I Can't Believe We Ate There!

First Sea Day, Penang, Phuket, Langkawi

Day 3: Sea Day

As anticipated, our stop in Colombo, Sri Lanka has been cancelled because of the bombings. However, the cruise line is replacing it with a different port-of-call. We are now going to Langkawi, Malaysia after Phuket, Thailand. The arrangement of the sea days are a bit different because of the changes, but the number overall will stay the same. It’s disappointing that we will lose that country to add to our list, but on the other hand, I’ve been hearing that Langkawi is beautiful, so I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.

On our first sea day, we started our workout with the enthusiasm of a New Year’s Resolution. The gym is very nice and the open ocean is a great view to look out on while I’m torturing myself. My legs were pretty tired from all of the walking over the last few days, so I didn’t overdo it on the treadmill. Instead, I spent some time trying to tone up my weak arms. Hopefully, we’ll keep at it, but check back in week three.

Overall, our first day at sea was relaxing—just what the doctor ordered. I got some sun by the pool with a Miami Vice cocktail to keep me cool, I finally got in some reading, and in the evening, we had dinner in the Asian specialty restaurant. Before coming aboard, I was cautious about how good the food would be--after all, it is a British ship--but so far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

After dinner, we went to the show. It was pretty much what you’d expect from a cruise show: Entertaining, but no great talents being missed by the Voice or American Idol.

Day 4: Penang, Malaysia

Today we went on our first shore excursion with the ship. We took a bus to Penang Hill where we boarded a funicular train (think train/elevator) to take us to the top of the hill. There we saw a mosque and some old colonial homes. Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by the place and the air was really hazy so the pictures looking down were not so good. I found the people to be the more interesting than the views. At one point, a group of ladies wanted my picture with them, so I of course asked for theirs too. At least the temperature wasn’t bad up on the hill. Later, back in town, we would be sweating like crazy.

After Penang Hill, we were off to Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Chinese Buddhist temple in Malaysia. The temple also sits on top of a hill and it was a combination walk and lift to the top. Once we got there, it was a little more of what I was hoping to see on this trip. The photo I took of the female Buddha statue doesn’t really allow you to see how large she is. My guess is she’s over 150 ft tall. Quite impressive and beautiful.

After the tour, we were taken back to Georgetown where we got some local currency at the port so we could do some shopping and get lunch. Georgetown has been given Unesco Heritage status so the old colonial buildings can’t be torn down, only repaired and rebuilt. There were small areas that looked good, but a lot of the town was quite rundown.

We happened to be in Little India and many of the stores were selling beautiful saris and traditional Indian clothes. Before entering the stores there, people would take off their shoes and leave them outside while they shopped. We didn’t actually shop in any of those stores. Besides, I find what the street vendors are selling is sometimes more interesting.

Malaysia is a mostly Muslim country, but you see the influence of India, England, and China everywhere. Even most of the signs are in multiple languages.

Lunch was a bit of an adventure. We had a list of places to eat, and we were outside what is called a hawkers stall, which looked like it was on our list. A hawkers stall is a place where a bunch of street food vendors gather and this one was busy with locals eating. So we chose this as the place to eat lunch. Honestly, I don’t know what we were thinking. The food was really good, but this place was not for the faint of heart. And it was probably a really good thing we had Lynda’s food pills to take with our lunch. We’ve been taking them with all of our “local” meals to combat any gastro problems we might get. After we ate, on our way out, I saw the guy who made my soup rinsing out his dishes in the street. Yum. Lynda and I both looked at each other and laughed, “I can’t believe we just ate there!”

I kind of mentioned earlier that it was hot today. For someone who lives in the desert, I can take hot. This was hot and HUMID, and the sun was unrelenting. I’m pretty sure I lost 10 lbs in water weight today. When we got back on board the ship, we went straight to the Lido Bar by the pool and ordered 2 ice cold beers each. It tasted soooooo good.

We were once again exhausted going to bed. Luckily, we got a note under our door to move the clocks back an hour tonight so we got an extra hour of sleep. Yeah!

Day 5: Phuket, Thailand

Because of the change in schedule (Colombo for Langkawi), we now have some extra time in Thailand. We were originally leaving at 5:00pm, but now we have until 9:00pm to explore Phuket on our own after we get back from our ship excursion.

For the ship’s tour, we took a speedboat to an island known for its appearance in a James Bond movie: The Man With the Golden Gun. We pretty much beat the crowds which was great. On the way, we passed hundreds of small islands that just rise up out of the water. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, the day was really hazy again.

After James Bond Island (yep, that’s what they call it), we went to a 150 year old Thai Muslim fishing village that was built entirely on stilts. There are a lot of shops, a school, and a mosque there. Lynda and I both were talked into buying fans from a couple of cute kids. I think the fact that we were on our way to shedding another 10 pounds in sweat made us easy marks for them.

After the speedboat, we went to a buffet lunch where I tried some more food that I enjoyed, but have no idea what it was, then a bus ride to a gem store. This last stop was, as one of our traveling companions commented, “Retail hostage taking.”

At that point, Lynda and I decided to split off from the group to head down to the beach. Six other people joined us in sharing a taxi bus. We first went to Patong Beach. It’s a pretty crowded beach with lots of tourist shops and people everywhere trying to sell you something. It was fun though.

After walking around a bit, we caught a tuk-tuk to Karon Beach which our excursion guide had recommended for the restaurants and bars. We both bought a couple of small items from the shops then found a cute place for dinner. The seating in the restaurant was all outdoors and they had the fresh fish out front for you to pick for your meal. We had a green curry fried rice and a lobster in lime and chili sauce. It was delicious, and I even knew what I was eating for a change!

We took another Tuk tuk back up and over the hill to the “Deep Water Port,” where the Vasco da Gama was docked. I was getting a little worried as we thought it was very dark for the time and it took quite a long time to get back. On top of that, I wasn’t sure we had reset Lynda’s watch correctly for the time change. (Note to self: ALWAYS check the local time against watches before leaving the ship.) As it turned out, we had the correct time and got back no problem with time to spare. All that worrying for nothing.

We were both so tired again tonight. I swear, the “older folks” on board are up partying at night, while we are hitting the sack early. Maybe age doesn’t have anything to do with it.

Also, we have to move our clocks forward again as we head back to Malaysia tomorrow. Darn, losing that extra hour of sleep.

Day 6: Langkawi, Malaysia

Langkawi is a beautiful island. Or islands. An archipelago of 99 islands, it is just starting to promote its tourism industry which means it’s still a quiet, relaxing beach town. I felt Phuket was nice, but really, really busy. I was expecting a more calm, relaxing place. Or rather, Langkawi is what I thought Phuket would be like.

We did a ship excursion today. Our first stop was the Rice Garden Museum which I found to be only mildly interesting. I actually liked the information about how useful a coconut is the most. Believe me, there is a lot to a coconut.

Next we went to Mount Machingca and took the steepest cable car in the world to the top for some spectacular views of the islands. At 2323 feet above sea level, the top was in the clouds so visibility was intermittent. At the top there is a SkyBridge, a walkway across the top of the mountain. Of course, that wouldn’t be complete without the required clear Plexiglas panes that allow you to stand looking down over the abyss.

I’m going to digress a bit here to tell a side story: About a year and half ago, Lynda and I were in China. While there, we often were given some free time to explore on our own. When that happened, our tour leader, Cassie, would give us a meet up time and place. She also had a rule: If you were more than 5 minutes late for the meet up time, you had to buy the whole group ice cream. It was a perfect solution: Your rudeness had to be punished, and at the same time the group was rewarded. More than once we were rooting for someone to be that 6 minutes late so we would get our ice cream. Anyway, because of that, Lynda and I are always very aware of the time and we make sure we aren’t late in these situations.

Back to the present: We could have really used that rule today. First of all, because ice cream would have tasted great today in the heat. And secondly, because half the group was epic-ally late. Lynda and I made the 12:15 time with a few minutes to spare. But when we got on the bus it was practically empty! At first I thought maybe we had the wrong time. Nope, we didn’t. Even at 20 minutes late, half of our group of 32 still hadn’t shown up! Last person to finally board was over an hour late for the meet up time. And she had a drink she had bought!!! Seriously??? I guess the mix-up was there was a really long line for the lift to the SkyBridge (Lynda and I walked the stairs for that last part so we weren’t affected by it). But stopping to buy a drink on the way down, that was just too much.

When we finally got back to the boat, we still had a few hours left to explore, but because this was a port we weren’t anticipating, we didn’t have any plans. If we hadn’t been late getting back from our excursion, we could have rented a boat for a tour of the mangroves. Or done some island hopping. But we still hadn’t eaten lunch, and we would have to go into town to get some ringgits (local currency) anyway.

So we caught the free shuttle into town and walked around. It was a really nice area right on a lovely beach (Yes, lots of people from the UK and Australia have me saying things like “lovely” and “take the lift” instead of elevator). We did a little shopping, got something to eat, and even had time for some fried ice cream.

As we were pulling out of Langkawi, I went up to the top level of the ship and took some pictures. We didn’t get our boat ride today, but the sail-away at sunset was the next best thing. We had dinner at the Mediterranean restaurant with some new friends: Lo and Josh, and Bob and Lauren. Somehow we managed to find just about the only 20-somethings on board. It’s surprising, but there are a few them.

Now what to do for the next 4 days at sea before the Taj Mahal?