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Retired, Gardeners, Golfers, Skiers, Travellers, enjoying the good life in Collingwood, Ontario Read more Collingwood, Canada
  • TravelerDubai to Singapore
    Day 26

    Tokyo

    December 22, 2023 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 1 °C

    December 22. Singapore, Tokyo, Chicago, Toronto, Collingwood.

    Well, it had to come to an end sometime. Up at 7:00am for disembarkation at 9:00am and were taken to The Intercontinental Hotel with a room for the day until our flight left at 10:30pm. After checking into a very beautiful room (we all wished we could stay there longer) we set off and finally found, with considerable difficulty, (because the Concierge gave us the wrong information) the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus station and took the Red Route which lasted about one hour. We were fortunate that we got on first so we could sit together on the area of the top deck that had an overhead awning to protect passengers from the sun and frequent rain showers. Fortunate, because it did pour rain for about five minutes, but we didn’t get wet. Once back to the original starting point, Lee and I took the Yellow Route which took us for 45 minutes around a different route. After that, Don went back to the room via the Hop On Hop Off bus and Lee took the hop on hop off bus to the Gardens by The Bay that Karen sent Lee a link to just the night before. Back to the hotel for a short time and then we were picked up for a relaxed, personal van ride to the airport. What an airport Singapore is. It’s immense! And sparkly clean! The check-in process went very smoothly and interestingly, the route to the boarding areas is through The Jewel, which is an enormous shopping plaza with all the high end name brands. We quickly found our way to the to the business class lounge and enjoyed a few drinks and some nibbles before the Japan Airlines flight boarded at 10:00 pm. Before boarding a visit to the washroom was in order and what an eyeopener it was. In the first place, they had enormous showers, and then there were the toiletts. The seat was heated and quite warm. I wanted to turn it off but looking at the wall mounted control, I was afraid that I would either receive a "rear" or "front" waterjet wash, or a hot air blow dry or all of the above. And I didn't think the bidet setting would have been a good selection either.
    After boarding, we had what seemed like a long taxi run before we took off for a 6-1/2 hour flight to Tokyo.
    The plane was a Boeing 787 known as the Dreamliner and the business class seat configuration seemed larger than on Air Canada, so it was even more comfortable. The meal served was of Japanese style…. and it was a bit different.
    After landing in Tokyo, we had to change planes for a 5 1/2 hour layover which was made somewhat more agreeable, once we found our way to the business class lounge. Still can’t figure out all the time changes but it was sometime in the morning so the beverage selection was not as appealing as previously but the food was good. On our take off, the view of Tokyo was quite spectacular and we could see Mount Fuji, at 12,400 feet, in the distance.
    Our flight to Chicago was another JAL 787 and we finally settled in for our 13-hour flight. After landing in Chicago, we had to change planes again with a 1 ½ hour layover. The 1 ½ hour flight to Toronto was uneventful except for it being a small, 50 passenger, Canadair plane, economy class, and not at all what we would have expected from Regent. We will be sending them a note to be sure.
    Our friend Swatty picked us up at about 12:30pm and we dropped Peter and Heather off and arrived at our house at about 3:30PM. We were pretty scrambled from all the travel but did some unpacking and decided that if we were to stay awake long enough for the arrival of Karen and Rob, coming to spend Christmas with us, we should go grocery shopping to prepare for our family Christmas dinner for 14. We stayed awake until Karen and Rob arrived at 9:15pm, and after a short visit, we retired after a very long two days of travel.

    Summary of trip
    -27 days: 5 days pre cruise in Dubai and 22 day cruise to Singapore
    -total distance travelled: 21,620 miles. 16,936 by air and 4,690 miles by sea.
    -Blog: 17,399 words
    -380 photos posted in blog.    Read more

  • TravelerDubai to Singapore
    Day 25

    Singapore

    December 21, 2023 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    The tour name for today was "The Round Island Tour". Our guide’s name was Ignacio, or Iggy

    Our first stop was the Tiong Bahru Market, a traditional wet market (because most of the floors are wet; no dry goods or textiles) offering a staggering variety of fresh foods and fish and meat. The meat is refrigerated, and they have regular inspections to make sure they’re meeting the requirements and if not, they’ll be shut down. Many of the vendors said good morning or hello and were very welcoming. There was no problem taking pictures and some of the vendors even posed for us. On the way out, we noticed a sign that said “No Touting Allowed” that means that they’re not allowed to follow you around or lure you back to their stall.

