ATW Day 55 - After Phuket

Today, Friday, is the first of 2 sea days as we sail from Phuket, Thailand to Colombo, Sri Lanka.  As day 55 of the ATW cruise, it marks the longest cruise we have ever taken, beating the previous record by 1 day.  

We had 2 days in Phuket during which we took an excursion each day.  The first was the Marine Turtle Foundation & Gibbon Project.  We started at the Gibbon Project.

The man who led us around gave us an introduction to the types of gibbons and to the rehabilitation work that they have been doing for 36 years.  Then it was off to see the gibbons which are kept in cages until they can be returned to the wild. It took them 10 years to figure out how to stop the gibbons from coming back to the center once the handler had left them. The simple answer turned out to be that they needed a family. It takes about 1 year to release a pair of gibbons and have them be successful on their own. There is a male Gibbon who left his wife and son in the wild to be with another female. His son comes to visit him every week!

Next was the Sireetarn Marine Endangered Animals Rescue Center.  There were many turtles there that suffered from various afflictions including lost legs from being hit by boats and blindness. They've developed a strong network of people who report turtles who seem to be having difficulty.  Fishermen will often pick them up and bring them to the Rescue Center.

 

And then there were the baby turtles.

The last activity there was to help out by doing some beach clean up.

It was another hot, humid day that did provide a good lightning show that evening.

Day 2 was the Phuket Farmhouse Exploration excursion.  We were takes to a Thai farm that was really a demonstration farm.  

They showed us many different farming activities.  Let's start with rice cultivation:

They showed us how they got the latex out of the rubber trees and then processed it into rubber sheets for export:

We got to feed a water buffalo:

They grew pineapples, lotus, and water lilies.

There was a demonstration of tin panning:

The last stop was at the farmhouse where Linda got to sift some rice and we had a nice cold drink and pineapple.

Upstairs in the farmhouse, they made curry paste.

I tasted it and boy was it hot!  We also walked around inside the house.

Both of our excursions in Phuket were quite good.  Now we have the 2 sea days to recover from the heat and humidity.  Did I mention that it was hot?

And we are now friends of gibbons!

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

ATW Day 52 - Malaysia

Today, Tuesday, we were docked in Port Klang, Malaysia.  Port Klang is the gateway for Kuala Lumpur which is about an hour drive away.  There is really nothing right by the port.

Since we had been to Kuala Lumpur before, we took the ship's excursion to Putrajaya the so-called Intelligent Garden City.  Putrajaya is the administrative capital of Malaysia while Kuala Lumpur is the better known big city and financial center.  Putrajaya was developed in the mid-1990's. It was developed from the existing jungle.  The ride to Putrajaya was also about 1 hour.  An interesting aspect of the drive were the many, many acres of Palm Oil trees that we passed.  

These were former rubber tree plantations that were turned into Palm Oil plantations when the rubber industry died.  Now they export most of the palm oil to India and China.  Oh yeah, all of this used to be jungle.  It became very obvious when we got closer to the city as the trees were replaced by modern buildings, some of which were apartment blocks.

When we entered the city, we took a roundabout that was more than 3 kilometers around.

The first stop was at the Putrajaya Botanical Garden.

We first walked along the sky bridge, at the end of which we spotted some monkeys in the trees.

Our guide led us around the very nice gardens for about an hour.  Here's a few photos - okay more than a few.

Next we were driven to the center of town and the Putra Square (which is really a circle!) where we got to see the pink mosque from the front.

We had about 30 minutes there and believe me, it was hot.  

We are finding that this heat and humidity takes a lot out of us.  It will be a welcome relief when we get down to South Africa in a couple of weeks.  It was a good excursion despite the heat.

I know that I have said some negative things about the ATW cruise and people, but Linda has asked me to point out that we have met some really nice people.  These include her trivia team and our suite (and sweet) neighbors!  Believe me, there has been much more good than bad along this journey.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry