CRUISE AROUND THE WORLD

24Mar Colombo, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka changed its name from Ceylon in 1972 and has been in civil war for many decades.

The war has not officially finished, but no passengers seem to be concerned about it as we were confident that it isnow a safe place to visit.

Our darling friends Renee and Rene joined usfor a day in Colombo.

John and Diane also wanted to go with us if we were going to hire a van taxi.

Six of us negotiated a van for 6 hours at the pier.

We asked Lala, the cab driver to show us around town and take us to a nice Hotel for lunch.

Lala was quite happy to hear that Greg and I are from Australia.

His son finished University in there and now lives in Brisbane as a resident.

He said that he is very happy with that and proud of him.

I found people in Colombo generally friendly and that reminded me of a gentle Sri Lankan man that I used to work with in Sydney many years ago.

Sri Lankans are made of 70% Buddhist;the rest is made of Hindus, Christians and Muslims.

It wasquiet and pleasant to drive around as it was Saturday morning and the city has relatively small population of 2 million.

Lala said that we are lucky in a way to avoid chronic heavy road traffics of work days.

I also thought that we were lucky with brand new Toyota van with cool air conditioning in a day like today with temperature of 35C.

We all agreed that we had such a nice and surprising day in Colombo includes very nice lunch at the Galle Face Hotel when we returned to the ship.

May wish peace settle in this beautiful country for good!

Welcome ceremony by local dance group at the pier

A beautiful Hindu temple that charges tourists nearly $20 for taking photo of interior

Buddhist temple built on Lake Beira

A wedding couple in Kandy traditional costume just arrived in the Buddhist temple for praying

An elephant residing in the Buddhist temple

Big Buddha

Inside of the temple wall statues

Countless Buddha statues around the temple court yard

And Temple backyard

Outdoor Theatre

Performing now…

Independence Memorial Hall

Exhibition & Convention Centre built as a gift to Sri Lanka by Chinese government

Historic beautiful Galle Face Hotel facing Indian Ocean

Galle Face Hotel at seafront promenade

Galle Face Hotel buffet restaurant where nine of us all had nice lunch. Susie, Woody and Eloise just arrived in the hotel at the same time with our group.

Chaotic traffic at the bus stop for local bazaar district near the main railway station

23Mar Oriental Formal Dinner & Charity Dunking for Dollars

There have been few pianists for on-board entertainment.

Pianist and comedian Dale Gonyea was on last night.

It was full of fresh ideas with his own funny song lyrics combined to piano and slide photos that made him unique.

Polish pianist Filip Wojciechowski and his base guitarist and drum trio were on twice few days ago.

Filip’s selection of classic from Chopin and fusion classic mixed with Jazz was quite entertaining.

Dale Kristien, one of singers who played Christine in L.A production ofThe Phantom of the Operafor 5 years after Sarah Brightman, was last night’s standing ovation.

She was on board 2 years ago and still offered audience sensational and enjoyable performance.

Our table invited Dale Kristien for the dinner tonight.

We were all impressed by her pleasant personality.

It was very interesting to hear all about her life in the theatre especially starring with Michael Crawford as the Phantom.

She also toured Australia with him.

There was an Art Auction yesterday morning on board.

Passengers who have been attending watercolor class donated their paintings for silent auction to raise the fund.

The fund will go to BalikaNiwasa orphanage.

Kids from the orphanage will be on board to perform for us in the afternoon just before when we sail away from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

And, the fund raise continued this morning with cruise director Bruce who organized Dunking for Dollars.

Few volunteers from ship’s staff will enjoy plunging into the pool.

We have got the perfect weather for it while in the middle of Indian Ocean with temperature of 35C.

Oriental Formal Night

Bruce the cruise director

Hotel manager Henk

Captain Jon Mercer

21Mar Phuket, Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

It was hazy warm morningwhen we arrived in Andaman Sea of Thailand.

Ship anchored in south of Patong Beach, Phuket Island.

Countless colorful beach parasols and deck chairs are packed in Patong beach as we were getting close to the tender pier set up on the beach.

It seems that there has not been much of change since my last visit 15 years ago.

Few developments of hotel and resort can be spotted on hill side slopes, though.

Tour guide Ton said that Phuket has the highest rent in Thailand as it has been booming with national and international tourists which attracted population increase.

Soon, we were on a tall tour bus and heading to mainland in north.

We booked a 7 hour tour that includes Buddhist temple, James Bond Island in Phang Nga Bay, floating village and lunch.

It reached 35C even before noon with near 100% humidity.

According to Ton, April is the hottest month of the year with temperature soaring well over 40C.

How could local people cope with it!

I have no idea!

There are lots of rubber tree farms alongside the roads.

A tiny seed smuggled into from Malaysia a century ago has been thriving into tens of thousands in this region now.

Buddhist temple translated for Golden Chamber Temple was our first stop after one and half hour drive.

Monks moved away to quieter place for their meditation and study as it became too popular with tourists and their frequent visits daily.

Cave with lay down golden Buddha inside is naturally built on a tall cliff.

There must be still local Buddhists visiting this well-maintained temple for worshiping as donation boxes and burning incent are placed in front of Buddha.

Hundreds of monkeys are roaming around the temple, trees and rocks.

Many tourists were buying small local bananas and handing over to monkeys.

Fortunately, monkeys here are not as naughty and cumbersome as can be found elsewhere on other part of the earth.

Air condition in the bus and sea breeze into our small boat were trying hard to keep us cool down.

Taboo Islandin Phang Nga Bay was our next stop.

Roger Moore in 007movie, Man with golden gun made this island world’s famous and it has been known as James Bond Island ever since.

Our boat engine broke down right after we left James Bond Island but people were so exhausted in heat and did not seem to care much.

Three quarters of an hour with help of battery from other boat, we were so happy that we were on move again.

It was nearly 3pm when we saw our lunch buffet in Phang Nga Bay Resort.

There is no Thai in the selections of food displayed as they were all deep-fried tacky Chinese style food.

Even the extreme hunger failed to turn these into gourmet dish!

Finger size local bananas and pineapple were so sweet and juicy and they saved lunch!

I was shocked to learn that few fellow passengers actually thought they were fantastic food.

How different people developed their taste buds or not at all!

We were so glad to see our ship still anchored and tender boat waiting for us when we returned to Patong beach about one and half hour late to its schedule!

That is one of good reasons to book ship’s tour.

Ship would have not waited for us if it was individual tour!