·        Loaded Sea Mist on MV Molengracht in Phuket at 1400 on Mar 3, 2016 for shipment to Vlissingen/Flushing Netherlands.

·        Offloaded at Vlissengen at 1630 on April 3, 2016 and tied up alongside MV Molengracht

·        Cast off from ship at 1100 on April 4, 2016 and motored  across bay to Breskens Marina.

·        Departed Breskens Marina at 0620 on April 10, 2016 bound for River Stour to anchor overnight enroute to Ipswich

·        Weighed anchor at mouth of River Stour at 0845 on April 11, 2016 bound for Fox’s Marina, Ipswich

·        Tied up Fox’s Marina at 1045 on April 11, 2016 and remained at Fox’s until final voyage to Guernsey on July 1-3, 2016 for delivery/handover to new owners in Guernsey

·        July 4 Flight: Guernsey to Stansted > Rental car to Ipswich to pick up the Admiral

·        July 6 Flight: drive to Heathrow, then London  > Toronto

·        July 7 Flight: Toronto to Saint John New Brunswick to begin life on land in Pocologan, on the Shores of the Bay of Fundy   E5J0B1

·        Dec 21 2017: Moved into our new home that we designed and built during 2017 here in Pocologan

The St. Regis has many sculptures in and around the hotel, this is woman on a boar I couldn’t see the name of the artist, the St. Regis has some beautiful pieces of art.

No matter where you look you see another very tall building, but it is the colours of the surrounding buildings that catch your eye.

Orchard Road the mecca for shoppers.

Orchard Road in Singapore is what Fifth Avenue is to New York.

The Tiffany Blue Box below the globe that changes colour.

We have changed from sleek and sophisticated to the hustle and bustle of a very colourful and noisy Chinatown.  You can get lost in amongst the lanes even with a map, luckily there is always someone to point you in the right direction.

You can find any kind of souvenir you want, the price is always negotiable.

The skyscrapers in the background make an interesting backdrop for the crowded lanes in Chinatown.

The old buildings are still standing and used, thank goodness, otherwise it would just be stalls and concrete buildings, the history of these buildings is what creates an allure for weary travelers.

I’m sure these were homes of very wealthy families or family businesses, now they are catering to the needs of the tourists.

These buildings have a French Colonial look, we always remember how beautiful the French Colonial buildings similar to Hanoi and Beirut.

This is probably the cleanest Chinatown we have visited.  Great entrance to Chinatown.

The buildings had many uses, from where old people went to die to happy rooms or family shops and living in the rooms above the shops.

The other side of the street.

I took a photo of this handsome man sitting on the concrete ledge…waiting for his wife to finish shopping I would hazard a guess, haha.

Here we are back at Changi Airport, getting ready to board our plane back to Langkawi.

John waiting for his driver but the driver never showed up…

We once again had an enjoyable time in Singapore even though we were there on business, we found time to explore a little bit more of the downtown area.

Singapore

Singapore is one of our favourite cities, so when we had to look at how we would handle visas for two countries…a return trip to Singapore was the option at the top on our list.  Our Malaysia 90 day Visas were expiring so we had to get out of country…..and….we wanted to combine the trip with our need to obtain 90 day Visas in advance of entering Thailand come November. The run to Singapore took care of both of these needs.

There were heavy rainstorms and low cloud cover in Langkawi.  We were hoping the lightning and thunder would let up before we had to get into the air…and it did!

Here we are on Air Asia in amongst the clouds.  The sun is shining and the heavy storms are behind us.

We stayed at a boutique hotel that promised large bedrooms…we were not disappointed.  This is an important feature for hotel rooms in Singapore, I looked at some that gave you just enough room to walk around the bed and the shower wand was over the toilet. This hotel was on Joo Chiat Road and Geylang Road with a great family restaurant just two shop houses from our hotel that prepared very good food.

Joo Chiat Road

This truly is a family restaurant, sons, daughters, cousins, uncles were all there serving or cooking, we talked to a cousin who was a waiter, he told us who was who, although there were very strong familial resembles amongst the group.

The lobby of our hotel, very colourful and it smelled wonderful, fresh flowers, Jasmine for one, so much better than old feet…

Our bedroom, we always ask for twin beds as we are never sure whether the Queen size is not just a double.

Out bathroom, great walk-in shower with rainforest shower head.

Geylang Road and our way into the city centre.  There is a certain section of Geylang Road that offers pleasure, we were not near that section.  We were in the Muslin area of Geylang Road, mostly families and family run stores.

We spent most of our time on Orchard Road as the Embassies are located there. The Thai Embassy takes some time, we finally got our paperwork done after spending the morning and part of the afternoon there; we still have to come back tomorrow between 2pm and 3 pm to pick up our Visas.  We decided to spend the afternoon in the air conditioned shopping centres along Orchard Road, they connect via walkways, and it is like visiting different villages, each village unique and enjoyable.  The buildings of Singapore are still very interesting to photograph and the city is so clean with flowering trees, evergreen trees, beautifully sculpted flower beds and grass.  The trees provide much needed shade which helps when walking along the sidewalks with the sun shining through the trees burning our skin and the humidity making you feel like you are walking through a sauna, only there is no snow to roll around in to cool off.

A little Tudor Shopping Centre in amongst the skyscrapers.

Lots of greenery to provide much needed shade and stops the concrete jungle look!

All different shapes and sizes, what an opportunity for budding architects to showcase their designs.

How we stop birds from pooping on Sea Mist

Meet the Little Bee that can…

This is our Bird Chaser!

This is Bee, he is quite unique – he will chase anyone, insect, bird or human away from his security site.  He doesn’t always like his photo taken and other times he poses for me…he is lovely.

He is not the Long Leg Bee that we have seen over the last number of years, this little guy moves with purpose and does not have the long dangling legs to impede his speed.

He has the most opaque green eyes, they look like stone or a mineral and a little beak like a Hawk!

It looks like he has a post-it in-between his eyes.

Bee ready for action!

We are now on our way down to the Datai Resort and the Andaman Resort, we have anchored in the Andaman Bay and these two resorts looked really nice, plus we wanted to see what the bay looks like from land. And speaking of land, we drove by a welcoming reptile just as we approached the resort.

They have an awesome meandering pool that goes all the way to the beach.

Very nice bar, we are now off to the Datai.

Just before the Datai is the Els Golf Course

Lots of woods and water, it looked like a nice course, just how you play in the heat with the sun beating down on your head.

The monkeys are part of Langkawi so we were not surprised to see them on the golf course.

This fellow seemed to be our meet and greet guy, just before you get down to Datai.  He stood and stared at me for a long time then decided I wasn’t going to be one of these dumb tourists who lower their windows so I can grab something from the car, so the rest of the troop came out of the shadows.

Little one sucking his thumb…

It is nice to see them eating what nature provides rather than what man leaves behind.

Can you see his teeth, nice face?

What a view, in the background you can see the Thai Islands.  When we were anchored you could not see too much of this resort, just some buildings in the hills.

John in the shadows with his beer, we loved the beer glasses they used.

Sun downers on the upper deck, tomorrow we are going beachside for lunch.  I’m hoping John will try to do this type of Sun downer every now and again!!!

Whilst enjoying our drinks I saw some movement in the trees, I zoomed in but it was too far for my little camera, anyway I did get a shot of the dusky leaf monkey, his eyes are google eyes and he also looks cross eyed!

I found this shot on the internet much easier to see his eyes.

We are down by the pool at the beach, this pool was very popular, beach, pool, bbq what more could you ask for.

Our chefs preparing our luncheon feast.  It truly is nice to get a day off from cooking.

This is what we usually see, sand and plants with some buildings in the distance, you would never know there was a pool and restaurant!  Oh well, back to reality, we still have to get groceries, turn in the car and get back to Sea Mist.

Good night from Langkawi.

Around Langkawi in the Afternoon

We went to Cenang Beach for lunch as we were looking for stinger suits.  We had a quick bite at McDonalds and were on our way again.

We wondered first of all why the huts and what were they looking at.

Parasailing!

All you need are parasails some booths and you are in business.

We watched this guy go up, it happens very fast, the boat driver looks back sees he is in the harness and he is off, no spotters in the boats…

He is ready with his controller behind him, he has to steer the parasail away from trees and lines and get him back down.

