A Day in Bangkok

Last week I went on a tour to Bangkok

The city is inland so we had to take a bus about 2 hours into the city.

On a short bathroom stop about half way in I went into the 7-11 and found a bottle of the original RedBull. Thailand is the country the energy drink was created in, and where normal at home a can costs around $2-$3. In Thailand a bottle costs you around 30cents.

Once we got to Bangkok we first went to do a riverboat ride.

We went down the river in one of the many boats you see on the river that use a large engine on the back and a very long propeller.. We were told that they are using modified truck engines.

Our first stop was the Temple of the Dawn.

The temple is amazing and consists of 4 surrounding towers and a larger one in the center.

This temple was built in the 17th century.
And you can climb to about half way up.  The stairs get very steep as you get near the top and it is a bit scary they way they go strait up rather then spiral, so there is nothing behind you as you go up.

Our next stop was one that was part of an episode of The Amazing Race.

The task was to feed fish in front of a temple on the river.
There are tons of fish and there are lots of boats who come to feed them.  Nobody catches the fish in the areas of the temple. So the fish are free to eat without fear, so there are hundreds that show up when a boat stops.

Location The Amazing Race stopped.

Our last stop was the Grand Palace of Bangkok official residence of the King of Siam.
It is also home to the Emerald Buddha statue.

The Emeralds Buddha is made of a single large piece of jade.  The statue has a long history from is creation in India, it was moved to Sri Lanka in 457 to escape a cival war.  A king of Burma asked to burrow the Buddha to promote Buddhism in his country and on the return trip the ship it was on shipwrecked in Cambodia.  Then the king of Siam captured Ankor Wat in 1432.  It was taken to various cities in Thailand, was hidden by covering it in plaster to keep it from being stolen, only to be found again after a lightning strike caused it to fall and knocked off some of the plaster covering.
It finally came to rest in the Grand Palace in the 1700's.

This Palace is also the location where Anna Leonowens stayed. Who wrote the books that were the inspiration for  the Musical The King and I.

Merry Christmas from Slippingthelines

Singapore Slinging

After a 3 month long crossing of half of the world, we arrived in our new home port for the Asia season; Singapore.

Singapore is a small island city state of 7 million people.  The total size of the island is only 24x14 miles.

A lot of new land is being created by land reclamation. Including the area we docked at, which is a new port for cruise ships. It is so new that looking on google maps you will still see the area under construction and mostly still water.  In fact the rest of the new land is under construction for new buildings and the only finished area is the terminal building for the ship.

We were going to stay for two nights in Singapore and I went on a city tour on the first day we arrived so I could get a good overview of the area.

Our first stop after a drive through the city was at the old British quarter and landing site of Thomas Raffles who founded the British Trading port in the area.  What was once a river filled with small fishing boats is now the area of the tallest building in the city.

We took a boat cruise down the river passing Singapore's statue the Merlion a half lion half mermaid which is the symbol of the city.

The city has many interesting building including the Singapore Flyer, a Ferris wheel that is the tallest in the world, at 42 stories it is 30m taller then the London Eye.
In the water were thousands of plastic beach balls.   They are Christmas wish balls.  People buy them and write down messages then put them into an area of the bay that is roped off for them.  I saw many people in town with them and they could come up to people and ask them to write something.

Afterwards we went to the Raffles Hotel, which is one of the very high end hotels in the city, and reminded me of the Empress Hotel in Victoria.

The hotel which my grandfather once stayed in during the 1930's is where the drink the Singapore Sling was invented.

The drink was invented at the Long Bar in the hotel by a bartender around 1915, and if you want to pay through the nose to get that drink from its original home and mixed like they did in the early 1900's then come on down to the Long Bar.

Thankfully one Singapore Sling was included as part of the tour.  Even though I later got the full experience including having to pay for the drink when a few friends and I went back to the Bar the next evening.

Our last stop was a Trishaw ride through Little India.  A trishaw is a bike with a 2 seat rickshaw compartment attached at the side.  Rather then from behind as you see more often.

The whole tour was a fun way to see the city and enjoyed the mix of old and new aspects of the city.

A Day In Bali

The first time our ship docked in Bali was going to be a hard day to get off the ship due to the long tender ride required to get into port.

Our 2 days in Cairns a few days ago has similar issues so most crew were told that getting off the ship might not be allowed.

Thankfully I was on a tour so I was able to get off the ship in the morning.

The tender ride was a lot easier then I expected.  There were some delays getting all the tours off the ship but once we were off things went smoothly.

Our first stop was to a family home.  Traditional homes contain many generations in one place, and are large homes spread over a area.  Each one will include a temple of some size.  

 After that we went to a place called the Sacred Forest of the Monkeys.
This is a small forest that contains many temples and statues of monkeys.  And also about 300+ monkeys walking around all over the place.

You could buy bananas to feed to them if you wanted but I didn't want to be harassed by the monkeys who would smell the food.

A cool dragon bridge over a river.

Monkey with baby monkey

The main temple was very large and impressive.  Nobody could go in past the main gate, but it allowed some good pictures without other people getting in the shot.

A friend of mine told me not to have anything in my pockets and no hat of sunglasses on.  Because it was just asking for them to get stolen by the monkeys.

