An island of cashews and rubber trees

Another move north to the large island of Phayam.   Not far from Ranong, the border town with Myanmar.   The largest group of visitors here are German, either young backpackers or families with small children.  Accommodation, in fixed tent camp sites or simple huts, is cheap, facilities minimal.  One of the lovely things about the island is that there are no cars.  A one-lane concrete track runs between the main beaches, nice and shady from the overhanging trees, and transport is motor bike or push bike.  It has become quite a popular place for expats to open little shops with home made yoghurt, organic bread, and yoga and meditation centres.  Plenty of dreadlocks around.

We have been hiring mountain bikes to get around, and were soon off the concrete track and exploring the island.  Came to a sea gipsy village.  The Chao Lay or sea gypsies are a nomadic people who live a very simple life – the concepts of time, age, and counting are not important to them.  They are very skilled at wooden boat building, diving and fishing and the houses we saw were wooden frames on stilts with woven mats for walls.  Unfortunately the plastic age has reached them and there was a lot of non degradable rubbish around.

Cashew nuts are the main crop of the island – we had never seen a cashew tree, and were interested to see the recognisable curved nuts topped by a large red or yellow fruit.   The fruits are actually a false fruit.  The ‘nut’ is the fruit with a seed (the cashew nut as we know it) inside.  The red and yellow fruits are soft and juicy and can be eaten but have quite a strong smell and are usually mixed with other fruit juices.  They don’t keep so are never marketed.  The ‘nut’ is dried in the sun for about ten days, then shelled and boiled.  Dried again, and roasted.   The bakery makes delicious cashew nut brownies which we find hard to resist.

Rubber trees are common on part of the island.  In a simple shed we watched them pouring the white latex, partly coagulated so very lumpy looking, into large plastic barrels.  No English spoken so we aren’t sure about the next step of the process, but an online investigation says that acid is added to separate the solids from the high water content.   There were large rollers like giant cast iron mangles operated by a diesel engine, and the resulting mats of rubber were hung on lines to dry.

Already our plans to stay for a couple of days have stretched to a week, it is that sort of place.  We have found out that we can renew our visas in nearby Ranong on the border, so there is no hurry to get back south.  We thought we would have to be back in Phuket by early Feb.

Tales from under a Thai flight path

We’ve arrived on the day there’s a night market. So late afternoon when the sun has eased off we head up the road away from the beach to the large area that is usually an empty patch of sand and gravel. Today though cars are parked on both sides of the road, and hundreds of motor bikes parked in every corner in between. Smoke and delicious smells rise up from scores of little stands covering the area.

The Thais are a short race compared to most Europeans, so we have to duck below sunshades and supporting lines strung across the walkways. Tilley hats have a piece of foam at the top (so that they float), and these have saved several bruises from overhanging obstacles.

We fill our rucksacks with fruit – pineapple, a watermelon, and bunches of small lychee-like fruit, longans. There are also bright red dragon fruit – evidently of the cactus family that grow on a vine, and rambutan, another red fruit with soft green spines on the outside. Huge durian smell awful, and evidently have a delicious after taste though we don’t like them. Except dried in packets they are forbidden on planes.

And vegetables. Thai cooking uses lots of really fresh vegetables, and lemon grass, lime leaves, herbs, spring onions and many varieties of leafy greens are always available straight from the fields. Also many varieties of aubergine, the tiniest the size of seedless grapes. Some spherical, some long and thin and some pear shaped.

Tonight we want to buy our supper. So first some small sticks of port sate straight off the charcoal burner; then half a kilo of tiger prawns, some still wriggling. A bottle of sugar cane juice from a hand cranked machine like a big old wringer will make a good pre-dinner drink with rum, lime juice and plenty of ice. Followed by fresh fruit. What a feast.

Our command of the Thai language is very basic, just enough to be polite. In Phuket quite a bit of English is spoken, though twenty five and seventy five are undistinguishable to them, and both sound like seventy to us. Until we realised we thought we were being shockingly overcharged. Intonation is very important as well as pronounciation, so it isn’t an easy language.