They are up but his controller still isn’t in his harness just holding on with his hands and his feet are stepping on the harness.

Now he is getting into the harness, this is a very short ride about 10 minutes, so these controllers for want of a better name are in great shape, going up and down and controlling the parasail all day long!

Here is another parasail coming in for a landing.

This is an apt name for the type of parasailing they do here.  They had a perfect day, sunny with no winds.

We passed this sign that brought back memories of Marmaris, Turkey.

We came upon the Seven Waterfalls only because it has been so dry the waterfalls were just a trickle and the pools were filled with brown or green water.

Actually this copper colour in the pool was really a great colour.

We thought these stone stairs looking interesting, we had to walk up them to see what was at the top.

On the way up one of the rocks had a hole in it…

The plants were surviving with the rains at night.

This whole rock/stone area is just shotcrete - sprayed on concrete!!!

Thailand in the distance.  Time for lunch.

We came upon oxen and men in the muddy water, they had ropes going in different directions and

each one would either pull or move the ropes???

This big guy stood alone and never paid attention to the men or ropes and when he wanted to lie down he did and interestingly enough the men never bothered him, sometimes size does make a difference.

All of a sudden they pulled on some of the ropes and the oxen took off running across the field and up onto the road

They can really move fast when they need to.

Their ears go back and they make snuffling noises when they are running.

These three were turned back while the rest moseyed on down the road.  We really were perplexed until a fellow on a motor bike explained that this field is never filled with water, the oxen from different owners around these fields found it and were quietly enjoying their afternoon swim.  They were trying to separate the oxen to send them back to their respective fields.

These guys are now on their way home.

This little guy kept on crying, I think his Mommy was with the group walking down the road.

The men were rearranging the ropes and the oxen were doing what they do best, lying in the muddy water keeping cool.   We drove off to see what else we would find on some of the dirt roads.

Around Langkawi in the Morning

We have always been very task oriented, get boat supplies, groceries, etc. but every now and again we do a little bit of touring around Langkawi.  We saw many places as we were sailing around Langkawi Island that we thought would be fun to see by land. 

Our first stop was quite a large fishing village, I took a photo of one of the boats tied up to the dock, and didn’t notice until I put the photo on my computer, that it was a  Thai Fishing Boat!

During the monsoon season it must get pretty noisy inside their homes, tin roofs – rain.

We passed a number of very young boys on motor bikes, this guy can’t be more than eleven.  They

use the highway to get from one village to the next.

The people were very friendly and enjoyed watching these two crazy tourists trying to back their car around on a very narrow road, they all came out of their homes to watch.

We left the fishing village and took a left onto a dirt road, you never know what you will find.

06:13.456   099:44.912

We have sampled a number of anchorages all around the main island of Langkawi and this is our favourite for a number of reasons…..it is totally protected from the nasty weather that comes with the wet season….the South-West Monsoon…..and we are starting to feel the first brushes with its wrath.  Also other factors: no buzzing around us from day tripper tourist boats, no fishermen, water is good for making water, and we are only about an hour of sailing to reach Kuah town for provisioning.  The biggest factor though is the protection from weather….we have lost sleep a few nights with ocean swell coming into our anchorage and rolling us severally….NON STOP….so sleep, in those conditions, is rare.

A Walk in the Park to the Market

We are anchored off Kuah and found out there is a park called Legends Park that has many shaded pathways throughout the park that lead to Fair Shopping Centre and the Billion Supermarket.

First you start off along the beach where the breeze can cool you off until you get to the shaded walkways.

The park has many legends for you to enjoy and one is the legend of how Kuah got its name.  There was a wedding between two families of giants and during the wedding feast a fight broke out, pots and pans were thrown, and a large pot of gravy was broken, where the gravy spilled became known as Kuah, now the largest town on Langkawi Island.

Next you have to pass the crocodile pond

These are the type of crocs we like…cement!

Over the bridge to the water buffalo.

We have not anchored off the Fart Islands, something to look forward to.

This is supposed to represent White Buffalo Island

Past the fishing boats,

To the Eagle at Jetty Point

Along a shaded walkway with spider lilies and flowering shrubs

And here we are at Langkawi Fair Shopping Centre.

