Happenings 2010 Number 17

Thailand Revisited

2010 – A new year and a new decade - seems like only yesterday since the new millennium began! And on reflection, I can’t help but recall the wisdom and truth of the sobering old adage;

“Time’s a precious thing, and the Years teach much that the Days never knew”

We left you last at Happenings -16 as ‘Envy’ departed Langkawi, Malaysia mid December 2009 for a three months’ return visit to Phuket Island, Thailand.

It’s around 135 nautical miles (250 km) up to Phuket and we sailed it in four easy day-hops through southern Thailand’s numerous inshore islands, anchoring each afternoon in shallow sheltered bays. During the passage Envy’s water lock exhaust (‘pong box’) cracked and sprung a leak which we discovered by chance just as the bilge was about to flood the engine room floor with seawater, and managed to effect temporary repairs under way.

After ‘Clearing’ Thai Customs and Immigration we purchased a new ‘pong box’ and moved to a more sheltered anchorage at nearby Panwa Bali Beach. But all of a sudden things went terribly wrong. The following day, a week before Christmas, while trying to fit the new ‘pong box’ at anchor, Bruce accidentally broke off a thru-hull ball valve beneath an un-braced strainer in the engine room and sea water was flooding into the boat like a Kiwi geyser. Pretty scary stuff!

Broken thru-hull strainer valve

Fortunately our long-term cruising friends, Trevor and Joan Long, (‘Been-a-Long’) were anchored beside us and, as I sat there like the little Dutch boy covering the hole with my hands, Audrey summoned Trevor’s help and, after what seemed like hours, we managed to smother the opening with quick drying marine putty, after which Bruce dived under the hull and jammed a wooden bung into the inlet hole. The heartbeat rate was fairly racing there for a while - I’ll give you the drum!

New red 'pong box' and strainer bracket

We were able to motor-sail in strong headwinds to Boat Lagoon Marina, midway up Phuket’s east coast, where “Envy” was hauled out into a cradle on the hardstand, and where this and several other repair and installation jobs were arranged with local professionals over the following few weeks.

Fortunately we had both Air Conditioning and our electric Engel Fridge/Freezer to provide some respite to the horrors of living in a boat on the hard in tropical heat, accessed only by a ladder.

Meanwhile we hired a Suzuki Jeep for three weeks and joined 28 yachtie friends for a Beach BBQ lunch on Christmas Day at the foreshore of a National Park overlooking the turquoise waters of pretty Nai Yang Bay on the NW side of Phuket. So all was not lost, and we thoroughly enjoyed a Christmas with a difference plus all the excitement of Secret Santa with gift wrapped ‘Treasures from the Bilge’.  A telephone call home by both of us to our respective celebrating families added to that special feeling of Christmas.

Christmas Day BBQ and Secret Santa

Once Christmas was over it was ‘full on’ with an array of boatyard professionals working on ‘Envy’ including marine engineers, stainless steel fabricators, and various tradesmen doing new canvass work, fibreglass repairs, a carpenter making teak shelving, marine electrician, a yacht rigger and hull antifouling painters and polishers who, together with yours truly, spent one month to the day getting the boat back into shape.

Meanwhile our rented Suzuki jeep was put to good use as we made the most of non-work days to explore further afield. We treated ourselves to an outing on New Year’s Day driving 80km north to visit, lunch and indulge both culture and scenery of the small inland provincial town of Phang Nga, (”Fang Nar”) from which Phang Nga Bay, the area’s famous aquatic playground derives its name.

Bruce and and new Thai friend!

The generally flat topography is dotted with steep karst limestone outcrops, like giant needles rising several hundred feet above the ground, for which the province and its namesake bay are most famous. This small town is also somewhat unique in that it stretches for nearly four kilometres along either side of the main road, but mostly only one block deep, and with a jumbled up mixture of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings all together – most unusual for a smallish town.

