Women in saris

July 25, 2008 Ruth

July 25th Friday: 5:13 pm

I went out for a walk this afternoon. I seem to have a case of the blahs and am just tired. “Could be the heat, or maybe it’s fleas!” as the song in West Side Story sang. We’ll I don’t have fleas, but I’m finding the heat very heavy especially after our island cruising where, on some mornings, I wore my long-sleeve Red Sox shirt. And life in a big city is “big.” I will try to get to the museums and mosque and those things should be interesting. People are certainly very friendly here and quite energetic, more like China than Olongapo. Funny, that I’m always ready to leave somewhere, and then miss it. Hmmm

Anyway, I just walked around the hotels here in the Sutera Harbor complex; but I took my camera. I was really glad I did so I could capture this group of young women. I don’t know why I didn’t talk with them more; I felt like I was interrupting and they seemed hesitant in English Now I wish I had found out more about them. Maybe I will see them again.

I saw them in the distance and tried to zoom. Then I just walked faster to catch up and snuck some photos.

I just liked the “hands on the hip” action. The man was one of two who were accompanying the women.

They sat down to have their photo taken by one of the women and I walked over and asked if I could take a photo too. They smiled and said yes.

They make the peace sign, just the everyone else anywhere else who poses for me.

Any you knew this would happen. I had offered to take their camera and take a photo of the group so all the women could be in it. But they made the men take the photo so I could be in it too! At least I have my head covered!

Philippines

Puerta Galera adventure/ Ponderosa Golf Club

July 23, 2008 Ruth

July 23 3 pm Wednesday

Randal is off giving a boat tour to some New Zealanders so I get the computer for a bit! So to continue with the Puerta Galera adventure…..

After Tamaraw Falls we went on to Ponderosa Golf Club with a stop first to pick up our new dinghy anchor. Randal had supplied the materials for the shop to use and they made a wonderful little anchor.The labor cost $8.

The welding shop on the road out PG that went on to Calapan.

Carol with the anchor. It looks vaguely like something to ward off vampires!

Then on to the Ponderosa Golf Club. Carol is a golfer and had been told about its beautiful setting on a mountainside.

“Ponderosa Golf Club Puerto Galera has been cut out of the mountain, nearly 2,000 feet above sea level.

It overlooks the stunning Puerto Galera and in the distance you can see Batangas on the island of Luzon.” It’s a nine hole par 3 course.

This is the view from the top of the mountain. One of those little boats is Doramac.

It was a lovely setting. Not sure if this was a private home or part of the course. We could see a wonderful empty room with a tile floor, and lots of windows as the top floor.

What a great room! You could paint, do yoga, read, stare into space!

Not far from where Carol is standing is the T. The hole is down the mountain! Some tough course.

The owner was American and a fan of the show. (I think.)

Our next stop, and last of day 2 was White Beach.

Philippines

Puerta Galera continued; White Beach

July 23, 2008 Ruth

July 23, 2008 3:10 pm Wednesday

Randal and I had been to White Beach but Carol hadn’t so off we went after our visit to Ponderosa. Plus we’d had a tip that the best Halo Halos were to be had at White Beach and where to find them. That alone would have been enough for Carol and me. And I have lots of photos of Carol eating her halo halo and there are lots of me eating mine. None of them were the least bit flattering since one had to really open wide to get that stuff in. So no photos of us chowing down the halo halo. But, unfortunately I didn’t take many other photos.

Our first stop at White Beach was for a halo halo. Randal had a beer.

A little of this and that… Lots of crushed ice…………………. Milk poured on top and then Ube spread to finish.

After I had literally scraped my glass clean it was time to go for a walk along the beach.

Randal walked the plank. I took off my shoes and walked through the water.

We watched several men move a banca out of the water.

Then we watched the sun set. The end of our second day of adventure

I need to mention that I have mixed my photos and Carol’s together. Obviously if I’m in the photo, Carol was taking it and visa versa. Every now and then Randal took my camera, but not so often that I need to share photo credit with him.

Our last adventure was a visit to the Moorings Hotel near the PG Yacht Club for brunch the last day of Carol’s visit.

Philippines

Puerto Galera adventure last morning

July 23, 2008 Ruth

Carol didn’t stay on DoraMac with us, too rolling for her since we were anchored out. All of those bancas going by made lots of waves. She stayed at the hotel just up the hill from the PG Yacht Club. The Moorings was developing more facilities that would include space for conferences and more upscale demand. Carol had asked if they would provide a tour and brunch for us Monday morning before she would leave. They had agreed. So after an early morning swim off the back of DoraMac, we all took the service boat back to The Moorings.

Our private table

Our view

Presidential suite

Interesting art there too. I think the owner was Chinese and American…or I’m making up facts again…

It really was a lovely spot surrounded by jungle.

Sadly, it was time for Carol to go back to Makati. You can see Doramac off in the middle of the picture. This is the banca she would take to get back to Batangas and her car.

Carol waving good-bye.

It was a great visit!

As you can tell all of our adventures with Carol have been wonderful. Saying good-bye was very hard……….But someday……….

So ends our Puerto Galera adventure with Carol Carino.

Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu

July 21, 2008 Ruth

July 21 12:44pm

Hi Everyone,

“I loved the diversity of the city and the huge wet market.” That’s how our friend Jamie Fritsch described the center of Kota Kinabalu. It’s true. You feel like you are in China and India at the same time. The women in their saris are just so colorful. I’ll try to get some photos of them. But here are just a few photos to get you oriented to Kota Kinabalu. We have lots of boat work to do and the best “natural attractions” are inland, so I think we might miss them. The mall has Starbucks and Body Shop but the upscale shops of Hong Kong or Makati. Our friends Bob and Audrey, from Subic Bay, are here for a too short long weekend. They went off with Randal to do boat stuff today. I just don’t feel great enough. So I’m having a quiet day catching up on some email and watching the Sox lose their 3rd game to LA.

We will probably be here for another 2 weeks. Of course that’s what we said about Subic. But we have to be done to make it to Indonesia to meet the Indonesia Rally in the beginning of September. Randal and Bob were looking at possible routes this morning. Bob and Audrey have their own growing business in Subic so just hanging out here is a relaxing vacation for them.

http://www.sabahtourism.com/en/home/ is a site for Sabah which is the specific area of East Malaysia where we are now. Malaysia is two islands in the South China Sea. East Malaysia is on the north tip of Borneo.

Here we are at the Sutera Harbor Marina. We are next to this sailboat owned by an American. The owner isn’t here now.

The Pacific Hotel just next to the Marina. The Magellan Hotel is on the other side of the Marina. Lots of families with kids here. Lots of golfers. Lots of upscale prices. Wine in the Magellan gift shop was 138 ringgits. That’s $46. We took a pass. (Randal and I are the $5-$10 per bottle wine drinkers.) A small (two bite) Hagan Das was about $7. We did buy some wine in the supermarket for 36 ringgits, $12. It was the cheapest one they had, but not bad. Alcohol is way more expensive, some food is more expensive, but clothing maybe not.

There is a guarded gate onto the docks. The Marina building has several restaurants, a chart room “library” with chairs and tables and magazines. Looks a bit like Subic but kept up with very helpful staff.

City center. Randal in the backpack leads the way; Audrey with the braid. Bob took the photo. This is one of the main streets in the commercial center of KK. The first impression is very modern, the secondary roads are more “foreign” so more interesting.

My old umbrella is a rusted mess. I bought this one for 7.9 ringgits. 3 ringgits make a dollar. We’ll see how long it lasts since it sort of opens cockeyed. But it was the first small fold up one that I saw so it will fit in the side pocket of my back pack. Bob’s photo

A trimmings and buttons and beads shop. I would say 70% of the women here wear head coverings. About 30% wear a full sari. They sell all of the shiny things you see sewn onto clothes from India.

A woman at the fish market. Men were eager to pose, but women were more shy. I did ask first if it was ok to take the photo.

Indonesia

Just checking in

July 20, 2008 Ruth

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick check-in. Our friends from Subic Bay, bob and Audrey are here this weekend. Since we haven’t had tome to explore yet, not sure what we will do. I have my “once a year” cold and don’t feel like doing much at all. We’ll see. I will try to catch up on my picture emails when I feel a bit better next week.

Thanks for the emails I am getting from you. It’s great to catch up with folks at home.

Time for breakfast.

Philippines

Tamaraw Falls Puerto Galera Adventure Continued

July 16, 2008 Ruth

July 16th Wednesday, 3 pm
Hi Everyone,

I hope to email this some time today or tomorrow morning. Just depends when it actually gets finished. Randal’s computer is still out of commission so we share, 75/25 because he does lots of boat work on the computer. He is off doing boat chores at a super marine hardware store. We have a very thorough boat cleaner here so I am supposedly supervising. We chat, I type, we have a cold drink and chat, I email some more and check on the All-Star game, Go J.D. Drew!! Sox, keep it up!

I’m back tracking to our Puerto Galera adventure with Carol.
Tamaraw Falls (Tam’ a raw the raw at the end rhymes with cow)

The very first page of our Philippine Rough Guide is the title page. The backside of that page is a full page photo of Tamaraw Falls. “The mother of all cascades here is the mighty Tamara Falls, 30 minutes by jeepney outside Puerto Galera and not far off the road to Calapan. Here cool mountain water plummets over a precipice and into a natural pool and a manmade swimming pool.”
My 3 favorite things about Tamaraw Falls: 1. Watching Carol climb everywhere all over the falls to take photos of Randal and me. 2. Tamaraw Falls is named for the small, native and endangered water buffalo.

3. I finally had my photo taken on a water buffalo!

I never said they were real! It was a lovely spot. If we hadn’t had other fun things planned we would have gotten into the water ourselves. There is a natural pool and a man made pool. But after several photos we climbed back up to the road, got back into the car and continued onto our journey. We had 2 more stops. Ponderosa Golf Resort and White Beach!