We usually eat at McDonalds but yesterday when we were at the Fair Shopping Centre we saw a notice on the window that they were closed…

There certainly is a difference between the two Malay fishing boats we met and the Thai boats that fish right off Langkawi Island.

We counted twelve Thai fishing boats in the same area, they must have found a large school of fish.

I am always fascinated by these boats, I call them the Batman Boats, we have never been around a large number of them all at once so I was able to get some shots up close and personal

It takes a lot of helpers to haul this big net in.

They do this all day long every day, you have to compliment them for doing a hard job rain or shine living on this boat, not earning a lot of money.  Being a fisherman is not an easy job.

This is what the nets look like after they have been hauled in and stowed neatly until the next time they are let out.

This boat was letting their nets out.

I wonder how many of these guys slip on the nets and fall into the water?

I’ll bet they are saying once this is full we have to bring it back in again!

The sea gulls follow the boats looking for scraps from the nets

We passed Pulau Singa Besar and it looks like a pretty good place to anchor for an extended time; we will likely come back here soon.

But for now, back to Telaga.

Sailing around Langkawi

The weather was warm and sunny, a perfect time to sail and motor around Langkawi for stops at a few anchorages including the popular tourist stop called  The Hole In The Wall.

We were greeted by a pod of Dolphins fishing in the waters near the entrance to The Hole In The Wall.

Longest Dolphin we have ever seen…or maybe two Dolphins!

There were a lot of them, now we know they are here I can set my camera so I can get better shots of them.

I guess this is where the fishermen bring their catch

The scenery around the hole is splendid.

There are tourist boats coming and going all day long – not a place you would come for some peace and quiet

Here we are getting closer

Most of these boats were empty, I guess the owners leave their boats here for the monsoon season.

The trees and shrubs find a small amount of dirt in the crevices and seem to flourish.

Back out and we spotted a rock that looked like a ???

The ‘Old Pirate ‘Ship rock

There were some Malay Fishermen out with their nets

This couple were out fishing, hopefully they got some fish.

We always wonder if they ever do catch any fish???

We left the Hole behind to go back to Telaga and found man’s contribution…

What’s “really good” on a hot Day?

Our favourite yogurt shop, you go in and pick up a dish, choose how little or how much yoghurt you want, what flavours and toppings you like…. they then take your dish and weigh it, you pay and off you go for your very personalized yoghurt treat.

We saw lots of couples eating in the restaurants and very rarely talking to each other just paying attention to what was coming in on their iPhone.

These odd stone sculptures were around the town as well.  Time to get back to our hotel and get ready for dinner, tonight we are eating at The Three Monkeys, we should have eaten here after we visited the monkeys at Monkey Forest.

The Three Monkeys Café

Every one of these cafes has something just a little different to pique your interest.  The Three Monkeys happens to have a rice field right beside the tables and herons who feed on the little bugs.

Their beaks are certainly geared towards picking small insects and frogs hiding amongst the rice.

Not the prettiest birds I’ve seen but they are certainly very patient as they walk around the rice field looking for food, speaking of which, it is time for us to order and get some food on our colourful awaiting table.

Good bye from Bali…..until perhaps a next time somewhere in the years ahead.

There are more taxi drivers along the streets asking you if you need a taxi than anywhere we have ever visited.  Every one of them ask you if you need a taxi just in case as you walk by you hopefully for them might change your mind and say yes.  The streets are so narrow and congested that they have to stand on the street to get your business then go and pick up their car.  Many of the drivers come very early in the morning so they can park their car right on Monkey Forest Road. They are busy during the tourist season but very slow for them in the low season, tough way to make a living.

Years ago these stores were family homes, now many of them are family businesses.

They have a great sense of humour and have fun with all of their creative words of wisdom.

Every lane is taken up with someone selling clothing and souvenirs, with so many I’m sure they don’t make one sale on many days.

In amongst the souvenir shops are these old building and temples.

The most important part of any Balinese trip for John, are the massage spas, he was going every day for sure and twice on some days….can’t beat it…and only $5 for an hour of excellent, whole body, Balinese massage.

