[p]
[s]
pos: 08 10.2648n.98 20.3582e
d: 27/02/17 12:34 GMT+0700
February 27 Phuket, Thailand
We sailed back up to Thailand in late February to meet son, Chris Collins,
who came from America with his friend Nick to see Thailand and, we like to
think, to visit us. We took a quick tour of scenic Phang Nga Bay=E2=80=99s most
stunning karst islands, and after two islands, Chris confided that he
wanted to see Thailand, =E2=80=9Cafter all I=E2=80=99ve come all this way to see Thailand,
I really ought to see Thailand.=E2=80=9D Of course, what he meant was =E2=80=98take me to
the touristy places where I can meet girls from all over the world.=E2=80=99 We
complied, resisting the urge to say =E2=80=9Cbut this IS Thailand!=E2=80=9D How much we
change in the years between thirty and seventy=E2=80=A6.
It was a pleasure to spend time with Chris. He=E2=80=99s fun and interesting,
things you often fail to notice in your kid until he grows up and you have
finally accepted him as an adult, and he=E2=80=99s involved in a really fascinating
profession. As a marine biologist, Chris accompanies Alaskan fishing boats
for months at a time, doing research on their catch and logging statistical
data on fishing practices and fish populations. Great stories.
[s]
pos: 18 47.83933n 98 59.1168e
d: 13/03/17 12:34 GMT+0700
March 13, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Founded in 1296 as the ruling center of the Lanna Kingdom, Chiang Mai, grew
to become the religious and artistic capital of Thailand=E2=80=99s Northern
mountains, enjoying a deep sense of its unique 700 year old identity. Still
isolated today by its distance from Bangkok, Chiang Mai proudly maintains
her rich cultural heritage and, at 1,000 feet above sea level, the town
offers a refreshing escape from the tropical heat of the coasts and the
central plains. We flew there with Chris Collins for several days, leaving
Mersoleil at Phuket.
Thanks to the efforts of 90,000 13th century labourers, Chiang Mai=E2=80=99s old
town is still enclosed today by thick sepia brown brick walls with imposing
city gates. Inside one finds shops, restaurants, temples, museums, homes,
parks and all, much of it very very old.
We were lucky enough to reserve a week=E2=80=99s stay at an AirBnB just a stone=E2=80=99s
throw from the North Gate, from whence we could explore the City and its
dozens of carved wood temples, museums, government buildings, markets and
hawker stalls with ease. Lucky not only because the house was comfortable
and well-located, but because the owners are amoung the most charming
people we=E2=80=99ve ever met, they have become dear friends and we=E2=80=99re looking
forward to visiting them again =E2=80=93 at their real home =E2=80=93 before we leave SE
Asia next year. =E2=80=98Apple=E2=80=99 and =E2=80=99Jack=E2=80=99 prepared meals for us, arranged private
tours to visit the gardens of the Northern Thai Royal Palace and steep
mountainside villages of the hill tribes, and reserved a private Thai
cooking class for me at an organic rice farm some thirty minutes by train
outside of Chiang Mai. They feted us at their own favourite local
restaurant, introduced us to the best street food in town, told me about -
nay delivered me to a market stall where the luscious silk shawls I wanted
were available in twice the colours at half the price I=E2=80=99d seen elsewhere,
and they most genially invited us to call them Apple and Jack rather
than Patcharaporn
Yawong and Suranjith Ariyapperuma, which I cannot utter fluently to this
day. Our expectations were so far exceeded on this delightful field trip
inland that we can=E2=80=99t imagine how the next excursion could possibly measure
up to our March visit to Chiang Mai.
[s]
pos: 05 27.523n 100 18.514e
d: 20/03/17 12:34 GMT+0800
March 20 Straits Quay, Penang, Malaysia (Pulau Pinang to the locals, Beetle
nut island.)
Chickens seem to provide us a source of endless amusement. We wondered why
thighs and legs were available everywhere in Tonga, huge bags of them,
frozen and fresh, but whole chickens were hard to come by and chicken
breasts nowhere to be found. We=E2=80=99d observed the same in French Polynesia,
and Fiji and Vanuatu, as well. Despite supposing that the breasts were sold
at higher profit to first world countries like New Zealand, that being the
only plausible explanation we could imagine, we joked that there must be a
lot of breastless chickens running around the South Pacific.
Soraya, my favourite taxi driver in Phuket, drives me from Phuket Yacht
Haven to the Tesco supermarket where, rather than waiting for me in the car
park or grabbing another fare while I shop, she comes into the store with
me, helps me find the items on my list, interprets labels that I cannot
read and asks dumb questions on my behalf in fluent Thai, thus improving my
chances of obtaining an answer.
Standing next to me as I stared one afternoon at an industrial-sized bin of
pink and yellow chicken feet on ice, Soraya said to me, =E2=80=9CYou know,
sometimes they sell the heads and feet together. We call those walkie
talkies.=E2=80=9D
Every once in a while I ask Robbie if he wants walkie talkies for dinner.
