Nige and Al's  Diary 2010


Latest Update                      Home

Saturday 24th January - Puteri Harbour, Malaysia

In December last year we motored from Raffles marina in Singapore across the Johor Strait to Puteri Harbour in Malaysia - a distance of about five miles. There is not much to say about the marina here - it is new, secure, sheltered, all the facilities are nice and at the moment it is very cheap. There is a grand plan to build a new city here but at the moment there are just a few government buildings and not much else. If all goes to plan, it should be an amazing place in a few years time. For now, it is a good place for us to leave the boat while we do some travelling around South East Asia.

Our first trip began in the middle of December last year and took us to Bangkok and that is where we saw in the beginning of 2010. After making sure Strummer was secure in the marina berth we packed our rucksacks and had a lift in the marina mini bus to the bus station at Gelang Patah. From there we caught the bus across the causeway to Singapore and then the MRT to Changi airport. Our Tiger Airways flight landed on time in Bangkok and we took a taxi to the "Trendy Apartments" (that is the name not a description).

We were met outside the apartment by Dave and Emma - well they were in a nearby bar as our taxi took less time than expected. We had a quick look at our apartment, left our bags and went up to Dave and Emma's for  Champagne (fizzy wine anyway) and ham sandwiches. What a great welcome! Next it was straight out on a whirlwind tour of the local bars. I cannot remember the names of them all, but two of the more memorable were the Volks Bar (a VW camper van with tables and chairs on the pavement - also known as "The Caravan of Love"!) and a girlie bar in Nana Plaza. Nana Plaza is an "adult entertainment" area and we sat drinking our beers and watching the bikini clad girls dancing on the bar. Some of them were stunning but I had my doubts about a few of them. I asked Dave "OK, how many of them are ladyboys?" - he replied "All of them!" It was unbelievable.
On the way home we stopped for a nightcap at a bar stall on the pavement - also run by  ladyboys. Dave and Emma certainly  gave us a good introduction to some of the seedier parts of Bangkok!

Our first few days in Bangkok were spent exploring the area around our apartment. The Sukhumvit area is home to many of the expats (and sexpats!) that live and work in Thailand. This means that there are quite a few "British Pubs" around. Our favourite was called the "Soi 8 Bar". A Soi is a small street that runs off a main road and most of them have a number rather than a name. The Soi 8 bar was a short walk from our apartment, did good food and had a nice atmosphere, so this really became our local bar.  Another good pub that Dave and Emma took us to was the Bull's Head on Soi 33/1. Every Sunday between 5:00pm and 7:00pm they had "Toss the Boss" - you buy a pint and then the boss tosses a coin - if you win, the drink is free - if you lose, you pay the normal price. It was really good fun - especially on our last visit there when I won four pints in a row! On the way home from The Bulls Head was Soi Cowboy - one of the "adult entertainment" areas and an interesting place to sit and drink a beer and maybe eat a few fried insects! A little further on our route home was the  "Fish and Chip" shop where we would stop for excellent bacon sandwiches.

The streets around our apartment were always buzzing with activity. Early in the morning there were stalls selling breakfast. Later in the morning these were replaced with stalls selling clothes, watches (all designer labels of course), knives, replica guns, Viagra and loads of other things you might need. In the evening new stalls would appear cooking all types of food - noodles, rice, chicken, sausages, fish, sausages on sticks, fried insects and many more. Still later in the evening the clothes and watch stalls would leave to be replaced with bars complete with tables and chairs arranged on the pavement. Many of these were right next to the busy main roads. In Bangkok there is a whole economy that exists solely on the pavement.

Dave and Emma have a number of expat friends that live in Bangkok and we had an enjoyable Christmas Day barbecue with them. The barbeque was by the rooftop swimming pool at the apartment of Kevin and Rachel on Soi 11. Excellent burgers cooked by Kevin and of course plenty of beer and wine. In fact we had a few nights out with our new expat friends including a great Thai meal on New Years Eve rounded off by plenty of beer at Temple's Bar - also on Soi 11.

It was not all fun and games in Bangkok - dentists are quite cheap in Thailand so we both went. Al had a couple of fillings and I had a tooth out - Ooowwww! This was the tooth that I first had problems with when crossing the pacific. I had the nerve removed in Tahiti and then, as the tooth was split, a temporary crown fitted in New Zealand. The idea was that the crown would hold the tooth together, but I knew there was only a 50% chance that this would work. Unfortunately it didn't and now I have one tooth less. It was right at the back, so I do not really miss it and it does feel a lot better now.

Towards the end of our time in Bangkok we decided we should do a few touristy things. We had been up the river on one of the public ferries and we'd been over to the Khao San Road where all the backpackers stay. Most of the time we had just been enjoying living ashore and doing things in the area near our apartment. Our first trip out was to the The Grand Palace. This is an amazing place with so much to see. We had been to Bangkok about 20 years ago and cannot believe we did not visit the Grand Palace then.

Our final trip out was with Dave and Emma along with Emma's sister Sophie and her daughter Tilly who had arrived a couple of days earlier for a holiday. We hired a minibus and driver to take us to the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Tiger Temple. The bus picked us up from the apartment early in the morning and it took an hour to get through the traffic and out of the city. Our first stop was at the Kanchanaburi war cemetery and the Thailand-Burma Railway museum. This is one of the cemeteries where prisoners of war that died building the railway for the occupying Japanese forces are buried. The railway is also known as Death Railway - around 90,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died during its construction. A short drive away is the Bridge over The River Kwai where we stopped for lunch and a stroll over the bridge.

