At Sea

---

I am so far behind in my reports, as the internet has been down for a few days. I won’t be able to write ~everything~ that has happened…….but will try to remember most.

Three Days Ago………
WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON
Yes we are now known as Trivia Champions. Yesterday was the last day of Trivia for this part of the cruise. At the moment we are heading towards Malacca, and will get there in another hour or so. We were told last night that there are only 32 people staying on the ship after Singapore. Luckily only 2 from our Trivia Team will be leaving….the others leave in Dubai, so we will have to form a new team then.
I haven’t been able to get an Internet connection for a few days. Oh yes, what wonderful prize did we win? Well I was expecting at least a World Cruise, but no….it was a Seabourn Tote bag…..will have to go buy stuff now to fill it!

Well we thoroughly enjoyed the 5 sea days; don’t get any long stretches like that for the rest of the cruise. I think the longest will be 3 days. The seas have been extremely kind to us for our first ever cruise. We passed Singapore just after dinner last night, the lights looked beautiful, but we were too far from shore to be able to take photos. We will be back in Singapore in a couple of days so hopefully I will be able to get a couple of pics then.

Last night we had the Captains Reception where he spoke about the cruise, and said thank you and good bye to those who would be leaving in Singapore. This was followed by another Formal night and on the Menu was “Lobster, Lobster, Lobster” Didn’t have to think about what to order very long at all!
After dinner was another concert by Martin Lass the violinist. He is so brilliant, it’s a shame he will be leaving the ship so soon. We bought one of his cd’s for our grandchildren, who both play violin, and he signed it for them. It may be a long way beyond their simple tunes at the moment, but I thought their music teacher might enjoy it.
We ended the evening in the Sky Bar watching the lights of Singapore as we passed by and chatting with a few of our “new found friends”. It will be sad to see some of the people leave in a couple of day’s time. The traffic on the Malacca Straits has been almost as busy as a highway, but not one pirate in sight!

Well since I wrote the last piece, we have had a day in Malacca. We did the “Plantation Tour”

When we woke this morning we were anchored off Malacca. We ordered room service for breakfast so we wouldn’t have to rush so much, and I don’t know if I made the mistake filling out the room service form, or if the kitchen made the mistake…..but everything we ordered had been DOUBLED! I got FOUR boiled eggs…John got FOUR poached eggs plus all the other bits and pieces. Have to be more careful next time I order something!

The ships tenders weren’t used today to take us ashore. We are anchored a mile off Malacca, so they used local tenders which could take a lot more at a time. We went on the Plantation Tour which first took us to a fishing village for a photo stop .Next we went onto a Rubber Plantation and learnt how to tap the trees etc. The owner gave out seeds of rubber trees for people to take home, but we had to refuse, as we would end up in jail for taking anything like that back home! As we boarded the bus we were given cold bottles of water and cold towels. Next stop was a Palm oil plantation but all we really saw were the trees from the bus! Wasn’t quite what I was expecting. We were allowed to get off the bus and look at the palm trees….but…..It was nice to see a bit of the countryside, but the tour guide had very poor English, and we really didn’t have much clue what he was saying. I don’t like to criticise someone’s lack of language skills, when ours is non existent, but they really need to use people with better English. Got back to the City, and were given 20 minutes to look at a couple of historic buildings. We were then taken back to the jetty, and told out tour still had 40 minutes to go, so we could go look at other stuff on our own! Most people headed straight back to the tender, and back to the ship. We went for a little walk to try to buy some souvenirs, but there was nothing in that area that we wanted. I wish now we had just gone on our own for the whole day. As we were driving along I saw some fantastic fabric shops….but didn’t have time to try to find them again. Headed back to the jetty to catch the tender, and were really surprised to see one of our young waiters, with a table set up with cold drinks, fruit punch etc. It was a lovely Seabourn touch!

I don’t think I have written about our day in Borneo either….that was last Thursday.

