Songkran Festival

Until 1940, Thailand’s calendar year began on April 13^th then it was changed to January 1^st to coincide with Western nations. Even so, the original April 13^th celebration is still a major holiday called Songkran, The Water Festival.

This is the hottest time of the year and a water festival is fitting. The festival goes on for several days and the major activity of this occasion involves people pouring, squirting, or throwing water on each other.

I have read that “in the good old days”, Songkran was a time to forgive all of the animosity and resentments of the past year and the water symbolized the washing away of those feelings. A person would dip a small branch covered in leaves into a bowl of water with flower blossoms floating on top, and then gently sprinkle passers-by. Now it’s an all-out water fight.  But it’s playful and the whole population takes part – even security guards and policemen get wet.

Darrel and I joined up with Julie and Steve of S/Y Aqua Dreams, bought ourselves some big water guns, and joined the festivities at 1:00 at Nai Yang Park. It was a hoot – we got soaking wet, dried off while we enjoyed a pop singer accompanied by “lady-boy” dancers, then got wet again as we worked our way out of the park. Many of the youngsters plastered us with wet baby-powder coloured with a washable dye. I think it’s supposed to be protection from the sun, but it’s probably also to make us all look silly.

We decided it might be nice to dry off for the evening, go for a cool beer, and then head to the beach where there was more live entertainment, free food and cheap drinks.

So we found a lively pub, held our water guns above our heads, and announced “We come in peace”. That didn’t matter – we were soaked once again. We did our best to get even. When we finally settled down and ordered our beers, we were seen as allies and were left in peace … for a short while. We were warned: “If the passers-by dwindle, we turn on ourselves.” And so we did.

I kept busy covering my glass so the rather unclean water wouldn’t contaminate my drink. I was dancing, too, but managed to not spill. The worst part was that the patrons discovered some melted ice, and that was generously dumped on all of us. Brrrrr. After a couple of drinks, and with the sun setting, we thought it best to move out of the water-war zone, to the beach for the feast.

It was a fabulous, fun, colourful celebration, even if we didn’t get to sing Auld Lang Syne.

Darrel, Steve and Julie, showing no respect for the photographer.

There was lots of colourful talent on stage.

The little guy on the left certainly had fun at Songkran.

We were brave enough to squirt these guys. They laughed, then retaliated.
Trucks kept parading through the park, loaded with people and water tanks.

This appeared to be a "neutral zone" which we respected.

There were scads of colourful food stalls and barbeques, so we didn't go hungry.

Maybe next year we'll get a water gun like this little fella's.

This is where we declared a truce, which lasted for about 20 seconds.
I gave my gun to a young lad here.
The other guns were given to boys on the beach.
We are once again unarmed.

Tsunami Warning

By Darrel

The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful

We have often reported how idyllic the conditions are here in Thailand. Well, we now know that this is not always the case.

Yesterday morning when we woke up it was to the beginning of another beautiful day in paradise. We were anchored in Nai Yang Bay just off of the Dewa Phuket Resort which is where our condominium is located. After enjoying watching a great sunrise and having our breakfast we dropped our dinghy and picked up our two friends, Steve and Julie, from Aqua Dreams and landed the dinghy on the beach. We pulled it up just high enough so the next high tide would not take it out for a joy ride.

We walked to the bus stop and caught the 10:30 bus to a large mall about 45 minutes away from Nai Yang. We did some business, had lunch and then went to see the movie “Hunger Games”.  About two-thirds the way through the movie we all noticed our seats were shaking. My first thought was that this shaking was part of the sound surround system to give us a more realistic effect. But when I realized that the movie scene was a quiet part of the movie where the leading actress was moving stealth-like through a misty forest (by the way she dies in the end), which is where I thought something else was happening. Loretta and I got up and went out into the movie theatre lobby and saw that a mass exodus of the people in the mall was occurring. We went back into the movie theatre and told everyone they should leave.

When we got into the mall outside the movie theatre which is located on the fourth floor we could see that the escalators were full but we knew of another exit which took us out onto a catwalk and down a set of stairs out to the sidewalk. Everyone was moving in a very orderly fashion and there was no panic. Part of this was likely due to 90% of the people had their cell phones on and were walking and talking – something Loretta and I still have problems doing.

Once we got out and away from the mall we decided we should get back home to ensure that CanKata and Aqua Dreams were safe. We caught the 4:00 bus. We knew by this time, thanks to Julie and her smart-phone, that an earthquake had occurred in Indonesia which is only about 300 miles from Phuket. The earthquake was first reported as being 8.9, which is only slightly lower than the devastating earthquake, and tsunami, which occurred here in December 2004.

