Singapore Slingshot

Stayed overnight at the Rendezvous Hotel downtown. Took the Silkair flight the next day to Chiang Mai. Singapore has changed a lot since my last visit (it's a lot more developed).

Missing Malacca

Malacca was our last stop in Malaysia. Unfortunately I completely missed this one because I got sick on this day (most likely due not being careful with the ship's water).

Tea Tasting at Sea

I had picked up four varieties of fine chinese teas during my layover in Hong Kong, along with a little travel tea set. This came in handy today, since the whole day was spent at sea. I decided to hold a "tea tasting" seminar, where I let fellow passengers try each of the four varieties of tea, while giving a mini-lecture on the various types of tea. It was a big hit!

In Penang, For Heaven's Snakes

Today we sailed away from the Thai coast and crossed over to Malaysia. We arrived at Penang, an island off Malaysia connected by bridge to the mainland. We got to spend the whole day in Penang. I blew off the regular tour group and did my own tour. I negotiated a taxi to take me around to all the points of interest in the city in the morning. Lunch at Eastern & Oriental Hotel. In the afternoon I opted to visit the Snake Temple. Janet wanted to tag along so I took her with me.

The Snake Temple was created in the 1800s by a Taoist Monk, who built this temple in the middle of a jungle. After he built the temple, a bunch of the snakes from the jungle (green pit vipers) came and took up residence in the temple. However the snakes did not bite anyone. To explain this fact, the locals imagined the snakes must be really deities and guardians of the temple. So the snakes were allowed to remain in the temple ever since. Now, there is no more jungle; the temple is in the middle of a city, surrounded by tourist shops. The snakes no longer freely roam the temple, but are carefully placed by hand every day on tree branches in the temple. In the back there is a "snake farm" where snakes are raised and exhibited. They had a really big python (9 meters in length) and a *huge* King Cobra!

Ko Adang

Another beach day, this time at Ko Adang ("ko" means "island"). More waterskiiing and kayaking. We also had a BBQ lunch on the beach. I also did my second scuba dive (#31) at a shallow reef near Ko Adang. Here are some underwater pictures from the second dive.

Cruising The Phang Nga Bay

Unlike the Similan islands, there are far too many islands to count. Phang Nga Bay is the scene of dreamlike fantasy seascapes: soaring limestone karsts, rising straight up from the water. At sea level, the water erodes away holes or caves in the rock. We anchored in the morning, and a parade of speedboats came zooming out from behind the rocks to meet us. These were our tender boats. They first took us to Ko Tapu, but everyone now calls it "James Bond Island", after the same movie "Man With The Golden Gun" was filmed here. You'll recognize the picture on the right which looks just like the beach scene in the movie.

Then we visited a Muslim fishing village (Ko Panyi) where the whole village is built on stilts, basically on piers. There is a fairly large elementary school, several restaurants and tourist shops. On the way there, we went through a sea tunnel through one of the limestone karst formations.

The Nine Islands

Today we arrived at the Similan Islands ("similan" is the Malaysian word for "nine"). Landed at island #4, did a lovely hike to the top of the island where I got a fantastic panoramic view of the bay. Near the top the trail gets very steep and you have to use ropes.

Afterwards, I spent some free time on the beach doing water sports, such as waterskiing and kayaking.

In the afternoon, we did our first scuba dive of the trip (dive #30 since PADI certification last summer). I had my brand new underwater camera (the Sealife DC800) and was anxious to try it out. You can judge for yourself how well it worked. Here are a few underwater photos:

Clipper is a Star

The beautiful old style clipper ship I'm sailing on, the Star Clipper, is a Luxembourg-flagged ship of the line, Belgian-built, and operated by a Swedish company. I was very pleased to discover that the wonderful sails, rigging, and vintage instruments are all fully functional and not fake. I was a little worried that the magnificent sails might be mostly for show, and the ship really gets around by motoring. Thankfully this is not the case; we were purely under wind power for most of the time we were moving. The top speed is 11 nauts under power, and 19.5 nauts under full sail. However this requires a very strong wind. Much of the time our speed under sail was about 5 nauts.

There are 8 power winches that can be used for any of the lines, but many times the crew hauls on the lines manually. The captain is a personable young Russian man, Captain Sergey. The Captain also teaches the Tai Chi classes every morning.

There are 102 passengers on board, and about 70 crew. This is nice, because this is significantly under full capacity. The interior is beautifully appointed in fine polished wood.

The Star Clipper is also the tallest tall ship in the world. It's part of a fleet of three clipper ships. The other two are the Star Flyer, and the Royal Clipper. The Royal Clipper holds the Guinness world record for largest total sail area: "It measures 133.8 meters in length with 5202 square meters of canvas on five masts with 42 sails reaching 60 meters and was launched in July 2000."

Here's a video of a 360 degree pan from the bowsprit.

Here are some photos of the ship:


Navigational Compass:


Power Winch:


One of the 4 Masts:


Piano Bar:


Tropical Bar:


Pool:


Deck:

Ship's Library:

Control Panel:

Bowsprit:

Oh, Phuket!

Phuket seems like a pretty cool beach town that I would love to hang out for a few days. Unfortunately, the tour didn't allow for that. We boarded the ship immediately upon arrival. The ship is incredible! It's too dark for pictures of the exterior, but here are some pics of my luxurious cabin.

