Tiger Kingdom - Phuket, Thailand [James Burke]

For Jacobs’ birthday we went to Tiger Kingdom. Tiger Kingdom is an attraction in Phuket, Thailand, where you can pet tigers. The tigers we got to pet where the smallest and about 1 – 2 years old. I never pet a tiger before. It was so cool. The cage we went in had three tigers in it. The cage had a smooth floor and a wooden fence. We got to pet one of the three tigers. He was very calm, cute, and happy. There were three more sizes of tigers small, medium and big. The small tigers had the same type of cage that the smallest had and were about 2-3 years old. The medium and big both had grassy terrain with a pool and were over 4 years old. When we were done we stopped at the Tiger Kingdom gift shop and Jacob got a shirt with a tiger on the front.

My family with the young tiger

The gift shop

From Bangkok to Singapore [Joshua Burke]

Hey everyone, I haven’t done a blog in a while but haven’t been doing much stuff besides doing Muai Thai boxing and more recently, hot yoga. Still stuck in Phuket, Thailand and repairing the boat, but I have to say it is coming along. We should be done fixing the boat by October. Jacob just turned 12 and had an awesome birthday party. I just recently did two trips, one to Bangkok and then to Pattaya, (some ways south of Bangkok), and then after that did another trip down to Singapore to do a visa run and to meet up with my friend, Niall. I got to ride in an airplane again so those trips were exciting.

Me on the airplane to Bangkok.

 The reason why I got to go on those trips was that I got A’s for 7^th grade all year long. J

When we, (Dad and I) and my friend Craig who was fighting there, flew into Bangkok I was amazed at how large and densely populated the city was. We walked around the city and took a cab until we found a hotel that we could stay for the night. The hotel that we stayed in Bangkok was pretty cheap for the size and quality of the room as well as the amenities, (50 US bucks a night). Our room was super nice, it was large and had a TV that actually had English channels. To top that off, the toilet had a heated seat. The hotel also had a swimming pool, a spa, and a breakfast buffet, (my favorite). 

Me in Bangkok

Is this safe?!?!

Checking in at the amazing hotel. 

Me at the breakfast buffet.

As most of you know there was a coup here in Thailand. All I saw in Bangkok were some armed guards and more riot police. I think that the rioting had died down. We didn’t see a riot in the streets. Dad and I went to a different Muai Thai fight while we where here. It was at Lempini the newest and best stadium in Thailand. The fights were really good, much better quality then Phuket fights. The stadium was really loud from all the people betting on the fighters. You could tell when the majority if the betters lost because the stadium went quiet all of a sudden.

The Thai fighters. (with betters in the background)

More Thai betters.

One of the riot police in the stadium. 

We took a mini van the next day to Pattaya, (about an hour and a half drive). We stayed at a resort type hotel for 2 nights. The stadium where Craig was fighting was pretty cool. It was all televised, and I swore that my shirt made it on TV. So there are four fighters that are competing in an elimination fight. The winner gets 10,000 US dollars, second place gets 5,000 US dollars, and third and forth place gets 2,500 US dollars. Unfortunately Craig got in third place. The winner was a rip Thai guy who beat a Russian to get the winning prize. There were some other, minor fights that went on but they weren’t as good. Our last day of that trip we drove around town and went out to eat at a Thai restaurant. The food was super spicy!!!

Out resort at Pattaya 

The four fighters, (Craig being closest)

The stadium

The ring, with the red carpet.

Craig in the blue, his Thai opponent in the red.

Wham!

Bam!

My trip to Singapore with Dad was one day later after getting home from Bangkok. We came in by airplane at night and the entire city was lighted up. It was really cool to see. Unfortunately the person sitting behind me stuck something pointy in the back of my seat. So the entire flight I had a sharp thing stuck in my back. When we got to the hotel I was amassed at how small our room was. The room was smaller then our bathroom at our rental home in Phuket! The room had every thing you needed: two small beds, a tiny bathroom and a desk. The Hotel was right by the Royal Singapore Yacht Club where Niall was staying on his boat.

