Update 58 January 2009 Langkawi to India
24 January 2009 | Langkawi to India
Jane
Hi Everyone,
Well you don't hear from us for months and months and now here we are again in so soon.
We had a very nice Christmas starting with champagne breakfast with friends and ending with a Christmas Buffet Dinner at the resort complete with the resident duo (who are best in house entertainment you can get) and dancing to the early hours. But I don't think I will ever get used to a hot Christmas, it is just not natural. Even in Malaysia they have Christmas cards with snow on and Santa at the North Pole with snow.
The next event was a Ceilidh (pronounced kylee) organised by a Scottish couple. This is a folk music and storytelling party and it amazing how much talent is hidden until we all get together. Clive was very nervous as he promised he would sing and play the guitar for one number. It was such a success that Clive did 4 numbers and even I got up and said a funny poem. There were 5 singer/guitarist, a trumpeter, a accordion player and 3 (plus me) reciting very funny poems. And it just went round and round until the artists ran out of material. Nobody was quite sure as to how the evening would go but everybody agreed it was a roaring success.
New Years Eve was another success with the cruisers asking the resort if we could have our own buffet at the 'Hard Dock Café' (a place where the cruisers could meet and the only café/restaurant where we can take our own drinks so not paying resort prices). This was agreed and for £7 a head we had a splendid buffet and took our own wine and beer. One of the cruisers became a DJ for the night and again we danced in to the early hours of 2009. A little disappointment was the champagne we bought for midnight was flat and gone off. Not a good start to 2009!
It was now time to leave. We went shopping for the last minute fresh fruit and vegetables and sorted the boat ready for the 1600 passage across the Indian Ocean. We had 3 choices of where to stop - India, Sri Lanka or the Maldives. We chose Cochin in India because someone told us that the Maldives is very nice but just another reef. We have seen so many reefs and will see more in the Red Sea so we thought they are right. We missed Sri Lanka as there has been a little problem with the Tamil Tigers even though the trouble is much further north than we would have stopped. It would also have cost 200USD just to check in. Friends that stopped there have enjoyed it but, it was India for us.
We left on 3rd January with our very good friends Terry and Noel following us out on 'Surfer Girl' It was a very sad moment when they turned back as we have had so much fun with them over the year we were in Rebak. I have said before the only down side to this life is the friends we leave behind and may never see again. Although Terry and Noel say they will fly to Turkey to see us.
Our journey started slow with little wind so we motored but after about 6 hours the wind came up and we were sailing comfortably at 5-6 knots. The next 2 days were a mixture of sailing and motoring as the wind rose and fell. We had to pass between the Nicobar Islands and Sumatera which is the main shipping route for all the ships going to and from Singapore. Do you remember what I said about the number of ships in Singapore, well now we had to avoid them at night!! Fortunately just before we left Rebak we ordered a little AIS radar unit from the UK. All commercial shipping emits an Automatic Identification Signal and the unit we bought picks it up on a small radar screen. It was magic. We knew where the ships were before we could see them also knew their name, speed and course they were travelling. This meant we knew which ships to watch for collision courses and if we were worried could call them by name. They then felt obliged to answer and on 1 occasion altered course for us. Of course we still had to keep a good look out for fishing vessels but watches were much easier.
Everything was going fine. We had a few rain squalls but not a lot of wind with it and we were very happy to be sailing again, until we passed Sri Lanka where it seems that the wind funnels down between the 2 land masses. For 2 days we had 25-30 knot winds forward of the beam with seas of 3-4 metres. The waves kept crashing over deck and would even manage to get inside occasionally. This was probably the worst 2 days in 10 years. We only had a very small jib up and still managed 6-8 knots. We were so glad to get in the lee of India as the sea and winds die down. We then had a very pleasant 2 day sail to Cochin. We stayed 30 miles off the coast hoping to avoid all the fishing boats there were still plenty around but not as many as our friends saw only 3 miles off.
Our timing for arrival was perfect. We dropped anchor at the customs anchorage at 1200 on the 15th January - 12 days 2 hours and 38 minutes after leaving Rebak. The Port Authority came out with a form to fill in, the police came by to check our passports and visa and eventually customs came onboard. We had 6 forms to fill in all in quadruple. We then had to go ashore to the Port Authority for more form filling, to customs for more form filling and to leave our boat papers, to the Internal Security Service (like MI5) for permission to move the boat to another anchorage and finally to Immigration for more form filling. The whole process took 4 hours which is apparently very fast by Indian standards. If we had arrived on the weekend we would not have been able to move until the Monday.
We were now in India. First we had a good meal a few beers and a good nights rest. The next day was spent sorting out the boat with a few minor problems from the trip. I think the fact that we didn't leave the boat that day shows how comfortable we are on Jane-G. After 12 days at sea and we were not champing at the bit to get off her.
From our new anchorage I was fascinated by the number of different types of boats that passed us. We saw a 'duck' tourist boat, tradition houseboats and so many different style and size of canoes. I must have photographed 20 different styles of water craft in the first 2 days.
The next day we were off exploring the streets of Cochin. It is a noisy colourful city with so much traffic - buses, motor rickshaws, lorries and cars, all blowing their horns. The back streets are small, full of hundreds of small shops selling almost everything. The best are the spice shops with their huge drums of so many different smells. Fort Kochi, an island opposite is more of a tourist area with motor rickshaws all plying for business. We went there to have a closer look at the Chinese fishing nets we saw on the way in. these are huge nets that are dropped into the water using an elaborate pulley system then after a while hauled back hopefully with fish in them. From what we saw they don't get many fish for the size of the net.
As we were only staying a relatively short time we decided to do a little travelling by car. No way were we going to drive with this traffic so we hired a car and driver for 3 days. Our first day was down the coast about 70km to Alleppey and hired a houseboat for a day and night. These houseboats are traditional style boats that have been converted to little bungalows. They vary in size, the one we had was a one bedroom boat but they go up to a 4 double bedroom boat, which are huge. We first crossed Lake Vembanad to enter the backwaters. These backwaters are like small canal with banks about 6-8 metres wide separating them from the rice fields. But these rice fields are about 2 metres below the water level and on the banks are small houses with families. in some parts whole villages that are 1 street wide with just a foot path to move about. The canals are their life line and almost every house has a canoe or they use the ferry to get around. Also all the laundry and dish washing is done on a set of steps which run down into the water. It was such an interesting day and a comfortable night aboard. We had a crew of 3 to look after us and the food was delicious.
The next day our driver picked us up and we travelled about 120km to the Periyar Tiger Reserve. We stayed in a small hotel just outside the reserve and 0700 the next morning were in ready for an early morning 7km walk in the forest. It was a little disappointing as we only saw a few deer a wild boar and the tail of a bison. There was plenty elephant dung about but no elephants to be seen. We also saw a tiger foot print but no tiger.
Other things we did on the way were stop at a coir processing factory where they take the coconut husk and turn it into ropes and then mats. The looms were all mechanical and hand made from wood. We stopped at a spice garden and learned so much about all the spices and how they are used not only in food but in medicines. And we also saw a traditional 'story-play' a Kathakali. There are no words as the story is told by hand and facial expressions. It has very elaborate makeup, bright costumes and very loud drums and cymbal plays throughout.
As you can see we fitted a lot into our 3 days and driving through the Kerala state from the flat coastal waterways through the mountains with the tea and rubber plantations and back to Cochin was all very enjoyable.
One thing I would not let Clive do was to hire a Royal Enfield motorbike. Apparently these are old British motorbikes that are now only made in India. Every time we walk past one Clive drools, but no way will I let him loose with the Indian drivers.
We will be moving on this weekend towards Salalah in Oman. It will be a little crowded as all the boats from Sri Lanka, the Maldives and India all make their way there but we are only little so will find a spot to drop our anchor.
Next time we talk will probably be in Egypt so until then I'll say bye for now,
Jane and Clive
PS No Delhi belly yet, in fact Clive is probably one of the very few who has had to take a laxative in India!!