the area.  We did not want to go there this time and be disappointed.

Instead we decided to do some day trips.

Our first and most wonderful tripmwas along the Stuart Highway to the Arnhem Highway, past HUMPTY DOO to the Corroboree Billabong.  I loved the wildlife cruise in Yellow Waters so many years ago and hoped this would be its equal.  It actually surpassed it!

Dave was a bit dismayed to learn that I had booked a three hour tour (he was hoping for one hour).  He DID ask me to do the booking!  I figured one hour was too short and if we were driving three hours return, we should at least have three hours of entertainment.

We were going to arrive too early so we took a side trip to the nearby Window on the Wetlands interpretive centre.  It was a delightful and informative exhibit with a lot of hands-on activities.  It was a great introduction to what we were about to see.  Also, it was free.

We  were very surprised to find David and Sue from ENCHANTRESS and Ian and Glenda from LUCY ALICE at the tavern waiting for the shuttle to the billabong (a permanent body of water).  They had planned to go on the earlier one-hour tour.  I guess it was all that canny scots blood in the group that decided I was getting a better deal for three hours ($60.00 each, including shuttle and lunch) than they would get for one hour ($35.00)!  We all had a real treat in store.

The bus ride was an inferno.  Luckily it was for only 15 minutes.  Along the water there was a refreshing breeze (the first since we arrived in stifling Darwin).  We were expecting a large fancy boat (as in Yellow Waters).  Instead there was a low-lying swamp boat, with no toilets!  However, in this climate one drinks and drinks and never needs to use the facilities, so no worries!

This swamp boat was highly manouevrable and could travel in 6 cm of water.  Whenever anyone pointed out something interesting, our guide whip us around and let everyone have a good look.

We started out cruising along banks of lotus flowers.

Here and there we spotted snake-necked darters.

Like albatrosses, these birds have no oil glands to waterproof their feathers and can drown if submerged.  They need to dry out between fishing attempts.

One of my favourite birds is the Jacana or Jesus bird.  These birds have long "toes" which enable it to walk between lily pads, almost as if it is walking on water.  The male hatches the eggs and looks after the babies.  If danger is near, he scoops them all up under his wings and all that can be seen of them is their dangling legs.

One of the stars of the wetlands is Australia's only stork, the Black-necked Stork or Jabiru.  These birds stand about a metre and a half high and are very striking.  We only saw one in Yellow Waters.  Here we saw eight!

Lunch was a delight.  Our guide, Ian, drove right into a field of lotuses and served us our salad and coldcut lunches-DELICIOUS!!!

We learned how versatile the lotus is.  Not only are they beautiful, but the pods can be eaten.  The stems too are important.  When eaten they are a good source of clean water.  They taste rather like a milder, more delicate form of celery and are full of moisture.  Since the roots filter the water, this is clean moisture to imbibe.  The hollow stems can also be used as a snorkel.  The uses of the leaf are plentiful.  A very important feature of the leaf is its impermeability.  Rainwater collects in the hollow centre.  These leaves can be snapped off at the base water placed inside, then drawn shut at the top to make a canteen.  When it is raining the leaf can be made into a rainhat.

One bird all you crossword puzzle solvers out there might be interested in is the Sea Eagle or Erne.  They are highly territorial and have huge nests.

We passed the afternoon looking for crocodiles, both freshwater (Freshies) who spend their entire lives in fresh water and saltwater (Salties) ones who spend part, but not all, of their lives in saltwater but most of their lives in fresh or brackish water.  The estuarine (Salties) are the more aggressive of the two.  Both types are EVERYWHERE- even in a few centimetres of water. The birds didn't seem too upset by their presence, but the people in the boat kept all limbs inside!

At one point we saw something Ian had never seen before, a Freshie resting after the exertion of capturing a large catfish before opening its jaws to swallow it whole.  The fish was actually still flapping!