Well after 5 days at sea, which we thoroughly enjoyed, today at 6am we reached Kuching, Borneo. We went up to the top deck early to watch the ship docking etc. Then it was off for a nice long breakfast, as our tour didn’t leave till 11.15am. We were very surprised we didn’t have to go through any sort of Customs check either getting off or getting on the ship. We drove out into he country side, to a village of “longhouses” All the homes are built above ground, and all joined together with bamboo walkways…..it was very hard to walk on, and I kept thinking I was going to fall through! There were big gaps in the bamboo, and safety standards aren’t the best in Malaysia. We weren’t allowed to take photos of the people, as they believe a camera can steal your soul. There were cats everywhere, so of course I had to pick one up……poor skinny kitty, was very friendly….probably not the smartest thing to do, but I was having a “senior moment” and didn’t even think of animal diseases.
Next we went to the orang-utan sanctuary…. They live in the rain forest, and mostly collect their own food…….but some come down to platforms to be fed. Just before 3pm. We started to see a few of the trees bending and swaying. Saw a couple of mothers and babies, just in the rainforest, then went to the feeding platform…a HUGE male orang-utan came down….never seen anything so big…he is the local dominant male, the keepers wont go near him. His name is Richie and has been at the Sanctuary for nearly 30years, he was rescued from a poacher when he was 3 years old.
We all nearly died of heat exhaustion today, we just dripped and our clothes were soaking wet by the time we got back to the ship.
I have just put my photos on the computer and are very disappointed with the orang-utan ones……we weren’t allowed to use flashes…..and the quality is very poor…..…I’m sure I will never get back here again.
We missed lunch today because we left at 11.15am…..they did put on a special brunch for us, but was too soon after breakfast. We were starving by the time we got back, but there were platters in our room with cheese, biscuits, fruit, cakes, and a sandwich. We were still hungry so ordered room service of cheeseburgers, fries and beer….of course then we didn’t want dinner!


We have just returned from the Veranda Café, where we had our last lunch for this part of the cruise. Matin Lass joined us, and he told us he would be performing on a Crystal cruise in a couple of week’s time……I suppose we will have some new entertainers arrive tomorrow.
………………………………………………………………………………………….

Well because of Internet problems onboard all this was written days ago……we are now half way across the Andaman Sea on our way to Sri Lanka.

Our last Port was Penang…..we decided not to do a tour, just sightsee on our own. The ship provided a shuttle bus to a local shopping mall. The Malaysian shopping malls aren’t quite like ours……more like stalls inside a concrete building….most weren’t even open……I did see some nice scarves but didn’t grab one…..I should have as I will probably need one soon for mosques, temples etc. They were really lovely and only about $3. There was a Starbucks there, so had a coffee while we decided what to do next. Thought we would get a taxi to Chinatown to try and buy some fabrics. Some blokes with very run down trishaws wanted to take us, so in the end we relented and got a trishaw each……bet their legs were sorry later! First they took us to Chinatown. I was in the first trishaw, which of course meant if anyone was going to get killed; it would be me who slams into the trucks or buses first! In Malaysia they drive on the same side of the road as we do,…….well some of the time anyway……here I am sticking out in the front of a trishaw, on the WRONG side of the double lines, with all the oncoming traffic headed straight at me…..I prayed a couple of times that my drivers leg muscles don’t cramp, pretty desperate action for an atheist! Somehow they get those things around corners without killing all the tourists. I was relieved when we reached Chinatown and were still in one piece. We were taken to a fabric shop, probably owned by one of the drivers cousins….I saw some material I liked…was 30 Ringgits a meter….that’s about $10……started choosing some, only buying a quarter meter at a time……the owner kept telling me “take your time” and trying to usher me further into the shop……luckily I looked up and noticed the price got dearer and dearer the further I went into the shop….I started backtracking to the cheap stuff……think he was disappointed that I wasn’t as dumb as he thought…..anyway got about 6 pieces of brocade….its fraying a lot, so hope I can use it. One of our drivers disappeared for a while, but when he came back, they took us to Little India. Once there I told them we would just stay on our own….not to wait for us. Think they thought we would hire them all day! Found lots of lovely stuff in Little India…..would love to buy a sari to use as a bed throw, might get one in India. I found some material for 12 Ringgits a meter…..about $4…..it is apparently “blouse material”….so you are supposed to buy the correct amount to make a blouse…..when I asked for 1 meter….they just looked at me…..somehow they didn’t think a meter would make a blouse for me!! I couldn’t make them understand what I was going to use the material for…..they just thought I should be buying ten meters to make a blouse!...In the end they just gave up, and sold me a meter of 4 different ones…..We enjoyed Little India, and as long as you didn’t look down into the drains, it smelt wonderful…..incense and curries…..couldn’t risk eating there though, but are looking forward to Little India in Singapore when we go back there. At last we will know the food is safe there. Indian music was playing everywhere…..well now it was time to head back to the ship…didn’t want another trishaw, so looked for a taxi……an illegal one spotted us looking lost, so signalled to us….John tried to negotiate a price….got to 20 Ringgits…..I negotiated with a legal taxi….got mine for 10 ringgits….I won!

Hope I can keep getting good internet connections and manage to keep this blog up to date, as I will need all the info when I get home to write my journal! I haven’t written in that since Day 1…..

---