14 March 2006
I can't believe we've been in Thailand three months. Old hands in yachtie terms. Maybe half the fleet of 120(?) that left Australia in 2005 has already left for the Mediterranean. The rest have flown home, toured Phang Nga Bay or parked at one of the beaches or marinas for a large chunk of time and will be staying until next season before continuing west.
We have been lucky, having lots of visits from our family, which has meant we have covered a lot of ground around the waters of Phuket and on the mainland of Thailand. Enough to have our "favourite" moorings and "must see" spots - as well as a sort of route around the islands.
I started this email as soon as we got to Thailand and have been adding to it between visitors. So it's a bit late but, if you are interested, you'll get a picture of our unfolding impressions.....
20 December 2006
After checking out of Malaysia a week ago, our first stop in Thailand was Koh Lipe (Lipe Island), only a couple of miles away from the northern tip of Langkawi. That first day was a tourist brochure stunner - and hot. We just sat up to our necks in clear warm water over sand until beer o’clock and then sauntered into a beach bar for a cold Chang beer before dinner.
We are quickly learning that beach bars, or “resorts” (a bar with a couple of bungalows attached) seem to be an institution on most of the Thai islands here. The five or six resorts on the tiny salt – white beach at Koh Lipe are particularly gorgeous. “Primitif,” Swiss family Robinson – style bungalows, on nearly straight driftwood stilts and with cute steps and curly knarled handrails also fashioned from driftwood. Arty types have created lamps out of flotsam – I liked the ones that were the tops of dinghy fenders, painted white and cut in zig zags with a string of shells hanging from each zig and zag. They make a lovely soft light.
Click here for some pix of various beach bars/resorts and typical clever detailing.
At
the bar we went to under the trees, we sat on beach mats on the sand, with a
smooth driftwood log at our backs and tables six inches off the ground. Soft
reggae music played and candles supplemented the arty lamps. The actual
“bar” was under a thatched roof with logs on end and cushions as bar stools.
We could have chosen instead one
with hammocks in the trees or another with a monkey tethered out front (The
Jumping Monkey Bar). I have to tell you that though we have loved the food just
about everywhere we have been, The Family Restaurant at Koh Lipe ramped that up
several notches with incredible finesse and presentation. We ate tempura squid,
papaya salad, green beef curry, spiced steamed fish and Phad Thai. And they made
each of them perfectly.
Strolling along the beach later,
we realised each place is beautifully but simply lit. (Are you getting the
impression this is our kind of place?) My all time favourite was the restaurant
that had its half dozen tables just at high water mark so the guests could
paddle while they ate by candlelight. Perfect calm moonlit night for it. We
decided there and then we love Thailand.
And lucky we did because the
next day the weather turned to shit (ish) – well not perfect anyway – and we
didn’t get off the boat at the next couple of anchorages. We did appreciate
the vertical islands shooting straight out of the sea with misty cloud hiding
their summits though. The scenery gets A+ for drama.
Our second Thailand experience - gaspingly astonishing - was the hong at Koh Muk. A hong is a cave where, some time in ancient history, the roof has collapsed and disappeared, leaving a “room” in the middle of an island. You can only get in via water.
I couldn't get a picture of inside the hong at Ko Muk because we had to swim in, but this is the anchorage.
Anchored at the side of an
island near a small cave mouth, we jumped over the side and swam into the mouth
of the cave, clutching our dolphin torches with arms extended. Bats, stalagtites
and oyster covered rocks overhead, then along 80 metres of pitch black tunnel.
Spooky animal-like roarings came at us in the dark, presumably the surging of
the sea inside other channels in the cave. We dog paddled on in the blackness
until we emerged into a pool of green water and sand beach, surrounded by
soaring 100m jungle covered cliffs inside the hong. A dramatic wake up first
thing in the morning.
An early start and the short
distances between islands meant we could do that and yet be at Koh Lanta by
early afternoon in time to explore its tiny township of Sala dan and walk back
along the beach inspecting all the resorts, bars and restaurants for one with
“best fit” for a few oldies. We found it at a thatched bar with bamboo
tables and chairs, playing reggae and blues and staffed by a couple of cool Thai
dudes with dreds.
