What can I say about 2020? It has undoubtedly been a year of ups and downs for most people, I am sure. For us, 2020 has been 366 days of love, excitement and fun, as well as frustration, fear and bafflement. We have, surprisingly, still managed to do quite a lot of travelling during this time. – 7 flights took us 10,658km by air. We sailed two boats 6461 nautical miles and we enjoyed road trips and camping and travelled 4300km on land.
Our first year cruising outside of Australian waters has included Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Some countries we sailed to and others we flew to; we even rode into one and caught a bus into another. This blog is a recap of our journey in 2015….. Thank you to all our followers. I hope you will continue to cruise with us in 2016, and that I will be able to carry on entertaining and informing you about the wonderful, exciting and sometimes bewildering places we visit.
Clearing in and out of customs, pirates, transport, phone and internet, cheap food, shopping, fruit and veg, fuel, hardware, bartering, trading and gifts, as well as some basic Indonesian words to know are covered in this post. It also includes a link to a google map of the anchorages we used which includes information about the holding and the depth of water.
Kuching was a surprise. Not only did this small city have amazing food, bustling markets and interesting ornate buildings but it was clean, tidy and not in the least chaotic. It was a wonderful break from the vehicular chaos from whence we had come. The first thing I noticed as we drove to our hotel was the tidy streets and beautiful green gardens. Our taxi driver told us that Kuching has been divided into North and South Kuching and if the mayor in one does something (e.g. put in a nice garden) the other mayor, not to be out done, will then follow suit. So gardens, tidy streets and up-kept buildings are everywhere!
Two nights and three days of awesomeness! Awesome place, awesome people, awesome animals, and an awesome experience! I would do this trip again in a heart beat if given the chance. I loved everything about it. The orangutans and other wildlife we saw, the delicious food, the wonderful crew, sleeping on an open boat under a mosquito net, the gorgeous sounds of night descending and the raucous awakening of birds, bugs and gibbons in the morning!