Our anchorage near the market is what we call the ‘airport anchorage’, as flights in and out of the over-busy Phuket airport fly low over our mast head, landing just a couple of km away. It is very different from the Heathrow flight path though, we can swim from the boat to a long white beach with a low key tourist street behind it. Lots of beach restaurants, beach massage places, and shops selling hats, sarongs and sandals. No jet skis which are a pest in some resort areas.

Today though we are well north of Phuket, on the west coast of the south west peninsular of Thailand, not far from the Burmese border. Anchored in a sheltered inland channel with a small fishing village beside us. This morning we tied the dinghy to a little jetty and explored the town. The small houses have racks of small fish drying or salting outside in the sun, men are mending their fishing nets and making crab pots from piles of split bamboo. We asked in a little general store where we could find a restaurant for lunch. “You want fried rice? Chicken or pork?” and we were taken across the road to a little eating place, and our ‘host ‘ explained what we wanted. No English spoken here, but lots of smiles, a table cleared for us, and ice and water produced.

Mrs was the cook, and Mr the general dogsbody. No doubting who was the boss. The ‘kitchen’ was a long table, with a couple of gas burners at one end for the woks. Prepared meat and vegetables were ready in plastic bowls in a large ice box, and a huge rice steamer had the cooked rice. Each meal is cooked separately in the wok, then the wok wiped out ready for the next. At the other side was another table with a hose attached to an outside tap. Here the washing up was done, with dishes left to dry in the sun.

While waiting, our friend from the general store appeared with a piece of paper on which he had written the Thai translations of chicken, pork and rice for us, and later appeared again to make sure that everything was satisfactory. Which it certainly was, delicious.

Just as well that eating out is the way of life here, cheap and good. Cooking on board makes the boat hot, and there is a great lack of fish for us to catch en route. In the last three months we have caught one small tuna and a barracuda – the latter would normally be thrown back to swim another day, but we ate this one.

Christmas and new year passed in a flash. P and S flew in – 24 hrs late as there was an emergency landing in Phuket and all aircraft were diverted. So they circled above us, then returned to Kuala Lumpur. Luckily were put in a nice hotel with swimming pool, and were able to get a good nights sleep. They arrived in the evening, and we set off at dawn the next day, leaving them sleeping as best they could with the anchor rattling into the locker beside them. By the afternoon we were in the Similan Islands with crystal clear water waiting for them.

Christmas day was spent in the islands, then we returned to Phuket for new year, and sat in a beach restaurant watching the fireworks and hot air lanterns. The tide gradually rose, and the tables were moved further back until we all had our feet in the water. And a footnote. As we left we realised that the promised muffins for breakfast the next day couldn’t be made without an egg. The restaurant kindly presented us with two, which were carried safely back in the dinghy in a pair of crocs.

Another footnote (headline?). Over the years I have had haircuts in interesting places (G gets the scissor treatment on board so misses all the fun). The latest was a good cut by a transvestite. All make-up and bling, tight clothes, rather large hands and feet, and a husky voice. Variety is the spice of life

Effervescent Marmite, and the best bakery in town for rib eye steaks

Back on board, but not yet afloat. We slotted in to the compact space and simple life aboard very quickly as usual.  Before leaving for the UK in May we spent some time starting to remove 10 years’ worth of antifouling from the hull.  Now the boat must be a ton lighter, and we are gradually adding stuff rather than taking it away.

The steel of the keel has seen the light of day and is getting new treatment.  Shame after all this work that it won’t be on view once we are afloat again.  In fact with new antifouling paint it will look much as it did before!

All that can be said of this marina and boatyard is that it is cheap and friendly.  It is part of a large development called Marina Island, and the marina has a three year trial period to see if it is feasible.  Consequently there is no development, and maintenance is only to keep the place ticking over.  The boat yard is in full view of some smart new apartments that are being built, and pressure is on to get rid of it so that the occupants just get a pleasant view of boats afloat in the marina  (which is why they build marinas in these waterside developments!)

