Living in Sapa and then in Hanoi was an absolutely contrasting experience. Both these places attract several tourists from around the world throughout the year. They are both very pictorial in a different way. What surprised me the most was that majority of tribal people in Sapa spoke English whereas there were hardly any local person in such a big city like Hanoi spoke English. In fact even the directions were all in Vietnamese. It was very difficult to find your way around which kind of helped me explore a lot more. Also I saw several street dogs in Sapa and what I noticed about Hanoi was the there were no street dogs. Instead when I was riding through the city, I ran into a market where they were selling dog meat. I knew that dog meat is consumed in Vietnam; I just did not know that I would run into a dog meat market. Another thing that was very divergent was the calmness of Sapa and the chaos of Hanoi. Sapa was as peaceful as any place could get. When we slept at night, the room was pitch dark and all we could hear was the sound of the water rattling through the stones. It was extremely soothing. On the other hand the city was very noisy even at night and there were loud announcements through the big speakers on the streets in the middle of the night or early in morning. It was chaotic but still wonderful.
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Sailing from Singapore to Bali has been one of the most spontaneous decisions I have ever made. I am glad that I did. Those were one of the best 2 weeks I have ever experienced. I just wished that I did not have to come back to Singapore for work and I could join the crew from Bali to Australia as well. This sailing trip has definitely made me realize that sometimes the mode of your travel is way more interesting than the destination itself. After sailing for 12 days, I hated being on the flight on my way back from Bali to Singapore. With a little bit of fear and a lot of excitement, I hopped on the boat with a few guys sailing from Phuket to Australia. Initially I was just observing everything around. Everybody had to keep a watch for 3 hours each in rotation. It was interesting; they used toothpicks to select the person who will be watching at the worst time which was 3-6 AM/PM. Also, there was a chart made for everybody to cook dinner. Our Crew: These four guys were stuck in Singapore for over 3 weeks due to the engine breakdown. I met Armin one evening and that is how I was introduced to the rest when I went to see the boat at the Raffles Marina. A crazy thought of joining the crew occurred to me. I put across the idea to them, but it was too late. They had already checked out with 4 crew members and the immigration office was already closed. They had to do another check out to include a fifth crew member and I would only find out an hour before sailing if I could join the crew. So on the 13th of April, Piotr told me that I could join the crew at around 8:30 am and after completing all the paper work we started sailing around 10 am. So this is how began my sailing journey. Sailing from singapore to Bali. 12 days. No internet, no cell phones, no computers..... No civilization. Only my camera, a boat and deep blue water all around. We had about 1000 miles to sail. On the 14th afternoon we crossed the Equator. Day 1: It was an interesting first day of sailing. I experienced from no wind to extremely sunny weather to a crazy storm. They told me I was lucky that I got to experience my storm on the very first day. They had to wait for a week for the same. Oh and I forgot the most amazing and slightly scary part of it. I jumped into the sea with the rest without a life jacket, just tying a rope around my waist. It was literally a breathtaking experience. I was excited and scared at the same time. I felt like I could never reach the boat. I also realized that I am a horrible swimmer. But I felt good that even though I am slightly scared of water, I had the courage to jump into the sea without a life jacket. We started the evening with some wine. Armin started a conversation about the do’s and don’ts of sailing. And they all came up with some silly and interesting ones. One of them were not to have a woman on the boat. In olden days apparently it was a big no no. Piotr gave a reason that because the boat is a she you cannot have another woman or the boat will be jealous. Later when we were stuck with no wind for a few days, Bart kept joking about the fact that it happened because they had a woman on the boat. We covered 108 miles on day 1 which was pretty good. In fact for the first three days we sailed at an average of 100 miles a day. We thought that, at that rate we could have made it to Bali in a week. But unfortunately it dropped sharply for the following three days. Piotr mentioned that in all his years of sailing he had never experienced no wind for such a long time. Every time there was no wind we greeted each other with the phrase, “where is the wind?” Day 2: After switching all night from my cabin to the deck of the boat I