Man with the Golden Temple

Back in Bangkok again for one more day. We visited the Palace Temple complex. It was impressive, but jam packed with tourists. It seems the Thai people never forgot that the James Bond movie "Man With The Golden Gun" was largely filmed here, and they never miss a chance to impress this fact on tourists. Here is one of the Thai longboats, now called "James Bond boats". These boats appear to be basically a long narrow boat with V6 engine on the back end, connected to a long shaft with a propeller on the end. When they crank up the engine and lower the propeller shaft into the water, it really gets moving! Also saw the humongous Reclining Buddha.

It Takes A (Floating) Village

I blew off the rest of the tour group today and made my own tour.
Instead, I made my own tour. I hired a tuktuk (pronounced "took-took") to take me to lake Tonle Sap (literally means "freshwater lake" in Cambodian). Then I hired a boat to take me to the "Floating Village". When I got there a little Cambodian girl ran out to me with a camera, snapped a photo of me, and then ran away again. Hmmm.... I feel so exploited, haha!

Then I hired a river boat to take me around the lake to the "Floating Village". The Floating Village is an entire community of approximately 1200 floating houses.
There are floating schools, floating restaurants, floating basketball courts, floating markets... it's a veritable floating *world*!

They let me drive the boat all the way back (we switched back before reaching the floating Police Station, obviously).

Some videos here will be uploaded later when I get access to a fast connection (the ship internet is slow and expensive). Keep checking this blog entry for updates.

Lara Croft's Taproom

Visited the Ta Prohm temple today. If you say it fast it sounds like "taproom". Like Angkor Wat (see previous blog entry), it was sacked by Siamese invaders. Unlike Angkor Wat it was then abandoned, and the jungle was allowed to take over the temple. This gives it the classic "ancient ruined temple in the jungle" look, with tree roots intermingling with the stones of the temple, as seen in such movies as "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The movie "Tomb Raider" was actually filmed here and the depiction of the temple in the movie was quite accurate. The photo on the right is the tree Angelina Jolie fell off in the movie. She then discovered the treasure map at the bottom (supposedly, I didn't see the movie).

I bought a handmade wooden mouth harp here for $1, just to see if it works (it kind of did).
Spent the afternoon exploring the area around the Old Market and Pub Street in Siem Reap. Most dishes in restaurants are about $3. Draft beer (Angkor) is $0.50. I got a very good 1 hr massage for $5.

Anchor What?

Left Bangkok to fly to Cambodia. Visited the fabled temple of Angkor Wat. I'm here for two more days. Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple built in the early 12th century. It was sacked and damaged by invaders a couple of times, and converted to a Buddhist temple in the 14th century.

The temple is quite impressive, in its scope, artistic skill, and architecture. It motivated me to try an ink drawing of it. Here's a pic of "Lan", a cute clothing vendor. I bought one Cambodian shirt from her.

At the hotel there was a lovely dance program during dinner. Here are some videos of these dances:

• Coconut Dance
  
• Cardamom Harvest Dance
  
• Golden Mermaid Dance
  

Bangkok Not So Dangerous

Just landed in Bangkok. My inflight movie was "Bangkok Dangerous", another dumb "killer with a conscience" movie with Nicolas Cage. But it did have some good scenes around Bangkok. I will see if I can recognize some of those places. We toured Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson was the American entrepreneur who really brought the Thailand silk trade to the western world. He disappeared in 1967 in mysterious circumstances. Hot and humid here as expected. Had dinner at a lovely riverside Thai restaurant, complete with beautiful Thai dancing girls. Also, the special of the night was a Papaya Salad. Whenever anyone one ordered this dish, the waitresses would all come and do a song and dance around your table. This happened several times that night.

Hong Kong Fooey

In transit in Hong Kong...

Our airports have food courts with fast food type of places. HKG has a Caviar & Prunier bar, with $200 caviar and $300 bottles of champagne. I had breakfast here. I had the Scottish salmon. Mmmmmm, so civilized :)

I met a Canadian guy here wearing a Borneo t-shirt. I asked him about it and he told me about Borneo. Now I'm thinking of adding it to my itinerary. See how easily things can change!?

"It is the journey that matters..."

Thus reads the caption on the back of the t-shirt I'm wearing right now. It's a quote from a noted science fiction author[1] and it seemed an ideal sentiment to summarize my feelings as I get ready to start my Big Asia Tour, 2009.

This will be a very open-ended and spontaneous tour. Except for the first two weeks, I have neither schedule nor itinerary. I have only a general idea of the countries I wish to visit; the specific dates, places, and order of travel will be decided by me on a day to day basis.

The first of my trip will be sailing down the coast of Thailand and Malaysia on this old style clipper ship. Isn't she a beauty!? This will include short trips to Cambodia and Singapore as well. After that, I may visit the following countries: Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka. But as I said, this is all subject to change. On this trip I expect to do: sailing, swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, sightseeing, trekking, eating, drinking, partying, meeting old friends, making new friends, painting, drawing, writing, talking, laughing, and ... other things :)

I have my little travel laptop (cutest laptop in the world) with me, so I expect to be blogging on a daily basis, and you dear reader, are invited to follow me and share in my adventures! I invite your comments to these blog entries as well (but please don't use my real name -- just address me as "Panini").

[1] Here is the full quote:

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” –-Ursula K. LeGuin