The toilet block is a case in point, three cubicles open straight onto the boat yard.  Two have sit down toilets, the other is a squat type.  These are used by marina, boat yard and all the workmen.  No rules about smoking, and several of the workmen consider it a waste of water to flush after use.    All cubicles have a shower on the wall.  Hooks for clothes have been replaced at least 4 times since we arrived – a lesson should have been learned that cheap doesn’t mean good.  Yesterday there was a leak in the pipe to the shower and the resulting fountain was drenching all three cubicles until a piece of plastic was put over the jet.  Last night the connection, though mended, was leaking badly….   And the doors are cheap plastic concertinas that are forever falling apart.   With so much water around, at least the cubicles are always well washed, and in Muslim tradition it is usual to have a tap and short hose next to a toilet instead of toilet paper.  We take it in turns to leave a tablet of soap by the washbasin.

It takes a while to find where the best goodies are to be bought  in a new place, and by the time we have spent a few weeks in a new town and departure date is approaching we have learned out way around.  The latest find is a very small ordinary looking supermarket which sells delicious frozen beef – whole fillets and rib eye steaks in particular.   The elderly lady who is usually by the door always says no meat because she doesn’t speak any English, but perseverance brings a younger person from the back of the tiny shop.   Not only meat, but they specialize in baking goods including bread flour, white and wholemeal which is unobtainable elsewhere.  Bread isn’t eaten much, and the local stuff is very soft and a bit sweet, homemade is the way to go.

Behind the Flamingo Hotel is an excellent hairdresser, very non-descript looking,  certainly not smart but both the owner and a young male assistant cut very well for 14 ringits, about £4.   The street is full of the sound of birdsong – recorded.  It is to lure the swiftlets to the large concrete building which is their nesting place.  Big money is to be made from the nests for bird’s nest soup.

Further along the street is one of the places to buy  Poormans Biskit.  I may have mentioned these before; a fat biscuit with onions inside.  Freshly made and crispy they are delicious, and we have found another supplier who makes them a bit chewier.  They are cooked in a circular clay oven with wood fire below, dampened so that they stick to the hot walls.

We’ve been lucky with dry weather for the last week, so have been able to make progress on the hull.  Today though it’s rainy, so have made a start on another job – inspecting the water tanks.  The series of six interlinking tanks is in the keel, with inspection hatches over each that measure about 12 inches by 8.   Some paint is flaking off so with the help of an electric sander made longer with a rod of threaded metal, and a long stick with sandpaper glued on the end, we are trying to roughen up the surface.  Not an easy job,  but having air conditioning is a great help.
Hopefully we will be launching next week.  Various friends and aquaintances who  have been good company for the last couple of weeks are gradually leaving, and both boat yard and marina are emptying fast.  Time to get going to Thailand.

The tail-end tale is that if you leave a fairly full jar of Marmite in a very warm place for five months it will start to bubble over, even if the sell by date is 2014.  Makes a horrible mess.  Ever tried fizzy Marmite?

Pangkor

Travel by boat is over for a few months.   We are back in Pangkor, back in the boat yard, and have a lot of work to do before leaving for England at the end of May.  This is a working marina and boat yard partly because there is nothing much else to do here so no distractions!  Discussions about how to remove corroded bolts, how to treat osmosis in the hull, the best paints and how to use them are avidly listened to.   We have international company – Australian, NZ, American, Canadian, S. African, French, Dutch, German, British, and a few local motor launches.  Several we have met on and off  between Australia and here.  The folk on the boat next to us, first met in Indonesia, have a son that used to sail with C in Oxford uni  days.  He and his girlfriend (plus the team) stayed in our house once.   A small world.

We are stripping down the hull back to base, the first time it has been done since we bought the boat.  Usually we just rub down the old antifouling and add another coat on top.  Time to see what the hull looks like.   We want to repaint the deck too, but not sure how much of that we will get done this time.  The aim was to  strip a square metre a day, but we are already behind schedule.  My job has been scraping off the large barnacles that have made their home on the propeller, the rudder and the through-hull holes.  Much worse than usual due to a couple of weeks in the warm polluted water of Penang.