    Our next stop was The Kranji War Memorial. Here there are graves of 4,461 Commonwealth forces casualties of the Second World War, who were killed by the Japanese during their attack on Singapore on Feb 9th, 1942, in a battle known as the Battle of Singapore. The superior numbers and strength of the Japanese troops and air support, overwhelmed the Commonwealth fighters and they were forced to withdraw. Of the 4,461 toombstones, 850 mark the remains of unidentified soldiers. There are also 64 graves from the First World war.
    At the top of the hill side cemetery is the Singapore Memorial which bears the names of over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth land and air forces who have no known grave. It was a very sobering visit, seeing the vast number of graves of those mostly young men who died at the same time and for the same cause. Our guide told, in considerable detail, the stories of three separate names inscribed on the memorial whose bodies were never found. It was quite shattering! For one of the stories about two men, he said that there was a poem written, The Corporal and the Private. I was able to find it and it is a heart breaking poem about two men about to be assinated. The one tried to give himself up to save his comrade but they were both shot.
    The grounds of the cemetery were well cared for, despite problems from wild boars continually digging up the grass. The tombstones and the inscriptions were very clean because, as we saw during our visit, they regularly clean them with pressure washers.

    Our next stop was at the Bright Hill Temple, Singapore’s largest Buddhist temple. Also known as The Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery was built in the early 20th century to promote Buddhism and to provide lodging for monks. A notable feature of the monastery is a Bodhi Tree which was brought as a sapling from the sacred Bodhi tree at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, which was itself brought as a sapling from the sacred Bodhi Tree of Bodh Gaya, India where Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment.
    The large bronze Buddha statue located in the temple's Hall of No Form is one of Asia's largest Buddha statues, with a height of 13.8 metres and weighing 55 tons.

    For our last stop, we had a walking tour around an amazing shopping and recreational complex called Tampines New Town. It is an enormous complex, providing the 250,000 residents of the 70,000 condominiums in the area with a single source for any goods, service or activity they could possibly need or want. There were indoor and outdoor pools both for recreational and competitive swimming, soccer fields, indoor running track, education facilities, a children’s playground, libraries, dancing classes, etc, etc. They even have a service area where you can do your passports, and pay for parking fines. They also have enormous TV screens, as well as performance stages in the middle of the mall. It only costs two or three dollars to come and spend a whole day in this complex with access to everything.
    The Tampines New Town residential district has received the United Nations world habitat award for being an outstanding human settlements area.

    Interesting facts about Singapore

    -Conscription starts at 18 for two years and you have to come back every year after that for a maximum of 40 days fitness and military training.
    -If you do not pass the fitness test you are required to come back for training two times a week and once on the weekend which makes it difficult for people and therefore encourages them to be in shape in the first place.
    -Singapore is very green as it gets 90 inches of rain per year
    -It also has one of the highest lightning strikes per year. At the swimming pools as soon as they think there will be lightning, everything is shut down and everybody has to seek cover.
    -Drug laws. Apart from Singapore’s notorious ban on chewing gum, foreigners also associate Singapore with draconian drug laws, known to be one of the strictest around the world. If you are convicted of trafficking controlled drugs containing more than 250 grams of “ice”, ( crystal meth) you will face a mandatory death penalty!
    - The penalty for possessing drugs is a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment, or a fine of $20,000 or both. And as of 1 June 2023, the maximum penalties for the possession of the following controlled drugs, above certain weight thresholds, increased to 30 years imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane: Morphine, Diamorphine, Opium, Cocaine, Cannabis and Methamphetamine.
    -Buddhas that are all covered up are female, and those who show more skin are male. They all look a bit like females because they are supposed to represent patience, love and more of the female characters of life.
    -The real Buddha has his hair, sticking straight up, tied in a top knot. He has long earlobes, because he had much wealth and so wore lots of earrings, which stretched his ear lobes. When he received enlightenment, he removed all his jewelry but by then, they were already stretched. He is usually sitting with one hand touching the earth, saying that the earth is my witness, that I am not being tempted by worldly goods.
    -Singapore imports 95% of its food but by 2030 they want to have 30% of their food requirements produced locally
    -The government is currently reclaiming land west of the existing port to create a more updated port system that will be able to handle up to 65 million containers a year.
    -The tower by the science centre that looks like a lotus flower, is supposed to represent the welcoming hand to Singapore. It primarily houses communication equipment.
    -Four languages, English, Chinese, or Mandarin, Indian, Tamil, and Malay are the official languages, as well as the official language of your ancestors.
    -Singapore wants to be known as the Garden City of Asia and so they have planted many trees, flowering shrubs, and tropical plants throughout the city.
    -Massive land reclamation over the past centuries has merged many of Singapore's former islands and islets and has created a few larger ones. At present, Singapore has about 64 islands, with 3 being inhabited, including the main constituent Singapore Island.    Read more