(We've since discovered that
reggae is the universal music. Everyone loves it - backpackers, five stars and
yachties alike - so every third bar on the sand sports Bob Marley posters or
green, red and yellow flags draped on the bamboo siding,)
The other thing that is
available at every second beachfront bar is Thai massage. Apart from whatever
therapeutic benefits there are for the massagee, everyone else on the beach
shares the experience because the lounges are, without fail, on view right where
everyone walks.
The last two nights were spent at Koh Phi Phi Don. Billed as "one of the three most beautiful islands in the world" we don't know what the others are, but this one is pretty darn good. Phi Phi was one of the places badly devasted by the tsunami. From a tourist’s viewpoint, the place is fully peak seasonally operational, though with clearing up and lots of building still underway. If there weren't hundreds of postcard photos of the tsunami damage for sale, you could almost miss that it happened.
Maya Bay at Ko Phi
Phi Le
As we approach Phuket Island
from a few miles off we can see skyscrapers, ports, cruise ships and all the
signs of a big city. Clearly we are in for more education about what Thailand
has to offer.
Kit is flying over from Shanghai for Christmas and a couple of weeks of R&R and I am anxious to get to the shops and try to source a loin of pork.
18 January 2006
We’ve been in the Phuket area
for almost a month now and are on our first visa run down to Langkawi. In truth
this isn’t a real “visa run” as Phuketians know it. That is a bus and
ferry trip over the Burmese border and back and you see signs all around Phuket
advertising “Visa Run. B1000” or “Executive Visa Run – All included –
B1500” etc Those visa runs are apparently a monthly nuisance for all the
expats who have made Phuket their home. And there are plenty of them. Mostly
ugly old fat guys with Thai wives and new babies. But quite a few ugly old fat
women on yachts as well. So as you can see, we fit right in.
Our visa run will be a leisurely
trip (120 nm in 10 days or a fortnight) via the Thai islands south to Langkawi,
where we will pick up duty free stuff and cruise for a week or so before heading
back to Phuket in time to pick up Tim and Ren on 8 February.
As a matter of fact we checked
out of Thailand a couple of days ago but headed north from Chalong Bay around to
the west coast of Phuket to Kata Beach, Patong Beach, Nai Harn and Phi Phi
Island, where we are trying out our new kayak. The Thai authorities apparently
don’t mind how long you stay in Thai waters after you check out – as long as
you provide them with 3 photocopies of everything before you do. Considering
that there are 12 pages of paper on check in and another 12 on check out, that
this must be done every 29 days and that there are no filing cabinets and no
evidence of any data entry taking place in the office, we reckon there is money
to be made either in renting warehouses or in selling shredders to the
immigration, customs and port authorities in Phuket. Anyone want to join us in
an investment?
Apart from that, investing in
real estate seems to be the big goer, with expats apparently developing and
buying land and condos at an incredible rate. For British retirees, Thailand is
apparently the new Spain (or so we deduced from a conversation overheard in a
coffee shop between a small time developer and his prospective builder) –
sunny and you can have a good lifestyle in a smart home for very little money.
Using our own powers of
observation we’d say he’s dead on the money – and not just for British
retirees either – we’re all at it! I think there is already a two tier
society where relatively rich whities own all the sea front/seaview land, kit
out their condos with lots of bamboo and terra cotta urns, cheaply employ Thai
boat boys, gardeners and domestics, have their washing done cheaply by Thais,
eat food prepared cheaply by Thai cooks, but shop in western malls for western
goods at western prices where Thais can’t afford to shop. Philip says it is an
example of the rich injecting money into the economy and services and goods
being supplied in response to demand. I reckon it’s a recipe for ill will.
We know we’re in our cruising
comfort zone when we stop taking so many photos (and stop sending you long
emails with dates for headings). We’ve been there, done that and taken photos
before so now we can just relax. Do some filing or sewing or varnishing, or tax
preparation etc – the stuff that’s
not as important as experiencing the moment that you’ll only have once as you
cruise through. [14/3....famous last words!]
We have reached the comfort zone
with Thailand already. In some ways it’s just like the cruising we’re used
to in Australia. The natural beauty is different from but equal to Australia
(though on the brink of being terribly blighted by tourism); the cruising
grounds pack a lot of interest into a definable area (120nm from Langkawi to
Phuket), making 1-15nm trips the order of the day; and you have a specific
season when the wind direction and weather makes the island anchorages ideal. I
think we have already decided we will stay here for the wet season as we can’t
yet bear the thought of having to make distance to, say, Lumut in the Malacca
Straits or, further afield, to eastern Malaysia..
