Took it even easier today, lol. We had breakfast at the cafe again, I actually had chicken porridge as well as scrambled eggs, it was very nice indeed. Back to our room until about 10ish so that the peak hour traffic had dissipated and caught a taxi to the Gardens and the Cloud Forest Dome. Well, it was amazing, this huge indoor waterfall and the living mountain around it. So many orchids, bromeliads, ferns, begonias, and almost everything else. There were displays of stalags again and lots of art pieces scattered around the gardens. One just kept walking up, catch the elevator to the next floor and then around another loop of walkway, 5 floors in all from the base of the waterfall and then 2 more floors below it. Once out again we took the shuttle ride around the garden and saw the topiary and the floating baby! I left Mum for a short time whilst I dashed through the gardens to grab a munzee and then we caught a taxi back to the hotel. The first taxi we asked didn’t have any idea where the Singapore Recreation Club was located, even when I showed him it on a map, lol.
Relaxed a bit whilst I sorted out photos. Mum had taken a few on her tablet, so included them in our collection. Had dinner, which was very nice I had another local noodle dish, and we shared a plate of rojak, a Singaporean salad which was very tasty indeed. Back in our room we wandered out to the beer garden once the nights lights came on and took some great photos. I must say I am very impressed with the quality of the photos my new phone takes as well as the new camera. Check out tomorrow is at noon, so will leave then for the airport,and spend some time wandering around looking at the gardens inside the airport, especially the butterflies. We should be landing just before midnight, so this will be the final blog! So catch you sometime soon!

We tried to take things a little easier today, still a bit tired from yesterday, it was a far to late night for me, nearly 11 before the lights went out.
Had breakfast in the Poolside Cafe, which was basement level 1. Yes, an underground swimming pool and gym and others things as well as the cafe. Very nice breakfast, freshly cooked scrambled eggs! From there we went out into the warmth of the day and caught the hop on hop off bus to the Merlion Park, as Mum did have to see Singapore’s symbol. Hopped on the bus again and headed for the Gardens and the Flower Dome. We had quite a long walk to get to the Dome, and it was the only one open today. (It will be closed tomorrow for maintenance) They had a special chrysanthemum display as well as the usual gardens in the Dome. It was amazing, so many plants, lots of fully mature trees and palms, in fact I would say nearly every plant was a mature specimen of its type. Several different specialty gardens, South African, Australian, Mediterranean, baobab, olive grove, etc. and ‘mums everywhere. Lots of sculptures, and little niceties amongst the plants, so well designed and displayed. The Domes are cooled, so it was very pleasant to walk around. You could tell the locals though, they were wearing coats as it was too cold for them, lol.
Did the walk back to the bus and a long ride home again. As it was 3 by the time we got back we had our cheese, pate & crackers as a late lunch and a relax (in fact a little snooze) and then we had dinner here in the Poolside Cafe, which was delicious. Mum had pork ribs and I had a local noodle dish and it was an inexpensive meal, especially when compared to the kebabs we had for lunch yesterday. Last full day here tomorrow, so a visit to the Cloud Forest Dome is planned.

Very late tonight, sorry, we’ve had a big day.
Had breakfast just after 6, then back to our room to do our packing. Relaxed a bit once finished and watched the docking at Singapore. Left the ship about 8.30 and joined the queues for immigration, security, customs and taxi. Got to The Residency at the Singapore Recreation Club before 10 and even though check in wasn’t until 2,they gave us our room. We got upgraded to their largest room, The President’s Room. Very nice it is, though not to sure about the beer garden outside the window, lol. Great views from it though, the triple tower boat topped building on one side, the city in front and city hall and cathedral on the other side.
We popped across the road to the memorial for a numzee and then over another road to Raffles City, and enormous shopping mall, which was full of Sunday shoppers. Had a wander around, a little upmarket for us, but we ended up in the basement dining area for a kebab lunch. On the way out found a supermarket for got some cheese and biscuits for dinner. Back to the SRC for a rest then we went down the street to catch one of the hop on hop off buses, however there was a lot of road works going on so the stand wasn’t there so had to continue on to the next one. One bus didn’t stop and then we missed the next one, but finally hopped on and paid for a 24 hour ticket. Had a drive round and got off at Raffles City. Once again back to the SRC for a refresh and then returned to the bus stop and caught another one headed for the Gardens by the Bay. This one dropped us off at the triple tower boat hotel which is enormous close up and had to walk past it to gt to the Gardens. Wow, they are lovely, lots of amazing things to see. Stopped at the batch of 3 supertree structures and sat for a while soaking it all in. These artiicaila trees have a myriad of plants growing all over the outside of the structures, like a living skin. There were 3 little doves all nestled together sitting on the ground. We then walked to the Supertree Grove which had 11 more of the structures, one even has a restaurant at the top of it and others support a skywalk trail. We sat and watched for the lights on the trees to come on and they slowly did, brightening as the night darkened. At 7.45 they have a light and music show and it was fantastic. Then another wait for a taxi and back for our cheese, pate and biscuit supper, lol quite different to our 3 course dinners of the last 2 weeks!