Malaysia, Philippines

Island Cruising

July 14, 2008 Ruth

Hi Everyone,

I might have fixed my Outlook, so this is from me. It will take a bit to catch up and finish our Puerto Galera adventures with Carol. But here are a few photos of our stops along the way between Illultuk Bay where we waited out Typhoon Frank and Kota Kinabalu. I still want to send photos of Romblon and Puerto Princessa because we spent longer than an evening in both places and liked both. I will also do a separate email about Illultuk Bay and all of its stories. If you want to know what the area around the Sutera Marina, Golf and Country Club looks like, picture West Palm Beach. That’s what Carol suggested from the photos of the marina she saw on the web. Much different from the small islands with just fishing huts. But I really enjoyed our time at those beautiful spots; so cool, quiet and remote. www.suteraharbourclub.com is the marina’s web site.

So here are some random photos of our island anchorages. I have made them small so they will send

Not sure if you can see the black specks in the water. They are the floats from the pearl farms. Row after row after row!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- Just rows like that parallel to each other with breaks along the way so you could make a tricky turn to work your way through the rows. You could go the length of them but not cross the lines between the points. The breaks saved us from going maybe miles our of our way following the length of the row. One day we did have to go way around, that was our first encounter with them. “Dumaran Passage needs care, but is feasible in good light.” That was the best that was written about the passage through the pearl farms there. Other guides and especially word of mouth were less kind! I’ll look at pearls differently from now on, that’s for sure.

This is what a squall looks like. You can see them coming and prepare. You can change course a bit and miss them. It takes about 10 minutes to close everything up (if you rush) and 3 minutes for the squall to go by. Actually we passed this squall off to our starboard so didn’t have to deal with it.

This was the weather we were lucky enough to have most of the time. Flat seas and sun. We usually ran about 6.5 knots. Our last week before getting to KK, we had wind in our face and rolling seas and averaged about 5 knots!

This is our North Verde Island anchorage. Just a few fish farms and huts and us. It is the first place that “smelled” like New Bedford and my idea of how the sea should smell.

Some other fishermen who waved and smiled for my camera.

Same island looking at the back of the bay.

Sunset! One of my favorite anchorages!!!

Philippines

Tara Island

July 14, 2008 Ruth

July 14th: 7:30pm Kota Kinabalu

Hi Everyone,

We stopped at Tara Island shortly after we had left Romblon. It was one of my favorites. It inspired me to paint! I have to admit that most of our stops are running together in my mind. They were all pretty similar to me so I am sure they are impossible for you to distinguish. But the images are pretty so I am send on some photos. I am send the emails I can do quickly. The remainder of the Puerto Galera Adventure, Romblon, Illultuk Bay:Safari Park, Coron Town and Puerto Princessa were multi-day stops so it will take me longer to write about them. In the meantime, more island photos.

My interpretation of Tara Island. There were kids playing, dogs playing, men in bancas, women and babies scavenging from the surf. There was no wifi, cell phone service or the obnoxious blaring kareoke (which I still can’t spell.) It was just charming.

Surly the gods live behind those clouds!

When you see how the clouds, lightning, stars, and sea appear in such vast space it’s easy to understand why all of the early myths explaining creation and nature were imagined.

Malaysia

Hello from Kota Kinabalu

July 13, 2008 Ruth

Hi Everyone,

July 13, Sunday 2:17 pm

Randal and I arrived in KK yesterday afternoon about 3:30pm. Our last 4 or 5 days of cruising have been pretty rolling and our speed averaged maybe 5.2 knots. 55 mile days took almost 10 hours! Even though you mostly sit, it’s tiring especially when we are underway just past 6 am each day to get to our anchorages in enough light to see if there are any reefs we need to avoid. Some anchorages were nearly as rolling as the trip itself and some were perfect, with no one there but us. Randal could shower on the swim platform and not embarrrass himself or anyone else. That was Teluk Lung where we put the dingh down and explored and snorkeled and had a wonderful dinner of salmon patties and fried pototoes!

Now we are Kota Kinabalu where you can’t hang your laundry out to dry on the boat and there are pages of rules about everything. It is lovely and means to stay that way, hence the rules. Everyone is friendly and helpful. A kind Irishman named Brian led Randal and me to the free shuttle bus and then showed us the local mall. We were there yesterday to get money and today after we made the required visit to immigration. Immigration was very helpful and informal.

Now back at the boat, Randal’s computer seems to have crashed and the main saloon AC won’t work. Our other electronics, bow thruster, anchor light and flood lights seem to be on the fritz. Just part of cruising apparently.

The wifi here is free but seems slow at times. I will try to do photos when I can. Who could believe I would miss the Subic Bay wifi??!!!

Today we took a taxi from the yacht club to Immigration. Our driver going out was an elderly Chinese man. Our driver coming back was an elderly Muslim man. That apparently is KK. And both drove on the left side of the street with the steering wheel on the right side of the car.

So we have gone from anchorages where we were the only noise and light for miles to being in an upscale, modern, city.

Oh, and thank goodness the Sox are doing well. Last I knew they were 4 games out! Go Sox!!