So far, no orders.
Not to be outdone by the Thai walkie talkies, I=E2=80=99ve noticed that my
preferred market in Malaysia sells Bishop=E2=80=99s noses. Bishop=E2=80=99s noses. These
were altogether new to me. I took a picture of them with my phone and, per
subsequent Internet research, learned that they are that thing that I
feared they might be, the thing that I always throw away, that hangs down=E2=80=A6.
Well, your research will provide you, too, with more than you need to know.
Bishop=E2=80=99s noses, or Pope=E2=80=99s noses as they are sometimes known in higher
ecclesiastical circles, are not going on the menu, certainly not before
walkie talkies, anyway.
[s]
pos: 05 27.4557n 100 18.8460e
d: 07/04/17 12:34 GMT+0800
April 7 Straits Quay, Penang, Malaysia
We continue to revel in the people-watching at Straits Quay. Eastern &
Oriental Corporation wisely, thoughtfully, constructed a 3km waterfront
promenade passing through the marina and along the rest of their Penang
development at Tanjung Tokong, still in process after some twenty years of
continued development. The lovely walk attracts joggers, early morning
walking enthusiasts, lovers, teens taking selfies and families with
children learning to ride their bicycles or scooters, skates or Segways.
Slugs that we are, Robbie and I sit in the cockpit early in the morning
staring, as others burn off calories on their daily constitutionals.
There=E2=80=99s the exercise guy who makes a daily stop in front of Mersoleil to
perform twenty each of dozens of creative moves. He kicks back into the air
behind his butt, shadow boxes, swings his arms in many different
directions, marches in place, and more, and we remark upon what great ideas
he has, we=E2=80=99d have never thought of that one, as we continue to sit unmoving
but for chinning our coffee mugs.
There=E2=80=99s the cute beagle whose passage by Mersoleil inspires Robbie to
announce daily that he wants a dog, a beagle. He, the beagle, is always
quiet and adorable early in the morning, but this does not fool me. (Well,
so is Robbie, and neither does that.) I know he=E2=80=99s just not awake yet. And
every Wednesday we hear the approaching drone of a far off gas-powered
fogging machine that pollutes the air with pesticide, protects us from
malaria and Dengue fever, and induces in me instant childhood memories of
my dad fogging the yard with our lawn mower before we held outdoor parties.
We flee indoors early on Wednesdays as his fog begins to roll across the
marina.
=E2=80=98Clapping guy=E2=80=99 was initially the only person who clapped his hands as he
walked along, swinging both arms in time to his brisk step, first before
him, clap, then behind, clap, then forward again. This clapping business
must have been featured on the good-for-your-health spot on the morning
news or something, because in our brief tenure at berth S7 we have observed
not only clapping guy, a white-haired Chinese gentleman, tall and lanky for
his race, but also a young dark-haired clapping guy who has elected to clap
only in front, and a few clapping ladies whose aerobic behavior is less
devoted. They only clap sporadically when they are not busy chatting with
their friends. Unmoved be their exuberance, we only sit and sip, sit and
sip, and revisit each morning the question of whether to sail next year
through the Red Sea or around the Cape of Good Hope.
[s]
pos: 41 5.788s 174 52.032e
d: 23/04/17 12:34 GMT+0800
April 23 Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
On Saturday afternoons I volunteer with the local branch of a worldwide NGO
at their Georgetown office and activity center. As the only native speaker
assisting with their children=E2=80=99s English Reading Group, it=E2=80=99s hard for me to
keep my mouth shut and not to apply my own cultural biases to the way the
children are being taught. After Nazire , for example, sounds out every
word to me in a monotone, following her index finger across and down page
24, word by word, I ask her, =E2=80=9CNow! Tell me, Nazire. What story did you just
read to yourself?=E2=80=9D
In response, Nazire raises her sweet brown black eyes to me in a totally
blank stare. And she can =E2=80=98read=E2=80=99 fairly well, if with a bit of a sing song,
rattling off the words about Peter and Jane and their dog, Pat, and Daddy
and the tree house as if she actually knows what information those words
impart. But she does not and it hasn=E2=80=99t even occurred to her that there is
meaning behind them. Malaysian schools teach by rote. If the child can
successfully utter the words printed on the page, the faster the better,
the task has been completed successfully. Comprehension? Education? Nah,
just a performance!
When it=E2=80=99s up to me to create a game, or teach a song, or organize an
activity, I try to make English fun for the kids, no mean feat since they
range in age from 5 to 13 and have a diverse range of English skills. I=E2=80=99ve
taught them to play My Father Owns a Grocery Store, which they loved,
except the father had to own a wet market instead of a grocery store. I had
trouble guessing what he sold there. The two-word vegetable beginning with
L, for instance, turned out to be lady fingers, which I=E2=80=99d have never
guessed. I thought that was okra, and it begins with O.