Most things are available here
– though you have to hunt around in lots of stores to find them. We think
we’ve got them pegged now though. One of the few things that is hard to get
everywhere in SE Asia, including here, is dairy, other than in pissy little
sizes. We’ve managed to find kilo blocks of Australian or NZ cheddar cheese (a
lifesaver for us rats) at Makro in Bali, Penang and Phuket. So we do a big stock
up every couple of months. We now drink certain brands of low fat UHT milk so no
longer have to find and store fresh. Yoghurt and marg. is available. As is
sliced wholemeal bread so we can still have cheese sandwiches for lunch!
Australian steak is also available frozen at about half the price per kilo of
Australia and lamb is also sometimes available though I forget where. In
Malaysia the supermarkets don’t sell pork (or have it quarantined at a special
counter served by non Muslims) but in Thailand it is everywhere, as I found when
I went looking for the pork roast for Christmas**. And there’s a particular
sort of “devon” we’ve found only in Thailand, which is laced with fresh
chillies – try that on your school sandwiches with tomato sauce.
(**I was able to buy the pork
roast in a supermarket but extra crackling was nowhere to be found until we
spied a pork stall on the side of the road one day. Buying extra crackling was
no problem, as they cut it off the meat here, but scoring it was. I ended up
standing by the side of the road next to the stall owner, wielding the butcher's
knife doing it myself on her chopping block.)
Of course most of this is academic as we usually eat dinner ashore at one of the little bure restaurants on most beaches on most islands. $10 per couple, including multiple beers, is a relatively dear meal – we’re paying (low end) tourist prices at that. I’ve just been through a period of wanting to cook on the boat but that’s just about worn off now so we’ll be eating out at Koh Lanta tonight.)
Not only is boat stuff like antifouling,
Sikkaflex, paints, anodes etc available, but at a third less than the price
in Australia. Slipping is expensive (about the same as Australia) but labour
is cheap (from $10/day for unskilled upwards) so I might get out of having to
do under boat work (yay!). Jotun antifoulings (PA10, vinyguard etc), limited
International antifouling and a couple of local brands are the only ones available
though (so maybe we’ll be changing from Altex to Jotun with a coat of Vinyguard
in between).. You have to be careful about what you buy – in Malaysia it’s sold
in 5 litre cans, in Thailand it’s US gallons; in Thailand it has TBT in it,
in Malaysia it doesn’t.
As you might have guessed, we
have been examining options for slipping and look like doing it at Satun, a town
in Thailand adjacent to Langkawi. Have a look at their website at www.pss-satun.com.
They don’t do many pleasure craft and the yachty gossip hasn’t gotten on to
it yet but we have been very pleased with their professionalism so far. [27
January - see slipping info later in this epistle]
Every country we’ve been to
they drive on the left, just like Australia. Unlike in Bali, in Phuket the
drivers are not ratbags and drive quite slowly (also a lot of them are on bikes
so you’ve got the advantage if you’re in a car.) We’ve hired a car a few
times here and I feel quite comfortable to drive. Finding your way on maps
though is another story. Mapping seems to be yet another “do it yourself”
enterprise in Phuket.
The weather seems to be 28
degrees centigrade all the time, maybe dropping a little in the middle of the
night but I’d be surprised if it gets below 25. It’s a lovely temperature
most of the time – but a bit hot in bed at first. I have a wet face washer
which I take to bed with me or we use our fan (when the power nazi deems the
batteries are fully charged). The water temperature is about the same. Not quite
bathwater but no sensation of cold. Just the way I like it. The sun, on the
other hand, is fierce, if you make the mistake of going out into it.
Back to our visa run to Langkawi.....
Since 2 am this morning,
anchored at Koh Lipe, we have been up and down keeping an eye on a large (80-100
ton) ferry that threatens to smack into us every now and then. The mooring ahead
of us was taken by a smaller ferry (with a piece of string as mooring line). He
later tied another ferry to his stern. And that guy tied this big one to his
stern. So we have a 100 metre daisy chain of three ferries snaking alongside of
us.
The anchorage is deep and small
and we didn’t fancy re-anchoring. So Philip motored around on anchor to move
our chain a bit so we lay further away and went back to bed. As there's no wind,
we should sit in the same spot.