  • TravelerDubai to Singapore
    Day 24

    Half Day at Sea

    December 20, 2023 ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    Wednesday December 20th at sea, arrived in Singapore at 6:00pm

    Very calm seas overnight and given the short distance between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore (331 nautical miles) the ship was only travelling at about 8kn compared to 18kn that would be normal. After breakfast this morning, we came to our senses and decided to cut our planned 2024 trip from Tokyo to Sydney (63 days) to Tokyo to Hong Kong (21 days)
    We had time after that to play a few holes of mini putt with Peter and Heather but then got rained out so down for lunch.
    We had some leisurely time on the pool deck where it was a screaming hot 34C., not surprising because Singapore is only 88 miles north of the equator.
    Due to rain the ship was about half an hour late docking in Singapore. We had a quick dinner at 5:00pm and then rushed off the boat for our tour, only to go through a very long immigration check into Singapore.
    Our first stop was at the Singapore Flyer, a gigantic ferris wheel which is somewhat like the London Eye only bigger. At 550’ high, it is 100’ higher and 100’ feet wider than the Eye. There are 28 capsules that hold 28 people each and it takes 30 minutes for each, very smooth rotation. Two of the capsules are complete with tables and chairs for weddings, dinners and cocktail parties. The views of buildings of Singapore, lit up at night, were stunning.
    The next part of our tour was a boat cruise around the Singapore River that started at Clarke Quay, one of the five quays along the river but this one was party central. As we walked along the boardwalk to our boat, the pubs and restaurants were brimming with people, partying, and dancing to very loud music. Each restaraunt seemed to have their own entertainment so walking along exposed us to a variety of lively music. The river cruise was equally stunning as we saw the totally lit up high-rises from sea level as opposed to looking down at them from the Flyer. There was also an insane adrenaline opportunity on the G-Max Adrenaline Bungy. The bungy falls from a height of 264 ft. at speeds of up to 120 km/h.
    On the drive back to the ship, we enjoyed the impressive Christmas lights and decorations that are part of the annual " Christmas on a Great Street" celebration, now in its 40th year.    Read more

  • TravelerDubai to Singapore
    Day 23

    Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    December 19, 2023 in Malaysia ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    Tuesday December 19th, 2nd day in Kuala Lumpur

    More facts about Kuala Lumpur

    -Ikea locally manufactures furniture from Malaysian rubber wood trees.
    - when Chinese marry an Indian they are called Chindian.
    -13 States. Flag has 14 stripes. Used to be 14 states. Now 13 and one federal state.
    -Each state has its own flag. There is always yellow in the flags.
    -Royalty always wears yellow.
    -Each state has a sultan(monarch)
    -Hibiscus is the national flower
    - Popular fruits are Durian( tastes like heaven, smells like hell), mangosteen, rambutan.

    Before we got off the ship this morning, the captain announced that our next port of call which was to be Bintan, Indonesia had been cancelled due to difficult tendering issues, so that will give us one more day in Singapore.

