I checked in at my hotel last afternoon. A reasonably nice hotel along the beach road overlooking the Andaman sea, check out this link. Although the prices are more expensive around this area than Ao Chalong, which basically is the free port/harbor in Phuket. Now, when I say expensive, I mean the price for a dinner has gone up from 15 NOK to 25 NOK, so it is still manageable you might say :)

I just say one thing: A bed and a shower are extremely underrated things to have in a person's life! After 23 and some days sleeping where and on what you see on the picture, I felt like a new man waking up this morning!

Right now it is too hot to do anything but to relax in the shade, but I spent last night exploring the area for a while, and will rent a motorcycle for a day or two to drive around the countryside of this island. The tourist pamphlet also says "there are few, if any, things in this world that can prepare you for Bangla Road at Patong" so naturally I have to go there and check what all the fuzz is about haha!

I know the tension in Bangkok has given some folks back home some concerns, but there is no sign of civil unrest down here in Phuket, mainly because the insurgents are farmers which resides in the north and east of Thailand. People are generally content down here, and I am in no danger. But just to satisfy those at home; I have taken every precaution on my return trip home. Although the transfer area on Bangkok airport is considered a safe zone, I will not spend any more time than 2 hours there before the flight heads off to Dubai.

Wish you all a pleasant day, and I will come back with more updates later on!

Finally, after 16 days and some hours with a 360 degree seaview, we are safe and sound achored up in Ao Chalong bay on the south side of Phuket. After a quick dinner, we decided to hit the racks and get our first decent night sleep for almost 3 weeks. This morning we got up to a bit of rain, but as soon as it had gone, we head in to town for some breakfast and a long deserved beer!

I have written a full diary for the entire sailing experience, which I will upload later. For now, just know we are all well and enjoying the time on solid ground again :)

Shoppingspree before the trip! The skipper is going grazy at the markets for spare parts he might or might not need before we head off! Hydraulic fluid for the systems (the boat can steer it self according to what has been programmed in to the chart plotter, and all the rigs and sails can both be handled manually, or by hydraulics), new batteries (the current ones are not exactly top of the line), 1600 litres of water, and food! Hopefully we can also get 2 cases of some golden liquid brew before we leave :)

Yesterday was a big fat 0 on the "what happened" scale. Staying on the boat, swimming with the fishies (not the mafia kind haha!), reading a book, generally relaxing.

Today however, I found out a couple of things.... Male has left side driving, and the streets are so narrow, they would be classified for pedestrians in Norway :P
The main form of transportation, besides the boats and sea-planes, are scooter. However, there are some cars around (what a BMW X5 is doing here is beyond me though, it can probably drive on only 1 road here).

In any case... Here I was, in a taxi, driving to the other side of the city, and not thinking about left side driving og people on scooters, I opened my door on the right side and BAM!, a guy on a scooter knocked the door in again... After apologizing to the cabdriver, giving him an extra 200 ruufies (about 100 NOK) for the dented door, and shook hands with both him and the scooter driver, I decided to walk around instead. The city isn't after all that big, I figured after a couple of days here.

Anyway, we are leaving tomorrow. The agent has my passport for clearance, and with the purchased food, water and equipment coming to the boat tomorrow, we head off in the afternoon. Next stop, Phuket Thailand!

For the simpleness, since I am currently at an internet cafe, this blogpost and all others until the trip is finished, will be in english. This some due to requests from non/norwegian friends, but also because writing norwegian on a Maldivian/English keyboard is kinda hard...

So, another couple of days has passed on this island group in the middle of the Indian Ocean they call the Maldives. No pictures this time, due to a HUGE thunderstorm which deciced to dump its "cargo" right on top of us! The wifi tower we used to connect to internet was whacked by lightning, and so we have to use alternate means of communication. Got some beautiful pictures of Male's seaside before it startet, so hopefully you all will appreciate them when they come online on FB :)

Life is otherwise going its course here. But as a reminder: should you ever decide to sleep on deck, make sure you do it prepared, preferabbly with LOADS of suntan lotion... You might say the back is a tad red after waking up at 10am last morning hehe.