If we do hit, hopefully our
stabiliser arm will punch one of his windows in. It’s might vs right over
here. (Whoops! I just realised he doesn't have any glass in his windows. There
goes that bit of mean retaliation).
But I’m wide awake and
thinking.
23 January
Somewhere along the way south we
decided that, with the timing of our visitors in February and March, it would be
best for us to slip on this run. So our time in Langkawi will be just a couple
of days checking into Malaysia, collecting stuff for the slip, shopping for duty
free, checking out of Malaysia before heading across to mainland Thailand to
Satun to check in to Thailand, slip for a few days and possibly check out from
Thailand and in and out again at Langkawi to maximise our 29 day visa time.
27 January - Satun Slipway
We're up. When I look out I can
see big red and blue Thai fishing boats on blocks from every window. And did I
say we've reached our comfort zone in Thailand? Scratch that. We've taken a lot
of pictures in the last couple of days.
The adventure started, trying to
follow waypoints to 3 decimal places on a mud map drawn by some yachty in aeons
past through a serpentine channel to get to the river. The whole estuary is
shallow - much of it exposed at low water springs. Following the waypoints
wouldn't have been too bad, except that there were fishing stakes - fences of
bamboo about 3 metres high - across our path and we had to decide which way to
go around them. In the end we employed that old sailor's technique for
navigating in shallow water - we followed another boat.
Boating in the shallows of
Moreton Bay and the Broadwater turned out to be good experience and we
fortunately had calm weather and had timed it so we had 4 hours of rising tide
to get in. Thank heavens for computer based navigation - we have saved our track to
follow when we come out.
There are several slipways and
travel lifts in Malaysia and Thailand. Because Lifeline is planked timber
with chines we prefer to haul out at a slipway. The slipways here don't have
cradles like we are used to, where the boat is gripped from the sides by
four uprights that wind in. Instead they use flat trolleys. The boat is propped
underneath to make it sit upright and then it is attached to the trolley
with downwards pressure. The trolley is then hauled up the ramp with the
boat attached - just like a cradle in Australia. One of the things they do
here is have "a team of divers" place the props between the cradle
and your boat, because this has to be done while the boat is still floating.
I had heard about this and was looking forward to seeing it.
The cradle is submerged when you
go onto it. So instead of driving into the space between the four uprights, you
are apparently driving onto nothing at all - except you can feel the boat
"ground". A man directs from the front, standing between the rails.
Meanwhile the two divers, with no masks or snorkels, wedge props between the
cradle and the boat and attach a humungous chain to the cradle on either side.
The chain has a huge square hook on it which the divers heave up and hook onto
the caprail. The hooks and chains are then tightened down with an enormous
turnbuckle.
A friend who hauled out at another slipway said the "team of divers" used hookahs hitched up to spray paint air compressors. When the boss wanted them to surface, he gave their hoses a bit of a squeeze. (Guaranteed to get their attention!)
When we were up, we were shifted
sideways along one of three secondary railways. This yard is big. They could
take maybe 40 boats at a time. At 30 tons, we were among the smallest, except for a
community of three French yachts in one corner.
And then......the piece de resistance.....when
we were in place they propped the keel, jacked the whole boat up with what
looked like a car jack's big brother......and removed the trolley, leaving
us propped on half a dozen tree trunk props!
While we went off to spend a
couple of hours with the harbour master, immigration and customs, the bottom was
pressure washed and the barnacles scraped.
Because it's Chinese New Year
right now, quite a lot of the staff are off, so there are only about forty on
duty!
On the second day the metal shoe
and rudder was ground and several sections of seams were scraped out and
caulked. The boat next door, on the other hand, has a cast of thousands and
in one day had every seam scraped out, the front third stbd side planks removed
(to reveal rotten ribs) and new ribs chainsawed delicately from a 4' x 15'
x 5" plank.
At eight in the morning a siren
sounds to start work. At 12 noon another siren to down tools for an hour for
lunch. And 5pm is the knock off siren. Before eight you go over to the on site
cafe for coffee and whatever's on for breakfast.
At beer o'clock we have our
workers up for a beer or coke from the esky. This is the most sustained
interraction we have had with Thais who are not in the tourist industry so we
are only now starting to learn a very few Thai words. Apart from Philip
startling a few Thais we pass in the street by "wei"ing (bowing head
with hands in prayer style) with his "sawasdee" (hello), we have not
got past hello and thank you.
