out in the town with family!!!

while in singapore we met fernando and angela, my cousin and his wife who were traveling around south east asia. we had a wonderful time with them and walked like no other day before. we specially enjoyed the night city view and had one of the best dinners of the trip.




gracias mil fercho y angelita por la invitación. nos encanto la cena y la compañía por supuesto. que rico haberlos visto !!!!!

city lights

not much to say except that the same wonderful city you see in the streets can be seen at night and from above one of the prettiest buildings the city has. three towers connected by a bridge in the form of a ship with a pool and a terrace at the top. what a view of the city and the architecture of the building itself!

singapore

singapore is an magnificent city. the mixture of cultures and languages is fascinating. the majority of the population is chinese but luckily for us every one speaks english. there is a chinese district of course, an arab district, an indian one, the city center, the suburbs and the industrial park. we visited all of them, as regular tourism would require and, the industrial part as our engine would require us to do. we decided to pamper the diesel engine and ourselves, as if we had not done so before for the past year and a half…! nothing is wrong with the engine by the way, only the ordinary wear after so much use….




so we toured the entire city, went to great restaurants, lots of shops and enjoyed this city a lot. we did not see a single piece of paper on the street. the traffic is very organized, everyone is polite. it is like a lego city where all is perfectly clean and works. the public transportation is superb.

the underground stations are very organized and spotless. The trains have double doors to keep the AC in and to keep the suicidal types out. we were simply impressed how well thought everything was and how well it all worked. maybe this is the result of the great fines imposed. eating in a public place is prohibited as well as drinking. any type of illegal substance traffic is punished by death. possession of firearms is also punished by death and pretty much every crime is punished to the fullest and with high prison terms, no wonder why the criminal activity in this island nation is so reduced. we were so fascinated that we now have a very big book on board on the history of singapore that we will both read to learn how this island came to be the beautiful place it is today.

immigration on board!

this was comfortable. for the first time since we departed we did not have to seek the immigration offices; instead, the immigration officers came to us. easy stamp in and fast, in the middle of the western anchorage absolutely packed with big freighters. after clearing in, we called the marina on VHF radio and their boat lead the way to our dock, certainly a royal entrance. we could get used to this type of service!!

frogger

do you remember this game?? where the object was to cross a frog form one side of the street to the other with as many obstacles as possible (mostly cars)….? Well we remembered this game too well while approaching singapore and crossing the singapore strait. we did not sleep or snoozed at all for the last 4 days before we arrived. The ship traffic was phenomenal.

not to mention the obstacles like trunks of very big sizes and island like formations like the one in the picture of course with no lights or any other warning of their existence. this added to the already crowded sea of indonesia by the hundreds of fishing platforms and boats and sadly the tons of garbage that floats in their waters. there were never less than 4 of 5 ships in sight… constantly….! and then to top it of, the arrival into what I think should be one of the busiest ports in the world. luckily Puerto Seguro reacted fast and we had the current in our favor so maneuvering through the big ships was no problem at all. when the city of singapore appeared in the horizon (we arrived at dawn) we saw all the lights and colors of this huge metropolis and the magnificent buildings, little did we know at this point that it was just the beginning of one of our best ports of call!

a pit stop... in borneo!

sailing around the equator has been very though on our engine. even though our total diesel capacity on board including all jerry cans is 110 gallons, which should be enough for a sailboat, there has been hardly any wind for over 3000 miles since we left papua new guinea. therefore we have had to make several stops to refuel. one of these was on our way from bali to singapore. we stopped in the island of borneo, in the province of kalimantan, up the river at least 10 miles to a town called kumai.

The only attraction in this place of the world is the orangutan, who is endemic of this island. this is certainly not a tourist place. when we approached the town and moored next to a barge in a house on the river we were approached by many locals who were forming a line to get on board and take a picture of us and the boat. we felt more exotic than the orangutans themselves. it was quite an experience, and also to sail up river for so many miles with jungle around. we loved the adventure and also were able to get the diesel we needed to continue our crossing.

a rare delicacy

i had heard of luwak coffee before but had actually never tried or even seen it. here in bali we had an experience, mostly it was for esteban, who decided to try this very famous coffee.

the luwak is a mammal that lives in trees mostly in sumatra but also in bali. we saw some of them in cages and they looked like cats to me. their favorite food is the ripe coffee cherry. They eat it and digest it. apparently the bean undergoes chemical treatments in the animal’s stomach until it finishes its journey through the digestive system, and exits the body in the form of poop. the beans are then collected, and are cleaned, then roasted and grounded. the result is a coffee like no other in the world and perhaps this is why the price is so high. a pound is said to be around $400.

in our trip through the mountains of bali esteban had a cup. he honestly still prefers the very best all around colombia coffee :-) !!

around bali

throughout south east asia, where agricultural land is at a premium, terraces are cut into the slopes to maximize the area available for cultivation. in bali, the terraces are mostly used to support rice paddies and the island is covered with these. where there are no rice fields, there is a temple, and where there are no temples there is a shop, or a hotel. there is not one single square foot of land vacant in this island. every piece of land is utilized to its maximum potential and still the island has managed to keep its charm. It does look a bit crowded but all shops and buildings are so colorful that the island looks very pretty.



we know now why the balinese style is no famous around the world. there are thousands of shops with furniture, decoration, wood carvings, paintings, textiles etc… and each is more beautiful than the other and the prices are extremely reasonable. We wish we had a 100 footer boat to fill it up with furniture and merchandise to take back home, but our modest 38 foot home is already jammed, so we simply admired the goods and save some scarce money on the side.

pura

pura means temple in indonesian. in bali the main religion is agama hindu dharma, which although originally from india, is comprised of a unique blend of hindu, buddist, javanese and ancient indigenous beliefs. there are temples everywhere, more than 1000 in the island. most of them belong to families and are located inside private homes.


the temple of tanah lot is just one of them but very unique. it can only be accessed in low tide when the locals can walk up the rock. during high tide it is an island rock with crashing waves. we visited this one as well as many others throughout the entire island.


all of the temples have beautiful decorations and offerings made to their gods every day at every hour. we saw these offerings in front of the temples, at the entrance of establishments, literally everywhere, even on the streets, in dangerous crossroads making the activity of placing this little tray in the road a very risky one. the offerings were small trays made of palm leave with symbolic food, candy, flowers even cigarettes and money and they are supposed to appease the spirits and bring prosperity and good health.

port of benoa, bali

after a long crossing with little wind from timor we arrived in one of the most known islands in the world: bali. this place has a reputation of being one of the most beautiful and diverse tourist spots in asia. we were told that bali alone attracts 7 million visitors from around the world each year. this number added to the 4 million already living in an island of 140 km from east to west and 80 km from north to south makes for the worse traffic we have ever seen. there are thousands of motorbikes. we ventured out in rented scooters and cars with no accidents or traffic tickets; which is something very uncommon judging from the comments of other cruisers. we moored inside benoa harbor across bali marina. their employees were very nice to us and rented their scooters while they were at work. In the harbor area there was not much to see other than the many offices that we were required to visit to clear us and the boat in. after the navy one must go to quarentenne, then customs, immigration and finally the harbor master. They all have different schedules and you need to get signatures from all officers. Once this is done we were cleared in and ready to venture out into this great island.