finally got used to the heat in the cabin. I got some sleep and came out at 6 am for my watch. Once everybody was up and fresh, around 11 am I made some sheesha. It was amazing smoking sheesha and listening to Marley while sailing. Although I got slightly sick after that and took a nice nap following that. Armin prepared lunch later. Well they call it dinner. We ate around 4pm, which was sort of dinner time for us on the boat. It was surprising on the first day, but the next day I was ready for it. In the afternoon the boys jumped into the water but the boat was sailing too fast, so I didn't have the courage to jump in that day. Bart had a hard time swimming back to the boat. Piotr did not let go of the ladder. Armin was left far behind and the speed at which the boat was sailing, he just couldn't catch up. Bart tried to pull the sail down, but the captain was smarter, he just turned the boat in the opposite direction. So Armin finally got on the boat. Well, it was my evening watch. The deep blue water was beautiful. The combination of the deep blue water, colourful sky during the sunset and the clouds from the yacht was a wonderful frame. Later at night I was feeling extremely restless. Everyone went to bed by 9 pm except for Nicholas. He was on his watch. I don't have a habit of sleeping so early. I went in and out of the cabin to the cockpit several times, until I finally decided to just crash in my cabin. It took me at least an hour to get used to the heat in my cabin and then finally fell asleep. Day 3: Armin woke me up at 6 am for my watch. From then until almost 2 pm, there was absolutely no wind. The boat was mostly running on the engine. It was turning into a boring hot sunny day. The boys had a nice long swim in the sea. Bart jumped in a few times. I spent most of my day sleeping. By now I was used to the heat in my cabin. I liked to stay in my cabin when it was really hot outside. With no wind, no sailing, there seemed liked nothing else to do but swim in the sea. So we all one after the other jumped in the sea. We spent a long time in the water. While swimming we saw a whole group of dolphins pass by beside us. It was beautiful. So on day 3, we played cards, this game called Macau. It is similar to the game of uno, but its played with regular cards. It was fun as everybody was sitting to gather and talking and making jokes. For the first 2 days, the boys seemed very reserved and kept to themselves. There was not much talking on the boat. That was boring for me. It was actually the first night where everybody was sitting outside to gather until past midnight. It was a fun evening. And we were trying to find out the positive points of no wind. Like we could swim in the sea for hours and while playing cards we did not have to worry about the cards to fly off. Oh and yea I could walk around the boat without falling off. I think I kept running into things for the first 2 days that I had some 20 bruises from that. But these were really not good signs. Well, this definitely made me realize the importance of the wind. I was loving the whole experience, but I was just a little worried and tensed that if I didn’t make it to Bali in another 8 days, people at work were not going to be happy and if my mom does not hear from me in 2 weeks, she would start panicking which actually did happen later. She turned the world upside down. But that is a different story. I guess this was a great learning experience, as all my worries and tensions were reducing and I eventually stopped worrying, as it wasn’t going to change anything. Reminded me of ‘the sunscreen song’. I just enjoyed and made the most of the wonderful experience. By the way, you will hear the word experience a lot as you read further. So after almost 36 hours of no wind, there came the wind and after a while followed a crazy stormy wind. The sail was going crazy, but it calmed again in a few minutes and we started to sail again. Day 4: It was my turn for cooking dinner. You have to be really creative with your cooking skills on the boat. They don’t expect miracles but you have to cook something edible out of the food that is stacked up in the boat. I cooked some pasta in white sauce and ham. I think I managed to make some manageable edible food. Later the wind changed direction so it was quite pleasant in my cabin and I had a really good sleep that night. Day 5: It was a full moon night and we were half way through by now. So we decided to have a full moon night party and a half way through party on the boat. But the half way through party lasted for another 3 days as we had no wind. I woke up in the morning at 6 for my watch as usual, made some sheesha around noon and just chilled with the boys on the cockpit. We did little bit of cleaning and I saw a dolphin for a fraction of a second. In the evening we had some beers and Nicholas and Piotr hit some chords on the Guitar. In fact Piotr started to play some Polish Blues which was interesting. Day 6: This morning, we managed to get some good wind for a while, then when the wind