We've just finished day three
and I'm tired and emotional and just want to be away. Like always seems to
happen to us on the slip, about this point we reach a stage where everything is
half done and we begin to panic that it won't all be done on time. Added to
that, though, is the language problem - people come and go and do things but
we're not sure who they are or why they've gone.
What new adventure is in store
for us today?
12 February
When it was all over, we were
pretty happy with the level of skill of the caulkers and carpenters especially.
Now that we know what to expect and what they can do, we will probably go back
there.
We are anchored at Nai Harn
Beach. Tim has gone over to the tailor for his second fitting for his suits and
Ren to try on her Thai silk dress and maybe get her nails done at one of the
on-beach masseurs and beauticians. When they get back to the boat we are off to
Phi Phi Le to nab our favourite mooring after the longtails have all left and
enjoy the clear water and fish.
Last time we were there we were
sporting a 3" wide band of green growth 2" long all around our
waterline. The fish loved it. We could hear them yanking it off and munching on
the barnacles. And after two days we still had the grass but only half a
centimetre long all around. This time we're sleek in red antifouling.
28 February
As we didn't have enough time to
go anywhere in the boat in the short time we had with Lynne and Ian, we hired a
car and drove around the island. Instead of skulking around our usual style of
cheap haunts, we got to see the inside of some very beautiful and elegant
resorts with a only a couple of shots of elixir du drain on the side. And air
conditioning. (Have I told you yet I love it?). You know a joint is really
swanky when they have air conditioning AND open sided buildings and wide open
doors.
Ian wondered where the electricity
comes from. Not Phuket apparently - every highway and street is a mess of
towering electricity poles, thick black cables and in the back streets, tangles
of wires slung up haphazardly by amateur electricians - all bringing in electricity
from somewhere else.
15 March
It's now three months since we
first arrived. As we haven't been to Langkawi to fill up with water and since
we've been on visitors' rations, we have been buying drinking water in bottles.
Piped drinking water is available in Phuket but all the Thais tell you not to
drink it (and they don't). (We haven't been too fussy anywhere we've been but I
have noticed the water I put in the tubs as spare for washing grows things.)
What a pain in the neck on a
boat. And what garbage pollution this must create. Every day you generate
several 2 litre bottles that have to be disposed of
We took Mum to the airport yesterday after her two week holiday - a week at Boat Lagoon marina, five days in PhangNga Bay and a few days shopping in Phuket based at the marina again.
Phuket is a sort of shopping
heaven though some might say for the shopkeepers instead of the customers when
you take into account the touts, bargaining and heat. Miles of cheap souvenirs
but also many western style furniture shops and supermarkets. And a million
"restaurants" and food stalls. Each evening after about 4 pm food
markets spring up and food stalls dot the sides of the main streets. Everyone
eats out. Or you see the Thais grabbing something as they ride home from work on
their motorbikes.
Cars and large motorbikes have
high import duties here and the most popular mode of transport is the 125cc
motorscooter. Whole families hop aboard. Schoolkids, girls riding sidesaddle.
You even see tots perched between Mum's legs and holding the handlebars or
sitting in a specially made cane seat that fits over the saddle.
Mobile food stalls usually
consist of a motorbike with a small sidecar/box trailer arrangement on the side
with an awning over the top. You see enterprises that weld them up. In fact
awnings/tents/sunshades over a welded frame are big business. Here at Boat
Lagoon marina, for instance, the majority of boats on the hard stand have a huge
tall framed tent over them. This is for shade rather than dust prevention.
Shade is essential. The direct
sun is searing - we can only be in it for minutes at a time. If I were a Thai,
I'd much rather be a boat boy, playing with water, than a labourer. They work
for hours in the heat and sunlight. I still haven't got used to seeing women
mixing concrete in a tub with a hoe. Of course there is readymix concrete
available as well (I saw it in a "Homepro" shop catalogue along with
the air conditioners and outdoor furniture) though I think it is aimed at
westerners and large developers.
We see the workers being driven
to and from work in the back of utes, often a dozen people, men and women. While
they work they wear a T-shirt over their heads (with their face looking out the
sleeve or neck hole) and a wide brimmed hat on top of that.
