Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Letter 21 - Chinese Christmas


Christmas is a bit mad here - the locals all celebrate it, at least in getting dressed up, decorations and buying toys for their kids. They get it as holiday/ bank holiday so they might as well I suppose. Most of the huge skyscrapers along the waterfront have massive Christmas light displays, although many have been sponsored by big corporations so count as advertising. All the tiny street stalls are selling santa hats, and the bombardment of carols made 'fun' in jazz, calypso and even cantonese style is sickening. (Chinese versions of carols seem to start with a single male voice singing the words in cantonese to the original tune then bursting into overblown operatic Pavarotti imitation for the chorus - awful!). Funniest/ worst by far was the shop I was in that had done 'Jingle Bells' etc but with recordings of cats meowing making the tune! I bought a load of tinsel, sparkly butterflies & leaves, and a tiny white feather & fibre optic tree that turns & sparkles (my beloved fairy lights were banned by Pete as the boat won't support them...)


I had to paint at a French Market 2 Sundays OK - very bad details given to me by my booker, he texted at midnight where it was & asked me to wear a French costume/ do French faces (?) - thanks for the warning! It was set up outside & in the foyer of 2 huge posh mini malls under sky scrapers, and I was painting outside - luckily it was warm enough! It was a mini french village with stalls really. They wanted me to paint on their stage (!) until I pointed out I wasn't really a performer and would have a big queue.
It was excruciating as they were selling mulled wine, and had cooking displays and workshops (from crepes to those choc & nut things) and crepe flipping competitions etc - it smelt GORGEOUS! Luckily 1 of the chefs I painted gave me some mulled wine when I finally escaped (did an extra 2 hours as they asked me to stay an extra hour & said they would cut off my queue for me but didn't so by the time I noticed the entire french-canadian school choir had joined it!).


The dress rehearsal for the Hogmany pirates party was OK, manager of the restauraunt OK'd the faces & chose the costumes. Bit boring on the girls - she decided she just wanted a rose motif & beauty spot, zzz.

The guy I painted the eye patch & scars on had a panic as it was close to his eyes and took a lot of reassuring that it was just like make-up (not that he appreciated that!) so it was lucky the other blokes saw it came off easily. Apparently they went out on Halloween in cheap face paint they bought and it stained........... Disaster struck when I went back to the shop in Central to buy 30 more pirate costumes - she had said earlier they had enough pirate men outfits but they only had 3 left! Queue massive headache/ panic by me as she then rang the other shops & it turned out the factory had stopped making the cheap ones and they all only had sets that costs 3x the amount! Client not happy; I was fuming & beat the shop down to providing shirts, waistcoats, bandanas & belts and into her factory making 3 more girls outfits in the size I needed. (If I had more time she would have sent examples of what I wanted off to other factories in China to get prices for making more for me - nice to know!). HOPE they will be ready in time. Knew I shouldn't have let the darn Top Deck manager bully me into sorting out costumes as well! The fancy dress shop (in the sreet of fancy dress stalls/ wig/ wing/ feather boas stalls) does have some amazing costumes - loved the caterpillar suit, multi-coloured plush with mine legs attached! All the locals in there kept trying things up against me, think a lot of them were buying for their bosses who must have been as tall as me. (As it is I ordered small for ALL my costumes and half the girls in the Tob Deck were drowned in them.)

On the weird side as I walked home via Aberdeen bus station afterwards, the lady with the massive glass jar of pickled rodent embryos was there again. She syphons off the liquid into small bottles and sells it for a medical cure, I think..look closer if you aren't squeamish!


Petes dad & Judy arrived Friday, luckily making it out of the UK's fog bound airports. As it was they had to sit on the ground in the plane for 2 hours before leaving as the flight plan got lost! We were supposed to be at Petes sailing staff party; waited in his bar for 2 hours with his immediate boss (nice young bloke called Mark) and the other SI Pete shares his office with, Marcus (local with 2 kids). (One of the cleaning ladies hauled in a massive fish from off the sailing dock, no idea what it was but it was over 3 feet long and HUGE! She was very pleased & stuck it in a kitchen freezer to take home.) Turned out the others never made it out of the main club bar in Kellet Island (the posh club base) so we went to meet them in Central in an area/ street called Lang Kwai Fong. Its supposed to be bar & clubbing heaven; we arrived to find their Xmas decorations were life-sized mannequins in feathered bikinis swinging above the streets sat in massive wine glasses! I had my fairy wings with me as I had left them in Petes office, and fed up of carrying them, I put them on - lots of odd looks, is easier when I am painted up too! Of course the other RHKYC staff were still 'stuck' in the club bar and finally arrived for their dinner just before Pete & I had to leave to meet our arrivals in HK train station. We got a taxi back to Aberdeen with them, and bought a takeaway which we munched on the ferry home as they recovered from the shell-shock of HK's skyscrapers in full light show AND christmas light fury.



Sat we took them to the Peak - by taxi as Pete couldn't face the crowds in Central. Just as well, as the queue to get on the Peak Tram up there was at least an hour long! We mainly looked at the view, first from the Gallery which is now fully open (they were still finishing bits of the viewing deck and the EA Games floor when Mum & I visited), and spent an hour or so doing the walk around the peak - all practically flat on a wide concreted path of course.


Leaves. The Peak, Hong Kong
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

Some nice little signs about plant species but not easy to ID which trees they meant - couldn't miss the massive rubber trees though, but definitely Ents! The weather is supposed to be sunny (WOW!) and fairly clear this week; for a change so you could see quite far for once.
Of course the place was packed, its not really like getting out into the countryside but compared to the rest of the island it was quiet. Though there were a lot of dogs in outfits getting 'walked' (ie short run/ walk on leads then getting carried). Petes delighted to have spotted his favourite doggy outfit yet - a hoodie top! And also large groups of school kids on 'nature walks' - minus the clipboards which any UK school trip would have but clutching tick sheets. Apart from a few plants etc I have no idea what they were looking for - maybe they were spotting the numbered trees, gutters, pipes and concreted slopes which were all neatly labelled.......

