The musical adventure continues!
In the last post I told you about great recording sessions, a little bit of relaxing free time, and a lot of work around the boat. And right now we’re in the middle of our final preparations to leave Thailand.
The past week was pretty exciting. We were so fortunate to be hosted by Samson, the head of the Karen school (more information about the school here). The little village where the students live is located close to the Burmese border, and lies right in a beautiful jungle landscape. On the way there we got to see a lot of monkeys hangin’ out at the side of the road, saw some really big snakes, however we did not see any of the wild elephants that roam the jungle up there. The very kind and helpful supervisor of the village, Jesse (from Singapore, originally Burma), showed us around and coordinated everything so that we could record the kids singing in a well organized choir. Those kids were amazing! Full of energy, constantly smiling, and giving their very best to speak english with us. And they were good soccer players … even in flip flops they beat us.
Here’s the little video we made. It’s a Christmas song!
So, so much to “welcome to the jungle”. On our way back home, we stopped at a cave in which we also recorded more music. So here it was more like “welcome to bat country”. It might take a while before you get to see footage of cave-music, but it should be interesting to see.
We sort of hurried home that day because we are still swamped with stuff to do. And here are some pictures that should convince you of how much work it is to keep everything up and running. We have an absolutely awesome mechanic, by the name of Ae, who always has time for us and hasn’t let us down with ANY of our problems. He welded the front of our boat (bow sprit), drilled and reattached some metal rails for the sails (traveller track), fixed our motor, and helped with a bunch of other small things. Another great thing is that whenever we go to the hardware shops etc. with him, we pay Thai prices, not foreigner (fallang) prices. Such a relaxed guy and he always has a solution for our problems. And we’ve been talking to him about what route to take and where the winds and waves would be optimal.
Speaking of good Thai people … the Boworn Tailors drove down to Hua-Hin from Bangkok (2.5 hour drive each way) for a night out with us. It was totally awesome … from food to music and drinks and dancing. Thanks for a perfect night! They’re so good to us! Too good. And if you guys haven’t seen the video that the Sailing Conductors made for the Boworn team, you should check it out right here:
I just picked up our sewn main sail and it looks good. And Benni drove up to Bangkok to pick up the fixed autopilot and to go visit the Boworn Tailor team one last time. So we’re almost ready to roll out. All we have to do is scrub the shells off the boat, and we should probably go ahead and clean the inside of it also, finish some minor drilling and screwing and then we’re off to Vietnam.
But we managed to get some more music recorded in parallel. Ben and Hannes already knew Paul, a Canadian bar owner here in Hua-Hin who let us use his bar as a location to record people, rehearse a couple songs, and actually have a little gig there as well. So we rehearsed a couple songs in different combinations of musicians. Benni played some cello with Pi Noi (from Thailand), a talented guitarist who specializes in tapping and blues. And Hannes (on bass guitar) and me (on drums) joined Pete (singer and songwriter from Australia) and Drew (guitarist from Canada) to rock out with Pi Noi. That session was definitely fun and if we had the time, I think we’d be at the bar every night. Nice people there!
At the end of this week, I hope that Ben and Hannes will have the next video done so we can upload it. It’s an awesome song but the guys want it to be close to perfect, so they’re working on it. If you want to stay on top of what we’re up to, then follow the guys on facebook (just look for “Sailing Conductors” and “like” their organization).
Check back soon.