Chennai (Madras), India - April 19

After 2 days at sea we have finally hit land. The Indian Ocean was kind to us as we crossed – like glass for most of the way.

We are again ported at the shipping area of town which is less than attractive. What is even less attractive than the view is the smell. It smells exactly like the Heritage Park blacksmith shop – and all of the outdoor areas of the ship are covered with a light film of soot. It is obvious where this comes from as near to us are mounds and mounds of what looks like coal (although I really have no idea what it actually is.)

Our tour today isn’t until the evening so we spend a relaxing afternoon on the ship and get a bit of laundry done.

For dinner we visit a hotel for an authentic Indian meal. I have never been so lost at a meal in my entire life. All of the food was very good, but I had no idea what curry to eat with that bread, or should I drink the small cup of broth or use a spoon. It hardly mattered, but WOW – different. I drank Indian Kingfisher beer as I was a bit reluctant to try the Indian wine. We were entertained by dancers and musicians throughout the night.

sea day - April 18

Today was another sea day so there’s little to report.


We did chat a bit with the cruise director and his wife and I got to mentioning that I have found the toilet situations here in Asia to be surprisingly nice. Well, it didn’t come as much of a surprise when they told us that ‘that is all about to change.’ Good thing I typically wear skirts – that at least eliminates the one danger of having my clothes dragging in the toilet! I’ll be sure to take a few photos.

sea day - April 17

Another sea day with very little to report – other than the wildlife sighting. We saw a few different dolphin pods, flying fish and a sea turtle. The dolphins were actually becoming a bit common-place - I hope I am as fascinated each time I see them as I was the first.

The Indian Ocean was very calm today with only a bit of swaying back and forth.

Pampering has officially begun...I had my sunglasses cleaned at the pool!  Now that's a first!

Thanks also to everyone who is following us and to those of you who are commenting – thanks!

Phuket, Thailand - April 16

This is our first tendering experience on this cruise. Each small boat (which are actually the life boats for the ship and can hold 150 passengers) transports the passengers from the ship anchored off of the Phuket island coast to the shore. The ride is about 15 minutes. We were actually supposed to dock today, but because of a taxi strike the port was messed up and taxis were preventing tour busses from entering. It probably worked out well as we are able to see the beach area of Patong. Very touristy – unfortunately we had NO time to spend here. 

rubber tree tapping

 

James Bond island

Our first stop today was to see another rubber tree demo – pretty much like yesterday’s. I was able to continue my quest for street food here and got some deep fried pineapple – very good.

deep fried pineapple - YUMMMM!



one of the MANY long boats in Thailand

The main event for today is a visit to ‘James Bond Island’. Apparently here is where The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed. We got on a motorboat and sailed through some pretty spectacular limestone scenery. There are karst formations that rise right out of the sea for hundreds of feet. We also sail through some small grottos made by the karst. Very unusual, but beautiful landscape. We are in a Thai national park and instead of paying to be in the park on land a government official comes to each boat and gets the fee that way – certainly different.

Next is lunch followed by the required shopping stop and we are back to the ship.

By the way...I'm also Twittering occasionally on this trip... @leeseas or http://twitter.com/#!/leeseas

Penang, Malaysia - April 15

We are once again smacked in the face by the heat and humidity as we step foot off of the ship in Penang, Malaysia. I really cannot believe I think I may actually be getting used to the heat – this is one thing I would never have predicted, but it may be true.


Today’s tour was a definite highlight for me. There wasn’t all that much to it really, but what we saw and learned about was fascinating. We visited a batik making workshop. We learned how it is made, watched a few of the artists at work and made a purchase.


batik demo



We also visited a fruit stall on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere – this was more of a demo stop. We saw a rubber tree being tapped. This was very interesting…basically the tree is cut and white liquid drips out. In order to get rubber from this liquid the liquid part needs to evaporate or be rubbed away. If you put a bit of the liquid on your palm and rub your hands together what after a few seconds is left is what looks like white eraser shavings. These can be rolled together to form a ball that actually bounces! We also sampled a bunch of local spices – clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper corns, betel nut and mace. The interesting part was seeing them in their fruit state. Our guide would show one of the fruits and then slice it open to reveal the spice. All of these growing at the road side along with cocoa beans.

cocoa bean

Our last stop was the Snake Temple. Yes, there are real, live snakes here – pit vipers to be exact. These snakes are believed to be the disciples of the deity, Chor Soo Kong. There is apparently incense burned in the temple (although I didn’t smell any at all) that keeps them sedate, and most of them have had their fangs extracted. This place was wild to visit – can’t say that I’ve ever visited anyplace at all like this (I seem to be saying that A LOT this trip.) There just seemed to be snakes hanging out here there and everywhere – not that there were a lot of them. There were a few on the alter of the temple that were obvious to see, but we actually had to look for the others in the trees etc – at one point we spotted 12 in a group of trees. Of course there were the HUGE ones there for the photo op for a fee.

pit viper

The island of Penang has the most beautiful landscape I’ve seen since I’ve been in Asia. There are hills with lush, lush jungle. The road we that took us all the way around the island was mostly cut into the jungle with lushness everywhere you looked. The shadiness coupled with the lushness was breathtaking – not to mention the spider monkeys and macaques that although rare were spotted occasionally.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - April 14

me at the mosque (obviously!)

twin towers

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is our port today. Our tour today is a full day city tour of Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is actually about an hour’s drive to the port – these drives to the cities from the port when we have to make them are really not that bad. The tour guides typically chat the whole way about the city, the area etc which is always very interesting. On the agenda is to visit a mosque which holds 24,000 people – we don’t actually go in and this is just a photo stop. Next we visit Kuala Lumpur’s twin towers – 2 88 story office towers that are quite something to see. We also visit a war memorial, a garden, have lunch, visit another mosque and actually go inside this one – hence my attire in the photo and finish the day with some shopping. Kuala Lumpur is bustling, modern city.




huge mosque

 Today in Malaysia and yesterday in Singapore, getting around (although we’ve been with a guide) has been made easier by all the English on signs. Apparently English is one of the languages taught in school. Can’t say I’ve eaten anything new or exciting recently, although I did eat octopus at lunch.

Singapore - Apr 13



my Singapore Sling



Singapore skyline

Singapore is exactly what we had expected…clean, very clean, modern, and multi-cultural.  We toured Singapore this morning with stops to take a ride on the river, tour a Chinese temple, visit the Muslim area of Singapore and ended with a visit to the Raffles Hotel where the Singapore Sling was born – which we tasted of course (only one even though in the photo it looks like I've had many.)  The drink was pretty much prepared as I have had it at home before…sweet with a whole bunch of liquors in it.  It really is an unbelievably clean city.  We actually looked for garbage and couldn’t find a speck or trash.  It was very hot and humid today – I wonder if I could ever get used this humidity.

Raffles Hotel

sea day - April 12

Very little to report from today as we are at sea again.  I actually made it to the gym this morning, followed by reading, lunch, reading, a nap, dinner and an early night.  I’m writing this from the balcony of our suite – tonight is the balmiest, calmest, and wonderful although a bit cloudy to see stars night to be on the balcony - heaven!

sea day - April 11

the HUGE paper

So…the internet on the ship is less than stellar. I know from last year how slow it can be, but I don’t remember it being so incredibly slow, but it is SLOW!!! I predict that I will post less photos from this point forward.

gift from our travel agent!

Today is at sea, so although we lost an hour (can’t really understand that as we seem to be travelling directly south) we are well rested. We spent most of the day at the pool chatting with people - didn’t get much reading done at all. Even popped my head into the gym, but discovered it was a bit too crowded – oh well…may try tomorrow.

This is the first cruise we have gotten a full newspaper. On our past cruises we have received an abbreviated Canadian newspaper, but this cruise we are getting a full newspaper and have realized it is a huge dedication of paper. It is the full newspaper photocopied onto regular paper - hard to tell from the photo. I think we may forego this – it seems like a huge waste of paper.

Bangkok Day 5 - April 10

I think jet lag is officially a thing of the past as we have to be up at 5:30 and that is a bit painful. Our tour this morning is to a floating market outside of Bangkok. The drive there takes about an hour. Once we arrive we board long boats for a 20 minute ride through narrow canals to the market. On either side of the canals are homes on stilts. Some are fancy-shmancy and others are very basic. Every so often a row boat travels past selling fruit of some type. The market is very touristy and we don’t buy anything other than deep-fried bananas which are quite delightful. These are being made right on the spot by a man and a young boy. I’m not sure if they speak English, but tell you the price on a calculator. I didn’t bargain, but I’m sure I could have gotten a better price – still cheap.

I do of course take advantage of their ‘facilities’. The public facilities I have experienced in Asia so far (and of course this experience is very limited) have been phenomenal! Extremely clean, I have only had to pay once, most have paper (but I’ve been around the block a time or 2 and know to pack my own) and ALL, yes ALL have seats. I know, I know tomorrow may bring a whole new ‘going’ experience, but I thought it bore mentioning how delighted I was to be able to ‘go’ in such wonderful conditions. It could be of course that people just don’t ‘go’ here very much.

On the way back to Bangkok we stop at another temple, have lunch at the hotel and board another bus for the 1.5 hour ride to the ship. I suspect we will have a few long bus rides in our future…many of the sights we will visit along this cruise are actually in land quite a bit.

fruit seller

Once we board the ship things are exactly as we remember them from being on the Seven Seas Voyager last year. We are in a different cabin this year, but really can’t tell.

Bangkok Day 4 - April 9

on the grounds of the Shangrila

Today was another day of relaxing – mostly by the pool. One thing that wasn’t so relaxing was realizing that I wasn’t in the shower alone! I was in there was a tiny little lizard! I lost my mind a bit when I first saw it, but I think it was more scared than I was – it stuck around for a while and then scampered off.


