Thursday, December 30, 2006

To those of you who log on to our Blog regularly, I apologize for not posting anything lately.  We have been having too much fun with our guests and visiting various places around Borneo.  Yesterday we flew to an Orangutan rescue center.  The center has a feeding station out in the jungle for the Orangutans who have been retuned to the wild but still need some assistance.  About a half a dozen apes came to the station while we were there including several young ones and one very large older male.  It was a wonderful experience seeing these magnificent animals in there natural environment.

Today we are off to welcome in the New Year at Mount Kinabalu – the highest mountain in Asia.  We will spend three days there.

I have asked Kelley, my brother’s wife to write a piece for the Blog so you will have some idea of what it is like from another perspective.

I will post some more photos when we return, I have to run now because it is time to leave and everyone is waiting for me.

Guest Blog from the Visiting Tennesseans;

We’ve been here in Borneo for a week now and loving the sun, the water, the clouds, the Malay people and our Aussie and Kiwi neighbors. Who knew?  Apparently, the Aussies knew because there a lot of them around.  We have yet to see any other Americans, which makes it that much more exotic!  For the most part, we’ve settled into the Boat – which is fabulous and very comfortable.  Keith, Gigi and I have sharing the Master Quarters and Geronimo has the guest room and Gordon and Yu-Ching are sprawled upstairs wherever they can get cool and have enough room.  Gordon mentioned Yu-Ching sleeping on the floor last night!  What wonderful hosts we have!  And, Geronimo is even doing some babysitting for us while we’re here.  They have a great little playroom where they go and play.  Gordon has prepared several wonderful breakfasts and we had a delicious turkey for Christmas, made on the boat.  One afternoon we did take the boat out to explore several islands, but the weather didn’t cooperate and we came back in a bit of a squall.  But, we loved the experience of the boat, the navigation, the dingy and all!!   We had expected to travel to Brunei for a few days, but again, the weather forecast was for 8 foot waves and needless to say, none of us where up for trying that.  So, we stayed put so far, but that’s not suffering much.  This is a wonderful resort, with several very cool pools, Italian, Indian and Malayan restaurants and even a spa, which Keith and I have already used for a Traditional Balinese massage.  We sipped ginger tea and gazed out at the South China Sea. 

Gigi has become a bit of a celebrity around the Marina so when we go walking around, we get a lot of “Hi GiGi” and smiles.  She’s made fast friends with Fizzy, the food and beverage manager who supplies her with cookies and M&Ms.  Her favorite waitress is Serina, or Rina as she calls her.   The locals are trying to figure out where she’s from.  She does share some characteristics with them, certainly hair, eyes and skin color.  But, not quite.  But as you all know, her personality makes everyone love her. 

Here in the marina, there are probably about 40 or so boats berthed here and most occupants seem to be resting and waiting for boat parts so they can be on their way, but God knows, no one seems to be in the slightest hurry.  It’s really interesting to get a glimpse into the boating life.  I still can’t fathom getting along with Keith well enough to spend 24/7 together, not to mention agreeing on how to sail, where to sail and what to do!   Yesterday; we went into the Rainforest, about 2 hours south of here.  We saw the Proboscis Monkey, a Monkey that lives only here in Borneo (and maybe Sumatra) in the mangrove trees.  They are noted for their huge noses; although we didn’t get close enough to really see the noses…We climbed into a little boat and went down the river until we saw a few monkeys.  After the sightings, we had a delicious dinner under a thatched roof on shrimp, crab, curry pork and rice.  I admit, I was a bit worried about mosquitoes.  Many others on the tour were covered from head to toe and we had our shorts on, so we were slathered with OFF.  Still, I was worried so we skipped the Firefly tour that followed dinner.  No, you didn’t misread it; it was a tour of Fireflies in the Rainforest.  We came home instead, figuring that we’d all seen our share of fireflies.   