The next day Dad and I went to the Thai embassy to start the process of getting my visa. We had to get tons and tons of paper work of stuff that I didn’t even know that you had to get for a visa. We had to go over to a nearby hotel to print it all out. After that, I headed over to his boat and the first thing that we did was catch up on a few things before heading to the club’s 3-meter (9 foot) deep swimming pool. It even has a glass wall on one side. After swimming we decided to go to a movie. We chose the Edge of Tomorrow. If you haven’t seen it yet it is an amazing movie and I recommend seeing it. We asked a person where the closest movie theatre was and he told us it was just a 10 min. cab ride. It ended up being a 40 min. cab ride, but that’s ok because Niall and I just ended up watching Lincoln, (another good movie), until we arrived.

The next day we started the day off by going to a WW2 museum. The museum mostly talked about Singapore in WW2, and I learned a lot of new history that I didn’t know before. For example, the British defenders of Singapore expected an attack from the East by sea, so that’s where they put up most of their defenses. Instead the Japanese landed in the allied country of Siam (Thailand) and marched through British controlled Malaya (Malaysia) until they reached the island of Singapore. When the Japanese landed the British forces withdrew from the coast allowing more Japanese to land. Even though the Japanese were outnumbered they won do to tactical mistakes by inexperienced British generals.

After getting back from the museum, Niall and I played Axis and Allies Europe (a WW2 board game that is kind of like Risk) for about 5 hours strait. I was the Axis (Germany and Italy), and unfortunately I lost the battle of Britain, and then the Russians came in, and then I got flattened. It just comes to show that history is doomed to repeat its self. I spent the night on his boat and the next morning we had time to swim before I had to leave for the airport.

Us going into the museum.

The strategy faces.

Thanks for reading

Joshua

Supreme Blackjack update [Jacob Burke]

1) The wheel from Blackjacks old cage

2) Tube leading from Blackjacks cage to dining room (9) 

3) Ropes

4) Cool house 

5) Water container

6) Food bowl

7) Tube leading from Blackjacks cage to lookout (8)

8) Lookout

9) Dining room

Blackjack is getting spoiled. He has now moved from his little home to a giant mansion. His favorite thing in his new cage is the cool house. He spends a lot of time in the place eating and sleeping because the thing is made from a special aluminum so it is always cold. Another thing Blackjack loves is the dining room. He stores his food in the place and likes to clean himself in there too. He also goes there when the air con (which is right next to the dining room) is on. The last thing I am going to mention in this update is the lookout. Blackjack likes to climb up on the top and sometimes I feed him his treats through the top.

The Penang War Museum [Joshua Burke]

The Penang War Museum 

We went to the Penang War Museum, which is on the north side of Penang Island. It was a very interactive museum and not like the museums that you look at artifacts in glass cages. Before World War 2 started it was a British fort but when the Japanese swept down to Malaya they captured it and turned it into one of their forts. Luckily the British general who was in charge gave the order to destroy all machinery and guns so the invading Japanese couldn’t use the batteries.

Defiantly one of my favorite parts was you got to climb through the escape passage. The ceiling was very low so I had to climb on my knees and then you climbed a 30f.t. (10 m) ladder that was vertical, in the dark. There were also bomb shelters routes, (again the ceiling were low so I had to walk leaning over). There was also battery’s emplacements that were holding15-inch guns at one time, but the guns weren’t there. But there was a gun that was still there, and that was a Japanese 30 mm anti aircraft gun that was in good condition.

Us about to go into the escape route. 

Me reaching the top of the 30 f.t. (10 m) ladder.

The 30 mm anti aircraft gun.

Us in the cramped escape route. 

Where the batteries used to be.

When the British ruled the fort they did something that I had never heard before, they stored all their explosives bombs, mines, etc. deep under ground so if one of the explosives accidentally did go off, it wouldn’t cause to much damage. Pretty smart.

The bomb being lowered 

The chute down to the bottom were they stored the explosives. 