disappeared, we went for a swim. In the evening we had another half way through party with some Cognac. After the Cognac, we were out of all the alcohol. We preserved the Cognac bottle just for the sniff. The nights were just too beautiful. Its an amazing feeling. I used to lie down in the front of the boat with the huge sail on my right and the beautiful moon on my left and the sky filled with stars. Day 7: the day followed in the same pattern. Day 8: It was another sunny day with no wind. It was my turn to make some dinner. After dinner I was washing the dishes and I don't know why I was so lost that I dropped 4 dishes in the sea. There was a burst of laughter and that had become the joke since then. There was no moon at night for a very long time, so the sky was filled with clusters of stars. It was a beautiful sight. I don’t remember when was the last time I saw such a starry sky. Also, on the same day in the morning, we saw 3 dolphins, they like to race with the boat, so they are always in the front side of the boat. But since we were sailing with not enough wind, they got bored as the boat was not fast enough for them, so they disappeared. Day 9: I really like my morning watches as I witnessed the beautiful sunrise every morning. It was a good thing that my watch was 6 to 9 in the morning and evening. This way I enjoyed the sunset and sunrise every day. I don't think I have ever done that for 2 weeks in a row. Also, in the morning, Piotr, Bart and I made coffee and breakfast for each other and started the day with nice conversations. 6 to 9 am was one of my favourite parts of the day. They taught me 5 useful morning words In Polish, dzień dobry, Kawy, cukier, mleko & dziękuję which means good morning, coffee, sugar, milk & thank you in the same order. Day 10: It was a nice windy day. We were sailing most of the day. I learnt some basics of sailing. I learnt to operate the auto pilot. I spent a lot of time in the front of the boat. With the big waves the boat was jumping up and down. And it felt amazing, like a freaking crazy rollercoaster ride. The wind was so amazing that we were all sitting and enjoying this long awaited wind. Day 11: it had been a similar day. Unlike the previous days, there was actually really strong wind. In fact I couldn’t even jump in for a swim because we were constantly on the move. I'm must admit that I felt slightly scared for a while when there was crazy strong wind and the boat used to be tilted on one side. But there was no reason to be scared of. Piotr is a good captain. I think I trusted him with his skills. Plus I was told that the boat moves faster when it is tilted on one side. So that night I woke up since the boat was jumping up and down. I came out to the deck, the waves were crazy. They were about 5 feet high and we were going against them with the engine. It was scary and was making me sick. Well, after a while Piotr stopped the engine and it was much better. I went to bed and woke up directly for my watch on day 12. I was our last day of sailing. We were about 70 miles away from Bali harbour. It was Easter Sunday. We started the day with a nice breakfast, then I took my last dip in the sea and then Piotr, Bart and I had some Choya. It was my turn to prepare the dinner, I cooked the pasta and Piotr made some pancakes for dessert. It was a nice and super stuffing Easter dinner. We had reached Bali later that night but we had to wait about 5 miles away from the harbour since we could only enter the harbour during the office hours. Day 13: So we were about 5 miles away from Bali harbour. We were just waiting for the check in time at the harbour. I went through a few hours of major sea lag after stepping on the land. I felt like I was still in motion, swinging sideways. I couldn't walk straight. After reaching Bali we had to go through some 3 hours of paper work. We were actually roaming on the streets of Bali illegally without visa. After the paper work was over we headed to Kuta for some lunch. Kuta is the most commercial and touristic place in Bali. I was initially disappointed with the beach at Bali, but the next day we went around other parts of Bali. We saw some Balinese dance, volcano mountain, had lunch at this most amazing restaurant with the view of the volcano mountain, went to a coffee estate and had the most amazing coffee, witnessed a few cock fights, saw the most scenic paddy fields, saw a few beautiful and interesting temples and so on. It was an amazing day and I fell in love with Bali. I was under the impression that Bali was all about gigolos and mushrooms and partying. But that is so not true. There is a lot more to Bali. But I shall write about it in my other blog. (PS. All the images used in the sailing diary were captured from my hand phone camera, since I cant put up the other images until they are published.) |
AuthorI am a freelance photographer. Travel and Documentary photography are my forte. I work as a Photojournalist with Asian Photography Magazine. Archives
March 2012
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