Hello Everyone,
We wish you all the very best for the New Year.
We are at anchor in Ao Chalong (Chalong Bay) at the south east end of Phuket Island. Following a busy day touring the island in our Suzuki jeep we had sundowners aboard dining on cheese and chicken and a very good french bagette from the Tesco supermarket. Consequently we turned in at (about 9.30pm) but woke up conveniently at about 10 minutes to midnight.
There was no formal fireworks display but lots of resorts and restaurants around this very large bay let off fireworks so we had a 360 degee display which was exceptional. In fact the fireworks had started off as soon as it got dark.
Another nice feature were the hundreds of Chinese style paper balloons that light up the sky, powered by little burners beneath them (oil we assume) and so float up into the air gaining amazing height and drifting away in the breeze.
Of course some boat types had to let off surplus red emergency rocket flares which created a bright pink light before drifted down to the water and going out.
This morning we turned on the SSB radio at exactly 7.00 am just in time to hear the BBC broadcasting Big Ben doing the midnight chimes in London.
Phuket is a bit of an eyeopener - this is a mega holiday island but English is not widely spoken. it is quite difficult to find things/ask for information etc. Probably ok for the "average"tourist who does not want to ask things such as "where can we get our washing machine repaired" and "do you know where we can buy plastic diesel jerry cans". Fortunately there is a fairly large contingent of "westerners" who provide/run boat services.
Prices however are pretty high - both for boat work and shopping for food at the supermarkets (as opposed to the local markets).
We have rented a little Suzuki jeep and Peter is doing sterling work driving amongst the large traffic volumes which seem to be mainly huge utes and thousands of motor scooters. No one gives way, its every bike/ute for himself, scooters come at you on the far left of the road going the wrong way (great when we are trying to keep out of the line of fire by staying as far left as possible).
There are a huge number of mega developments of condominiums and apartments all apparently targeted at the expat buyer and now potentially unfinishable/unsaleable in the current global meltdown. Everything is higgeldy-piggeldy with no obvious town planning and shops, factories, houses etc all built anywhere - so your new condo development might be next to the all night street market or the local metal worker.
We are about to return the jeep and go off cruising for a few days around the nearby islands of the Andaman Sea then return to Phuket 05 January when all businesses reopen. We have a number of jobs to do on Musketelle including...repair washing machine, minor teak timberwork, insect screens, stern gland, deflating dink, change engine oil and all fuel filters, source new wind speed/direction transducer, refill LPG tanks, stock up on supplies etc etc plus, another 99 minor things. The most important challenge is getting our Indian Visas which is proving a major....may have to fly up to BKK on Air Asia.
2009, bring it on, lets go sailing !!!!
P&B
We wish you all the very best for the New Year.
We are at anchor in Ao Chalong (Chalong Bay) at the south east end of Phuket Island. Following a busy day touring the island in our Suzuki jeep we had sundowners aboard dining on cheese and chicken and a very good french bagette from the Tesco supermarket. Consequently we turned in at (about 9.30pm) but woke up conveniently at about 10 minutes to midnight.
There was no formal fireworks display but lots of resorts and restaurants around this very large bay let off fireworks so we had a 360 degee display which was exceptional. In fact the fireworks had started off as soon as it got dark.
Another nice feature were the hundreds of Chinese style paper balloons that light up the sky, powered by little burners beneath them (oil we assume) and so float up into the air gaining amazing height and drifting away in the breeze.
Of course some boat types had to let off surplus red emergency rocket flares which created a bright pink light before drifted down to the water and going out.
This morning we turned on the SSB radio at exactly 7.00 am just in time to hear the BBC broadcasting Big Ben doing the midnight chimes in London.
Phuket is a bit of an eyeopener - this is a mega holiday island but English is not widely spoken. it is quite difficult to find things/ask for information etc. Probably ok for the "average"tourist who does not want to ask things such as "where can we get our washing machine repaired" and "do you know where we can buy plastic diesel jerry cans". Fortunately there is a fairly large contingent of "westerners" who provide/run boat services.
Prices however are pretty high - both for boat work and shopping for food at the supermarkets (as opposed to the local markets).
We have rented a little Suzuki jeep and Peter is doing sterling work driving amongst the large traffic volumes which seem to be mainly huge utes and thousands of motor scooters. No one gives way, its every bike/ute for himself, scooters come at you on the far left of the road going the wrong way (great when we are trying to keep out of the line of fire by staying as far left as possible).
There are a huge number of mega developments of condominiums and apartments all apparently targeted at the expat buyer and now potentially unfinishable/unsaleable in the current global meltdown. Everything is higgeldy-piggeldy with no obvious town planning and shops, factories, houses etc all built anywhere - so your new condo development might be next to the all night street market or the local metal worker.
We are about to return the jeep and go off cruising for a few days around the nearby islands of the Andaman Sea then return to Phuket 05 January when all businesses reopen. We have a number of jobs to do on Musketelle including...repair washing machine, minor teak timberwork, insect screens, stern gland, deflating dink, change engine oil and all fuel filters, source new wind speed/direction transducer, refill LPG tanks, stock up on supplies etc etc plus, another 99 minor things. The most important challenge is getting our Indian Visas which is proving a major....may have to fly up to BKK on Air Asia.
2009, bring it on, lets go sailing !!!!
P&B