Other motoring outings took us sightseeing along Phuket’s scenic west coast, with its bays of clear sparkling water and splendid white sand. Nov-March is the tourist ‘high season’ here with the prevailing dry NE monsoon providing (cooler) hot days with almost no rain.

Beach BBQs - always delightful

Green Prawns - always good value

What a joyous feeling to splash back into the water off ‘the hard’ in mid January, and even better still to finally depart the marina a few days later and be back at sea swinging on the anchor once more.

Australia Day was a real hoot; Australian flags, decorations and ‘boxing kangaroos’ fluttering in the gentle breeze in southern Phuket’s popular Nai Harn Bay as more than twenty Aussie yachts, including some newer arrivals we’d not met before, gathered on a large catamaran to celebrate the day in true style with a BBQ on board, with all things ‘Aussie’ including singing and bush verse. A great fun day – the stuff memories are made of.

Australia Day with 28 'True Blue' yachties

We wasted little time getting back into cruising mode and set our sights on sailing up Phuket’s scenic west coast, comprising bay after bay of excellent white sandy beaches and endless high-rise holiday accommodation, patronised predominantly by older central and northern Europeans, especially Scandinavians, who lounge about in their thousands on plastic deck chairs, many women topless, as they fry their milky-white arctic skins under the tropical sun.

Sun worshippers -  Patong Beach

Pad Thai Noodles with Seafood - a favourite at $2

So we sat at anchor out front of the sandy beaches of Nai Harn, Kata, Patong, Surin, Bang Tao and Nai Yang, spending time with friends, swimming and reading, eating ashore at cheap beach cafes (whose meal prices were about one quarter of Oz costs), and catching up with our ‘Happenings’ reports and emails.

An interesting anomaly relating to the 2004 Tsunami is that Phuket’s Surin Beach had barely a 2 metre surf wave while similar beaches either side of it and indeed all beaches up and down the west coast suffered huge waves causing extensive damage and much loss of life.

Having been right up to the Myanmar (Burmese) border in previous seasons, this is as far north as we went before returning southwards back into Phang Nga Bay for a month cruising there.

To the east of Phuket is picturesque Phang Nga Bay with its many sheer-sided sea mountains of karst limestone that rise vertically out of the bay, providing stunning scenery, occasionally used for motion picture locations.

Karst Limestone Outcrops - Phang Nga Bay

There are numerous quiet Bays like this

These great sailing grounds are home to many individual fishermen who net the shallow waters of the northern bay and regularly stop by in their small ‘long-tail’ boats to offer fresh green prawns, fish and crabs, often finding a willing prawn buyer in us. One young fisherman – who spoke little English - took me to his village, Laemsak, and then on his motorbike for 13km to the supermarket.

We ran out of petrol enroute and a passing friend, on his motorbike, “foot” pushed us three km to get fuel. Upon return to Laemsak village the tide was out, so he summoned several locals to drag his boat through the mud to the water, and I paid him generously for his kindness.

200 metre push along mud into the water

Fisherman loading their pots

Heading out to set the pots

 Three unchartered small rivers drain into northern Phang Nga Bay and the good ship ‘Envy’ carefully explored one of them, the Marui River, for a few miles upstream, eyes glued to the Depth Sounder as we cautiously zigzagged our way searching for navigable depths in the mangrove lined channels of murky brown water.

We anchored beside a mid-stream ‘postage stamp’ sized rocky outcrop where “Wilma’s Place”, a recently abandoned food kiosk nestled on the rocks in the middle of nowhere, piqued our imagination as to the commercial feasibility of its location in the first place – there’s no habitation within sight! At dusk ‘Envy’ hosted the entire local mosquito population, but fortunately 4 smoking ‘mozzie’ coils held them in check. One night was enough to whet our explorer’s appetites – we departed the next day!

Audrey and I have again enjoyed this part of the world, pretty much planning our travels to avoid previously visited haunts in favour of discovering places new to us. We particularly enjoyed our first visit to the Krabi area in the Bay’s northeast, which is both pretty and touristy, and boasts some of the most spectacular karst limestone of the area.

