Behind the Mast: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Our little sea shell Christmas tree. The Wheel House has all new varnish and the floor was redone as well. The cushions were re-made in new sumbrella. We love the new elephant pillows.

We are the only festive boat in the Marina

Happy Holidays Everyone! Slow Dance is looking so beautiful. We never thought she would ever be all back in one piece, but she is, and better then ever. It has been a long nine month re-fit, and the old girl is re-birthed. New teak deck, varnish inside and out, new carpet, new sofa, rebuilt engine and generators, they even took the mast apart in the salon and reinforced her by welding new metal. NOW, It's time to go sailing, and the season has arrived with clear skies, warm winds, and calm waters. So many islands and so little time!

New varnish and paint. All the refrigeration works like a charm. The double door fridge is now air cooled.

The Photo makes the sofa look white but it is cream and the fabric is very soft. The carpet is honey wheat. Makes the salon look bigger and the teak stands out more.

Captains cabin got new paint and varnish. The new carpet is awesome.

Master bath was supposed to be more sage but we all liked the young new leaf color. Painted by yours truly!

It wasn't long after the boat was together before friends arrived for a visit and we were ready to celebrate. Max came for a couple of weeks after he finished his work in Singapore and then his friend, Suzanne flew in from Switzerland to celebrate with Max for his Birthday. Max was a real trouper and helped get the sails back up on the boat, including the new Genoa. After 7 days of work and site seeing around Phuket, we all headed to "The Big Mango" (Bangkok) for 5 day's of fun. Vanessa's high school girlfriends were there to join us and show us around the city. They knew all the great local restaurants and clubs, and took us to an awesome outdoor museum called "Old Siam". It was a magnificent afternoon spent in nature.

Vanessa, En-ya, me, Ron, Max, and Susanne

Night out on the town with Katrina, Vanessa, Ron, En-ya, and Belle

Ruins at Old Siam

Great restaurant with a weird name. The Santa and Manger scene inside were all made from millions of condoms! (Not used of course) The Thai way of getting the message out to practice safe sex. I don't think the name would do so well in the USA.

One of many temples at old Siam. This one had hundreds of steps until you reached the last plateau.

A floating village where we stopped for lunch

Inside the temple

Me with En-ya looking cute!

Old Siam

A nice place to rest

There is something about Bangkok that keeps you coming back for more. We took a wild Tuk Tuk ride through Bangkok's narrow streets; remember James Bond's wild Tuk Tuk ride in Bangkok?

Bridge in Bangkok, taken from the taxi

One evening we took the sky-train to meet up with the girls on this crazy street filled with every kind of vendor selling soup to nuts. There were signs on the street advertising fake ID's for sale; everything from Passports to driver's license. We met a couple of American guys on holiday and drank a few beers with them. There was dancing in the streets and if you wanted a quick snack, well, there was the toasted scorpions being touted by a very funny Thai woman.

Ron wasn't going for it.

Check out that hair on the Scorpion Lady!

Katrina was just pretending to take a bite

Ron and Katrina, dancing in the street

Miles from LA actually ate it! UGH

Vanessa gave the stinger a try, while Katrina looked on in disgust.

Now here's a name for a restaurant! I really have no idea what a golf bar cocktail is. Gotta love it.

When Max first arrived, we flew for the weekend to the city of Kuala Lampur, in Malaysia. The Petronas towers were awesome and the mall was all decked out for Christmas. They love Christmas in South East Asia! The hotel where we stayed, put up 4 trees.

The Towers.

Display at the mall

One of the trees at our hotel

Batu Caves

The limestone forming Batu Caves is said to be around 400 million years old. Some of the cave entrances were used as shelters by the indigenous Temuan people.
As early as 1860, Chinese settlers began excavating guano for fertilizing their vegetable patches. However, they became famous only after the limestone hills were recorded by colonial authorities including Daly and Sayers as well as American Naturalist, William Hornaday in 1878.
Batu Caves was promoted as a place of worship, by an Indian trader. He was inspired by the 'vel-shaped entrance of the main cave and was inspired to dedicate a temple to Lord Murugan within the caves. Since 1892, the Thaipusam festival in the Tamil month of Thai (which falls in late January/early February) has been celebrated there. We missed it by a month. I would go back but much rather go sailing.
Wooden steps up to the Temple Cave were built in 1920 and have since been replaced by 272 concrete steps. Of the various cave temples that comprise the site, the largest and best known is the Temple or Cathedral Cave, so named because it houses several Hindu shrines beneath its high vaulted ceiling
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Now for some more photo's of Old Siam in Bangkok.