Male is a very interesting city. A strange combination of 3rd world and modern thinking. On one side of the road you have a "township" standard on buildings, mostly light metal stiched together by ducktape, on the other side of the same road, you have huge apartment complexes rivaling norwegian standards! And everything is fairly cheap here. Dinner for 2 costs around 100 NOK, a coke 4 NOK.

Right now we are anchored up at the north side of Hulhumale, which is the airport Island. Moving into Male on thursday, so the agent can check us out and let us be on our way :)

More to come in the following days!

Etter en kort tur over det arabiske hav, er jeg nå godt mønstret ombord på Celtic Avenger. Bagen er pakket ut av, og det første jeg gjorde var å dra på meg badeshortsen og hoppe i havet! Herregud, så deilig med like varmt vann som luft!!!

Vi skal være her sånn ca en ukes tid før vi kaster loss. Det blir ikke mange på turen ser det ut som, kanskje til og med bare skipperen og meg (jess pappa, two-star over 1600 nautiske mil hehehe). Båten er i god stand, og jeg har fått den første innførselen i det elektriske. Før vi kaster loss skal jeg kunne skuta noenlunde inn og ut, for som skipperen sier: "Jeg er 68 år og kan krepere når som helst" (hørtes jo betryggende ut haha!). Ellers er det fullt utstyr for dykking ombord, inkludert 4 fulle flasker. Skal ikke se bort i fra at et par av de blir brukt før avgang.

Maldivene er et nydelig sted, om enn utrolig høy luftfuktighet her! Skjorta ble jo klissvåt bare jeg stakk nesa ut av flyet! Det var også litt eksotisk, at de eneste transportmidlene fra flyplassen, er enten båt, eller sjøfly! Bildet jeg har lastet opp er av en atoll som ligger litt utenfor hovedstaden Male (Male er til venstre for bildet). Det sies at det er den tettest befolkede øya i hele verden, med unntak av Hong Kong.

Etter å ha situert meg i babord forpigg (for de som ikke kan seilerlingoen: senga på venstre fremside), hadde vi en nydelig middag, bestående av wokede haifileter og grønnsaker. Joda, eksotisk er det skal jeg si dere! :)

Forøvrig er Maldivenes lover og regler meget strenge, og lovverket er Sharia. Det betyr at jeg må se langt etter en kald øl på dekk i solsteiken, men det får så være :)

�~nsker dere alle sammen en riktig god helg, med askeskyer, snø og hagl :P

Det har gått en uke siden siste bloggoppdatering. Det har vært en meget avslappende og herlig tid, godt å få akklimatisert seg til slik varme før seilasen begynner!
Siden sist har det ikke skjedd så veldig mye. Lørdag var veldig hyggelig. Johan og jeg stakk ut til Atlantis og nattklubben Sanctuary (egentlig skulle vi bort på golfklubben og ta en øl...), der hadde de live jam-session, med gitarist, fiolinist og dj som lagde et utrolig stilig show! se websiden her
Søndag var vi ute på brunch på polo-klubben her i Arabian Ranches, en brunch som varte i 12 timer, inkludert en sandstorm! :)

Ellers har dagene gått med til shopping, sol og varme. Faktisk har kollektivtrafikken blitt så bra her, med buss og metro, at det faktisk går an å komme seg rundt uten bil!

Neste blogg-oppdatering vil være fra Maldivene! Må bare finne et høvelig sted å finne internett fra...
Flyet går kl 8 norsk tid i morgen tidlig. Kapteinen møter meg på flyplassen, og båten er på samme øy som flyplassen ligger. Det interessante er at det ikke er lov med taxi på flyplassøya, så vi må ta båt fra flyplassøya, til hovedstaden Male, gå 200 meter for å ta en annen ferge tilbake til flyplassøya :P
Det ser ut som at monsunen er på vei å vende, så det kan hende det ikke blir mer enn en uke i Maldivene. Avstand i luftretning fra Maldivene til Phuket er ca 1600 nautiske mil. Det skal bli herlig å komme seg ut på sjøen!