Asia Trip: Langkawi, Malaysia

Although we arrived in Langkawi, Malaysia early in the morning we took it pretty easy and didn't leave the ship until lunchtime. We headed out to the shopping strip at 12:30 on the ship's shuttle service. On the strip we stopped at McDonald's to attempt to get WiFi (no luck, but the ice cream made getting lunch less urgent), picked up Malaysian currency for the next few days, and then walked out to look for lunch. 

We ended up stopping at a nice, open restaurant and splitting prawn pad thai, a chicken cashew curry (with a red sauce, not as good as in Phang Nga) and green papaya salad. The restaurant had a cat that begged for food in a very charismatic manner (but got nothing from us). 

We took our time walking back to the shuttle, and stopped by the stunning beach. It was a great, inexpensive, afternoon outing. We were back in our stateroom washing off the sand and humidity by 3:15. The beaches so lovely, and the cost of food so reasonable that Langkawi made it on to our list of future vacation destinations.

Asia Trip: Phuket, Thailand

Our ship docked in Phuket, Thailand early in the morning, but we actually spent the day in the adjacent province Phang Nga. It was nearly a 2 hour trip by bus across the island of Phuket to the mainland (joined by a short bridge). There was plenty of time for our guide to tell us about customs of Thailand and how he lost his job as a coconut harvester because they have trained monkeys to harvest coconuts. We drove past rubber plantations, and it was interesting to see that they plant pineapple in the rows between the young rubber trees so that the plantation is producing something before the rubber can be tapped.

We switched over to a long tourist boat at the pier in Phang Na bay, then spent a few hours on the water touring the islands.

We boated through a limestone cave, and took a few pictures of the island used in James Bond, "The man with the golden gun".

We then stopped at a fishing village held up on stilts in the water. The guide and the material for the tour called it the "Muslim fishing village" because all the people who live there are Muslim. They clearly cater to tourists - one side of the village is restaurants with piers for the long tour boats. Through the restaurants, there are shops selling all sorts of souvenirs (pashminas, shell or pearl jewellery, ice cream bars).

Then we boated back to the pier for a tasty buffet lunch. Particularly good was the chicken cashew stir fry. There were also fresh lychees and other (hairy) berries to sample.

Asia Trip: Singapore

(If you just want to see the photos, click on the first one, and it will bring up a slideshow).

We went on a cruise through parts of southeast Asia from May 27 to June 6. Our ship departed from Singapore, so we flew to Singapore a couple of days early in order to see and eat a little bit more. We stayed at the Fairmont Singapore which was nicely in the middle of everything downtown. Our first night, we were tired and stayed in at the hotel but tried taking photos from the balcony.

The contrast between the air conditioning and the hot, humidity outdoors was enough to fog the surface of the lens:

The next day, we walked down Bridge Road to Chinatown. It was painfully hot in the sun and uncomfortably hot in the shade, even though it was still morning. We didn't take pictures of ourselves because we were sweaty, but we had a really good time taking photos of the architecture and goings on in the area. 

Even the back alleys are scenic and tidy

Selfie sticks were everywhere.

Our destination was the Maxwell Food Centre in general, and specifically its famous chicken rice. We got there around 11 and weren't hungry at all, but we got cold drinks (I had a fresh pineapple juice - it was amazing). We loitered, enjoying the cool drinks, but opted to wait a few hours for lunch and come back another time. 

It's easy to know where to find the best food -- look for the longest queue.

On our way back, we stopped at the DigitaLife mall to pick up a spare battery for one of the cameras and bask in the air conditioning. Dave was in heaven (six air conditioned stories of electronics stores). We grabbed lunch at a cafe in the mall that did Malaysian street food - I had delicious roti with curry and satay. Dave had spiced chicken. No photos due to hungry eating.

Back at the hotel, I got some poolside reading done while Dave researched plans for the evening. From the balcony, we spotted our ship pulled into port, ready to go the next day. 

After evening canapes at the hotel, we set out for downtown proper to have a drink at OneAltitude, the world's highest alfresco bar and photograph the Marina Bay Sands light show from there. Of course, en route we had to stop and visit the merlion. 

First light show of the night.

A short walk, and 60$ later we were up very high with a couple of gin and tonics and a bunch of other tourists. This was one of those instances where you know it's a tourist trap, but it's so worth it. 

Taking a selfie was pretty much all anyone else was doing either.

Our hotel is right behind the tall round tower in the centre.
You can see the tall and shorter towers at the edges of the frame in the top photo. 

Second (and last) light show of the night.

The light show is for the people staying at the Marina Bay Sands hotel (pictured).
They project designs down onto the bay with the lasers. Of course, it's set to sound.

After the light show, we walked back to the hotel. The next day was bright and sunny while we packed up and made our way out to the cruise terminal to head out to the next destination.