Abandoned 'Wilmas' Restaurant

Eroded Limestone cliffs - Krabi Coast

Our next interesting stop was at Ko Yao Yai (South Yao Island) where Bruce, ever the explorer, went ashore to check out Ban Lam Lan, a tiny isolated Muslim fishing village where very few westerners would venture. Everyone was just so friendly and wanted to know all about this ‘Farang’ (foreigner), so, aided by my Thai-English phrase book, there was much laughter and ‘carrying-on’.

Ban Lam Lan Muslin Village

Local Storekeeper with my Phrase book

Enroute back to Langkawi we again visited the “Emerald Cave” on Muk Island, the must-see highlight of the region. The entrance is an 80-metre pitch dark winding passageway, with just enough headroom and width for a small dinghy to paddle in, and the reverberating sound of booming seawater resonating in ones ears likened it to a spooky ‘Disneyland’ ride.

This dark passageway leads to a completely enclosed circular, cathedral-like Hong (room), with a diameter of 60 metres, open to the sky. The high, sheer walls are draped in lush foliage above a tiny patch of silica sand beach and an ethereal glow makes it seem as if you were encased inside an emerald, looking out. It’s an awesome experience, never to be forgotten!

Inside the Emerald Cave Hong

The main fishing village on the relatively small island of Ko Muk, which was swept away by the tsunami, has been rebuilt with foreign aid. The 130 new dwellings are a vast improvement over their modest pre-tsunami homes. The complex sits on concrete pillars over tidal mudflats that are exposed at low tide; all houses are inter-connected with walkways and incorporate a septic waste system which few enjoyed previously. Not the most salubrious location but at least there’s no grass to mow!

Rebuilt housing - Koh Muk fishing village

School children on Koh Muk

There is a tourist resort at the bottom end of Koh Muk, with a restaurant nestled into the headland, providing wonderful elevated views overlooking the beach and bay; it has long been a favourite of ours so we made a point of savouring it one last time to enjoy ‘Sundowners’ at sunset followed by an excellent seafood dinner.

Million dollar view - and a one dollar floor!

Sundowners at Sunset from the same position

And a great farewell to Thailand

Having accumulatively spent several months during our Thai cruising these past three years, there is not much of Thailand’s popular cruising grounds – from Malaysia to Myanmar - that’s accessible and/or of interest to us - which we’ve now not seen.

Our 90 day visa to Thailand expired mid March when we departed Phuket and made a leisurely return to ‘home base’ in Langkawi over the following 10 days.

‘Envy’ now lies in Rebak Marina being prepared for our participation in ‘The Rally to the East’ at the end of April, destination North Borneo.

We have made the decision to abort our Philippines cruising plans and sail ‘Envy” back to OZ a couple of years earlier, and hopefully to arrive in Brisbane by the end of this year; it’s far more difficult returning southwards and we need to wait for more appropriate seasonal conditions later in the year.

We are still researching the most favourable route, either backtracking through Indonesia or returning over the top of Papua New Guinea. We’ll keep you posted.

Bruce and Audrey
April 2010

Happenings 2020 Number 17

Thailand Revisited

We returned to Malaysia on 1st. December, from where, ten days later “Envy” threw off her lines and sailed up to Phuket, Thailand for Christmas and the next 3 months.

Returning to Rebak

But all of a sudden things went terribly wrong. On day three in Chalong, Phuket while doing engine room maintenance, at anchor, Bruce accidentally broke off a thru-hull ball valve and sea water was flooding into the boat.

Fortunately friends were anchored nearby and, as Bruce sat there covering the hole with his hands, Audrey summoned help and we managed to smother the opening with quick drying marine putty, after which Bruce dived under the hull and jammed a wooden bung into the hole. The heartbeat rate was fairly racing there for a while!!

We were able to motor-sail up in strong headwinds to Phuket’s Boat Lagoon Marina where “Envy” now safely sits in a cradle on the hardstand awaiting this and several other maintenance jobs when the trades people return after New Year.