Now there is this rumor that the Japanese general that was in command here still haunts the place and his ghost can still be seen around. That’s what the rumor says anyway. When the workers were repairing the place back in 2002 they saw these monster ghost things haunting the place to. Spooky huh.

The monster ghost model.

That’s it for now

 Joshua

Penang [Joshua Burke]

Penang 

Sea Glass is now anchored off Penang Island, Malaysia and we will be here for a couple days before moving up to Langkawi where we will be there for a couple days. Lots of stuff to do in town and we rented a car (which had nice air conditioning) and saw some local tourist attractions. When driving around town make sure to look out for people driving on motorcycles because they weave in and out of cars and cut in front of you. A lot of the people here are of Indian descent because the British brought them over as laborers. 

We drove to the edge of town where we took a steep tram to the top of the outlaying mountains. Up at the top the air was nice and cool with a bonus of a good look of the city. We could even see our boat from here, (a small white dot in the distance). In the British period wealthy British built these large mansions on the mountains, and when the Malaysians got their independence all of the British people moved away but kept the buildings standing. Now Millionaire Malaysians own the mansions (they call them bungalows) and have them as holiday houses. There are 44 on the island, but only 14 are accessible by road. I saw about six when we were taking a motorized guided tour.

The city (the other side in Peninsular Malaysia) 

Me and Jacob on the tram.

There was also a museum about Owls, which was very interesting. They had over 1000 different owl art pieces in their collection. My favorite piece was a huge painting of a close-up view of an owl eye.

The "eye"

Me with owl paintings

During the day we also went to the largest Buddhist temple I have ever seen. There was a man-made lake filled to the brim with turtles and lots of Buddhist deity statues. Since it was later in the day we didn’t get to see the large Buddha statue, which was kind of disappointing.

Some of the turtles.

Us under the arch

The large Buddhist temple.

Stay in touch

Joshua

Where is Sea Glass (2nd entry) [Joshua Burke]

Where is Sea Glass (2nd entry)

We have now at Singapore and we have been traveling for nine and a half days straight. We are going to put the boat in a berth in the Republic of Singapore Marina for about a week. The weather was mostly on our side and we sailed down wind for about 8 days at an average speed of 6 ½ knots. Luckily, there were no hurricanes that interfered with our traveling although there were two that were heading towards Japan. The weather was mostly sunny with a few clouds, but there were storm clouds as we neared Singapore. We saw lots of huge container ships, with the biggest being 380 m long. There were also lots of fishing vessels off the coast of Vietnam with no AIS, and the only way to avoid them was to look for the bright lights and make course adjustments. Speaking of Vietnam we were thinking about stopping there to break up the trip into halves, but we learned that you had to get all your stuff ahead of time and so we didn’t.

Coming into the Singapore area there were tons and tons of container ships just anchored up to wait for whatever reason. What was amazing is that I saw a military Singaporean submarine above the water with two Singaporean destroyers. Cool, Right? We identified them by using the AIS. Luckily were only staying here for a week otherwise Mom might put me in one of those super competitive schools.

The marina is very nice and has an awesome swimming pool with a glass barrier that you can look out while you’re swimming. It’s like being the fish in an aquarium.

The rate to the US dollar is horrible here, and it’s just as expensive as Australia.

I have pictures and I will update this post later.

Joshua

              

Causeway bay big pool party [Jacob Burke]

Causeway bay big pool party

Every few weeks there is a giant pool party at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in Causeway bay. So far I have been there two times. The party fills up quite quick so you have to get reservations pretty fast. The pool party has one huge inflatable with a slid on it and, there are a lot of small inflatables. There is also huge buffet with an infinite amount of ice cream! The last time I went there was Saturday the 5^th. There were lots of kids and I even made friends with some of them. That time all the kids could bring inflatables on the giant floating plaything. In the beginning when most of the kids were around a lot of kids were running and jumping trying to get on the barge. So many kids did this that the lifeguards had to push the kids off. There plan kind of backfired because all the kids started pushing the lifeguards off. At the end of the party a lot of the kids had left so it wasn’t so crazy. The day was very fun.