Back at the Peak mall we were greeted by 2 (english again - seems its all europeans who do the entertaining here) giant Santas on stilts. The asians seemed fascinated with the size of their outfits backsides and kept patting them......After trying a weird local american style fast-food chain for 'snacks' we ferried to Sok Kwu Wan and had a fishy banquet before walking home.


Sunday we visited Petes Middle Island club with a brief shopping trip around Stanley Market in between. Home of all things girly - pretty scarves, trousers and an amazing range of handbags. I found that pointing at my feet, and saying '42?', hopefully, (in the shoe size sense, not the meaning of the universe) is extremely effective at stopping stall holders pestering me, as most sell gorgeous embroidered pointy shoes. But not over a size 6 of course. Pete lasted nearly an hour before freaking out and we joined him in a locals cafe, trying not to let our eyes water while eating hot & sour prawn soup (very both). We do like the way the minute you sit down (and as long as you stay) they give you free cups of their herbal tea, and keep topping it up - usually even if you are just buying takeaway too. You take off the lid of the teapot when you want frsh water in as it goes too strong (& bitter) quite fast if it sits. Pete actually bought himself a replacement wedding ring, unprompted!!!! We think its plastic (well, it cost about £3) but it looks OK and at least if he loses THAT we won't be too worried! We ended up staying at his club for tea until quite late and playing backgammon. We walked back to it via Repluse Bay and the promenade - bit nippy for Pete & I, we have been wearing jumpers & fleeces - and - shock! - socks (again I can only get mens in my size but I can't say I regret missing out on Hello Kitty ankle motifs) the last few weeks, but the 2 fresh from the UK loved it - still 21 degrees at sunset!
Having finally decided we WOULD like at least 1 western Xmas dinner with all the trimmings, Pete tried to book places at one of his clubs restauaraunts but all of them were full, boo. So, on the way home we got groceries and they finally had durian in the supermarket again (you smell it as SOON as you enter) so we bought a lump to try on Christmas Day. It stank SO much it lasted all of 2 minutes in the flat - I tied it to the balcony outside and we still smelt it for ages after!

One thing I only just noticed - you know how in the 'west' crescent moons nearly always get drawn/ shown vertically? Well, here it is actually horizontal, its freaky, like the Cheshire Cat's smile appearing/ disappearing from Alice in Wonderland. So this week his grin has been getting wider and wider! Odd.

Christmas morning I was woken by the git in the flats opposite continuing drilling up his concrete steps. At 7.30 a.m., really. When everyone got up, I forced christmas hats onto them, and Brian & Judy walked down to the nice beach at Tung O and went swimming. There were a bunch of rangers (they patrol the island now and then) cutting down ripe star fruit from trees along the path, who were so impressed with the hats they still had on (or maybe that they swam in the 'freezing' waters) they they gave them some - Judy now remembers why she never buys them to eat! Many thanks to all who sent cards & gifts - especially Petes' cousin Alistair for the brilliant drawings of us on our boat!! Anyway we all went back to Tung O beach for a picnic lunch, beginning with the durian as by that point the smell/ anti-anticipation was getting to us all. It was a whitish lump wrapped in cling film (peeled and removed from a HUGE fruit). I took a fingerfull- GROSS sensation, a sort of skin covered semi-liquid slime and it looked & felt like congealed pus.
The picture says it all. It was like sour-sweet custardy cream with a strong flavour of stale onions, which even swigs of beer, strong juice and other foods didn't get rid of. Contrary to everything I have read the taste was WORSE than the smell. The most horrible thing was that all of us even after having only a tiny mouthful (apart from Brian who decided to eat half the lump) kept getting really bad durian-scented burps - so much so we spread out and Judy went swimming again! (We were STILL burping at bed-time although by then later meals had diluted the stench thank gods.)
Judy bravely wrapped the remains of the durian up & deposited it in a bin and we hoped the rangers woudn't return to arrest us. We noticed walkers did not linger by it after that and the smell wafted over until we left too. YUK. At this moment I would like to warn any family visiting cousin Lochie in Australia that he says his parents LIKE making icecream out of it - beware. Jackfruit was nice though - sort of like segments of massive pomegranet except the segments/ seeds were half the size of your hand and tasted like melon with mango.
Anyway after Brian did a jungle man dissection of fresh pineapple on the rocks and we all paddled and played backgammon with shells, we wandered back home to get posh, (well, except Pete) and went into Aberdeen for a Thai dinner. The reason the manager had looked so oddly at us when we tried to book a table yesterday, and when we asked if they had space, became clear as we were the ONLY people in there - not exactly busy! Had a lovely feast including baked rice (in a carved melon this time) with mango, and ending with an entire fish fried so it could stand up on a really lush peanut and lemon honey salad. I introduced them to my favourite chinese waffle-ball stall (rounded vanilla dough waffle dried into a curve, looks like one of those car-seat massage ball covers) as we went home. Nice and relaxed day!


Boxing day we were up early to spend 3 hours to catch a ferry then 3 trains and a mini-bus out to the New Territories, which is the mainland on the north-east above Hong Kong, very hilly and full of islands and peninsulas. At one point we actually spotted empty train seats, and as I legged it to them first, just as the doors opened on a flood of new travellors, I plumped my bags down to save a seat for the others either side of me. Only to have strangers on both sides plump my bags back on me and sit down just as Pete & co arrived! We got off the bus at another fishing/ marina town called Sai Kung, with even more stunning displays of pick-your-own-dinner sealife than in HK/ Lamma.
They had the huge elephant willy clams, the amazing lobsters we ate in Palau (as well as several other bright lobster species), strange shrimp/ lobsters stored live each in their own plastic bottle (are they like those shrimp that punch and crack fish tanks?), odd mollusks and even -wow- giant horse shoe crabs!