    Our tour today was a 5 1/2-hour tour called “Kuala Lumpur Highlights”

    The first stop, the mosque Masjid Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, more commonly known as the Blue Mosque, is the largest mosque in Malaysia. With its blue-and-silver dome measuring at a massive 106 meters in height, flanked by four 140-meter-tall minarets, and the two-story prayer hall inscribed with various Koran verses, the Blue Mosque is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur.

    The next stop was Thean Hou temple, a six-tiered temple of the Chinese sea goddess Mazu. The temple was quite large, ornate, and colourful. Around the outside, they had statues of the animals that represented your year of birth. Each Chinese lunar year has a Chinese zodiac sign animal. As it turns out, Don is a goat and Lee is a dog, neither of which we found very flattering.

    Next was Sri Kandaswamy Temple, another unbelievably ornate temple. We were not supposed to be able to go in, but Lee was able to remove her shoes and to go in. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside. Apparently, there was a wedding, and they were pouring stuff over their heads, accompanied by the worst music you’ve ever heard and a deafening ringing of bells. Our guide told us the ringing of bells was supposed to attract God, but I told her I thought the bells would scare him away.
    We then drove to Kings Palace, the official residence of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the monarch of Malaysia. It is located along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim (formerly Jalan Duta) near Taman Duta, northwestern Kuala Lumpur. The palace opened in 2011 and replaced the old Istana Negara which was located at a different compound in central Kuala Lumpur.
    The palace complex has an area of 26 acres, has 22 domes, and is split into three main portions: the Formal Component, Royal Component and Administration Component. Because of this, there are 3 entrances to the Palace. The main entrance is for Diplomats and Government Head, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and wife. The second entrance serves as a main entrance for the Royal Guests and VIP. The third access is meant for the general public, including the Palace Administration's Staff.

    Next, it was off to Tun Abdul Razak memorial, the residence of the second Prime Minister which was originally known as the Sri Taman Building. This building was later turned into a museum to commemorate his services and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on May 6th, 1982. Tun Abdul Razak had lived in this building since 1962 until he died in January 1976.
    This memorial displays materials belonging to Tun Abdul Razak himself and also materials related to him. The exhibition is divided into two parts. The first part is the exhibition at Bangunan Sri Taman which exhibits about 650 materials and can be categorized into three large groups namely archive materials, museum materials, and library materials.
    The second part displays about 1580 materials about Tun Abdul Razak's involvement and activities during his tenure as Minister and Prime Minister of Malaysia. Peter, Heather, Lee and I thought it was all very boring!
    Next on to the Independence Square which is situated in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. To get there, we had to walk across 8 lanes of traffic so it was quite intimidating. It was formerly known as the Selangor Club Padang or simply the Padang (meaning "field" in Malay) and was used as the cricket green of the Selangor Club (now the Royal Selangor Club). It was here that the Union Flag was lowered and the Malaysian flag hoisted for the first time at midnight on August 31st, 1957. Since then, the Independence Square has been the usual venue for the annual Independence Day Parade.

    The Gombak River is a river which flows through Kuala Lumpur. It is a tributary of the Klang River and the point at which they meet up in Kuala Lumpur is called the confluence of two muddy waters and through translation, somehow gives the city its name. As important as it is, visually, it was not a very featured “feature” and we only had time to get a distant photo of the location.

    The next stop, at the 88-story high Petronas Twin Towers, was the highlight of the day. They look like side-by-side silver rocket ships, and they have extensive, arching water fountains in front of them, which makes for great selfies and picture taking. In 2011, a Frenchman, Alain Robert, nick named Spiderman, fastened securely by a safety line, snuck past security guards and began his climb to the top. After 6 hours, he surrendered to the police on the 60th floor. He has climbed 70 of the tallest buildings in the world. You can Google him.
    There is a bridge type observation deck between the towers on the 42nd level at 558 ft. above ground and a restaurant on the 86th floor. The space is rented to upscale retail stores as well as to some of the largest companies in the world, including Microsoft, Boeing, IBM and Reuters. There are a total of 29 elevators but the the main bank of lifts is in the centre of each tower. All main lifts are double-decker with the lower deck of the lift taking passengers to even-numbered floors and upper deck to odd-numbered floors. To reach an odd-numbered floor from ground level, passengers must take an escalator to the upper deck of the lift.
    There is a 1 km long, air-conditioned walkway that leads from the convention centre in the building to downtown shopping.

    We often wondered, how it is that all these tall buildings don’t collapse or fall over. Well, I found out that for the Twin Towers, the foundation was 100 feet deep, with 104 piers standing on a 15 foot thick concrete pad, each consisting of 470,000 cubic feet of concrete that was poured continuously for 54 hours……for each tower!

    Once back on the ship, it started to rain, but we were able to have a light but late lunch on the deck protected by the awnings. Because of the cancellation of our scheduled stop in Bintan Indonesia, we have an unexpected day at sea tomorrow, which because it’s been quite hectic lately will be well appreciated.

    As the ship left Port Klang for Singapore, I sat for a bit on our veranda and was struck by the number of cargo ships each carrying enormous quantities of shipping containers, one of which passed us going the other way, and must have only been 150 yards away.
    Mild thunder and lightning in the distance made the time even more enjoyable.

    Tonight, as a pre-farewell party, the ship’s crew performed a 40 minute stage performance with singing and dancing. What made it so remarkable was that these were not members of the entertainment group. They were from all different departments like laundry, housekeeping, security etc. and it was incredible the skills that they had.

    Dinner tonight was at Prime Seven, which is the upscale restaurant on the ship, and during the course of the cruise, we made friends with many of the servers. Saudi, a male server, in particular, gave Heather a tongue in cheek scolding for not ordering enough food. Rack of lamb was our favorite, consistently delivered to perfection according to our rare, medium, and medium rare requests.
    The entertainment tonight was by a ventriloquist, who was a very humorous performer. A lot of his routine related to our own personal life experiences, as well as on board ship experiences.
    Peter, Heather, Lee and I were tired and packed it in at 11:15, looking forward to a leisurely breakfast and relaxing day at sea tomorrow.    Read more

  • TravelerDubai to Singapore
    Day 22

    Kuala Lumpur

    December 18, 2023 in Malaysia ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    Monday December 18th, Kuala Lumpur ( Port Klang) Malasia

    Port Klang is the largest port in the country. The port is located about 38 km southwest of Kuala Lumpur which is the capital of Malaysia. Our drive took us on a 90 minute drive from the cruise terminal to the city and was punctuated by skyscrapers, colourful food stalls and streets shaded by the leafy canopy of huge Banyan trees.

    Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the largest city of Malaysia. The city serves as the cultural financial and economic center. It is also home to the parliament of Malaysia and the Instana Nevada, the official residence of the Yang Di Pertuan (monarch of Malaysia)
    In the year 2020 the population was 2 million in the city and 8 million in the greater Klang Valley.

    Some interesting facts

    -The three main races are Malay, Chinese and Indian.
    -There are 9 Malay states and 9 rulers each called a king. The nine rulers elect one king to reign for 5 years.
    -The religions break down as 70% Muslim, 25% Christian, and the balance is of mixed races.
    -Rubber is very important as is Palm oil, used mainly for cooking and also used in cosmetics.
    -The fruit that grows on the Palm Oil trees is similar to dates and grows continuously. They extract oil from the fruit at factories and the faster you extract the oil after picking, the better quality the oil.
    -Indonesia and Malaysia make up over 85% of the global supply of Palm oil.
    -Compared to other vegetable oils the oil palm is a very efficient crop, able to produce high quantities of oil per unit of land. However, the conundrum is that Palm oil has been, and continues to be, a major driver of deforestation of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, destroying the habitat of already endangered species like the Orangutan, pygmy elephant, and Sumatran rhino. This forest loss, coupled with conversion of carbon rich peat soils, are throwing out millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.