Having learned from the 2004 tsunami we knew that the best place to be on CanKata was out at sea. Otherwise, CanKata would likely end up sitting high and dry in the bay due to the water receding and then hit with a number of large waves washing CanKata up onto land when the tsunami hits.

When we arrived back at Nai Yang we found a number of locals telling us not to head towards the water. We were told the tsunami was due to hit Phuket within 30 or 40 minutes which did not allow us enough time to get to CanKata, raise anchor and head out to deeper water. It felt very weird having to turn around and head away from our boats and instead head to higher ground where a tsunami evacuation site had been set up.

We stayed at the site talking to tourists from a beach resort in Nai Yang and some locals we knew who had businesses on the beach. One of the local resorts came in a truck with a supply of drinking water for the people to wait out the tsunami. We were of course worried about CanKata, not to mention CanKitty but we felt more for the locals who had to leave their belongings and stock behind without having any insurance to help cover their loss.

Julie was in constant contact with her mom in Australia and watching the tsunami web site for updates on when the tsunami was to hit. It was still uncertain at this point whether the earthquake in fact generated a tsunami.

At around 6:00, the four of us decided to walk towards the Dewa, which is a 5-story building, and try to get a better idea of whether we could safely head out to our boats and head to deeper water. When we arrived at the Dewa we were shocked to find that it too had been evacuated along with everything else along the beach. The latest update on the tsunami warning had indicated that none of the areas had yet been hit by a tsunami and if nothing changes in 2 hours the warning could be cancelled.

We decided that we would jump in the dinghy and as quickly as possible get our boats ready for heading out to deeper water. We raised anchor just as darkness fell upon us and headed out to deeper water. Once there we dropped anchor and kept our Internet running along with our radio and depth sounder to monitor any drop in the water level. About an hour later the warning was dropped for the Phuket area but that there were still a number of large aftershocks occurring. We decided to just stay put for the night and head back into the anchorage the next morning.

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise and returned to a nice calm anchorage where we will stay for Songkran tomorrow (Friday), which is the Thailand New Year. Just checked the weather and saw that the winds are staying calm, and the weather is to be beautiful – wish you were here.

BTW we hope to return to the movie later next week to find out how it ends (but something tells me that she doesn’t die in the end).

P.S. We were in the news (sort of). The photo below was in this news piece. You'll need a good zoom to see us - D in grey, L in black, near the black car.

FLASH: NO SIGN OF TSUNAMI YET | The Phuket News

http://www.thephuketnews.com/

Foreign Languages

Darrel and I are still trying to learn the Thai language - not just speaking and understanding it, but reading and writing it as well.

This learning curve is very steep. We started our lessons in June 2010 and have tried to put in one hour a day – with down time, of course. By my calculations, we have put roughly 500 hours into the effort. It has definitely been an uphill battle.

One big challenge (not the only big challenge) is the Thai script. We now recognize all the vowels and consonants, and know many of the rules that guide them, but are struggling to sort them out. Also, the Thai sentence runs in one string with no capital letters, and it is very difficult for us to figure out where one word ends and another begins.

Another challenge is that we have learned one particular font, but there are many other fonts that signmakers use. That trips us up on most occasions.

And then, often, we can figure out what all the letters are, where the breaks should be, but don’t know the words. And sometimes when we do know the words, the combination doesn’t make sense to us.

Example:

As we wander around Nai Yang, we often see a particular sign with a telephone number below. The sign has been made semi-professionally and is nailed to a number of trees. After analyzing the sign, we are pretty certain that the last word is “toilet”. But we can’t find the first word in the dictionary. One night, when we are enjoying a buffet dinner and the entertainment of a 9-piece jazz band at the Dewa, I ask our waiter, who has become our friend, what the sign means. He can’t understand my accent, so I write the word down, in Thai script.

“Wow”, he says. “You can write Thai!” Yes, I admit, but I have no idea what I’m writing. “Will you autograph this for me?” he asks.

So I sign the piece of paper, and then ask, “But what does it mean?”

It takes him many words to explain, but for those of you who have holding tanks, I’m sure you’re familiar with the term “honey wagon”. You call the number on the sign when the holding tank needs emptying.

Onto Chinese:

Now that we know how to arrange for the honey wagon in Thai, we have decided to give ourselves a different challenge – Mandarin Chinese. We are not learning the characters, but instead have a program that will teach us roughly 200 “essential words and phrases” so that when we eventually take a trip to see the Great Wall of China, we can book the honey wagon if we need it.

Must go study... so for now, “dsi jee-en” (good-bye in Mandarin).

Restarting our Circumnavigation

By Darrel

When we were in the planning stages of our cruising journey we did a lot of reading about cruisers who were already doing or having completed such a journey. A common problem amongst cruising couples is to decide “when and where to next”. Cruisers have a lot of options open to them and sometimes have a difficult time deciding which option to choose.