When we were here earlier in the year we heard tales of rats getting on to boats, and it is still a problem, in the marina as they can jump from the jetty straight on to a boat.  Much more difficult in the boat yard unless anchor chain, or power cable is left dangling.  We haven’t seen any rats, and the rubbish bins are emptied several times a day so there is no food lying around for them, but they appear from somewhere at night time.   Did see a large monkey swinging from a telegraph wire yesterday but haven’t heard of them causing any trouble.

As it is so hot and humid we investigated local hotels but the most suitable has closed for renovation, and another has very small basic rooms, many without windows. The third is a bit expensive for more than a night or two.   Decided we preferred the boat, so have bought an air conditioner.  This sits next to the overhead hatch in the saloon, and at night time we  blow the cool air into our cabin with a fan.  It makes a huge difference in humidity as well as temperature.  G is busy making a wooden cover for  gap between AC unit and hatch – at the moment it is covered with tarpaulin.   We got the bikes out yesterday and cycled to a sawmill for the wood; are definitely out of condition as it took a couple of hours to recover when we returned!

As for food, we have found a few favourite places.  There is a little stall that cooks sate on a grill, 10 sticks each plus fresh lemonade costs about £2 each.  A restaurant on the marina complex specialises in cheesecake and cream cakes, European style, and very tempting.

Our little gecko is still with us; we think he probably came on board here earlier in the year, so hope he doesn’t leave us for pastures new (or a mate).  We are very fond of our little lodger.   

Penang

We love spending some time in a city after months of islands, small villages, and beaches.  Georgetown, the main city of the island of Penang is vibrant, and full of surprises.  Every street an unexpected mixture of old and new, crumbling and well maintained, up market shops next to tiny filthy workshops.

This marina is fairly typical of the city.  It has a wonderful central position between the cruise ship dock and the busy ferry hub to the mainland.  Only a decade or so old, it was built on a grand scale and has excellent facilities,  including a comfortable air conditioned lounge with flat screen TV and lovely solid wood locally made tables and chairs.   However from the start the actual berths have had problems.  There is no protective wall, and too much wash from the 24 hr ferries coming and going, too much fast ebb and flow of the tide, and silting up.  About half of the docking piers are no longer usable – pieces have come adrift and are tied up with rope.  Only the outermost ends have enough depth, and even so, at spring tides all boats sit on the mud at low tide.

But it has position, and we have had a wonderful few days here exploring the city.  The only really touristy thing we have done was to take a bus to the base of the funicular railway going up the near vertical slope to a colonial hill station built by the British in the late 1700s.     Indian prisoners were used to cut horse trails up the hill and there are still a few of the original bungalows.  Wonderful views, definitely a few degrees cooler, and some lush tropical flowers and trees.  But rather full of tourists, restaurants, craft shops and golf buggies for those not wanting to explore on foot.

Most other days we have walked the city on foot.  There is an Indian area, a Chinatown and many streets with Malay, Chinese and Indian shops mixed up together.  There are ornate Chinese and Thai Hindu and Buddist temples and many shops selling shrines, and everything required for the little shrines in each house and store.  Yesterday evening we walked past a mosque with groups of white clad muslim men chatting outside after prayers.  The British of course set up Anglican churches, attractive white buildings set in green lawns.

Georgetown is a World Heritage Site, and many colonial era buildings have been beautifully restored – as government departments, banks and company headquarters and houses.  But many haven’t, and it is sad to see buildings almost past repair.  They are not abandoned though, little shops below, and people living above with electric cables trailing everywhere, and great streaks of damp down the walls.  

As we found out in Kumar, swiflet nests for birds nest soup are a very valuable business, and the upper floors of many buildings have been mostly illegally boarded up and converted to nesting buildings.  The swifts like a moist atmosphere so the rooms are sprayed with mist continually which doesn’t help the state of the walls, and causes problems of damp for those living in other parts of the building.   There are also quite legal and well maintained ‘swiftlet houses’ which have been properly adapted, and many have been in use for decades; but the rapid proliferation of illegal ones is causing health problems including an increase in the rat population.  Difficult to control when a kilo of birds nest can fetch anything from US$700 to 3,000.