Today was as stick and hot as the last couple, but very over cast. This turned into a huge storm in the late evening. We were having dinner outside just as it started. It was that typical rain that I have mostly only heard about occurring in the tropics. Torrentially coming down, but still very warm. Standing on the balcony watching it – I was still quite warm.

 

look chup

I tried look (or lok) chup today. This is a Thai dessert or sweet made from beans – nothing I will every try again! Cool to look at, but not at all to my taste. I have also been eating a ton of passion fruit. I’m pretty sure I’ve never tasted them before and I am in love! To me they have a very sweet orange taste.

This is our last night in the hotel – tomorrow we board the ship for the next 45 days.



dancers at dinner

Bangkok Day 3 - April 8

rose apples

Today was a day for laziness. Jet lag is still taking the form of early to bed, early to rise which is just fine with us. Today and yesterday we were up around 6! However today as we had no where to be we didn’t actually make it to the hotel’s included breakfast until about 9:30. The rest of the day was spent at the pool. The Shangri La pool is right on the Chao Phraya River which is an interesting place to watch the world go by. The Chao Phraya River has got to be one of the world’s busiest rivers. Water taxis, buses, hotel taxis, long boats and transport boats just scratch the surface of the boats on this river. All day long they are up and down the river. There is also the river’s wildlife…this pretty much consists of fish and birds, but there are actually fresh water crocodiles! Yesterday we saw a huge one on the shore while we were in a boat thankfully, but today we saw something that could have been a small crocodile, but was definitely some type of lizard right at the pool – about 2 feet long! Unfortunately (or fortunately) it didn’t stick around long enough for me to get a photo of it. 

tea sandwiches





dragon fruit



Lunch for us was afternoon tea of small sandwiches at the pool – still no sweets for me. This now brings me to the food here in Bangkok…I have definitely never been anywhere with such a wide variety of new and exciting food. I have heard of most of the fruit, but haven’t tasted it. Dragon fruit – good, I’d have it again…sweet, kind of dry, extremely cool appearance. Lamut – probably wouldn’t have it again, odd, texture like a pear, kind of tastes like a pear, weirdly brown flesh, looks like a potato. Rose Apples - very good, texture like an apple, smells like a rose, tastes a bit like an apple, but also like a vegetable, would definitely have again.  Everyday there is new fruit in the fruit bowl in our room.  We also get cut up fruit in the fridge in our room - today is mango - d-lish!!  Then there is the food at the markets. Here is where there are basically no fruits I have ever seen before and a TON of fish – mostly dried. A feast for the eyes rather than the stomach – we didn’t eat anything at the market.

Bangkok Day 2 - April 7

 

reclining Buddha

Well…where to begin about today??? Today was very, very full of sight seeing. We booked a guide for the 2 of us for the whole day which turned out to be a very good decision. Git (the guide) met us at 8:00 and stayed with us until we petered out at around 3:30. We intentionally booked a tour that involved public transportation, and our first mode was a water bus on the river (30 cents.) As we would find our as the day progressed a lot of the way we would get around today was on the river. 

outer area of Grand Palace

Our first stop was the Grand Palace. This was something like I have never seen before – nothing close…at all. The buildings - with their gilded glimmering statues was an awe inspiring sight. Really, of all the things I have seen in the world, this was awe inspiring. I could not drink it all in. We tried our best with the running commentary of our guide almost ignored for the sights before us. Although the king doesn’t actually live at the palace anymore the public isn’t allowed into the residence. We eventually made it to the temple where I made an offering and prayed.

 

Grand Palace

Next we took a long boat tour of a canal off of the river. This was a relaxing ride on a boat only for us. The breeze created by the boat was welcome as it was quite hot and humid – apparently today the high was 32. We stopped at one point where we fed a huge bunch of cat fish. They went wild for the food.



After the boat ride we visited another temple – Wat Arun. We were able to climb about half way up the temple on it’s very, very steep steps. Here we also see many, many Buddhas.



Wat Pho was the next temple we visited with its reclining Buddha. This is a Buddha that is something like 40 metres long – WOW. This is the temple we visited today that had by far the most monks in it. The first few monks we saw with their orange robes were noticeable, but after that they were pretty much everywhere and became normal. I spent some time dropping 108 coins in 108 bowls. These represented the 108 reincarnations the Buddha goes through to get to nirvana – quite a cool experience.

Grand Palace

offering at Grand Palace





long boat we rode through the canal

Lunch was at a typical Thai restaurant (more about the food tomorrow) and shopping. The shopping starts at what resembles what I know of as a shopping mall – departments store on one end with smaller shops in the mall part. We did a bit of shopping, but mostly feasted our eyes. The mall part is actually a market on 7 floors where you can barter. One of the floors is dedicated solely to cell phones and cell phone accessories – I have NEVER seen ANYTHING like this. There are more cell phone covers to cover all the cell phones I have ever seen in my entire life – AMAZING. Our guide and I tried to convince Chris to get some bling for his Blackberry, but he couldn’t commit. We got to and from the mall by Bangkok’s new Skytrain. This is a very modern public transportation system with a station right by our hotel – very convenient.

Grand Palace