Komodo Island, Thailand and Malaysia

Komodo Island was a big draw for us with this cruise because we wanted to see the Komodo dragons and take pictures of them for our grandkids. The entire island is a national park with Komodo Dragons of all sizes roaming around. You need a guide with a long stick to protect you because a dragon can kill deer and buffalo with its venom. They consume the entire animal - bones and all. 

Our next stop was Phuket Thailand after 3 days at sea. We traveled around 4200 miles over a 14 day period of time. 

We only had one day in Phuket so we took the tour that included an elephant ride. I just couldn't go without that ride under my belt. 

Our tour in Phuket included temples and a cashew nut factory in addition to the island safari. 

The next stop was Penang, Malaysia. We decided to wander into town on our own because the city was next to the pier. We wandered for about an hour and then couldn't take the heat any longer. The temperature was over 90 degrees with extremely high humidity. A tricycle was going down the street looking for riders so we hopped right on.

Our cute little driver drove around the streets to show us the modern graffiti painted in several area throughout the city.  The entire city is a UNESCO site.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was our last stop on the cruise. The Batu Caves were the most popular tourist attraction in addition to the KL tower and the Petronas twin towers. Of course, our tour included all of those attractions.

We climbed all 272 steps and found later that if we climbed all the way to the caves that all of our sins would be forgiven. I guess we were good for that day!

Some of the adorable children all dressed up for a special festival at the caves.  

These are the twin towers.

The KL tower is about number 7 or 8 tallest in the world. Our own Canton tower here in GZ is number 2 in the world after Tokyo. 

We arrived back in Singapore and had a nice 4 hour flight back to GZ. We are home right now resting up for our next adventure. We leave for Hong Kong again next week and will then visit SW China, Cambodia and Vietnam over a period of 19 days. We are a little concerned about dirty clothes!

Singapore and Cruising to Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia

Rick and I planned a cruise from Singapore to Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.  As we were planning our excursions we decided to visit the wild animal park here in GZ instead of in Singapore or other areas. I have to say that Chimelong Wild Animal Safari Park here is fantastic. We have white tigers, koala bears, kangaroos, African animals, panda bears, etc., etc.  These are just a couple of pics from the zoo.

I've decided that my new favorite animal is the koala bear because they are so cute and look right at you. 

We left for Singapore on New Year's Day and had almost 4 days there before our cruise left for Bali. We had a great time in Singapore and were even able to attend church there on Sunday morning. We had a wonderful visit and would like to return some day. 

Some of our favorite things in Singapore were the Gardens by the Bay and the Singapore Flyer. The gardens had two huge buildings and one of them was an enormous cloud forest with waterfalls and all. 

The Singapore flyer is a giant Ferris wheel like the London Eye and the new one in Las Vegas. Great views at night!

Fun, fun, fun city with lots to do and see with every kind of food that you can imagine!

Our next adventure was in Bali where we spent 3 days after traveling for 2 sea days. The population is around 5 million and the majority of the roads are 2 lane only so you can only imagine what the traffic was like with cars, motor bikes and buses everywhere. One of our favorite spots was at a hotel overlooking a large lake and a volcano.

We also enjoyed seeing the many Hindu temples and other local sites.

We sailed with Celebrity Cruises and we felt that most things were excellent except for the Internet service. We had a cabin with a balcony and we used it every day to see the sites right from our room. We were on the right side of the ship so we were able to watch as the ship came in and out of port as well as the sunrise each morning. 

The next blog will be more about our 2 week cruise.  Coming up next is Komodo island and then Thailand and Malaysia.