Whenever we are in town we have a hunt for a few things we need for the boat.  This time we have been successful in in finding a bulb for the diving torch which we were told was obsolete in Australia.  (Maybe it is, but these little shops have stock that has probably been sitting there for years).  We have bought some strong PVC to make a rain catcher.  That shop was run by a very beautiful young Indian man with kohl make up around his eyes, a white turban, and chunky rings on every finger.  He also runs a perfume business and gave us free samples.  The plastic was cut (by one of his minions) out on the pavement, there was no room in the shop which already had a sewing machine, a desk, and the rolls of plastic in an area about 6 ft by 10.  In another shop selling hardware each assistant had an abacus, and used it.  There was a calculator as well, but evidently only used for converting metric to feet and inches and vv.   The shop selling sewing haberdashery had little drawers like an old fashioned pharmacy containing wrappers of pins, needles, press studs etc.  A wonderful Aladdin’s cave for me.  And in front of the shop a large bowl of mangoes for sale off the owner’s tree.

The pavement is only incidentally used for walking along.  There are shoe menders, coconut shredders, people mending everything from TV’s to motor bikes.   Nothing is thrown away here (except plastic wrappers, another story), and little workshops have spare parts old and new somewhere in their depths.   There are shops selling sari silk, gold jewellery, dried fish, enormous piles of eggs (one pile of egg crates measured about 6 foot square, and  G said he was tempted to take a running jump into the middle of it!), plastic flowers, lots of mobile phones.   And lots and lots of eating places.

People eat out in Penang, breakfast lunch and dinner. A couple of gas rings attached to a propane bottle with a table to put out the bowls and trays of food when cooked make a kitchen – no health and hygiene laws here, and the washing up facilities are often a cold tap and a bowl of water with the plates left to dry on chairs or a bit of wall.   It may be Indian, Chinese, Malay, or western, and is nearly always delicious.   We have eaten at a night food market.  A huge covered area of tables and chairs is surrounded by dozens of little food stalls selling a huge variety of food.  You order what you want, give your table number, and wait for it to arrive.  Then you pay.  So you can try dishes from lots of different stalls, and stay as long as you like.  Just need the appetite! And it is cheap.  No tax, no tipping no service charge.  In a hotel or up-market restaurant you would get china plates and serviettes and a table that doesn’t wobble, but it is doubtful that the food would be any tastier.

We do eat on the boat too – caught a good kingfish on the way here, and invited friends in the marina to share it with us or we would have been eating it all week!  This particular couple are old friends from the Pacific crossing, and we stayed on their boat in South Island New Zealand when we were travelling around by car.  Good to catch up with them.

Our few days here has extended into a week, and we are not in a hurry to leave but we know we have to do some hard work stripping antifouling off the hull in the boat yard before flying out at the end of May so will have to move on next week. Also the water in the marina is warm and polluted and if we stay too long the barnacles on the propeller will be giant sized and we won’t get anywhere.

Circumnavigating Langkawi

A circumnavigation of the island of Langkawi  (Malaysia) has surpassed our expectations.  Nowhere near as crowded or built up as Phuket, and it has a lot to offer.  On the minus side the water isn’t clear so we haven’t been swimming much; cloudy water tends to have more little jelly fish which give nettle-like prickles.  G has been in to do his regular clean-up of the propeller which in this warm water has grown pea-sized barnacles in just a couple of weeks.  The hull’s antifouling works well, but we haven’t yet found anything that stays on the prop for more than a week or two.

We have done a lot of dinghy exploration.  On the east coast of the island is an inlet known as The Hole in the Wall.  A narrow entrance between cliffs broadens to a sheltered anchorage with lots of mangrove channels off it.  The combination of mangroves and steep forested cliffs and rocky outcrops is a haven for wildlife.  The large white breasted sea eagle is the emblem of the island, and there are lots around, very recognisable with their bright reddish brown backs.  They glide in circles in the thermals then suddenly swoop down to pick up fish in their claws with hardly a splash.   They do get fed for the benefit of tourists, a practice we don’t really approve of, but seeing a dozen or more swooping for little bits of fish is quite a sight.