    -Malacca was first settled by Indians. 1400 was the start of spice trade. Then Dutch in 1600, British in 1796. And after the spice trade slowed down, tea became the most important comodity.
    -The Malaysians who came from India were originally Hindu but then were converted to Muslims by the spice traders.
    -Putrajaya Mosque is called the pink mosque because it is made out of pink granite. The minaret has 5 columns representing the 5 “commandments”. Pray 5 times a day.
    -Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. This year it will take place from Sun, Mar 10, 2024 – Tue, Apr 9, 2024. During Ramadan, Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset which is supposed to make them appreciate what going hungry is like and to know how the less fortunate feel, which encourages them to donate.
    -Every Friday Muslim men must go to mosque for prayers which takes 5 to 10 minutes. For lunch hour on Fridays, Muslims get extra hour off from work.
    National Philosophy
    1) believe in God
    2 )respect constitution and king
    3) be morally upright
    4 )love one another
    5) collaborate with everyone

    We saw a big statue-like silver hand , each finger representing one of the 5 philosophies.

    One of our tours today was visit to the Putra Jaya Botanical Garden. The emphasis was on Orchids, every size, shape and colour, both on display and for sale. It was unfortunate that we only had just over an hour there and part of the time was spent helping out a lady who had a bad fall while getting off the bus.

    Our next stop was a brief photo stop at the Putra Square. Putra Square is the city square in Presint 1, Putrajaya, Malaysia. The square has been used for festivals such as the Malaysian Independence Day parade. The 300 meter circular Putra Square is bounded by Perdana Putra, the Prime ministers office, Putra Mosque, Putra Bridge and the Promenade Shopping Mall.

    The national flag of Malaysia flies high on a flagpole in the square, surrounded by flags of each of its States.
    Designed as two concentric plazas surrounded by Putra Perdana Park, the circular ceremonial area is an open hard landscape encircled by Charbaghs, ( Persian and Indo-Persian quadrilateral garden with a layout comprising four gardens) Inside the Charbagh are a traditional interplay of paths, water channels, flower beds and trees.
    The Square is divided into 11 segments, in the pattern of an 11-pointed star. The outer 11-pointed star represents the 11 states of Malaya when the country gained independence in August 1957, the inner 13-pointed star represents the 13 states of Malaysia and the 14-pointed star includes the new addition of the Federal Territory. The progressive arrangements of the different pointed stars finally culminate in a circle at the centre of the Square. The circle symbolises the ultimate goal of unity.

    Since our tour ended at about 2 o’clock, we had time to play a round of mini putt on the top deck. The entertainment for tonight was a movie which we had seen before and decided to leave after about the first 15 minutes.    Read more

  • TravelerDubai to Singapore
    Day 21

    Penang, Malaysia

    December 17, 2023 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Sunday December 17th, Penang Malaysia

    Penang, with a population of 1.74M is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. These two halves are physically connected by the Penang Bridge and the Second Penang Bridge.

    Miscellaneous information:

    -There is normally a 70 percent or more turn out to vote.
    -Malaysian govt. subsidizes petrol, sugar, flour, rice, and cooking oil.
    -Electronics manufacturing is very high.
    -Tourism is also a key industry.
    -Penang is said to be a three and one experience. You can come here and experience Chinese, Indian and Malaysian food all in one place.

    Our tour today was called " The Grand Tour of Penang." We stopped first at the Kek Lok Si Temple, home of ten thousand Buddhas.
    The architecture of the temple tower is a mixture of three countries. On the top it is Burmese, in the middle Thai, and at the bottom Chinese. There was lots of incense burning (irritating smell to us after a while) and gold statues. It is one of the largest and finest temple complexes in southeast Asia. On our drive to the temple, we saw a large group of men with black robes walking along the road. We were told that these were monks who were going to have a ceremony to initiate them into the temple.

    Our next stop was at a spice and fruit market. The stop was a perfect setup for a disaster. The road had only two lanes and the busses took up all of the one lane. That meant that the remaining lane had to be used for traffic coming both ways and all of us tourists viewing the fruit stalls. Don got bumped on the arm from a car coming from behind. The selection of spices was huge, and our guide did a great job of showing them to us, allowing for smelling and tasting.

