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

ATW Day 51 - Singapore

Today is our second day in Singapore.  We arrived yesterday mid-afternoon to be greeted by a fire boat and a rain shower.

 In the evening there was an event for the ATW guests.  The event was held at the Pasir Panjang Power Station.  The station has historic significance as it was the first power station in Singapore and led to the modernization of the city.  That said, the venue was now really just a huge empty warehouse which I guess was needed for the 500+ people that had to be accommodated.  

The event was titled Singapore's Cultural Mosaic.  The description noted that we would be exploring "the city's most iconic neighborhoods."  In reality, they just had booths in the venue that did provide some cultural activities.

When we were seated for dinner, there was a variety of local entertainment.  Really good.

It was when it was time for dinner that things went rapidly downhill.  I am sure that feeding 500+ people is quite a challenge so I guess I'll have to give them a pass on the so-so quality of the food.  The real problem was that someone had the brilliant idea that the dinner cultural entertainment should be a band playing mostly American rock and roll music at 90 decibels!  It got so uncomfortable for me that I passed on eating most of the food and stood outside of the venue until a bus was available to take us back to the ship.  Linda joined me not long after I walked out.  That really ruined what turned out to be a mediocre and disappointing event.

Today, we decided to go to the Gardens By The Bay which we had visited last year.  We walked from the port to the garden which was probably a mistake as I had underestimated how long it would take us to get to the ticketing entrance.  It wound up being an hour in the heat and humidity.  The walk in did provide some good photo ops.

I was quite afraid that the baby would fall to the ground and get hurt, but he patted me on the head to comfort me.

When we got there, we decided to just do the Flower Dome which had 2 great things going for it - air conditioning and Tulipmania.  It's a wonderful garden with plants form all over but the tulips were the highlight - almost as good as being in the Netherlands at tulip time.

Some of the tulips were quite unique.

They also incorporated some Dutch art into the display.

Leaving the Garden, we walked over to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel area for lunch passing some sculptures and people apparently on siesta!

For lunch, we ate at the same Chinese restaurant that we ate at last year - Din Tai Fung.  Yes, it's an international chain and there is even one in Torrance, California (which we haven't eaten at) but it is so good.  We had buns and this terrific special dish - noodles with a crab roe sauce.  Yum!

After lunch, we grabbed a Grab to get back to the ship.  The 10 minute ride and the $7.20 fare were much more comfortable than the walk!

Tomorrow, we are in Kuala Lumpur as we begin the next exciting segment of our journey.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry