TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

What do you get when you throw together 53 members of the Newport

Harbor Yacht Club, some Far East islands and 814 ocean miles of a clear,

deep blue?

A vacation fit for sailors.

Roger and Marilyn Riley of Newport Beach and fellow members from the

local yacht club embarked on an 8-day trip last month. They flew to

Singapore and from there to Hong Kong, but then sailed to different

cities in Malaysia and Thailand. They even spent a day and night out at

sea.

The Newport Beach group boarded the Star Flyer, a clipper ship that

holds 170, and traveled along clear and calm waters, sailing past islands

of beauties foreign to Newport Beach.

“I went [on the trip] specifically for the sailboat,” Roger Riley, 68,

said of the Flyer, which was launched in 1991. “The sailboat was a true

sailboat. It doesn’t have to have a motor.”

The mast was raised several times a day to the dramatic and classical

tune of Vangeli’s “Hoist the Anchor” -- a cinematic song fit for movies

set at sea.

Passengers climbed the mast, played rounds of deck-golf, water-skiied

and took scuba lessons. On land, they got to know the bartering economy,

a bit of the history behind Thailand and Malaysia, and rode elephants.

In Thailand, Roger Riley experienced what he recalls now as a pleasant

bartering experience.

The Newport Beach dentist was at a bazaar where vendors sold

everything from live chickens and dead pigs to imitations of brand name

purses and clothes. He bought a set of worry balls -- the silver ones you

roll around in your hand to relax -- and some toy frogs for the

grandchildren. He bargained the price down to what would be six American

dollars and walked away, content.

Then his friend bought a set of worry balls from the same woman

vendor. He bargained lower -- for $5. The vendor wouldn’t budge. The

friend insisted on his price and threatened to walk. The vendor asked him

to wait. She turned to Riley and asked, “Is it OK with you?”

“She was worried about me saving face,” Riley said.

His wife, Marilyn, agreed that not only were the Thai people

“absolutely radiant,” but so was everything they did.

Fruits were carved like artistic ornaments and placed alongside food

as decorations. Gardens were fresh and alive, the cities were clean.

For Marilyn Riley, the trip to Thailand taught her that the country is

more than it’s stereotyped to be through foreign eyes. She didn’t see any

children begging nor poverty-ridden streets.

“Everything is intended to be beautiful and pretty,” she said.

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail young.chang@latimes.com; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.