    We went to Entopia- The Voices of Nature. Entopia is divided into two distinct areas. The one area called Nature Land contained the butterfly building, the world ‘s first butterfly farm established in 1986, renovated and reopened May 2, 2016. It had about 15,000 free flying butterflies made up of 60 different species. They were everywhere, and the nice thing was that they had laid out blossoms on low racks and the butterflies would land on these blossoms and you could see them up close and take pictures. They even laanded on our clothing.There was also an area called the Cocoon with over 150 species of fauna and 200 species of flora on display in recreated open air natural environments, for all sorts of living spiders, lizards, frogs, snakes, and other reptiles in their natural environment. Fortunately, all of the exhibits had excellent descriptions in English.

    On our approach to the location for lunch, Don noticed a sign that read Batu Ferringhi and he said, this sounds familiar. As we drove through the entrance gate, there was a sign showing the resorts name “The Golden Sands” and Lee said I think this is the hotel we stayed in 30 years ago! After arriving Lee found out that it was built in 1979, which confirmed it. Before we left, Don walked down to the beach through the swimming pool and children’s play area, and it was as fabulous as we remember only bigger. We were quite excited about the memory.

    Our last stop was at the Chung Keng Kooi Mansion. Chung Keng Kooi was born in China, created a fortune and lived a wealthy man until he died in 1901 at the age of 74. It was believed that he held properties valued at 10 million dollars. He owned ten tin mines and several farms. His family continued to live in the house until it was requisitioned by Japanese officials during World War Two. No one lived in the house for more than 60 years and it fell into disrepair. Peter Soon, an architect by profession and also a very wealthy man bought it in 2000 and restored the home as closely as possible to its original condition. It is filled with priceless pieces from the Victorian age.

    We returned to the ship and spent some time on the deck, swimming and in the hot tub and then went down for wine and canapies in the Navigator Lounge before dinner in the Compass Rose. The show for tonight was a ventriloquist, whose name was Jerry Goodspeed. He was very good.    Read more

  • TravelerDubai to Singapore
    Day 20

    Langkawi, Malaysia

    December 16, 2023 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Langkawi, known as the Jewel of Kedah is a duty-free island and an archipelago of 99 islands in the Strait of Malacca, located some 30 km off the coast of northwestern Malaysia. According to one interpretation, Langkawi means island of the reddish-brown eagle. In Malay, Lang means eagle and Kawi means red stone. There is a 39ft. high statue of the eagle in Eagle Square, but unfortunately we did not see it.

    The tour today was called “Cave and Mangrove Adventure”

    The tour started with a one hour drive to the Kilim jetty. Here we boarded a boat, and headed out to a fish farm where we saw all manner of fish, including a manta ray which you could touch and feed. There was also a large pen of very large, ugly Grouper, which I may never eat again!

    Next, we headed off to a quiet section of water to see what they called eagles. In fact they were not eagles but native Red Kikes and Sea Gulls (the guide joked that these Sea Gulls ate fish whereas the ones we know from back home, eat French fries). They attract the birds by throwing pieces of cut up fish in the water behind the boat, then revving up the engine to create a loud noise as well as a large plume of water. The noise and the splashing is a recognized signal that attracts the birds that quickly fly out from their concealed perches in the mangrove trees, and swoop down to pick up the food from the surface and quickly fly away again. He told us that during the pandemic, when there was virtually no tourism, many of the birds died because they were so used to being fed, they lost their instinct to actually catch live fish. As a result, the guides try to keep the feedings at a minimum, so only one boat in a group actually throws the food overboard.
    Next, we slowly motored through narrow channels lined by mangrove trees with their exposed roots. Mangroves are tropical trees that thrive in conditions most trees could never tolerate , as outlined before.
    At one point, we nosed into the mud bank and the guide, having picked a few stems of immature mangrove trees at the fish farm, showed how to plant them. Lee took a turn and dropped the stem from the bow of the boat, so it stuck in the mud. Apparently in 3-4 months it will be several feet tall.
    The next stop was the cave, actually a tunnel, through the base of an island where we were to see hundreds of bats clinging to the roof of the caves. At that point where they were hanging, it was very dark and the flashlight of the guide closest to us, did not provide enough light for us to see them. Peter and Heather, however, saw lots of them. Moving along, the cave got quite high and wide in the middle but then narrowed significantly towards the exit. At that point, it was so shallow, we almost had to crawl on our hands and knees to get through. One of the guides was right behind me and coached me through with his hand on my back to keep it down so I didn’t scrape against the ceiling.
    After the bus returned to the pier, it was a fair hike to get back to the ship which then left for Penang, Malaysia at 5:00pm. The entertainment tonight was by Chris Ritchie, described as being one of the UK’s most sought-after vocalists. He did some great impressions of Tom Jones.    Read more