As our cultural experience tour for today was cancelled we had the pick of several, all which included shopping! Kuala Lumpur is about 1.5 hours from Port Klang where we left the ship at a very fancy docking facility. Our first stop was Independence Square, with the cricket ground in the middle, as of course it was the British who started building in this area. And, very exciting I actually scanned a real life munzee that had been sitting here since July 2014. From here we walked through back streets and alleyways to the Central Markets for half an hour of shopping and then back on the bus to be dropped off at the Chinatown. Several of us actually stayed on the bus for the half hour. Then on to The Pavilion, a very large, fancy upmarket shopping mall, with mainly brand name shops. However we found a puzzle shop on the 6th floor and indulged a little, LOL. After Subway for lunch and a little more wandering we got back on the bus for a quick photo stop at the Petronas Towers, sadly so smokey they weren’t very clear. Then back to the port and our final night on the ship. Once again the waiters put on a little show, but this time the chefs were included. They prepared 126,000 meals over the last 14 days. We have met lots of interesting people and had lots of interesting conversations. Singapore in the morning.

Had a great day today. Overslept a bit as we lost the hour we gained for Thailand, but still made breakfast in good time. No tenders today, yippee as it takes so much more time to get to the coaches. It was a nice experience to walk down the gangplank, lol. Langkawi is the largest island of Malaysia and langkawi is the local name for the Brahminy kite.  Our tour was at the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park up in the northwest part of the island, the ship was on the south coast. It was the 52nd world recognised UNESCO geopark. Our tour group was split into groups of 8 and we clambered into a small boat and headed for the bat cave! The entire region is limestone hence the caves complete with stalags and bats.  Also snakes, monkeys and other reptiles in the surrounding mangrove forests. We saw the small insectivorous bats in both caves, having to crab walk under a very low adjoining tunnel to get to the 2nd cave. We then hopped back into the boat and watched some of the local langkawi and other hawks being fed chicken skin scraps. They had to cut down on the amount of feeding as the monkey and snake populations increased greatly with their predators eating out elsewhere. Then a quick trip out of the mouth of the Kilim River into the Andaman Sea. From there a visit to a fish farm, the local archer fish in the river kept everyone amused. Then back to the coach and the ship. Left Mum having a rest and then I took a short walk along the pier to get a photo of the ship, and as I wandered along, there were a pair of white-bellied sea eagles soaring over the waters near the ship, brilliant to watch. I managed some moving footage of the kites feeding and of these eagles, just have to work out how to get them into the blog, probably not this time around.  We were luckily on the pier side so we watched the docking and will watch the departing as well.

Today we stopped at the island of Phuket. The sea was really flat once we could see it and our non-event sunrise. On a tender again and we had to get off at the customs port as the other usual one had another cruise ship in place, so this one wasn’t really designed for all the traffic of big buses, taxis, cars, etc and huge muddy puddles. Our first stop of the tour was the southern most point of the island and therefore of Thailand. Sadly all the smoke meant that the views weren’t as good as they should have been, but that’s just one of those things. There was a shrine thee surrounded by elephants of all sizes, the bigger the elephant the bigger the wish that was granted. From there we went to the Phuket Seashell Museum. An amazing place and so well arranged, it was delightful to see the shells and the fossils collected over the last 30 years. Then on to the Wat Chalong Temple, the guide saying it was the largest and prettiest temple on the island. Sadly it started to rain as we got there so didn’t see more than a couple of the buildings, and our shoes filled up with water when we went inside LOL. Mind you at 33 C it just added marginally to the already high humidity. Then on to the obligatory shop which had so much stuff crammed into it that it was just too much! Back on the ship just after 2.30, a late lunch and a note saying our Kuala Lumpur tour had been cancelled, for lack of participants. Oh well, we will find something else I’m sure.