For those of you dying to know how our flight over was with a 2 year old.  Really, not bad.  It was bad for 2 old farts like us who couldn’t get comfortable.  She slept a good 8 hours and of course, met everyone else on the flight.  Thank God we got the bulkhead seats where we had a bit more room.  When we got to the LA airport, we found out that artic winds were forcing us to land in Anchorage, AK to refuel, adding about 4 hours to our trip.  That, on top of a 1 ½ hour delay out of LA!  .  Bottom line, we arrived in Taipei about 2 am and thank God, Yu-Ching and her sister, Kathryn were there to greet us.   By the time we got to the hotel and settled it was 4 am!!!  But, its been so worth it.  We loved our time in both Taipei and Tai Chung, seeing sights and meeting Yu-Ching’s family. 

More later.  We’re off to the Handicraft Village and tomorrow, the Orang utan sanctuary! 

Love to all,

Kelley

If I did not have a current email address for you or in the event it got lost in cyberspace somewhere, I am posting our 2006 Christmas letter.

2006 Christmas Letter

December 13, 2006

Dear Friends and Family:

Those of you who have known us for a while are not surprised when you receive a card and/or Christmas letter from us posted in some far off location.  This year’s letter is no exception.  We are writing this from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.  Our yacht, Alchemy, is moored at the Sutera Harbour Marina.

This has been a year filled with adventure.  We took possession of Alchemy in May and sailed her from China to Macau and then on to Hong Kong, the Philippines and now Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo.  We have not followed any schedule, stopping along the way when we found a place interesting and staying a week or more.  When we started out we had a route planned, but kept changing it when a fellow cruiser told us about a place that was “must see”.  Now when we decide to move on we only plan our next stop, from there who knows. 

We will be spending the holidays with family.  My brother, his wife Kelley and their daughter Gigi will be flying in next week.  They will be here for Christmas and New Years.  When they depart Yu-ching’s family will arrive to spend the Chinese New Years with us.  There should be 8 of them making the trip; her elder sister, Yu-fong and her husband Johnson, her younger sister Catherine and her husband Henry, and her brother Jason, his wife Vivian and their daughters Pepe Pepe and Ting Ting.  We had hopped that her parent could make the trip as well, but health problems are preventing them from coming.

Those of you who have logged on to our Blog: http://usmvalchemy.spaces.live.com/  or web site: http://www.alchemy-trawler.com/ know all about our travels (the Blog has had over 3,000 hits simce we first put it on the internet) so I won’t go into the details here.  If you haven’t logged on, and are even remotely interested, we encourage you to do so.  We don’t update it everyday because we don’t always have an internet connection but try to post things whenever we have something that might be of interest. 

We will close now with a wish that all of you are well and have a happy and joyous hioliday season.

Gordon & Yu-ching

http://www.mesasoftware.com/merrychristmas.htm

December 4, 2006

We have been docked at the Sutera Harbour Marina for a little over a week.  This is beyond a doubt the best marina/yacht club I have ever visited.  It surpasses, it terms of facilities and amenities, anything found in Hong Kong or the states for that matter.  With three swimming pools, a well equipped weight room, dock side water, a reliable electrical supply, a wide variety of restaurants, golf courses and a knowledgeable maintenance crew that takes pride in being helpful and keeping the place in 1^st rate condition; there isn’t much more a cruiser could ask for.  The docking fees are reasonable and they offer a substantial discount on food and beverage to visiting yachters.  I have posted a few pictures of the marina under “Blog Photos 16” to give you some idea of how tough it is being here.

Other than being a good place to restock your stores, KK itself is not much to write home about.  There are a few interesting things to see and do, but nothing like Hong Kong, Taipei or other big cities in Asia.  However, the rest of Borneo offers a number of attractions close to KK that are worth seeing.  I would not recommend KK to a first time visitor to Asia who wanted to get a feel for the region, but it certainly is a nice place to visit if you want to just lay back and catch your breath after seeing some of the other places.

We have been spending our days relaxing, going to the pool, reading, doing routine boat maintenance and going into town to pick up a few things we needed.  I have been visiting the weight room every morning to continue the rehab of my knee and trying to burn off a few calories.

Yu-ching flew to Taipei on Saturday to visit her family and make preparation for the arrival of my brother Keith, his wife Kelley and their little girl Gigi.  They will arrive in Taiwan on Saturday, December 16^th,spend a few days meeting our Taiwanese family and seeing some of the sites around the island, before flying to KK.

That is all for now, more later!