When Loretta and I were working, two of our strong attributes were organizational skills and having a futuristic vision enabling us to plan ahead. So we really did not think that this common problem amongst other cruisers would repeat itself with us.

When we first left Canada in 2004 and up to the point when we arrived in Thailand, neither Loretta or I had a problem knowing when and where we were to head to next. Our circumnavigation was falling into place as we had originally planned. We were hoping to be back into the Caribbean by 2011 allowing us about five years to complete our circumnavigation. But when we arrived in South East Asia a number of things happened. Firstly instead of stopping here for two months we decided to stay put for ONE year allowing us to do some land travel to places such as Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam. However having visited some of those countries raised our desire to visit others such as China, Laos, Japan, Hong Kong, etc.  In addition to increasing the list of places we wanted to visit we also fell in love with the Thai people, their culture, buying fresh fruit and veggies from the local markets, and yes their scrumptious food. So instead of staying here one year we have now been here almost four.  We were enjoying life here so much in fact that we considered selling CanKata and making this our home.

However, once we realized that it was too early for us to return to the life of the landlubbers, and did not actually mean to SELL CanKata but instead to SAIL CanKata, we started to think about our future options.

Having halted the sell of CanKata we are now like a bornagaincruiser.  Every so often one of us would slip out a word or phrase with the idea of moving on (together that is) but it never made it to the discussion level. These subtle hints continued for some time until one evening a fellow cruiser who is heading off to round the Cape of Good Hope this coming January asked us “why don’t you guys come with us?”  It was this invitation that finally got Loretta and I to the point where we discussed the desire to continue heading west. We knew that to continue heading west, we would have to take a completely different route than originally planned due to the f#&%ing sea terrorists from Somalia. Instead we would have to sail around the bottom of Africa and across the South Atlantic to Brazil in lieu of the Red Sea and Mediterranean route.

We were both quite receptive to this idea and decided that we should give it serious consideration. Reasons to continue with the circumnavigation included: seeing new places which we have not yet reached, e.g., Maldives, Chagos, Mauritius, Africa, Brazil, and New Guiney; seeing places that we deferred or missed previously, e.g., Sea of Cortez, Galapagos, American Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon’s, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippians; revisiting some of the wonderful places we stopped at previously, e.g., San Blas Islands, and the French Marquesas; utilizing CanKata for what she was designed and equipped for; seeing some of our old friends in the Caribbean, e.g. Cat Tails and our friends from Orient Bay; and hopefully having our son Dylan and daughter-in-law Laura, and our two favourite grandchildren – Tehja and Taylor come to visit us while we are in nearby waters.

Loretta and I also agree that Thailand is where we want to end up when we do get “more mature” so this is where we intend to continue to.

So there you have it, Loretta and I are still well organized and good at planning – well until our next change of plans that is. Okay maybe we are just as wacky as all the other cruisers whom we have met since embarking on this wonderful chaotic lifestyle – perhaps it is contagious so look out. 

Memories from the first part of our circumnavigation:

Going through locks in the Erie Canal

Catching fish in the Atlantic

The Atlantic: where we didn't need solar screens on our windows.

The British Virgin Islands, back when monohulls were the majority.

Still one of our "top 5" beaches.

The Caribbean's Isle Fourchue is very rugged.
Will we anchor here again?

Will we meet up with the kids again in St. Martin?

With new routes being planned, we might not revisit Los Testigos
(north of Venezuela).

We plan to visit the San Blas islands again (east side of Panama).

The Las Perlas islands (west side of Panama)
 are also on our "revisit" list.

Going through the South Pacific again will be a treat.

CanKata in Bora Bora the first time.
And now, we hope, not the last time.

We plan to go full circle, and come back to Thailand.

Our unit at the Dewa Phuket will be waiting for us.

February 2012 - Ko Phayam and Ko Chang

Ko Phayam was highly recommended to us by a number of other yachties. A few months ago, when we thought we had sold CanKata, one regret that Darrel had was that we hadn’t sailed to Ko Phayam.  So when we took CanKata off the market, we immediately started planning a visit. We headed there on February 3 with two other yachts - Aqua Dreams and Ultimate Dream - to fulfil our "dream".

Lonely Planet describes Ko Phayam as “a friendly, demure little island which supports about 500 inhabitants, mostly Thai and Burmese, with a smattering of expats and a few dozen ethnic chao leh (sea gypsies) thrown into the mix. Locals support themselves prawn-fishing, farming cashews and working the rubber plantations”.  Concrete pathways, suitable for motorcycles, criss-cross the island.