Meanwhile we’ve hired a Suzuki Jeep and will join yachtie friends for a beach BBQ Christmas Lunch in a pretty little bay on the other side of Phuket Island. So all is not lost by any means.

Happenings 12 - 2008 March to July

Land and Sea Gypsies

Many months ago around last Easter, the ongoing odyssey of the retirement sailing explorer “Envy” finds us island hopping south from Thailand, (where ‘Envy’ spent the past three months as reported in ‘H-11”), back to Langkawi Island, our wonderful inexpensive and duty-free paradise off the top western coast of Malaysia.

We’d suffered a worrying passage of recurring engine alarms and burning smells, which took yours truly some time to pinpoint as an electrical problem caused by continuing demand on the ship’s electrical supply - too many new gadgets were overloading the system. It is now eight years since “Envy” was totally refurbished so system failures and breakdowns can be expected.

We cleared back ‘in’ at Telaga Harbour Park, one of the area’s three marinas, then on to our ‘home base’ at nearby Rebak Island Resort Marina a couple of kilometres away where we spent two weeks doing reprovisioning and maintenance, preparing for the continuing voyage south to Sebana Cove Marina at the bottom end of Malaysia across from Singapore.

That passage took three weeks in the mostly light airs, motor-sailing in day hops, with several stopovers enroute at Penang and Port Dickson marinas, which are always a welcome haven after sitting in the cockpit on ‘anchor watch’ in the middle of the night as wild thunderstorms and lightning rage about, or dodging seriously dangerous waterspouts too close for comfort.

The tail end of a dangerous much larger water-spout

Landlocked in the middle of nowhere five miles up a muddy river, Sebana Marina is hot, still and humid, causing everything to turn green after a while. But a saving grace is that it's safe, secure, inexpensive, and provides a daily passenger ferry service to nearby Singapore, mecca for spare parts and shopping, of which we regularly partook during our two weeks there.

By mid May the ‘Envy’ sea gypsies become land gypsies with full backpacks at Singapore Airport headed for Bangkok to join our good cruising friends Trevor and Joan, off Brisbane yacht 'Been-a-long', for 32 days of land travel through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

After an interesting day and night in Sukumvit, Bangkok’s seedy and colourful nightclub district, we took a 2 hour bus trip to Kanchanaburi, a busy tourist village of WW2 history where we stayed for 3 days, and that afternoon we walked across the famous Bridge on the River Kwai.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The next day we visited the ‘Tiger Temple’, started by a Monk who took in an orphaned cub a few years back, where the same Monk plus helpers walk fully grown tigers around like leashed pussycats. For an additional fee you can have photos taken nursing one in your lap. Wow!

Our favourite Cat at the Tiger Temple

Kanchanaburi - day 3 finds us in a small air-conditioned van doing a day tourist trip as follows. First stop was to a waterfall, then 1½ km down a shallow winding stream on a Bamboo raft, followed by an Elephant ride thru the countryside, saw basket weaving, and on to Hellfire Pass.

Basket Weaving

Preparing for our Elephant ride

Hellfire Pass

‘Hellfire Pass’ is the name given to the Konyu Cutting where allied POW’s hand dug a railway pass through a solid rock ridge on the infamous Burma Railway, resulting in many deaths. We then took a 25km train ride on an old ‘rattler’- together with scores of uniformed school kids, from nearby Krasee Railway Station (Where Lt.Col. ‘Weary’ Dunlop had his hospital and operating theatre in a cave beside the tracks) back to our waiting van further down the line.

Next morning we take a mini-bus from Kanchanaburi northwards to the old royal capital of Ayutthaya, travelling firstly through semi open cattle grazing country, past many sugar cane plantations and then quite extensive rice paddies, (Thailand is a significant exporter of high quality rice) arriving at historically scenic Ayutthaya at 1pm. Later that afternoon we booked train tickets for our trip to Chang Mai the following day, then took a ‘longtail’ boat ride down the river to explore three ancient WATS, one of which was quite superb.