Here are some of the staff waiting for customers.  The bamboo poles are the walls of this building, luckily for them when it rains there are no heavy winds or the floors and furniture would be sodden all of the time.

The Streets of Ubud

The street scene, stores and signs are always fun to look at, the sidewalks are especially one of our favourites.

They don’t seem to mind that the sidewalks panels are loose, tip and sometimes broken in half!

If you want to window shop you have to stop or you just might fall down the rabbit hole.

The construction crew of women were loading dirt into the plastic pans and taking it down a lane 200-300 meters to the building site. We were going to ask them some questions about the work they were doing but they looked a bit irritated/tired so we chose to walk on by. VERY tough work …. all day in such heat! It took 2 of them to lift each pan onto a third person’s head.

These women carried the dirt on their heads from morning until they left to go home around 4:30pm.

We had a mango slushy at this woman’s restaurant;  there are many stories like this one about families getting into business on family land.  Last time we were here we were guests at a very large cremation of a very important lady.  It is something that you are glad that you saw it once…. but never need to see one again.

Nice place we were just not very hungry just thirsty, we meant to go back but we never did.  Maybe next time we are in Bali!

The Palace

We had seen the palace on our way in and out of the market, so today is the day we visit the Palace.

The workmanship on these buildings is very intricate and the designs all have special meanings, the Balinese know most of the meanings, very impressive.

John took a photo of me as he says I am always taking the photos, there was no name on the building so we don’t know what the king or prince used it for.

The secret garden, I love all of the gates that lead you from one garden and temple to another.

In other countries we have seen this type of building and it was used for musicians to play for the guests in the palace.

There were a lot of twisted trees in the garden with a covering of moss along the branches.  There were so many parasitic plants on the tree it was hard to tell what leaves belonged to the tree.

Another unnamed building, but the colours are great.

There were intriguing walkways and buildings but you could not enter into any of them.

This is where you go after walking around the grounds, sit under the shade of the Banyan Tree.

Many years ago when the royal family would inhabit their summer palace, this street scene outside their gates would have been very different.

This is our way back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel we found this fuzzy guy on our chair back.

Time to go to the Three Monkeys Restaurant for lunch.

We met a couple from Singapore who were here for some R&R and had drinks on the terrace of a bar overlooking a rice paddy and the Three Monkeys Restaurant.

Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot means Land in the Sea, legend has it that Dang Hyang Nirartha saw the rock island’s beautiful setting and rested there.  The local fishermen brought him gifts, he told the fishermen to build a shrine on the rock as he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods.  This temple is one of seven sea temples all built within eyesight of the next temple.  They form a chain along the south-western coast of Bali.  The temple’s rock face was starting to crumble, it was restored but much of the rock is artificial.

You can walk across the beach to the shrine at low tide, we didn’t have time as we were also here for the Kecak Fire Dance

This is the shrine the fishermen built in the 16^th century, now made up of 21^st century artificial stone, it is nice to see that they are maintaining their temples and shrines.

Not a great day for a sunset, but the seas put on a great performance.

This was a pretty little temple across from Tanah Lot.

The surf was really rolling in.

The Kecak Fire Dance

This is a dance that tells parts of the Ramayana, a Hindi epic.  What makes this unique is the music comes from a choir of men sitting in concentric circles, swaying or standing as the story unfolds using a combination of sounds or ‘cak’ and one person to deliver the story.  The story begins with the arrival of Rama and Sita and Rama’s brother, the demon Rahwana, King of Alenka want the beautiful Sita, he tries to seduce her, trick her, as he wants her for himself or so the story goes.  In the end there is a fight hard to tell who the victor is, but they do dance on the fire.

The men’s choir, there were about 30 men all creating different sounds according to the story.

The girl in green is Sita and the girl in blue is Rama.

Rama’s brother came into the circle, he is there to protect Sita from the demon.

The arrival of the demon, he comes in many disguises, a golden deer, and old hag who needs food, sort of like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Sita is captured by trickery and has to be saved.

Another disguise for the demon.

They dance around and through the fires.

A number of them walked on the red hot coals.

Rama with her bow and arrow trying to kill the demon.  We would have been able to follow the story if we could speak Balinese, the story teller is hidden but has a commanding voice.

The End.