I had never seen live ones that big, just the tea-cup sized ones in Oban's Sealife Centre (that made me wonder how the species survived so long when 1 fell on its back and was still stuck 2 hours later), and I know they are scarce in HK so I hope theres some sort of protection on them - maybe thats why they only had huge ones, they left the babies to grow? Also the big black sea urchins, which up close have amazing neon blue bits and what looks like giant golden beads on their tops, pretty. We got stuffed on less fishy/ exotic foods in a locals cafe, then copped out and got a taxi to the country park (there is a 5 day long hike along the peaks called the Macclehouse Trail but we didn't fancy that) at the top of the mountain which was HEAVING with people. All the BBQ pits had bookings and were full all day! We wandered off down the usual wide smooth concreted path, fairly busy, which climbed up to a pass just below the highest peak. By then it had turned into a sort of cobbled series of steps surrounded by wild camelias (or tea trees, not sure), ferns and trees.
We rested at the crossroads and watched a man climb towards us with what looked like a giant silver sharks tail sticking out of his rucksack - he was a model glider pilot but there was too little wind! Passing through an area ravaged by fire (probably from careless ancestor-burial-site-visitors) we saw a cow/ buffalo thing, and walking over grassed/ shrubby moor-like hills were stunned by the views over the bays.

The trek down killed and the path was worse until we hit a zone of 1001 mini steps which was really annoying. We went back to ex-pat-land by going to marvel at all the posh boats in Pete's clubs 3rd and 'smallest' centre, Shelter Cove, which is mainly a marina and had kids trying out new bikes & roller blades all over it. Even on the pontoons which seemed like a very dangerous idea. There was an impressive cigar speed boat type thing that one of the staff washed and polished for several hours, while we sat up in the clubhouse (which I prefer to Petes Middle Island place actually - nicer layout) eating and playing backgammon.

Brian & Judy took off to Macau for a couple of days, jammily getting a luxury suite free at no extra charge as the hotel had lost their online booking, but that seemed to have been one of the nicer things about the trip. Sounds like most of Macau was slums, random museums, casinos or tarted up bits for tour groups. They arrived back on Friday, and I met them and Pete at the posh Kellet Island main club, carrying gladrags for them all. Petes 'main' boss, the sailing manager Alex, was having a pre-wedding drinks evening (he got married on New Years Eve) for club staff, so we all chatted to his nearly inlaws/ his family before staggering next door to the posh Compass Room to have our wedding anniversary (2nd! I forgot & thought it was 1st!) dinner. Very nice, and lovely staff, with a fantastic view over the harbour to all the lights of Kowloon.



While they were away I turned up at the doctors on Lamma at 9.30 as requested only to be handed a letter saying I was meant to be at a hospital in HK instead - thanks, helpful, it had my address, why wasn't it posted or mentioned in the phone message they left??? So mad dash to ferry then taxi to the hospital. First queue sent me to a 2nd on the other side of the hospital which sent me to a 3rd round the corner who shouted at me for being nearly 2 hours late (had arrived only an hour late but long queues!). I had to pay to register & then pay more for my 1st visit, then queued & got all the usual tests etc done by nurses. Best was the nurse getting a chair to stand on to read my height, and having to find someone to explain the eye tests to me - I kept saying 'E' when she pointed at them not realising it was the DIRECTION the increasingly smaller 'E's' faced I was meant to be indicating, doh! After filling my eyes with the stingy stuff I hate the diabetic nurse saw me and was lovely as well as more thorough than in the uk - even checked my blood test metre was accurate. By that time the pupil widening thing was working so I had trouble seeing to do a blood test for her (luckily as I'd planned to eat on Lamma after seeing the doc there my sugars had dropped from dreadful to perfect!) but she had her own machine for photographing my retinas. In the UK thats a long waiting list and trip to a specialist! The hospital waiting room in that section was split into coloured zones, and you waited with your payment ticket in the coloured zone you were told to, for the number on your ticket to be displayed on a screen. You then sat beside the doctors door it told you to, and each doctor had at least 1 nurse constantly in& out doing stuff, and red or green lights above the doors telling you when to go in. However they kept calling me to other things as I was 'so late' but each caller used a different bit of my name and even though I was the only gweilo I saw in the 4 hours I was there, I didn't always realise it was me or even in English! So several times nurses just came, picked me out easily and towed me off. I kept finding tiny ants in my book, and finally thought this was odd as maybe 1 or 2 hitch into my bag from home, but 10?? I opened up my bag and noticed the pack of medical stuff I had bought from the UK was FULL of them, ICK! Pulling out the last item added, the tiny cardboard wallet given to me by the Lamma doctor, I realised ants had built nests in the 2 corners of the wallets which had my printouts stuck into them. As I was attempting to pull the sheets out asI figured this, the sheets finally broke loose and showered me & the luckily spare chairs either side with ants! I nipped to the loos and spent a while ripping out the niches in the card wallet and shaking ants down the loo. YUK. No idea why they chose there unless the glue in the wallet corners attracted them, but Petes was clear when I checked!!!! At which point a nurse spotted me and hauled me off again. I finally saw a very nice doctor who spent a long time trying to pronounce my name as she was interested (I gave up & said 'thats it!' in the end) and told me that actually yes HK DID have the insulin I was on and there was no need for the Lamma doctor to panic me. Unlike in the UK she wanted to discuss types & brands of insulin with me which I have never heard of being done, she wanted me to choose! I had to say I had always just been told to take what I was given in the Uk, and had no idea of which brand was better or did what. I suppose if you are paying for it here you get a choice? After telling me I was fat (and I've lost weight since arriving, pants...)and that in HK they still use portion size as a control (Uk its more relative percents of carb to protein to veg etc) so I was only allowed 4 spoonfuls of rice a meal (aargh! I didn't ask what portion of chocolate I was allowwed think I would have been shot), she sent me off to pay for my prescription. Fab - $10 (under £1) for 2 & 1/2 packs of insulin. I have no idea what it costs in the UK now but I ran out once in London in 1998 just after I got diabetes, and 1 pack of far smaller tubes of insulin cost over £30 then!!!!! Again I got glares as after waiting an hour to collect it the pharmacist called me to a different window from the main queues to explain what it was & how much I was supposed to take - obviously after daring to be late I was pegged as dumb at the very least. I have to go back next month for a bunch of other tests but having enough insulin is a relief! They even put stuff in my eyes as I left to decrease my pupils to normal which they never did in the Uk; but actually it made my sight/ head worse and I got so dizzy/ blind (as in I could see better without my specs which is BAD) that I spent most of the afternoon head down on Petes desk after I got a taxi there!