  • TravelerDubai to Singapore
    Day 19

    Phuket

    December 15, 2023 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Friday, December 15, another day in Phuket Thailand

    We were berthed today, beside what looked like an enormous ship called Mein Schiff, a German cruise line, but when I looked it up on the Internet, I found it only had 2500 passengers compared to our 490. I thought it would be interesting to compare the size against the Royal Caribbean ship that we had seen previously, that held 4,900 passengers had they been side by side. After researching further, I learned that the ship line was a joint venture between Royal Caribbean and the German owned TUI cruises, who were about to launch the inaugural cruise of their Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise vessel in the world, holding, wait for it……. 5,610 passengers and 2350 crew/staff.

    Up at 6 AM for 8 AM departure for an 8 ½ hour tour to Phang Nga National Park for our cruise around Phang Nga Bay. We took this boat tour in 1993 and it was spectacular so we were hoping it would be the same today for Peter and Heather. Unfortunately, because of where the boat was, compared to where we stayed previously, it came with a 2 hour drive, which we didn’t expect. Fortunately, the bus was very modern and comfortable. The traffic was quite bad leaving the core, but after that, it returned to normal. One of the fun things we saw along the way was pickup trucks on the way to work, with up to 15 workers sitting all crammed together in the truck bed.

    Remembering that Phuket is an Island that is only 21km long, we had to cross the half mile long Thep Krasettree Causway to get to mainland Thailand and the National Park. The park includes more than 42 limestone islands formed over 300 M years ago, jutting straight up from the ocean, to heights of up to 350 feet, and in every imaginable shape and form. Just when you think you have the best possible picture, you round another island only to see an even better view. It is a photographer’s dream.
    The boats are powered by outboard motors that have very long drive shafts which extend out behind the boat, rather than the traditional straight down into the water type. They are very noisy, but besides requiring a fair amount of physicality to control them, allow the boats to move right along while at the same time making them quite maneuverable, a real benefit when in shallow water. Along the way there was a cave/tunnel through the bottom of one of the islands and our driver carefully negotiated our way through the cave that had only about 10’ of headroom at the entrance.
    Another interesting deviation was to slowly motor through narrow channels, lined by up to 30 varieties of mangrove trees with their exposed roots. Mangroves are tropical trees that thrive in conditions most timber could never tolerate — salty, coastal waters, and the interminable ebb and flow of the tide. With the ability to store vast amounts of carbon, mangrove forests are key weapons in the fight against climate change. The largest amount of mangrove coverage in the world is Indonesia where mangrove trees cover some 12,000 square miles which is more than twice the size of Jamaica.

    The most popular island is Kao Ping-Gan, the James Bond Island, with its iconic limestone karst rising straight up between two islands, featured in the James Bond movie “The Man with the Golden Gun” from 1974. Another striking feature of the island is a huge slab of rock that many thousands of years ago, sheered away from the cliff and slid down onto the beach forming a wedge-shaped passage (it housed the entrance to Scaramanga's lair in the movie)

    The next stop was at Muslim Gypsy village on Koh Panyi. This 200-year-old community was amongst the first to be settled in the bay. They built their village on stilts above the water. During the day, the tour boats bring hordes of tourists to see the village and the temple and have lunch. They are totally self sufficient and have a school, public health center as well as a large floating football stadium that is listed as one of the most fascinating football stadiums around the world. In the middle of the island was an incredibly beautiful Mosque which stood in marked contrast to the rudimentary buildings on the rest of the island.
    The entertainment for tonight was a movie which we had seen before and decided to leave after about the first 15 minutes.    Read more

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