January 1, 2009-New Year's Morning

Kata Beach Scene

Good Morning & Happy New Year,

It is 09:00 on January 1. Wings is anchored at Kata Beach with a handful of other cruiser boats; let's see, a couple of Dutch ones, quite fancy, a Norwegian double-ender, a brit gaffer, a charter catamaran and Wings. A couple of other boats already left this morning. Of course there are a few dozen local work boats here, long tails for water taxis, double decker wooden charter boats, even a couple of sleek powerboats. I've been on deck since 7:00 watching the sun come up and observing the activity in the bay. Judy is sleeping in. The morning is glorious with blue water, clear to the bottom in 24 feet, puffy clouds, and fresh gusts of NE wind rolling off the hills and across the anchorage. Wings sways in the swell and you can hear the crash of a low surf on the beach. It's good to be here.

Offshore a parade of boats is sailing south, mostly people who were in Patong further north for the fireworks last night, and are moving on today. We had a good fireworks show here and I'd come back next year; it is less crowded than Patong.

So starts a new year. We don't know for sure what the year will bring, or where our travels, if any, will take us, but it's getting off to a good start.

Fred & Judy, S/V Wings, Phuket, Thailand

Index to Postings

The index entries for all of these postings are located on the right sidebar of each blog (Scroll down).

Christmas Card-2008

News from Wings :

We are living and working in Thailand. Judy has an audio transcription business she runs from home (a condo in downtown Bangkok) and I work at IBM on a big banking project. For me this is the second Bangkok job and we've been here almost 2.5 years now. We kept the boat in Singapore for over a year and flew down there twice a month from Bangkok to go sailing. Since last November we have had the boat in Phuket and we now travel there about the same frequency to go sailing. We've been doing some racing in Phuket (more in Singapore) and local cruising and some boat projects.

We like our condo in Bangkok and our life in Thailand where the weather is good, the food spicy, prices are reasonable, and life is easy. We'd rather be touring Europe or something instead of working but since we have to work we're glad we have these jobs and this is a good place to do it. Sailing or boating of any kind is pretty much impossible in Bangkok so that's why we keep the boat elsewhere and Phuket is great.

We raced King's Cup in 2006 and won our class convincingly, sailed the Phang Nga Bay Regatta in 2007 and got 2nd, and we are planning to sail that one again this January and will try even harder. We've got new sails all around, a good crew, and we have taken off about 3000 lbs. Wings will be the lightest it's been since 1986 for this race. We are working hard to lower the rating; this is a process of continuous improvement.

Timeline is uncertain, but when our "work" is done we still have some cruising around Malaysia to do, then on westward. Europe, we will get there one day.

Please feel free to drop us an note and let us know what you are doing and where you are.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Thailand

Dec 7, 2008-Angkor Wat, Cambodia

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Angkor Wat

We took a bag of Nikon equipment to Cambodia, packed all of it everywhere, and used up all the memory cards and batteries shooting the temples and country side.

Now we have posted some of these photos to wingssail images.

You can click here to go to wingssail images to see all the photos of this trip or you can use the links below to see specific sunjects.

1. Click here for shots of the amazing Angkor Wat Temple.

2. Click here for some shots of other tourists enjoying Angkor Wat.

3. Click here for other temples: Bayon and Angkor Phrom

4. Click here for shots of a quiet place: the temple of Bantey Samre

We also did a little travelling around between temples.

5. Click here for a bit of a look at Cambodian countryside.

6. Click here to see Judy's Favorite, Banteay Srey

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Khmer People

The people of Cambodia were beautiful and gracious.

7. Click here for other people shots

8. Click here for an photo essay on doorways.

9. Click here for a peek at Neak Pean and Preah Khan.

10. Click here for a look details of temple carvings.

11. Click here to see where we stayed in Cambodia.

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Hong Kong Friends in Cambodia

12. Click here to see some more shots of our friends.

Fred & Judy, Angkor Wat, Cambodia

December 5, 2008-Escape From Bangkok

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Temple Doorway, Angkor Wat, Cambodia

After two weeks of being stuck in Bangkok due to the occupation by anti-government protesters of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport a Thailand Court decision gave the protesters what they wanted: the prime minister was forced to step down, and once the protesters left we were free to escape Bangkok.

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Suvarnabhumi Airport looks normal

We had a "plan-B" to get out of town for the long King's Birthday weekend even if the airport was still closed: a 9 hour drive to Phuket in a rented car, but with the airport open we could take our scheduled flight, booked months previously, to Cambodia to meet several friends from Hong Kong and to see the Angkor Wat Temples. We canceled the car reservation and went to the airport.

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Angkor Wat

In Cambodia we took several hundred photos which I have been editing like crazy and we will have them uploaded to after this coming weekend.

Fred & Judy, Cambodia