Wat ruins in the old royal capital of Ayutthaya

At 10am next morning we board the air-conditioned express train, not nearly as flash as it sounds, and were unfortunately seated directly above the bogie wheels which made for a noisy, uncomfortable trip, arriving Chang Mai at 8:15pm. The countryside comprised mostly flat agricultural land cropped to rice, sugar and smallcrops, though we did encounter two slow winding, high-country passes, a pleasant change from the monotonous plain lands.

Almost all our Thai accommodation was in ‘Guest Houses’, whose rooms are similar to ground level motel units; clean, not always air conditioned, though often nicely landscaped but minus the car park out front. Cost was usually around Aust $20 per night.

The next day we arranged for a tour guide to drive us around Chang Mai’s several tourist spots, one of the highlights being the hilltop Buddhist Temple – Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, both architecturally and historically interesting, dating back to 1355 AD. The National Museum featured early history artefacts and art, with little variety, and we found it uninteresting.

After five days exploring Chang Mai, mostly in Songthaews (pronounced song-tau) pick-up trucks with bench seats, we headed further north to Chang Rai, stopping enroute at the superb ‘White Temple’- nearing completion and absolutely awesome, featuring stunning meticulously fine craftsmanship - then on into the Golden Triangle, the infamous opium poppy growing area, where Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and China converge, hence the name Golden Triangle.

The White Temple

Village elder from Chiang Rai area

Next morning we took a local bus along a sealed but horribly pot-holed road to Thailand’s border town of Chiang Khong, situated beside the Mekong River, where we had to walk down through the sandy riverbank silt to board a small longtail ferry-boat to cross over to Laos.

Mekong River at Chiang Khong

Long tail ferry-boat across to Laos

Laos - poor, clean, friendly and a single-party communist state, achieved independence from France in 1949, only to be overthrown by the communist Pathet Lao in 1975. With a population of around 6.5 million, it is our first visit to this Socialist Republic.

A new country – another adventure. We loved it!

The people are Lao - the culture is Lao - and the language is Lao, but during the 1870’s, as a newly fledged French colony, some bureaucrat in Paris tacked an ‘s’ on the end, hence its adopted name Laos. (Pronounced ‘louse’ – not ‘layos’). Lao currency unit is called Kip, but US dollars are widely used and preferred. The mid 2008 exchange rate was 8650 Kip=US $1.

It was here in Houei Sai that we boarded our river boat for a two day, thrilling 200km one way ride down the fast-flowing mighty Mekong River, which was low and running at a brisk 5kts (about 8km/hr); we were on the very last scheduled run at the end of the season, when the river is too shallow in places to safely navigate, so they stop for a few months til the rains come.

This was to our benefit since there were only eight passengers on board and we were treated like royalty. Up here in Northern Laos, the Mekong traverses flat country for just a few kilometres where it forms the border with Thailand, then runs canyon-like through predominantly mountainous terrain for most of the two day journey to Luang Prabang.

The sensation of doing 25kts (40km/hr) through the many narrow channels of rock-bordered, white-water rapids was quite exhilarating, seated at the open bow as the 100ft-long narrow wooden boat sent the bow spray flying as it knifed through the murky brown waters.

Scooting down the Mekong at 25kt

We had a tourist stop at a ‘Hill Tribes’ mountain village of the Hmong people, who live in relative isolation with no roads through these inaccessible mountains, and only the river as their contact to the outside world. They live a life of mere subsistence, eating (dryland) ‘sticky rice’, scrawny half-starved poultry and whatever vegetables they are able to grow. A heavy rain shower whilst we were there made for a most difficult descent down the steep and very slippery firm-mud track back to the boat; something like walking on ice!!

