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.

We arrived on the outskirts of Bali about 6 this morning, it’s warm & sticky! Headed up to breakfast about 6.30 and it was busy already. Other mornings just after 7 it’s been quite quiet. Everyone wanting to get off the boat. The early birds get to take the tenders before the tour excursions take them over, then anyone else gets them afterwards. Got to the meeting room at 8 and left about 20 past. Waited around on the stairway for the tender to get organised then sat in that for a little while. Got to the shore about 9 and then on to our bus. We must have climbed 1001 steps, maybe a slight exaggeration make it 999, lol. We first visited the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park with great bronze animals on the drive in and enormous statues of Garuda and Wisnu in the centre. Then back through the one and only traffic light and across to Uluwatu to visit the cliff top temple. Then once again through the same traffic light to a tourist shop for a little shopping. The traffic on the roads is amaszing, narrow roads, lots of bikes, and yet it all seems to flow, especially merging into a roundabout, lol. Overtaking, turning, merging anywhere all just seems to get done with minimal haste and lots of patience. We got back into the tender about 2, footsore and weary, but it had been a verhy nice day. As there was a swell it took a while for everyone to get off/on the 2 tenders ahead of us, so lunch was at 3.15. I took Mum back some as she was resting! We will have a long day tomorrow, a 9 hour tour, but have been told that 6 of those will be in the bus!  PS we think the plane was a house, it was in the middle of suburbia!

Once more a full day at sea, and a little more munzee spreadsheet fixed up. You never know, by the time I get home I might be almost up to date, lol.
The sea has become a little more uneven today, there is a swell out there and a few waves breaking so one can see more white out there than yesterday. The rocking motion of the ship is more noticeable especially when walking the corridor. I did actually try taking some photos of the moon last night as it was big and orange coming over the horizon, but it was obviously an optical illusion as both cameras took a small white object, LOL.
Nothing startling to disturb our usual day of doing nothing much. It was formal dining night so we did dress up for dinner and I’ve packed up the bag for the first of our shore tours. So tomorrows blog will hopefully be more interesting than the the last few days.

A full day at sea and I’ve actually managed to update 2 pages of my munzee spreadsheet! Had a walk around the deck after breakfast with a stop off at the mini golf course for Mum to play the 9 holes. I didn’t keep track of how many she did it in for tomorrow morning, but I’ll have to start. LOL. We couldn’t sit out on our balcony this morning as it was way to hot, but it was lovely after lunch. Saw several ore carriers on their way down to Port Hedland, but that was the sum total of sightings of anything except water, not even any clouds. The sea was really flat today, not a white wave crest to be seen except those made by the ship. We are only sitting on 12 knots as we can’t get to Bali too early and still have another full day at sea tomorrow. Have had mostly the same companions at dinner each night, so the talk has been interesting and varied. There have been several art auctions already, and some selling for lots of money. I was telling Mum that I’d overheard someone saying there was one that went for $12000 yesterday, to be told by the other lift occupant, that she was an art dealer and there wasn’t anything worth over $9000 on board the ship. But they seem to have a never ending supply.

The port of Port Hedland had our berth today, amongst the most giganormous ore carriers.  Before the pilot arrived to take us in I counted 15 of them anchored out at sea awaiting their escorts into the harbour. Our guiding tug boats appeared and accompanied us into the harbour and our minute portion of harbour space. This wasn’t a ‘walk off’ port, so shuttle buses had been arranged to ferry those who wanted to go into town. We had breakfast right up front of the restaurant so we had a great view of the harbour, its occupants and the goings on. Only did one tour of the top deck, as even though it only was 7.30 it was quite warm! Very nicely our room faced into the harbour and we had a good view of 3 ore carriers docked on the other side. 2 were obviously full as they were down to their Plimsoll line. The third was being filled and over the day watched it getting lower. It was fascinating watching the 4 tugs pulling and pushing the carriers, slowly cajoling them away from the dock and out into deeper water. We then had these huge ships being pulled past us to either get out to sea or to take their place at the wharf they were allocated. They are generally black at the top and red below and the joining line is it. So the red slowly disappears as the ship fills up and only the black remains in sight. It takes a long time to fill these carriers. One that had been moved into place about 9.30 was still showing most of its red when we left at 5. We had to migrate into our room in the afternoon as the sun was way to hot to sit in. Another nice dinner and then blog writing for me and reading time for Mum.