Sat Pete was working again and invited the others to join in a round his little island race that was going on. I went into Central and THANK GODS the woman had got all my costumes; so after they finished their race they all came to Jumbo floating restauraunt to drop them off. Seeing as we were there we decided to eat there too; private party on Top Deck where I would be working, and huge queues at the middle Jumbo deck, so we went to the 1st floor where there was no waiting. May have been a bad idea.......very posh but terribly 'buy-this-to-show-how-much-money-you-have' type of place - the entire menu was birds nest soup, obscure sea food and assorted slimey things. Nothing that looked actually edible and all very nouvelle cuisine style. We didn't actually fancy any of it but were so hungry by then we ordered a selection of starters. Which were all cold, sadly. And only supplied with chopsticks, after we had waited a while just with beers as their tea was not good.....recipie for disaster and much undignified giggling from us.
The slices of pinkish lotus root, with the (natural tubing?) holes stuffed with glutinous rice was OK but a bit sickly sweet; the speciality braised cabbage rolls were best but tasted like sauerkraut. Brian's sea bass was lovely but came on salted solidified cold custard (YUK), and the yellow drunken chicken was foul (hur hur), so salty your mouth pursed up & drowned in a not very edible 'wine'. Worst was the sliced marinated sea slug (that knobbly warty animal Gee & I used to squirt at each other - see them all over the world in warm waters), very chewy and not a great taste. Worst looking was the 'sea bubbler' or 'sea blubber' which turned out to be jellyfish tentacles, the ones that are all frilled and a bit cauliflower looking at the ends. There wasn't much flavour but the texture was lovely and surprised us - a very crunchy cucumber sensation really. After which we escaped and ended up eating in an Indian as all the local cafes were full and we were starving! And slightly drunk if the quality of Petes photographs is anything to go by......I suppose there isn't too much carb for soaking up beer in sea invertebrates.


Sunday Pete took them up & around the hills on our island, then they packed as Judy's plane left so early on New Year that the ferries wouldn't be running from ours yet. Brian had booked an airport hotel room rather than stay up all night in departures. We all struggled down to the ferry, me in my pirate oufit minus boats attracting some odd looks - I blame the flipflops!
They saw me onto the Jumbo shuttle ferry and I was setting up on the Top Deck before 6 pm. Sadly the staff were still decorating the 2 halves of the restaurant, and were not even starting to get dressed into the costumes that had caused me so much stress! Luckily I managed to get them all dressed & decorated before guests arrived, and put on my boots to complete my outfit.
I only have my black stiletto boots here and painting in high heels was neither easy nor comfy! Still, a nice bunch, a mix of local & asstd nationalities, half booked into tables in the 'public' bit, half the guests of a hysterical lady (who wanted me to paint her cleavage) hosting a private party in the other side. I would have liked to stay longer and was offered overtime, but the last ferry was at 10.50, there was no guarantee I could find a sampan after that, I needed more cash if I did get one & I had too much gear to lug it to a bank easily so I said no. Plus I hate getting sampans back to Lamma, they are slow, smelly and often scary. I made it just as the ferry beeped to leave, panic!!!!


Judy having safely boarded her UK flight in the early hours, Pete & I met Brian on New Years Morning at Tung Chung station on Lantau, the huge island (double the size of HK) to the east of HK. The boys decided to climb the peak there, but having an infected toe and a bad bag (perils of face-painting on Hogmany in a high-heeled pirate costume) I declined and went to look around the massive 'outlet' shopping mall. It was heaving and could have been a good bargain-hunt place except that all the shoe/ clothes factory outlets were brand names like Addidas I wouldn't be seen dead in, and the Body Shop store only had a few lines mainly of stuff I don't like. I got excited when I saw the massive Esprit wherehouse as I knew Sammy likes them & thought I could get her stuff or maybe find a pair of those trousers I like borrowing off her, but of course it is not near ex-pat haunts and only stocked local sizes. As in a size 12 is the XXL size the lady struggled to search out for me & its really is hard to find anything over 10. I didn't know that UK sizes went down to a 4 or lower, never seen them in the UK! I amused myself watching locals get soaked/ be amazed by one of those surprise 'dancing water' pavement fountains like they have in Bristol & Lowestoft - where there are random spouts of water from a seemingly empty stretch of concrete. Then I went & watched the new James Bond which had a bit too much card-playing but was good - much as I loved Pierce Brosnan he was too pretty & suave, the new guy fits better & is lovely. Pete and Brian arrived back around 5 pm having nearly killed themselves climbing the 934 m peak - the good thing being that once past the easy lower touristy slopes near the giant buddha/ cable car, the crowds and kids disappeared. Though locals kept giggling at Pete - firstly as he did most of it bare foot, and secondly because they were either smelly or showing their tan-lines (Pete was actually wearing shorts not boardies so displaying white bits for once). Picking up Brians luggage from the airport hotel we were amazed at 1000's of taxis queued in triple rows as far as we could see - the reason Brian met us late was he could only find red (HK) or green (new territories) taxis this morning, and only pale blue ones (Lantau Island) were allowed to take him from there to where we were so he had to wait! His hotel lobby had fantastic gingerbread houses which had house Santa and shops, and looked so real that I went up & tapped them. To find it was coated with REAL gingerbread - baked dry & hard in thing rectangles like Ryvita and stuck onto the structures!!!!! We do LOVE HK airport - was biggest & most expensive in the world, size of Londons and JFKs combined I think but so big it always looks half empty. Brian had a choice of 8 check-in desks without a single queue!!! Even when we got our budget flight to Manilla there were so many desks open we had 2 people only in front of us, fab. Downing a very quick rice & beer we managed to steer Brian into immigrations before he missed his flight, and sent him off to Kate in NZ for a few weeks.

After not being able to get online for ages despite full wifi reception on my laptop, the papers finally reported there had been a massive earthquake underwater near Thailand, where 5 of the 6 internet & phone cables connecting Hong Kong to the rest of the world had broken. Bit too late for many people who thought it was their computers malfunctioning and have mucked them up trying to fix them! Several ships were sent to fix it but one ship broke, so we were told to expect bad phone/ slow internet for several weeks as they are trying to transfer all users through smaller, older lines if they want to contact anyone or anything outside Asia. They weren't joking - going slowly mad as everything I want to do ISN'T on asian websites which are OK but slow, and some phonecalls have been totally unintelligible, boo!!!!!!

So a Merry Christmas & a Happy Hogmany to all!
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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Bison cow thing, Mah O Shan Country Park, Sai Kung, New Territories, Hong Kong.


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Jumbo floating restaurant, Aberdeen, Hong Kong


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Sunday, December 17, 2006

Letter 20 - Palau is Paradise

And so - to our trip of a lifetime and Petes dream finally coming true! Please note I didn't have a waterproof camera or always want to get mine out so a lot of these are NOT my photos but taken by others on Flikr. I had to use photos - just too amazing to describe!

I hadn't been that keen on going to see the catamaran, I knew we would be getting it unless it was full of holes as Petes so keen and it is the only living-in Hong Kong-Island option we could afford, etc. Plus I hate sailing & am ALWAYS sick. Etc. I had visions of us seeing it for 1 day then being stuck in some grotty motel room for a week - in rain, as Pete showed me the weather maps before we left and it was not looking good - he brought his storm gear from work & borrowed some for me!!!!

Anyway, we woke up in our hotel in the middle of Manila and had a look out the window - not great view, all shanty houses, gas stations and hig-hrise hotels surrounded by rubbish coated roads and river banks - YIK. Breakfast I had been dribbling about thick USA style pancakes with maple syrup (yum lived on them when we were in Belize), but we got offered unidentifiable things in meaty sauces with garlic rice. I blame high sugars (and Petes excuse was he realised how cheap the mini-bar beers were when we arrived at 2 a.m.) but my usually adventurous appetite fled and I stuck to the pancakes. (on the trip back we did have it in a cafe - galic rice was mouldy but the deep fried 'milkfish' was gorgeous, sweet as anything, and the cured pig stew was nice). We left in a hurry as the small airline flying us out to the islands would not take payments over the phone/ internet, and would only save our ticket reservation until 11 am the day of our flight. Again, scary tax ride (this time again with a comfy posh car taxi linked to the hotel) clutching our bags, doors locked, with our small suitcase strapped into the passenger seat and covered by a blanket. Not inspiring tourist-friendly thoughts!

We passed long rows of people making/ selling Xmas decorations at the roadside; mainly with double-sided star-inside-circles that were made out of that horny shell stuff we used to have as lampshades a lot. You know, the ceiling shades that were a bit like stained glass out of circles of pale pink or beige shell? Also lots of the mexican-style 3D stars with tassels hanging off the bottom 2 points, like at fiestas. And I am not sure what KD (I think) TV stood for, but every bar/ building/ club we passed advertised that along with paintings of women so I'm pretty sure it was stripshows or the like! Plus a lot had boxing competition adverts. All in it looked like a HUGE but pretty run-down city, with occasional posh hotels inserted randomly and a major traffic problem. Like in Africa all crossings/ roundabouts were nerve-wracking free for alls, with 100s of jeepneys battling with taxis. Taxis are always white with hand-painted signs usually extolling their ACs (which don't always work!). Jeepneys are like a cross between a USA school bus and a jeep with a bit of 1920's posh cars thrown in - all gleaming aluminium with running boards/ spare wheels at the front sides and then mad painted/ decorated long sides to the open back. You bang on the side to stop it, jump in to squeeze into one of the benches along the inside sides, and off you go.

Jeepney III
Originally uploaded by Aedes.


Lots of hawkers walk between the continual traffic jams, selling unidentifiable foods, bottled water, ciggies and sweets.

IMG_9316
Originally uploaded by aleste37.



Got to the ticket office with 10 minutes to spare and spent over an hour having tickets issued, no idea why! The domestic airport was much smaller & tattier than the international one, but still madly decorated for christmas with the afore-mentioned stars. HUGE queues to even enter the building, with much checking of tickets/ luggage by armed guards. Through the 'please leave your fire-arms here' booth and we finally found our check-in. Again, shades of Belize with massive taped boxes that definitely cost excess luggage being wheeled around by all but us. (Not as bad as the flight to Kenya leaving Hong Kong that we queued beside - each person had 3 baggage trolleys with what looked like entire wrapped camels in them). There were many scary signs about how jokes about bombs in bags/ fluids in luggage could get you arrested, and at least 4 security checks where you had to remove all shoes etc too. Not impressed by it as each check something different in my bag set off an alarm, & when we got into the 1 departure lounge Pete found they had all missed a drink he had forgotten in his bag. (Actually, at Hong Kong for the 1st time EVER the 3rd security check spotted my diabetic stuff and wanted me to count all the sharp objects. Umm....half empty box of finger lancets & full box of needle tips - how long do you have???). The 1 good thing is that all the airports (except HK) actually check at the exit that you have the sticker on your ticket matching the luggae you are taking away, so it can't be nicked. Sadly all around the room were TVs playing diffferent shows but ALL were Phillipinos on talent singing competitions, YUK. And we were on the row of seats with the nervous guy who couldn't stop jittering his leg the whole 2 hours - was already feeling quite seasick by the time we boarded!

Or 1st flight took us to Devau, capital of another island down in the south Phillipines. We walked accross sweltering concrete, through asstd customs etc, collected luggage, left the airport, in the front of the airport and checked in again; payed more airport fees then waited and boarded the exact same plane again. Same seats even. Huh? Lovely new airport and the sweets made of the stinky durian looked interesting but the point was purely to make us pay fees I think!!!

PALAU- The Rock Islands
Originally uploaded by BoazImages.

We arrived at Kuror, capital of the Republic of Pelau (locals call it Belau) in the dark. It is a bunch of 300 islands in Micronesia, north of Java/ Indonesia, directly north of Darwin/ Australia's Northern Territories (hi Lochie! nearly made it your way!). As Pete had done the arrangements it was all very un-arranged, I had no idea if the poor seller was meeting us, if we were staying with them, if he knew our flight, etc! Luckily Jason and his lovely Pelaun girlfriend Virian were waiting to meet us (had met all the evening planes just incase!); she greeted us with beautiful traditional sort of shell garlandsof millions of tiny white shells. They had borrowed her mums jeep, so drove us south to Sam's Dive Tours & Bar (also the Royal Palau Yacht Club) where they moored. We showered & ate in the bar, and Jason introduced Pete to chewing betel nut. Its greenish like a small plum/ huge acorn; you split it in half and scoop out a certain amount of the bitter innards, then sprinkle one half with powder (lye or slaked lime - caustic anyway!), stick it in & chew!
Occasionally you spit out red slime. Pete finished his but wasn't keen on more and ended up staying up half the night, like he'd had a caffeine overdose; locals love it and Jason says that even though he's been there for years they all became far friendlier when he got that habit. We then climbed into their little canvas dinghy and zoomed slowly over black water (with phosphoresence) surrounded by what looked like jungled hills and Scooby-Doo style swamp thing wrecked WW11 ships (the islands had a pretty horriffic time with US/ Japan forces during the ear), over to the catamaran, watching shooting stars. They had the 'tent' up, a special awning that uses the sail's boom as its peak and covers the wooden decking at the back of the boat as well as the two cockpit/ entrance to hull areas. After chatting and listening to the odd wet-finger-on wine-glass-rim single note singing tones of wild birds, we went to bed.

We were in the right hand (starboard?) hull of the Sherliee. You step off the wooden deck into the cockpit (has moulded seating benches to each side) then down to the cockpit floor from the bench.
Bend down to the hatch, grip and either swing/ jump or carefully walk forwards down the tiny wooden detachable ladder into the hull. On the left are 2 sinks filled by foot pump, then a lid that has the ice-box under it. Right side has a 2 burner gas stove with oven & grill, then a tiny work surface, both sides with storeage above & below, and tall enough to stand in.
Then there is a seating/ eating area, padded benches big enough for several each side, with space in the middle for a table that fits down holes (not there when we were); floor is all white sort of lino stuff.
The benches end level with the bed, about 1&1/2 single sized narrowing as it goes to the bow, with 2 fans and a big dark glass hatch that can be propped open above it. Watching stars & satellites in bed was cool, but need mozzy screens fitted as we both woke up being bitten in the night, itchy feet, yik!


Palau - Sam's Tours
Originally uploaded by HPYnH2O.



Monday morning we went for supplies - on the way to the bar we stopped to look at some very rare orchids, that open & flower for 1 day, hanging over the water - another boat has a lady artist on it who studies them. Jason & Virian wanted to really show us the boat lifestyle so had arranged a 4 day sail for us! So, provisions...... they got sensible stuff, like powedered milk and squash, loacal veg (I couldn't ID it) and loo roll, we bought peanut butter, crackers, apples......and cookies & rum! Gorgeous drive there & back, sort of Hawaiin looking islands with hills, greenery, flowers & palms all over. Palau has a special relationship with the USA - uses dollars, speaks mainly English etc. Seems to be over-organised politician-wise, she said it has about 12 'states' each with a senator etc! We also met Virians' 6 year old son Kemo who is living with his Granny (who had an amazing plant nursery) until they leave for the USA, so she sees as much of him as possible. He's cute, but Pete had thought he was a girl so all the prezzies I brought for him (except a few non-gender ones) were girly pretty things, oops! Virian was telling us that although she and her (7!! - brothers & sisters) were brought up in a modern way, her tribe still carries out many of the traditions (women keep the traditions going).

LeoLisa
Originally uploaded by mayanda.

They all have to do a week-long ceremony the month after having their 1st baby, where they sit in a special hut & have oil & really hot water splashed at them round the clock. She said it was torture, she was tired enough looking after the baby without that, and I think there was some kind of fasting, I forget. Anyway, the father/ his family have to donate stuff (including the ancient ceremonial 'bead' money which is like beads or angular tubes and worn as jewellery) and on the last day she had to appear, oiled and stark naked apart from a few ceremonial flowers,hot and oily in front of practically the entire nation. Not what I'd fancy at all!

Back to the Sherilee, we took down the awning and set off. Pete was 'steering' - as there are 2 rudders, 1 for each hull, it had a pole connecting them accross the back of the deck, so you could either sit on it (it had wood so you could) or against it, or use a tiller in the starboard cockpit. Pete opted for the bum-method and had a beer.

Jason is a total expert, been living on and working as a sailor on luxury catamarans for years. (Tales of millionaires installing swimming pools on catamarans - huh??? as well as jacuzzis).
He's really a screen printer by trade, and is selling Sherilee so that he, Virian & Kemo can move back to Las Vegas (flat above the warehouse his business is in), work without breaks for a year to raise cash, and then build their dream catamaran in Australia for the next year! He was trying to pass on tips/ tricks/ locations etc to us both but really needs to publish several books, all the other boat people we met said he's the best but its all in his amazing brain!


We passed a dolphin park where imported dolphins 'meet' public at a price. Apparantly the original idea was to train them to swim round to a resort and charge a fortune for guests there to swim with 'wild' dolphins but the foreign business guy found it didn't work! I spent most of the time chasing the shadow the big main sail left, as even with hat & sunscreen it was scorching. Every now & then we had to tack, or the boys changed the front sails (there was a choice of 2, 1 screamer 1 ???, depending on the wind), but apart from closing the hatches over the beds if it got splashy there was not much to do except watch the clouds/ fish/ sea and chat - was really lovely! Pete had been grinning like a loon from the second we got on the boat and by then I was too! He'd said the night before he was worried that he seemed too shy as he was so excited/ overcome he'd not said a word really but I think they could tell they had sold it to us!
The sea birds are mainly white with a long sreamer of a tail, elegant; Jason says their fledgelings are forced by hunger out of the nests and flop onto the water, to float for days with black sea-birds pecking their heads, until they get up and fly. The Rock Islands we were sailing through looked so exotic - they are remnants of volcanic activity now topped with sheer-sided lumps of white limestone, covered in greenery and palm trees. The sea undercuts them so they are sort of routed out along the edges, some looking like mushrooms on stalks, or with great arches through them - and against the aqua water, stunning!

Palau Island
Originally uploaded by Jaybunn.

Jason had sealed his stereo speakers cleverly into tupperware, with long leads, so we had great music on deck all day too. Funnily most of it was a mix of UK artists who I have/ know, so I was trying to name them so I can burn more CDs for them when I get home.


Just after lunch we reached the first island we were going to stop at. After giggling at Pete & I trying to squidge into the tiny shade of the furled sail/ masts, we put up the awnings.
Pete & I swam to shore (water hotter than our showers at home, with a few cold currents) and walked along a deserted white beach which had palms and sort of wispy long needled pine trees mixed in with the usual jungly stuff growing right down to the tideline. Some fish were chasing shoals of tiny ones right up onto the beach, if we had had a net that wold have been tea! Then we all got in the dinghy and motored round to an almost enclosed cove with a tiny island in it, called the Milky Way.

Milky Way
Originally uploaded by nixme.



It was like being in a volcano - floating on our backs in water so clear the white bottom made it glow neon blue, looking up at mountain/ cliffs forming an almost perfect circle against the sky with huge fruit bats flapping accross the sun! Very Indiana Jones! You can coat yourself in the white mud (from the limestone) that makes the seabed there, its supposed to be great for skin. I wanted to but when we squeezed into the tiny island's mini lagoon it stank and I managed to slice my foot open on the razor-sharp rocks and started bleeding everywhere, so we went back. (Rats). Plus Virian hates bats and was a bit freaked by them. On the short motor back, we went close to the islands edges and the water was so clear you could see all the coral, fish and giant clams lips!

Giant Clam
Originally uploaded by HPYnH2O.


Touching a Giant Clam
Originally uploaded by Danburg Murmur.

1,300 fish species and 700 coral types, richest reefs in the world, apparently. Oh, and the cleanest air anywhere. Was SO GOOD to see the sky again - forgotten it isn't always grey/ misty clouded/ pollution like in HK! They went off spear fishing on the reef while we 'showered' from a bucket on deck. The port hull has an identical cockpit/ entrance but both sides are small work-surfaces/ storage with all the radio etc equipment above. Then a curtain can be pulled to hide the 'loo' on the right side
- a tiny seat (sunk between the end of the right side storage cabinets and a tiny sink) I could only just get my butt onto, with a very erratic pumping system.

Sherilees loo facilities!.jpg
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

Then a tiny sink; opposite that is a rack and the idea is a shower hose can be foot pumped from the sink so the whole area gets wet - bit like my hated loo in HK really - but they never use it, preferring on deck or the dive bars showers. (We should be the same, with Petes club next door!) Then a small storage/ shelf area ending in the bed like ours. Both hulls have a stern space you get into by removing the ladder and crawling under it - quite a long space but better used as stores than single berths! We sat and watched an amazing sunset, then Virian cooked us a lovely local meal and we made rum cocktails until we ran out of pineapple juice.
The guys played guitar & Virian sang - she is an accountant for Continental Airways, but is also the top-selling singer in the islands, and she really is good!



Tuesday we were woken by a small shower in the night which meant losing the nice breeze as we shut the hatch, but still got up early as the sun & heat are roasting before 8 am. Pete made porridge which was lovely (not what I would have thought I'd like in heat!) but Vriran tried a mouthful from the pot and hated it - hope it was just as it had no sugar! We sailed to the islands containing a lake they said we should see, being passed by several dive speed-boats and seeing all the tours stop at one particular beach to swim. Why, I wonder, crowds when you have all these amazing deserted places??? Pete got a bit energetic (all that surpressed excitement I think), and wearing the fetching flowery hat I had, decided to try to climb the rigging which scared the pants off me. There are footholds but no safety ropes.
Still not satisified he then explored the cooling off/ surfing possiblities in the dinghy which gets towed behind (with its heavy outboard engine stowed in one of the cockpits) during short passages. Which was fun until he tried to pull the boat back in - Jason in fits of giggles wouldn't let me help, so Pete was knackered!
As I said, it felt like we shouldn't be living like this, it should be costing a fortune and only flim-stars or someone would have this lifestyle...I'm definitely being converted to the live-aboard way of life! It is affordable; 2 solar panels on the back of each hull and a (Rutland! we looked at them for our eco-house) wind generator give enough to the batteries to run lights, music, fans and even the top-notch water-maker; would hopefully cope with my laptop or a small fridge too.
Water they collect mainly from rain (each side of the tent has a sort of valve that can have a hose attached to it and be arranged to collect rain - fills tanks quickly) but I don't think we'll risk that in HK. Pete was coming down with a cold so spent the morning mainly snoozing on the 'trampoline' bits of the decks (1 either side if the strip of wood deck that leads to the front) which seems to be another good idea!
Virian had one of her Cds on (great!) and gave me one which I'm looking forward to hearing at home, but today as the water looked quite shallow in patches and it wasn't an area Jason knew as well, we were stood on the bows with polarised sunglasses trying to spot shallow patches & coral heads to steer the boat through the sort of 'valley' of islands. Reminded me of the 100 Island cabin place In Canada Uncle Dougie took us too - with extra bright fish and corals though! We all cooled off in the sea under the boat (nice shade & you can hang on to struts under the deck when you are tired) while Pete planned where he would add bits to store his rigged-up windsurf kit between the hulls!

I swam over to the small dock where the dive boats were, and waited for Pete to be dropped off by Virian with our gear. It was weird, the minute he landed one of the (Japanese?) tour boats sort of grabbed him and were all wanting photos posed with him....was it the blonde hair, the tan, or did they think he was a millionaire coming off that boat??? Anyway, we climbed a steep, slippery jagged path through the foresty jungle, and the scarier descent on the other side - I was hanging onto the rope for all it was worth, the rocks were so sharp! It ended on a tiny wood platform surrounded by trees, opening onto a lake. We got our snorkels on and dropped into shaded water full of 'pyjama cardinal fish' sort of big angular striped goldfish, who were quite indignant at us being in their territory and nibbled up or legs if we held onto the dock at their particular patch! We then started swimming off, bit freaky as the water was cloudy with rays of sun lancing though, and quickly got so deep you couldn't see the bottom. Then out of the gloom came a tiny orange dot, a 1p sized jellyfish flapping along.

Baby Jellyfish
Originally uploaded by johnha.


Then a minute later, 3 of up to muffin sizes.

Palau-day4 133
Originally uploaded by Angela Tamboura.

Then we really hit them - all sizes up to dinner plate, all directions, swimming in all angles...... Jellyfish Lake.

Jellyfish Lake - Palau
Originally uploaded by HPYnH2O.

I remember a BBC show on it (probably Life on Earth/ Attenborough); it got cut off from the sea milions of years ago, and not needing to hunt for food, the jellyfish lost their stings and instead have algae growing inside them, so they chase the sun.

060406_162603_echeng9970
Originally uploaded by echeng.

As 1 guy said, it was like swimming through breast implants.... quite a nice smooth jelly sensation, like when I used to wrap myself in big kelps when I got cold teaching snorkelling in Dorset, but a bit disconcerting as its hard to believe they can't sting - and I was worried I'd hurt one or get it stuck down my cleavage or something.

jellyfish lake, Palau
Originally uploaded by fun-diver.

We had a 'break', cruising the edge where they don't go as it's not sunny enough, looking at huge sunken trees now coated in odd sea anemones, then went to look at the 'Wall'. Thats where the shadow from the surrounding mountain slices through the water, and all the jellyfish just stop to stay in the sunlight, so there's a pulsating moving wall of them! (all these photos aren't mine, I blogged them from other Flikr members as I don't have a waterproof camera). They were so thick it was hard to see any water, major snow-globe/ blizzard time, got a bit too much, had to swim for clearer water.

Jellyfish Lake, Palau
Originally uploaded by echeng.

We then left as we'd been in there for several hours and dusk was coming - had jelly legs hauling up and down the hill! Made it back to the Sherilee as rain started, so we showered (with 'Joy' washing up liquid as Virian said it was best at getting salt out of hair) in the warm rain then dried off under the tent while Jason cooked. AMAZING sunset, but we were intrigued by something (or 2 things) making tracks over the glass-calm water.



I saw 1 as we showered which we think was a turtle up for air; it repeated that; but there was also a shark (blacktip Virian said) cruising all around us - put me off swimming again!
I had expected it to be buggy as we moored in such a sheltered enclosed spot, and we got innundated by 1000s of off little beetles who were annoying - and then munched at night by mozzies, doh! Pete managed to start getting a cold so was snuffly too, great, how could he manage that??


Wednesday we sailed to Oolang Beach - I kept finding those brown bugs who mobbed us last night - some had hidden in shaded places and were miffed when we put up sails/ tent etc and shook them out of their hides. Hope they all get left in Palau and don't become illegal immigrants to HK!
It actually had a mini camp set up there with loos, as it is where they filmed 'Survivor, Palau', one of the first of those TV endurance shows. Civilisation! There was a german family camping there who had been kayaking round the islands for several weeks; the loos were being repainted by a bunch of rangers most of whom were related to Virian. She and Jason were very happy as they had run out of betel nut AND ciggies and managed to trade for some! I was feeling knackered so stretched out in the shade on deck and read, while they took Pete off spear-fishing on the reef. Apparantly halfway there they noticed they hadn't refilled the outboard's fuel so stopped where they were. Pete made them a bit jumpy (Virian was scared whenever he fired the spear) but did it all right - when she borrowed his gun to get a fish she couldn't get it to work as he'd put on the safety catch like he was supposed to! Pete says Virian is amazing, free-diving down and battling with an octopus that kept pulling out her knife whenever she tried to stab it. She also speared the most gorgeous freaky looking lobster
- it was too pretty to cook (and my 1st ever go at cooking lobster!) Pete says it was instant karma as about then we both started feeling our sunburn.
We also struggled with the odd noodles we brought as the instructions were all in Japanese - 700g and 6-7 being the only understandable bits! Still, managed passable additions to the yummy fish (big one was called 'sweet lips'). Lowering a light bar over the water to try and see what was splashing about, we found some amazing neon blue fish grabbing the 1000's of wriggly things that swarmed to the light along the surface - no idea what they were, insecty rather than fish. A big live-aboard dive boat moored nearby, obviously never using its sails as the entire rigging was lit up with fairy lights like a Christmas tree. Its boats were taking guests all over night diving until late. Jason & Vrian had a tent on shore that night, with a blazing fire; Pete sent some time asleep on deck as he was snuffling lots - there is a big airbed to put up there but I found the wind generator too noisey, and then a squall blew in.

So we were up and had the awnings down before 7 am on Thursday, and set off early when the others arrived, to get back to Koror. VERY wet & windy (looked like Loch Lomond sometimes!) but I was happy as I still didn't get sick! The others were cold enough to try big bowls of porridge too. I read the book that Sherilee was named after - means 'burden or baggage' in aboriginal australian! Depressing story about a drifter in the outback and his unwanted kid until he realises how he loves her when she nearly dies - very John Steinbeck.
Back at Sams we ate & showered, and Pete met a nice Japanese guy with a little boat he is too scared to cross to the Phillipines in. Sounds like he will crew with Pete on Sherilee form Palau to there, for the experience. Even better, a very experienced american couple (husband looks like a pirate, Ann the lovely wife has a pet cockatoo which goes everywhere with them in a rucksack cage - found half drowned after a storm in Palau - called invasive species so are hunted/ killed here) will be making the passage around then too.
They are taking over the teenage daughter of a single mum from another boat, to teach her how; then the husband is flying back and teaching the mum on her own boat as they sail over - so hopefully Pete will have company of some sort! Then Pete & I lounged on the boat until the others came back went to bed; after nipping in for dinner at the bar we tried to sleep (despite sunburns!) too. I was paranoid I'd sleep through the alram, so kept waking - then couldn't find the light to switch off the beeper which must have been waking ALL the ships when it did go off at 3 am! Less said about the trip back the better; knackered, burnt, stuck in horrible hot Manila from 9am with really uncomfortable stares form the locals when we attempted to visit the main park. Which had crews jack-hammering up the paving and tinned Xmas music blasting against it, ick. Another scary ride to the main airport to find NO facilities for waiting/ food until they let us (finally) into the airport at 4 pm then our plane left at 7 pm. Missed last ferry to our village so got last ferry to Sok Kwu Wan and walked in freezing (well, 10 degrees after 30+ in Palau made it feel that way!) back home after midnight!

So - go to Palau! Its a pig to get to but worth it. Most gorgeous place I have ever seen - hope we will go back with the boat at some point, was amazing.................and I am now up for the kids/ travelling round by catamaran idea!
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