I watched a lot of times where people had monkeys jump up on them looking to get into their bags or trying to get the food the were carrying.   It was funny to watch, but I guess the person who was being jumped on might not have thought so.

 This one monkey didn't want to get off the lady after it jumped on.

Afterwards we went to a lunch spot at a resort on the local river.  It was a really nice spot overlooking a lush valley which gave a nice view as we ate. 

Our timing of tour was good as just after our lunch it started to rain very hard for about 2 hours.  At our last stop which was a shopping stop I took the above picture.  The water you see was not a pond but the walkway between the huts. So it was good we didn't have to walk around outside at that time.

Darwin and the Jumping Crocodiles

Darwin Australia is the largest city in the Northern Territory.

While it is a small city its location on the north of the country made it the target of Japanese bombers during WW2.  It was attacked by the same Japanese fleet that attacked Pearl Harbour a few months before.

Darwin also has a history of large cyclones destroying the city. Most recently in 1974 where Cyclone Tracy destroyed 70% of all building in the city.

Also despite being named after Charles Darwin, he never visited the area, but was named in his honour by a former shipmate of his.

I was on a tour again today.  This time to visit the river and see the large jumping crocodiles.

We drove to out to the river where the crocs live.  There are 2 types that live in the area, which the locals call Freshies and Salties.  Freshies only are found in fresh water and are smaller, salties are actually found in both fresh and salt water, and are much larger growing up to 6 meters in length and weighing 1000Kg.

There are many attacks by crocodiles in the area, and many people die each year.  Despite the risk many people will still swim in the water go fishing and other activities that put them into contact with  crocodiles.

Our guide was very strict with our group.  Saying that everyone must stay on their side during the feeding, so as to not unbalance the boat, and he would drive away from the crocs if people did.

They wouldn't take any chances, and once we got to see the crocodiles up close I can understand why.

 The crocs are territorial so the guides knew the areas that some would be found.  The first one we saw came up to the boat very quickly , it was very large and was known to the guides.  They called him Michael Jackson.  We got a couple of good jumps out of him before we moved on to the next section of river

 My seat was on the lower section of the boat, and right at the middle so I was able to get some really good pictures and even with a small window separating me from the crocs I was still within feet of them.  At times it looked like they were more interested in us then the food they were using for bait.

The guides used buffalo meat on a pole to entice the crocs to jump.  Some took a bit of time before they went for it.  And we always got a few jumps out of them before they caught the food.

We also saw a type of bird called a raptor.  They would catch bits of meat thrown into the air in their talons and then they would feed it into their beaks while still flying.   There were a lot of them as well flying very close to the boat.

We saw a fair amount of crocs. Most of them were around 4 meters, which is quite large.  I enjoyed watching them from the safety of a boat, but I could never imagine getting into the water if I thought one might be nearby.

A return to the Great Barrier Reef

When I learned that our ship was going be in Cairns for an overnight, I was very excited to have another chance to go to the Great Barrier Reef again.

At the end of my first contract I was able to take a few days to fly to Cairns and go out to the reef a few times.

But my plan hit a snag when I found out that our times in the port were very poorly planned as far as being able to book a tour from the city to get out to the reef, as many leave early in the morning and return in the afternoon.  But we arrived to late the first day, and left to early the seconds day.

I tried to get a crew tour organized, but that was not able to happen either.

It was looking like I wasn't going to make it this time.

But last in the first night I was talking with the shore excursions manager who was able to fit me on the guest tour that was leaving very early in the morning.

So at 5:45am I was in the theater ready to go.

The reef site was about 90 minutes from the ship.  We took a boat to a pontoon that was anchored by a section of reefs.

I spent many hours snorkeling all around the reefs.  I saw tons of fish a turtle, and the coral was really amazing.

These pictures are from a semi-submersible I rode after lunch.

I have some underwater pics too, but I need to get them from my friend who has the camera.

Brisbane, Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise

Brisbane is a port in Australia that I had never been to before. So I was happy to get onto a tour that gave a good overview of the area.

First there was a quick drive through the city on the way to our first stop.

Brisbane is Australia's 3rd largest city, and the Capital of Queensland.

Our first stop was to a winery about an hour out of the city.   The winery was interesting, having many wild kangaroos living amongst the grapevines.  We did get to see a few of them while we were there, as well as trying many of the wines they made there.

After that we stopped for lunch at one of the oldest pubs in the area.
The St. Bernard's Hotel was named for the old dog who can be found sleeping somewhere in the pub or often blocking the entrance.

I eventually found him sleeping in front of the bar.  Making it a bit harder to walk up and get a beer.

The Pub is situated at the top of a hilltop overlooking a valley.

After that we left for the Gold Coast.  Home to beautiful beaches like Surfers Paradise.

I was very excited to get into the water.

The beach stretches on for miles. And was full of swimmers, and surfers.

One thing I noticed was the lifeguards being very aggressive in keeping people between the flags.  Which made for these dense clusters of people in one short section of the water, then a long empty stretch before the next lifeguard area..

It did make it a bit harder for body surfing due to having to watch for people in front that you might crash into if you catch the wave.

I wish I had more time on the beach but we had to leave after about an hour, to head back to the ship.