There are monkeys living in the jungle growth, and in the evenings at low tide they came down to the little bit of rocky beach near our boat to pick at shells on the rocks,  using sticks as levers. 

We had read that it was possible to dinghy through a passage to a bay on the north side of the island, a cut having been made in the rock to connect bits of waterways.   On the way it passed right through a cave and the first time we attempted it the tide was very low and still going out and we didn’t want to get stranded, the second time it was too high and we couldn’t get through the cave,  (spring tides at the moment).     Third time better calculated, and we got as far as the cut then decided to turn back as we were getting low on fuel.   The last bit was covered the other day when we had moved round to the northerly bay.  Tick that one off now!

The whole area is a wonderful breeding ground for fish and sea life in general, and there are quite a few fish farms, mostly with small floating restaurants attached which cater for the lunchtime launch tour visits.  We arranged to eat ‘dinner’ at one, but at 5.30 as he was closing at 6o’clock.  Had a group of customs men as company, their patrol boat tied up next to our little dinghy –  two huge outboards making ours look very puny.  We are pretty close to the Thai border, and have noticed radar on lighthouses too.   The prawns we had with fried rice were large, fresh, sweet and delicious but we had to eat fairly quickly as an extremely dark and ominous cloud was looming and thunder and lightning were getting closer.    Back to the boat to close hatches and let out more anchor chain …….but nothing much happened.  A few loud crashes of thunder, some wind, and not enough rain to collect.            

The wet season will soon be here, and most evenings we get a bit of rain.  Have been collecting enough to wash clothes but haven’t had a real downpour for a while.  It is hot and humid most of the time, and a cloudy day is welcome.  Our on board thermometer doesn’t ever go above 26C but we reckon it is more like 34C most days.    In fact the last bucket filling downpour was a couple of weeks ago and accompanied by a squall.  We have had no high winds for weeks, and suddenly had 40 knots blowing.  Left it too late for taking down the sun awning, and we had to cut the lines as it was getting more ripped every second.  What a mess.  It took us days and quite a lot of new fabric to patch it and get it in working order again.  Would have been quicker and easier to have made a new one, we didn’t realise how weak the original fabric was getting, no doubt the next time the wind blows hard it will be the old fabric that goes.   We have a heavy duty (and heavy weight) sewing machine on board which is definitely not user friendly and needs regular maintenance and adjustment.  But, it does the job and we are getting to know each other better so hassles and frustrations are getting fewer.  Made in Taiwan to a design at least 50 yrs old!

Langkawi is a duty free island, so tourists stream in from at home and abroad to buy electrical goods, perfume, clothes and china from the main town, Kuah.  Lots of Russians as evidently there are good value package holidays to Thailand and Malaysia.  Where we are at the moment, anchored off a new marina complex, there is even a Russian restaurant, and menus at other upmarket eating places are written in Russian as well as English.

Once a bay, quite marshy and low lying with a small fishing village, Telaga has been dredged to make a marina, and the ground removed used to construct two small islands to form protection, leaving a sheltered lagoon for anchoring.   As with many places visited, it looks as though original plans were a lot larger than final construction, and there are large areas of ground that were presumably meant for hotels and holiday flats.   An area has been built for the fishing boats, and there is still a small village at one end of the bay with cheap local restaurants.

Shopping for basic supplies has to be done in the main town, Kuah.   We hired an old car there (phone Musa who arrives the next morning with the car.  Pay 40 ringits (about £8) and the car is yours, to be left with doors open and the key under the mat the next morning.  No paperwork, and possibly no insurance.  We drove carefully.)  It would not have passed any roadworthy test but the air conditioning worked.  We needed diesel, and it is much cheaper at fuel stations than fuel docks. A long process though.  Fuel is subsidised, and you are not allowed to buy more than 30 litres at one time.  We needed 220 litres!  So we went to three fuel stations, one of which let us have 55 litres, so that was half the quantity.  Back to dinghy.  Back to boat.  Empty jerrycans into fuel tank.  Set off again.  You have to pay before getting fuel, and I had paid for the first round so G paid for the second and we repeated the performance.  As you can imagine it took us all morning.