We had two big disappointments: water visibility wasn’t great, and it wasn’t easy to get a massage. Another minor problem was that Long Beach, where we first anchored, is very shallow and that meant a lot of dinghy-dragging when the tide was low. And the sand was fairly muddy.

But there were many positives:  The eateries were affordable with fresh, tasty Thai food. The scenery was very pretty.  The island was very quiet and peaceful. You wouldn’t call Ko Phayam “over-developed”. It has a number of small resorts, but nothing over a storey high. It is certainly a nice haven for a cruiser who has spent too much time in a marina or at Patong (a very touristic beach town).

We prefer Nai Yang, with its clearer water, easier dinghy landing, and scads of services not available on Ko Phayam. But if we ever feel the need to “get away”, Ko Phayam is a destination to consider.

Ko Chang:

We knew no-one who had been to Ko Chang, which is a few miles north of Ko Phayam, but had heard that it might be a nice spot to visit. We gave it a shot, and found it even more pleasing than Ko Phayam. The water is less desirable, but as a quiet get-away, it gets top marks. It is much less developed, but there are a few great eateries and a couple of fabulous massage places. There are beach huts for rent, scattered here and there, but no large resorts. For $5, you can catch a ferry to the mainland centre of Ranong to get any supplies you need. We had everything we needed on CanKata, so stuck to swimming, eating, strolling, and getting massages. Ahhh.

A very nice anchorage on the way to Ko Phayam.

Julie, Steve and Darrel with
CanKata, Aqua Dreams and Ultimate Dream in background
on Long Beach at Ko Phayam

One of the many beautiful sunsets we enjoyed.


 

One of the concrete paths/roads.


 

The paths invariably took us to a beach.
(Julie, Steve and Darrel).



A temple on a pier.



Selecting an item from a menu was always pleasurable.

Dinghy landing was easier on the north beach of Ko Phayam
(Richard and Susannah of Ultimate Dream)

CanKata awaiting our return from Mr. Gao's restaurant.

A scenic beach at Ko Chang.

Ta Dang Bay restaurant -
what will we eat today?

Steve, Darrel & Julie hauling the dinghy -
one of the activities that keep us fit
(or maybe wears us out).

Enjoying Julie's homemade banana bread,
along with mangoes and eggs from the island.

Susannah rowing Richard back to Ultimate Dream.

A beautiful beach along the way ... just us!

Thinking we should probably take this journey again.

Shay & Louis Visit CanKata

January 17-26: the days we got to visit Shay and Louis (they actually arrived very late on January 16 and left in the wee morning hours of January 27).

We had a wonderful time getting to know our niece and her hubby. When we were living in Canada, we were separated by many miles and didn’t see each other much at all. So it was good to have them just to ourselves for ten days.

Here’s what we did together:

-         ate Thai food regularly, and sometimes pizza (and hamburgers once)

-         biked around Nai Yang

-         went to two Quiz Nights at the Dewa and discovered how little we knew

-         snorkelled

-         went to the local market (where the fish smells upset the baby-to-be)

-         sailed on the west coast of Phuket

-         watched the sun set and marvelled at the beauty of the night sky

-         visited our Thai friends and cruisers from around the world

-         had an exquisite brunch at the Indigo Pearl

-         toured Phuket and visited the Big Buddha

-         went to the Aphrodite cabaret

-         chatted and laughed and reminisced

-         planned Marleen & Larry’s Thailand itinerary

Here’s what Shay and Louis wrote in our Guest Log:

“(S:) Thank you both for making our trip to Thailand an experience we won’t forget. You have shown us much more than what we had expected coming here. It was a long trip, but we both agree it was worth it! We can’t thank you guys enough for all the organized events you planned for us to see Thailand.

My favourite part of the trip was snorkelling for my first time. It will be something I will do on more trips to come. And of course spending time with my uncle and auntie. It was nice to get to know you both more than what I remember as a little girl.

(L:) My favourite part of coming to Thailand was learning how to sail and taking CanKata by the helm. Thank you for helping us arrange our tours to see the sites of Thailand.

(S:) We really appreciate you letting us use your new condo to stay in during our holidays!

Love always, Shay and Louis”

And now some photos …

On CanKata in Nai Yang Bay at sunset.

Playing "Farkle" on CanKata.

Walking along Nai Yang Beach.

On the way to do some "plane spotting".

In Nai Yang Park ... uncle in the background.

Louis at the helm ... uncle in the background.

Shay in the cockpit ... uncle in the background.

At our unit at the Dewa in Nai Yang

Tidying lines on CanKata.

Bow-riding on CanKata.

Kayaking in the caves at Phang Nga Bay.

Getting ready for the dinghy ride to CanKata ... uncle in the background.

We had our last supper at this restaurant.
Thanks for the treat, guys.
Wishing you all the best.
L&D
xx