On the Saturday before Labor Day when our topics were Labor Day and
Occupations, I played the alphabet game with them, inviting them to help
fill in a blank line on the white board for each letter of the alphabet.
=E2=80=9CWho can think of an occupation that begins with the letter K?=E2=80=9D Somebody
shouted out a suggestion, but I declined to accept =E2=80=9Ckiller,=E2=80=9D insisting that
we could find a better K profession than that and another child helpfully
suggested =E2=80=9Cking.=E2=80=9D Much better. King lead us nicely to an occupation for the
dreaded Q and we were off! The game evolved into the stretching up and
enthusiastic waving of arms amid cries of =E2=80=9COooh! Teacher! I have one!=E2=80=9D O
was problematic so I acted out an O profession for them to guess, or I
tried to. My wailing vibrato failed to elicit the occupation of opera
singer, but they got a huge kick out of my wandering high note. I have no
talent for song, but I am convinced that if you=E2=80=99re willing to make an ass
of yourself in front of kids, they=E2=80=99ll love it and will respond by growing
more comfortable and more interested in the lesson.
By the time we=E2=80=99d listed 26 occupations on the board, we had a nice
collection of literary careers =E2=80=93 writer, author, journalist, poet =E2=80=93 and
some medical ones as well - doctor, nurse, x-ray technician and
radiologist. I admit that radiologist was my contribution after I=E2=80=99d had to
reject =E2=80=9Crabbit=E2=80=9D three times. At least one child did not seem to get the
drift of this occupation business.
Having become accustomed through my own travels to a wide variety of
English accents, so many that I actually rarely notice them anymore, except
for the harsh American =E2=80=98err=E2=80=99 in mother, brother, other. We haven=E2=80=99t been
seeing many Americans lately, and we=E2=80=99re now aware of how much the American
accent grates on the ears of many other English speakers. I can accept a
lot of different English pronunciations, for the letter R, for example. But
I hear the kids mimicking strange and new pronunciations exactly as
vocalized by their well-intentioned SE Asian teachers and wonder how far
they=E2=80=99re going to get, with such strong accents, in conversation with a
fluent English speaker. I suppose my Spanish is mangled in the very same
way, my high school Spanish teacher having been an American man.
I=E2=80=99m studying Portuguese right now using the Michel Thomas CDs, in which a
British woman instructs two students and a man from Lisboa, his the
unimpeachable example of correct Portuguese diction and inflection, repeats
each response after the student. On visits to Portugal in the past Robbie
and I found that we could read the newspapers but, to our great surprise,
we could understand not a single word of spoken Portuguese, not one! Now I
understand. And I=E2=80=99m trying hard to listen carefully and get my =E2=80=9Coo=E2=80=9Ds and
=E2=80=9Cuush=E2=80=9Ds right so the Portuguese will understand me.
[s]
pos: 05 16.9321n 100 17.4470e
d: 06/05/17 12:34 GMT+0700
May 6 Limbongan Batu Maung Sdn. Bhd., Penang, Malaysia
Since arriving in Penang on January 27th, we=E2=80=99ve been as busy as ever. What
happened to the idea of cruising as a leisurely retirement? I think, as
Humphrey Bogart said in Casablance, =E2=80=9CI was mishinformed.=E2=80=9D
Four days ago we delivered Mersoleil to LBM Shipyard for bottom paint,
repairs of several little gelcoat imperfections, repacking of the rudder
post, refinishing of teak window frames that have taken about as much UV as
they can tolerate and a few other odds and ends of skilled labour that they
didn=E2=80=99t teach Robbie in law school. The initial plan to live aboard the boat
while on the hard fell victim to a sudden realization that we couldn=E2=80=99t run
the air conditioning while out of the water. We were game for the other
inconveniences that go along with hauling a yacht for three or four weeks,
not running water between 8AM and 5 PM, climbing up and down a twelve foot
ladder, living with the inevitable dirt and chaos of projects underway, but
no air conditioning, in this bloody hot climate, was a deal breaker. We=E2=80=99ve
rented a nice little condo in Georgetown, and a small car, and I=E2=80=99m spending
every day at the shipyard making decisions, answering questions and being a
nudge while Robbie drives all over the island running the errands that have
been piling up because they=E2=80=99re so difficult to complete without a vehicle.
Clapping guy and the beagle are on their own for a few weeks.
With a little luck, we=E2=80=99ll be back in the water on May 18th, return Mersleil
to Straits Quay, then return ourselves to our cool and spacious Georgetown
digs for ten days of sightseeing and local exploring. Today, though, and
six days per week until the work is finished, we=E2=80=99re rising at 5:30, out the
door by 7:00 and I=E2=80=99m sitting all day in a yacht that feels like a steam
room, studying my Portuguese, approving gelcoat colour matches and writing
to you.
Are we all right? We couldn=E2=80=99t possibly be better! Life is good.
[END]