Took the opportunity to go for a drive across the island in the afternoon, visiting a craft centre as I was keen to see some good quality batik.   Was very taken by hand painted floaty silk kaftans but ‘dry clean only’ was on the label, and common sense prevailed!  The cottons were all in rather garish colours.

 In Thailand we acquired an on board resident, a little gecko which seems to live in the boom and has a sort of laughing tweet, mainly in the evenings, and, seemingly, in answer to things we say.  Quite funny when we are playing cards and make winning or losing shouts!  We hope that he has an insatiable appetite for mosquitoes.  Our dictionary says that gecko is a Malaysian word, and mimics the sound they make.

Next stop Penang again as we travel south down the Malaysian coast.  We didn’t have long to explore this historic city on our last visit.  Will probably treat ourselves to a marina as it was an awfully long bus ride and walk from our previous anchorage.

Au Revoir Thailand

Time to leave but we plan to return to Thailand later in the year. It is very hot and humid now, and will remain so until the rains come in another month or so. In the wet season the prevailing winds change, and the whole of the west coast becomes untenable for anchoring – and of course it rains a lot.

At the moment there is very little wind. Yesterday we were moving from one anchorage to another in the same island group. Left after breakfast and arrived early afternoon having sailed the whole way, covering a distance of 9 nm! Average speed of a gentle stroll. Glassy smooth water, pleasant surroundings, and a 4 knot breeze behind us. Time to bake bread, put some polish on the gelcoat in the cockpit, read and do a couple of crosswords.

We are near the Malaysian border, in the Butang group of islands. Mainly uninhabited forested islands, but the little island of Koh Lipe where we are now, has been developed as a tourist base. Very low key, lots of backpackers and young families. The beach has small family run restaurants and juice bars with the usual massage places. Along a little sandy ‘shopping street’ are diving shops, tour operators (for boat trips), and small stores selling clothes, sandals, bags and basic foods.

There is no pressure to buy anywhere in Thailand, and no hawkers doing a hard sell on the beach. No loud music and no loud voices. Maybe the Buddhist philosophy, and certainly very peaceful. We sat at a table on the beach as the sun set, and watched the young children of the restaurant setting out the tables for the evening. A neat little girl of about 6 showing her rumbustuous 4 yr brother how to put a little plastic bowl of sand on each table, stick a candle into each, then cover them with a plastic bottle with top and bottom cut off. It was a generally sandy operation with everything landing on the beach several times. Finally they were given long handles forks to spike up any leaves that had fallen from the shady trees above.

While there a Thai man and his family returned from a fishing trip with a large baracuda he had caught. He had no idea what it was, and wanted the restaurant to prepare it for him. He had hoped to eat some as sushi but was persuaded very nicely that it was really a fish that needed cooking. We have had no luck fishing over the last few days of travelling. There are shoals of tiny fish that leap out of the water as they are chased by something larger; and we caught a vicious looking reef needle fish from the dinghy which has a long thin ‘beak’ full of sharp teeth. Were afraid to land it in our inflatable dinghy, so had to tow it back to the boat then unhook it with thick gloves and a pair of pliars.

We enjoyed spicy seafood and rice at the restaurant, then found that the tide had gone even further out than we had anticipated, and we had to row very carefully over and round the rocky fringing reef that we had motored over coming in. Spring tides at the moment, so higher and lower than at other times.

As I write this in the early morning, before the humidity and heat cause the sweat to drip all over the computer, the beach is preparing for the day. A large live-aboard dive boat is filling tanks, with someone cooking breakfast on the stern, and the passengers enjoying a lie in in hammocks on the deck. Unfortunately the long-tails are getting going too. I have mentioned these long wooden boats before, they are the ubiquitous form of transport by sea. Used for fishing, local transport, and for short distance tourist transport. And they make a noise. Their engines are open and have no silencers, they are as loud as pneumatic drills. Very damaging to the ears of those driving these boats day after day.

Next stop is Langkawi, over the border in Malaysia. Another change of SIM card in phone and internet dongle.