Phuket, Thailand-The Pearl of the Andaman Sea

A crowded beach resort town.  The beach in town doesn’t seem that inviting.  Perhaps the higher end hotels have private beaches with more appeal.  The streets are lined with food stalls, open-air bars and restaurants, motor scooter rentals, diving and snorkeling shops, and tour operators. 

Gasoline & Fruit Shake stand

I’m baffled as to why it draws such crowds.  I think the answer is that everything is cheap.  Cheap Thai food, cheap tours, cheap taxis, cheap hotels, cheap wares.  Probably a good place for Thai seafood.  It’s plentiful, but we’re only here from 7 AM to 1PM.  

Our tour is billed as a panoramic drive.  That it was-a drive.  Two and a half hours in the bus to 45 minutes at two sites.  They take us to another temple.  This one is new.  It’s colorful but has no history.  I don’t get in because my knees aren’t covered today. 

Then we move on to the south point of the island for a scenic view. 

Back to the bus, back to the tender, back to the ship.  Ahhhh.  We have 2 ½ day off before Chennai, India. 

I’m beginning to whine.  I apologize.  Needless to say, I’m not signing up for the 245 day cruise in 2019-2020 that they’ve just told us about.  Any takers?

Say Goodbye to Malaysia

It’s been a long time from the first Malaysian city to the last: 

3/2- Kota Kinabalu and Mt. Kinabalu

3/27-Putrajaya

3/28-George Town (Penang)

George Town has a British history and retains that influence.  It’s named a UNESCO World Heritage site for its blend of colonial and Asian architecture.  

Our guide on the “3 hour tour” was a comedian, but wasn’t a very good guide.  We only covered a five-block area and he inconveniently had the driver pull over when there was nothing to see and drive by sights that deserved more attention.  He delivered us back to the ship after about an hour and a half.  

We decided not to explore any further on our own.  That was probably a mistake.  I guess we’re getting burnt out.

Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative city near Kuala Lumpur

Port Klang is at least two hours outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Although, I’d like to visit the Twin Petronas Towers, I don’t want to spend half the day in a bus again.  

We’ve opted for a trip to Putrajaya.  This “Intelligent Garden City” was created by Malaysia’s first Prime Minister in order to move the administrative duties of the government out of Kuala Lumpur and to make travel to meetings more convenient.  All government offices and government employees’ homes are located around this man-made lake.

It’s raining today as we take a boat ride around the lake.  The Islamic influence is apparent in the architecture.  Also, we’re seeing more hijabs and full burkas here than we’ve seen anywhere else.  The call to prayer rings out as we drive away.

It’s been a relaxing day.  We hear fellow passengers grumbling about the congested highways on their trips into Kuala Lumpur, and we’re happy we made the choice we did.

Singapore Sling

Invented by a bartender at the Raffles Hotel around 1915, today a Singapore Sling will cost $25 at the Raffles Hotel.   I had one on the ship for $0.  Tasty.

1 1⁄2 ounces gin

1⁄2 ounce cherry heering

1⁄4 ounce Cointreau liqueur

1⁄4 ounce benedictine

4 ounces pineapple juice

1⁄2 ounce lime juice

1⁄3 ounce grenadine

1 dash bitters

The Raffles Hotel is named after Sir Thomas Raffles, a British statesman who founded Singapore as a trading post of the British East India Company.  Unfortunately, the beautiful colonial façade was covered with scaffolding as it’s undergoing a restoration.

Singapore is an island at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula.  It gained independence from Great Britain in 1963 and became part of Malaysia for a brief period before it broke away and became an independent city state.  The only other city states are Vatican City and Monaco.  Singapore is often ridiculed as being a “nanny state” because of the strict codes of conduct and laws prohibiting chewing gum and littering, for example.  It’s a beautiful city to look at and it’s evident that infrastructure and green spaces are thoughtfully planned.

We’ve decided to purchase hop-on-hop-off bus tickets instead of going on any of the ship’s tours.  There’s a short shuttle ride from the cruise port to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel complex where we and our friends, Sandy and Allen, hop on.  We ride along on the open-air second level of the bus and admire the modern architecture and green spaces of Singapore.

We make the full circle on the yellow line and hop on the red line, heading toward Chinatown.  At Chinatown we explore and randomly choose, from hundreds of choices, a restaurant to have some lunch.  A thirty page menu with pictures offers frogs legs, catfish, and the welcome Tsing Tao.  Our Szechaun beef is delicious. 

After lunch we wander the colorful streets of Chinatown and find some bargains.  I discover a camera shop that has a good price on a zoom lens for my Lumix camera, my “good” camera that I brought along but haven’t used once because I can’t zoom as much as I can with my iphone.  I  decide to return to the ship to get my camera before buying the lens.  So, Bob and I part company with Allen and Sandy, ride back to the ship to grab my camera and a Singapore Sling, and hop back on the bus.   

At the intersection of the red and yellow line, we hop off to wait for the next bus and then realize that we’d just taken the last bus of the day.  It’s only 6:30, but we abandon the idea of going back to Chinatown.  Instead we head on foot toward the Marina Bay complex, walking the busy Esplanade, past the Helix Bridge, and the Science Museum, taking pictures all along the way as the sunlight fades and the city lights come on.

The Marina Bay complex consists of the hotel, a huge shopping mall and Gardens by the Bay.  

Gardens by the Bay is a convergence of public gardens, architecture and sculpture on 250 acres of reclaimed land at the waterfront. 

That morning, before the hop-on hop-off, we’d considered buying tickets to walk the causeway that runs through the Supertrees Grove, but learned that you’d wait for an hour to ascend and could only stay for fifteen minutes.

The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands is three levels of high-end shopping and dining.  It’s colorful and bustling.  We explore for a while before deciding to go up to the Sky Park on the 56^th floor of the hotel. The 56th and 57th floors span the three towers that make up the hotel.  Also, up here are restaurants and bars and an infinity pool that covers the full length, the largest infinity pool in the world.  Unfortunately, only hotel guests can access that area. 

From the observation deck we watch a laser show in the lagoon and take pictures of the lighted city below.

The next day, we have a few hours left on our 24-hour bus pass, so we head out early to take in the Botanical Gardens and its famous orchid collection.  The gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and deservedly so, we discover.  So many flower pictures.  What a wonderful place.  After a few hours of admiring the gardens, we convince the hop-on driver to accept our expired ticket and let us back on the bus so we can get back to the ship in time for sail away at 2PM.

Singapore was great.