Rodney & Sheryl's Travels

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

3/20 - Porto Malai, Langkawi, Malaysia

Langkawi is the main island of the Langkawi group located in the Strait of Malacca, Peninsular (West) Malaysia. Langkawi is 18m (29 km) long and 10m (16 km) wide and rises to 2,887 feet (880 meters) at Raya Mountain. Though most of its inhabitants are engaged in fishing, the island is also intensively cultivated with coconuts and rubber plantations. Langkawi Island is well known for its beaches, waterfalls, hot springs, colored cliffs, historic caves and fishing grounds. Its steep-sided limestone hills are favored by climbers. The name Langkawi comes from two words meaning "eagle" and "strong" and the eagle is the symbol of the island.¹

We took the shuttle in to Pantai Cenang, a small resort area with duty free shops and beautiful beaches. We did a little shopping and walked the beach, collecting our bucket of sand. Although it was a beautiful area, it was extremely hot and humid, so we headed back to the boat and enjoyed the air conditioning and view from our room.

Sunrise

View from our verandah

Rodney, aka "Sand Thief Extraordinaire"

View from Pantai Cenang Beach

¹ Holland America Explorer

Monday, March 18, 2013

3/17-18 - Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Singapore has great public transportation which allowed us to roam the city easily via MRT (Metropolitan Rail Transit) and bus lines. It is very clean, and organized to a tee.

According to Jack Hanna (ZooLife with Jack Hanna is one of our favorite shows on Sunday morning), the Singapore Zoo is the #1 zoo in the world. So, rather than opting for the $30 Singapore Sling (no glass included) at The Long Bar in Raffles, we donated our tourism dollars to a day at the zoo! And it was money well spent. We're not experts, but we are animal lovers and have been to a lot of zoos in the United States and abroad. All we can say after visiting the Singapore Zoo, Jack Hanna really knows his stuff! Wow, what a zoo! What impressed us the most is the way it feels - it doesn't feel like a zoo at all. The enclosures are laid out in a way that makes them really look and feel like the animal's natural habitat. And some of the animals are actually free to roam, mostly monkeys and Orangutans. Our favorites were the Red Pandas, Giant Pandas, and White Tigers.

False Gharial - An ancient animal, believed to have been in existence for the last 65 million years.
Now endangered because of construction, land clearance, and water pollution.

Giraffes

White Rhinoceros

Red Panda

"Jia Jia" - Giant Panda (female)

"Kai Kai" - Giant Panda (male)

White Tiger

Pygmy Hippo - It takes about 10 Pygmy Hippos to make one Nile Hippo

Us @ Singapore Zoo

Friday, March 15, 2013

3/15 - Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang is the capital of Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Well known for its pristine beaches and excellent scuba diving, it is fast becoming a popular destination for international tourists (it is already very popular with Vietnamese tourists), attracting large numbers of backpackers on the Southeast Asia circuit. Nha Trang used to be a quiet fishing village and as little as to years ago it was still pretty sleepy, however, recent government and private investments have transformed it into a thriving beachside resort-town with a gorgeous beach promenade several miles long and a variety of hotels ranging from brand-new five-star venues along the waterfront to small, family run hotels.1

Definitely one of the nicest places we have visited in Vietnam. The beaches are absolutely gorgeous. After collecting our compulsory bucket of sand, we headed to Cho Dam (Central Market) where we wandered around the hundreds of little booths for about an hour. We relaxed at a little beer stand and enjoyed a Bia Saigon ($1.00 each!) before heading back to the ship. It was a very hot and humid day, so we were happy to get back to our little air conditioned room and just enjoy the view.

Entering harbor

Rodney trying to look nonchalant before stealing sand... :-)

Cho Dam Central Market

One of the round boats they use to get to their larger boat

View from our verandah

1 Holland America Explorer

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

3/11-13 - Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Three days in Hong Kong! We could spend three weeks here and never see everything we wanted to see! It is truly an amazing city.

Our ship was docked at Ocean Terminal. Connecting to the terminal is Harbour City, the largest shopping mall in Hong Kong with an area of 2 million square feet housing over 450 shops, more than 50 fashion & boutique outlets, three star hotels and 2 cinemas. It made Robinsons in Manila look like a mini-mall. We walked the mall for a couple hours over the three days we were there and never did see everything. It is filled with every name-brand boutique under the sun. They even have one entire floor dedicated to children's stores & boutiques—everything from Toys-R-Us to Armani Junior. I could have spent the entire three days right there at the mall. Fortunately for our pocket-book, there were too many other things to do!

This was our second time here on a cruise so we didn't do any ship tours, just did everything on our own. The first day we walked up Nathan Road through various markets and attractions. We had a wonderful Chinese buffet lunch on the 10th floor of the Shamrock Hotel. They just kept bringing out more and more various types of Chinese dishes and, of course, we had to try most of them. Everything was absolutely delicious!

The second day, we purchased a "Big Bus Tour" two-day pass and almost wore it out! The "Big Bus" is an "on & off" bus that runs various routes with stops where you can pop off and get back on one of the next buses. It included four trips on the Star Ferry, a Peak Tram ride, and a Sampan ride. We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island and rode the tour bus to Stanley Market where we made a couple of small purchases and collected our sand from the beach.

Our next stop was The Peak Tram ride. We had actually done this before on a ship's tour, so it was fun to do on our own this time. At the top, we had a late afternoon snack and drinks overlooking the city at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Then we wandered around and took pictures of the city and the harbor. We finished up the afternoon with the Hong Kong Island tour and then waited for the Night tour. We got back to the ship a little after 8 p.m., at which point we were on sensory overload! Hong Kong is a beautiful, bustling city with more skyscrapers than any city in the world—a bit overwhelming for us beach bums!

We took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island on our last day and again went to Stanley Market to get a couple more T-shirts that Rodney had purchased and really liked. We had to be back to the ship early, so we had an authentic Chinese lunch at a lovely little place called the Canton Deli in the Harbor City mall upon our return.

Now we need three days to rest up! Unfortunately, we only have one... cruising is a lot of work, but we're up to the challenge. :-)