Strange thing was that last night just as we were going to bed we could very plainly see the lights on the villages on the Malaysian coastline, but once again this morning we are surrounded by smoke. I even got some little bits of ash falling on me when out on the balcony after breakfast, but it does not smell smoky at all. Helped chase a small bird out of the dining room at lunch time, poor little beggar. We had formal dinner night again, and this time the waiters & bar staff put on a little show for us, parading around the dining room waving serviettes then standing on the stairs and singing a couple of songs, All good fun. Currently sailing up the Malacca Strait heading for Phuket, then we come back down again but stopping along the way. Oh and Mum scored 24 on the Legends of the Links course this morning!

Absolutely no sunrise this morning, everywhere was grey. It rained quite heavily for a little while, chased me off the balcony. It’s all hazy out there because of the forest slash & burn that Indonesia is doing at the moment, The smoke has spread a long way north and so basically we can’t see much, it’s like sailing in a fog! Mum equaled her mini golf score this morning, it was looking good but the last hole took some beating, lol. Managed to do some spreadsheet playing and am tackling the computer in Upwords. Was looking out at the grey when a little bird fluttered down and sat on the balcony rail. He went as I lifted the phone to take a picture, but the little thing was a long way from land! Had a couple of new couples at the dinner table tonight, and so a new range of conversations to be had. We are putting our clocks back an hour tonight as Thailand is on a different time zone, but it will only be for a couple of days and then back to proper time, LOL.

A full day at sea, once again did nothing much. Mum got around the mini golf in 29 strokes (it was 30 last time, lol) and then we just played games, read and napped until lunchtime. I got our expenditure statement and found someone else’s drinks on it, hopefully sorted out sometime soon, have to check back tomorrow! Then a little more relaxing, I did some reading and sewing at the same time, LOL, it’s much easier to ‘turn’ the pages of an e-book. Then off to dinner and a good chat with some familiar couples. Now ready for bed! It was a warm day outside today, but overcast for most of it. Saw the sunrise, but then it clouded over and stayed grey! Lots of little fishing boats out on the waters, they are a long way from land in such small things!

The ship was approaching the port of Lembar on Lombok Island when we woke, but it soon stopped and dropped the tenders. Mum wasn’t ready for breakfast so early, as we had to be in the excursion room by 6.45, so I had a quick brekky and then we headed off to get our bus numbers.
Well if Bali was full of temples and frangipanis, then Lombok is full of rice and coconut trees. It is an agricultural island because of the freshwater lake at the top of the volcano we were heading for. Lots of water in the lowlands for rice, peanuts, maize, chillis, coconuts, cashews, etc. Very green though the rainy season hasn’t started yet. Our 3 buses had a police escort, who drove in front of us with lights and sirens the whole way there and back. Apparently cruise tours only get this treatment on weekends because of wedding parties who block the roads causing massive traffic jams. Also discovered how you can make a 2 lane road into 3 lanes, very easily, the bus just drives down the middle of it! Not sure how anyone else on the roads survived the our passage but I think they all did, LOL. Mind you sitting at the front was a bit nerve wracking, especially when we nearly kissed the bus in front of us a few times!
It was a 4 hour drive up to the waterfall, as we had a comfort stop along the way, with the souvenir shop to go with it.
Lots of countryside and villages & towns? along the way to see and listen to the tour guide. The waterfall was of course near the base of the volcano, and the stopping place was at the top of the fall, so 385 steps later we got to the bottom, then had to climb them all again. We were both pretty exhausted by the time we got to the top and lunch, with a nice view form the top. There is a fine haze over everything in the distance probably all this humidity LOL. It took us 3 hours to get back, and the 2nd half of the return trip we drove through the monkey forest, and they were all along the side of the road, using the safety barrier as their own highway.
We didn’t go to the formal dining room tonight, I grabbed a little something for Mum and brought it back for her, it had been a hard climb. I grabbed dinner then came back here to write this and then early bed.