The last stop of the day was at the Tiger Temple - a more cheerful place but also controversial as not everyone agrees that Tigers should be kept in this way. This is a Buddhist Temple that became a Tiger sanctuary after they began looking after a few abandoned Tiger cubs. They now have a number of fully grown Tigers and more cubs that have been born at the Temple. The Temple is open to visitors and you can have your photograph taken with the Tigers. They are chained up and most are sleeping - we were told that they are never drugged. It was interesting to be able to get so close to these beautiful wild animals if a little scary - even chained up, they could easily kill someone if they were annoyed.

Later that evening we all went to the Soi 8 bar for dinner - this was our last night in Bangkok. The next morning we took a taxi to the airport, flew back to Singapore and then by MRT and bus back to Puteri Harbour.

We have been back a couple of weeks now and have been keeping ourselves busy doing jobs around the boat. I have changed the rear crankshaft oil seal on the engine - it is done but I am waiting for some new flywheel bolts to arrive from England before I can put everything back together. Al has been cleaning (mould patrol!) and organising our next trip - we leave on Tuesday 26th for four weeks in Vietnam. We are flying to Hanoi and will make our way south from there by train via Hue to Ho Chi Minh City.

Next update when we get back.

Latest!

Saturday 6th March - Puteri Harbour, Malaysia

We flew into Hanoi (in the north of Vietnam) on 26th January and spent ten days there. It is a bustling old city with 3 million people and almost as many motorbikes!  Vietnam is the land of the motorbike, sharing the bumpy roads with buses and lorries but not many cars.  Horns are tooted all the time to alert other road users that they are coming past (on either side) and also on approaching a cross roads (instead of stopping). Stopping for a red light seems to be optional. The technique for crossing the road is to walk across without looking or stopping - motorbikes ride around you.  This is nerve racking at first but by the end of our month we had almost got used to it.

Whilst in Hanoi we went on a trip out to Halong Bay.  This is a UNESCO world heritage sight which looks amazing in the photos but is full of tourist boats – hundreds of them.
 
We left Hanoi on an overnight train south to Hue.  Our 'soft sleeper' cabin (4 berths) was shared with two Norwegians and the rest of the carriage was full of foreigners ("Foreigner" is actaully printed on your ticket when you buy it!). The journey was not smooth or quiet due the track having been bombed during the war and then patched up, but at least there were no motorbikes whizzing around us and we did manage to get some sleep.
 
We spent a couple of days in Hue, visited the citadel (where the emperor lived until 1945) and then caught the bus to Hoi An. This is a lovely old riverside town which reminded us of Italy - windy cobbled streets and lots of little shops.  It was made even prettier as we were there in the run up to 'TET' (the Vietnamese new year) so the streets were decorated with lanterns everywhere. 
 
After Hoi An we caught the bus back to Hue and boarded the train to go south to Ho Chi Minh City (still called Saigon by the locals) - a 20 hour journey.  This time there was no 'soft sleeper' carriage so we had 'hard sleeper' tickets. Apparently this did not mean we would be sleeping on wooden benches, it was just the Vietnamese version of - err - second and third class.  This time we shared a six berth cabin with Vietnamese people.  Two people only travelled overnight but the other two, a woman and her mother, were with us all the way.  We assume they were visiting their family for TET - they had 9 parcels including a sack of rice and a large bag of cabbage! It was difficult to communicate but we did swap some of our Pringles for some of their homemade rice crackers - they were very tasty!
 
When we finally arrived at our hotel in Saigon we were told that our room was not available and would we like to stay in an apartment nearby?  As we had already been 'bumped' like this when we arrived in Hanoi we got annoyed and were found a room for the night.  The next morning, when we were no longer tired and hungry, the owner took us to see the apartment. It was great - air con, flat screen TV, balcony, washing machine etc. so we stayed there for a week.
 
Saigon is a more modern city than Hanoi, and there are even more motorbikes. There are big roads, which we crossed at traffic lights (most motorbikes stopped at these), and roundabouts which we avoided. We were there for TET, when it was quiet (apparently) as most people are on holiday.  Most businesses were closed which meant that the pavements were clear, making walking around easier.  The Vietnamese do everything on the pavement - the only pedestrians are tourists as the locals go everywhere on their motorbikes.

While in Saigon we went to see the Cu Chi tunnels used by the North Vietnamese to hide from the South Vietnamese and American troops in the war. There were over 250 kilometers of tiny tunnels around Saigon containing hospitals, kitchens and schools – we only went along a short passage in the top of the three levels but that was enough. We also stopped at the Cao Dai Great Temple where we watched the noon prayers. Our second trip out was a day trip to the Mekong Delta. There were various boat trips involved which made it a bit of a busmans holiday but it was a great day. Nige held a large Python and we both tried Snake Wine - neither were great experiences!

After a week in Saigon we took a 7 hour bus journey up into the mountains to the lakeside town of Dalat.  We had been told this was a must see but we were disappointed.  The lake was drained with work being done on the surrounding gardens, and the town was packed with Vietnamese tourists on their post TET holidays. Still it was nice to be in the cool mountain air.  After three nights it was back on the bus to Saigon for one night then taxi, plane, MRT/underground, two buses and we were home.
 
Now we are back on the boat in the peace and quiet of Puteri Harbour, Malaysia.  We have paid up to 8 March and then we will then start working our way slowly up to Langkawi.  We plan to do some more land travel later in the year - probably to Cambodia and Laos - but for the moment life is back to normal. 


Home               Top