Hmong hill tribes children

The overnight stop was near the village of Pak Beng, at the Luang Say Lodge, a collection of bungalows with thatched Bamboo Roofs, nestled 200 metres high above the Mekong, offering panoramic views both up and down the river and surrounding hills. Dinner was excellent Lao cuisine, the local brew was US$2 per can, we slept with open shutters and whirring fans, under mosquito nets, whilst it rained most of the night.

Welcome to Luang Say Lodge

The river boat viewed from our bungalow

Departed at 8am with rain all next morning, so opted not to stop at another slippery hillside village; we continued our race down the Mekong all day, occasionally passing other boats, a few riverside villages, and sped through more thrilling rapids, saw a few fishermen, other river tributaries that joined the Mekong, and enjoyed another good lunch underway.

Mekong River trading post

That afternoon we stopped at Tham Thing to visit ‘The Caves of 1000 Buddhas’ (which are right on the bank of the river and so named for the thousands of Buddha statues/ettes, of every size and type deposited there over the years), before arriving at our destination, the old royal city of Luang Prabang at 4pm after a most memorable and enjoyable two day Mekong River experience.

The Caves of 1000 Buddhas

Luang Prabang is World Heritage listed; a biggish country town with many of its old buildings historically valuable, two-story wooden structures with a decidedly French architectural style. The main two streets reflect an ambience of past grandeur, as does the wide tiered stairway down to the Mekong River. We stayed a kilometre out of town at the Haysoke Hotel (a two star guest house costing US$ 28 p/day including breakfast), with a scenic view over rice paddies.

In past history Luang Prabang was, for a period of time, the royal capital of Laos and the old Palace with its colourful though modest décor is now unoccupied and open to the public. It is located in the main street of this touristy town, around which we did a 3.5km walking tour, including the steep 400 step assent to the temple on Phou Si ‘mountain’, directly opposite the Palace, offering splendid panoramic views of Luang Prabang. Each night, the main street becomes a very colourful market offering a great variety of quality local arts, crafts, apparel and food, albeit expensively priced compared to the local economy.

Luang Prabang, Laos

Old Luang Prabang

Following our three day visit, we hired a private air-con mini-bus and departed southwards next morning for the small town of Phonsavan, a six hour drive in heavy rain through very mountainous country with deep valleys, on narrow winding roads. After a slow 4 hours we had a welcome stop at the tiny cross-roads village of Phou Khoun for lunch - chicken noodle soup was all they offered. Dinner that night in Phonsavan was the opposite; a truly huge meal for 15,000 Kip (A$1.90), then we walked the 1km back to our room at the Banna Guest House.

Planting new season rice

Our two day visit to Phonsavan was to see the mysterious ‘Plain of Jars’ where, at three separate locations, many ancient rock-hewn stone jars of varying sizes lay in small clusters in open fields, miles away from where they were quarried. Reputedly used for the storage of grain and liquids in times long passed. It continued to rain as we miserably visited all three sites, with one of them being accessed via a slippery track through rice paddies. The ‘on-site’ café again offered only chicken noodle soup at A$1.15 for the meal.

Our guide explains ‘The Plain of Jars’

Farm cultivator-cum-transport

The next day at 4pm we arrived in our private mini-bus at Vientiane, the largest and capital city of Laos, whose mix of old French and traditional Lao architecture makes for some very interesting streetscapes. Nestled on the eastern bank of the now much wider and shallow Mekong River, (most of which is dry sand channels until the wet comes) and which is the border with Thailand, Vientiane’s charming river boulevard is shaded by tall Teak trees, whose leafy canopies offer cooling shade from the tropical heat.

Old Teak Trees Vientiane

The city is clean, the people are friendly, the food is good, and the scenery is interesting - and we became instant ‘Laotian millionaires’ as the bank’s ATM handed over 1,000,000 Kip, approx A$116! We took the local currency to pay for meals and accommodation to conserve our dwindling reserve of US dollars.

Our room at the downtown Asian Pavilion Hotel was very good value at US25 p/day, and within walking distance of all the things to do and see. We had no trouble buying antibiotics, prescription free, at the pharmacy for our deep chest colds, and so inexpensive!

Vientiane offers the usual run of touristy things including museums, monuments, architecture, and all things cultural etc., including the Patuxay Monument, an Arc de Triomphe look-alike affectionately referred to as the ‘Vertical Concrete Runway’, so named after being built with USAID that was granted to fund construction of a new airport runway in the 1960’s.

“The vertical concrete runway”

Farewell to Laos - and to Trevor and Joan

After twelve busy days in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, six of them in lovely, tidy Vientiane, we farewelled Trevor and Joan and flew on a Vietnam Airlines A320 jet to Phnom Penh, capital of the Kingdom of Cambodia. It is a constitutional monarchy with parliamentary representative democracy. Our preferred Paragon Riverside Hotel was booked out so we took an excellent room at The Asia Hotel downtown, good value at US $22 incl breakfast.

Our hotel Phnom Penh - Cambodia

Having arrived before midday afforded us time to go exploring around Phnom Penh. We walked a few kilometres around this bustling city that afternoon, and more again the following day and decided it was the filthiest town in SE Asia with litter everywhere; traffic was totally bizarre with mad drivers out of control. It was generally more expensive than socialist Laos, though the big yellow-domed market close to our hotel offered many good bargains via barter.

View from Hotel

Street litter

Scrounging thru rubbish

Sadly, there were lots of street beggars, with missing limbs, ‘UXO’ victims - (UneXploded Ordinance) – the land mine legacy from the murderous Pol Pot regime. We took a city tour which included the infamous Khmer Rouge ‘Killing Fields’ where thousands of human skulls are on display at the Choeung Ek Memorial , then to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, previously a school where Pol Pot incarcerated their mostly political victims prior to their deaths.

“The Killing Fields”

Pol Pot victims Memorial

One soon tires of the ubiquitous Wats, Temples, Museums and Markets ‘ad nauseam’, but we did enjoy our visit to the Silver Pagoda within the Royal Palace to view a magnificent 90 kg Solid Gold Buddha emblazoned with 2086 diamonds and precious gems, sculptured in 1902.

The Royal Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Another memorable Cambodian event was having a haircut. I sat down in the chair at this modern Barber’s Shop in Phnom Penh and a grey haired barber gave me a haircut (what little I’ve got) with antique Hand Clippers – just blew me away! It is 55 years since my previous hand shearing; Ron the local Chinese Barber at Graceville had electric clippers 50+ years ago!

Then it was off to Siem Reap, a 6 hour bus ride away through all flat country with long straight roads where we had to negotiate a huge tree fallen across the highway, and plenty of mad, dangerous drivers in the very heavy rain.

At the roadside stop, on offer were large fried insects resembling crickets and even larger tarantula spiders!!!! Apparently a delicacy in rural Cambodia.

We spent the next day discovering Angkor Wat, the most famous and best preserved religious temple in Cambodia, and the nation’s leading drawcard attracting over 4 million visitors in 2007; these ancient ruins cover several hectares, surrounded by a man-made moat. The numerous buildings and passageways featured many superbly detailed reliefs depicting ancient Khmer culture and history, with much of it remaining originally intact. Our long day included visits to Angkor Thom, Bayon Temple, the Elephant Terrace and Royal Palace. Though ‘off season’, there were scores of tourists everywhere; very tiring but a worthwhile excellent day.

The Temples of Angkor Wat Temple Gallery Reliefs

Our final day was spent souvenir shopping in Siem Reap for (near) pure silver ornaments, for which local silversmiths are renowned. We flew back to Singapore next morning then caught the ferry across to Sebana Cove Marina, where “Envy” opened up well following our 32 day absence. All in all it was a wonderful experience and next year – who knows where?

Do you think you’d get away with this in Australia?
These are everyday scenes in SE Asia

Van


Motorbike

Truck

Utility

Bicycles

Four on a Motor Bike

Cheers ‘til Happenings 13 – Borneo and the South China Sea, coming soon.
Bruce and Audrey