T-shirts also seem to be
official safety gear. When we were on the slip, the men working on grinding the
paint off the bottom of the boats wore a folded towel over their nose and mouth
with the T-shirt and hat on top.
There seems to be building and
construction going on everywhere. At first we thought it was just expats
building holiday villas, but there are whole estates of modern Thai homes as
well.
I remember bragging earlier in
this email about the lovely 28 degree temperatures we were having. But the
temperatures have been gradually increasing since February until now we have a
constant 29 - 33 degrees. The days are OK if you can stay out of the worst of it
with fans and air conditioned cars and shops, but the nights are terrible. We
are hoping it is just the build up to the wet season. People here refer to the
wet season as "cool".
As well as the solid side
curtains on the cockpit which we installed in Penang, we have now had solid
awnings made for the front deck and the back of the cockpit. The next project
will be a huge awning for the roof but we haven't worked out how to do it yet.
We can feel the difference in temperature on the ceiling where the dinghy on the
roof blocks the sun compared with where it is fully exposed.
We haven't yet succumbed to
installing air conditioning as we've seen many boats here where the occupants
never come outside, a trap too easy to fall into. And we could only use an air
conditioner at a marina. Even so, I'M not ruling it out.
Since we first arrived at Ao Chalong and hired a car from one of the businesses nearby (Andaman Prima Embrace Business Co Ltd), we have struck up a relationship with its owner, and her half dozen employees.
Kitti and Pen, Joy, Lek, and Boy sit at desks in the office on the ground floor of Kitti's modern three storey shop house. We have seen them answer the phone and book cars for us and flights for Kit, but still have no clear idea what keeps them occupied from 9am in the morning until 9pm at night 7 days a week.
As well as the workers, walk on
appearances are made by the three maltese/poodles in jackets and hats - different
ones every day, including spotted pink ones with bee antennae - and Kitti's
daughter and mother. Every now and then Mum throws scraps to the dogs out the
back, to much growling and fighting.
It seems that most Thais have a
"nickname" by which they are known, rather than by their formal, often
long, registered name. I think they are given to them at birth but they seem to
be able to change them at will. Kitti's daughter is called Bashor, which
Kitti told us means
"minced pork", because Kitti likes to eat it.
Visiting them is always a delight. As soon as we shed our shoes and walk into the office we swap a bow (wei) and "sawasdee", they bring out ice cold glasses of water and anything they can do to help. (Now that I think about it, that's probably what the business is about - doing anything they can to help and charging a small agency fee to do it.)
When you ask people if something
is available/possible/able to be done their answer is either "Can" or
"Finished". Short and sweet. We've adopted it. "Philip, would you
make me one of your nice cups of coffee?" "Can." "Have you
got any sweet pastries to go with it?" "Finished."
That reminds me, lots of Thai
businesses have great names and slogans: to the point, like a hairdresser called
"Nice Haircut" (No thanks. I'm going to crappycuts down the road); or
fanciful, like "Phuket Hospital - Caring People. Curing People". Not
to mention "Believe. Cardiac Specialist." (As advertised on a
billboard at the Ao Chalong roundabout.)
But the Thais don't have a mortgage on fancy names. One of my favourites is the shop in Langkawi called "Tasty and Healthy", a duty free grog shop. That's what I call a truth in advertising!!
It is a wierd thing to try and explain, but in a place where every second place is a shop of some sort, it can be very difficult to buy something. It seems to be the same for Thais, except they are more laid back if they can't get what they want. For a start there is no phone book or yellow pages or equivalent (apart from some small partisan directories to flog expensive western stuff). So you can't "let your fingers do the walking". So then you drive around searching for likely looking shops. The only maps available are tourist ones, which leave out lots of streets and (because of lack of town planning rules?) small sois (lanes) often look like someone's driveway and are not official and definitely not on the maps. So addresses are hard to find. We are illiterate in Thai, so we don't even see most of the signs in the streets. So you have to go into the shops and examine the goods before you even know what sort of shop you are in. Then the shopkeeper, to be agreeable and possibly not to offend you because he can't understand what you are saying, sends you to some other non-existent place. If you should happen to be able to buy something, you must get a business card so you have some chance of passing the information to someone else. Otherwise you're reduced to trying to show someone where it lies on one of the aforesaid tourist maps.
********To be continued....