Cruise Day #5 - At sea

So today was our rest day - no tours, no walking, just a lounge chair in the sun for Gwen and a lounge chair in the shade (with Kindle) for Patrick.

View behind Gwen on the 11th deck.

Gwen's location for the day - had it all to herself.

After dinner we were back at the R Bar for Patrick to get a Black Forest Cake Martini for his birthday.  Patrick's Mom typically made that cake for him on his birthday - this year he drank it.  Matthew asked what our favorite desserts were, and he happened to have made up a recipe for Black Forest Cake.  Yum.

The next morning we were up early and back to the Singapore airport - if we had planned a little better we could have seen a movie at the theater in the airport or walked thought the butterfly garden - amazing airport.  But Patrick got his feet massaged, and we worked on finishing our respective books.

A ton of beautiful orchids everywhere.

It was a wonderful trip to new places.    Back to Hong Kong.

Cruise Day #4 - Phuket, Thailand

Today was Phuket.  We decided to just check out the town today - no planned tours.

The ship anchored in a bay, and we had to tender to shore.  We got to shore - pushed away the pushy taxi drivers and walked around town.  We found a coffee shop with wifi and realized why they kept telling us on the ship to "stay on ship time" - we changed time zones.  Instead of 10:30 it was only 9:30 - which explained why all the shops that opened at 10 - were still closed.

We did find a nice massage place, where we each had 90 minute massages for around US$20 each (gotta love it).  Then we walked some more until we found what looked like a hawker center from Singapore and ate a Thai lunch.

This town definitely caters to the Aussies - ton of bars claiming to be Australian.

Here are some of the sights around town:

Looking back at the ship from shore.

Massage shops everywhere.  This is NOT the one we went to - just funny.

Here is your gas station.  Apparently this is enough for the motor bikes.

A Sinha beer after the massage.

Patrick and his mango smoothy.

Tiki hut bars - I am sure this place is hopping at night.

Spring roll appetizers

Gwen's Pad Thai

Patrick's Yellow Curry

Views of Phuket from the ship:

Tonight's dinner was in the main dining room.  Sorry - no pictures.

After dinner we found out way to the "R Bar" and met Matthew.  Patrick saw Matthew on the internal TV giving a talk that morning about his Tiramisu Martini, so we had to go check it out.  This guy is absolutely amazing.  Gwen had a Tiramisu martini, and after a bit of conversation, Matthew figured out Patrick loved more traditional Martini's and made him an authentic "Vespa Martini".   You may have heard about it from Casino Royale.  To shorten a long story - Kina Lillet has been reformulated several times, but Matthew found two original bottles, and he was willing to share a bit from his private stash.   The only switch was Patrick likes olives... not a lemon twist.   Good times.

Cruise Day #3 - Langkawi, Malaysia

Our second stop was in Langkawi, Malaysia.  I did some research on this port, and none of the ship's offerings interested us.  I found a Nature Bike Tour, but it was only offered early in the morning due to the heat.  Our ship did not dock until 10am.  So, we decided to do a Mangrove boat tour.  Little did we realize how amazingly cool this would be.

There was a driver to pick us up at the port and take us to the mangrove where we met Jerome.  We ended up being Jerome's only guests at this time.  So, we had a private tour.

View of Langkawi as we were heading to the dock.

Langkawi is 104 islands at low tide and 99 at high tide.

View of the dock.

1st wildlife sighting - Monkeys

2nd wildlife sighting - Pit Viper sunning himself in a tree.

We started at low tide - so we could see all the roots.

Monitor Lizard - sunning himself.

The river.

There is a Red-Wattled Lapwing (a cool bird) in the middle of the picture.  Our guide called back and forth with him.  It's tough to see him in the shot.  

Coming out into a bay.

Part of the trip was pretty fast, so everyone wore life jackets to be safe.

Off in the distance you can see Thailand - the guide's cell phone switched over to Thai service.

Brahminy Kite - which some mistake for an eagle.

Lunch stop on the river

Our restaurant.  It's called "Hole in the Wall" because that area used to be a cave. 

Tuna in the fishery next to the restaurant

Patrick with a horseshoe crab

Patrick petting a sting ray after feeding him.

Grouper

Last stop was a bat cave.  Literally.

One last pose in the mangrove.

One last monkey looking for hand outs.

 Some views from the ship:

Dinner tonight was at Izumi (Japanese).   I only shot one picture of the hot stone course - you cook your own veggies and meat (seafood) on a ridiculously hot slab of rock.  Can't believe you have to cook your own food.  Makes it hard to send it back if it's overcooked.  Another great day.