the end of the third day of the cruise....... Tuesday Oct 16 2007.

Here we say farewell to Penang as the ship leaves the harbour heading towards Phuket in Thailand.


Here are a few photos of the evening of Tuesday Oct 16...... the beautiful sunset and the rainbow as if it is Malaysia saying a colourful good bye to us.......

It was a pleasant cruise, fairly low key, quiet and restful........ with very calm waters!

The average age of the passengers on board would have been probably in their late 60's, unfortunately the music and entertainment reflected this too...

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We did meet some lovely people on board that we spent time with rather than attending the organised events and entertainment that was provided. We also had books with us and caught up with a lot of reading and 'napping' in the deck chairs too I might add.

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More to follow tomorrow..... right now it is 9.30pm on Saturday Oct 27 and "the boys" need their nightly cuddle time and then it is off to bed for us.

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more of the Third Day of the cruise........

The third day of our cruise was spent in Penang, Malaysia..... We did one of those "city tours" which we thought would be an ideal way of seeing much of the city in a short space of time.

Our first stop was at Wat Chayamankalarm - which houses one of the largest reclining Buddhas. (see photo to the right)
From there we travelled by Trishaw (see photo above) to the Khoo Kongsi - the clan temple for the Khoo family. It was built in 1906. (see photo of the carvings outside the temple)

...........and then we ended up at the Chew Jetties, now these jetties (or piers) is a Chinese Water Village built on stilts that extends out to sea....there are 7 jetties that house 6 clans and one mixed clan. For the full story, do look at the flickr site ....... These clans have lived here for many generations, mainly due to the high cost of land elsewhere. (see photos)

We arrived back on board the Gemini just after 2.00pm, time for a shower, a bit of a read and a drink before dinner!!! This photo was taken at 10 to 7, just before we went in for dinner:

more to follow........ as time permits. It is now Friday at 7.00pm and I still have a lot of photos to sort thru to upload to the flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leonefabre/

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Third Day of Cruise - Tuesday October 16 2007

We left Kuala Lumpur at 7.00pm on Monday heading towards Penang, Malaysia.

Sleeping on board has been good, the food is excellent and far too much of it of course........our cabin is a Suite complete with Queen sized bed, bathroom, etc.... everything is supplied including bathrobes, slippers, shampoo, soap, towels, everything to make us comfortable plus the inevitable chocolate on the pillow each night when they come and turn the bed down ready for you!!

Here is a photo of us coming into Penang at 8.15am on Tuesday:



more info and photos tomorrow...... time for me to take the boys for a walk and think about going to bed!!!!

second day of cruise - Monday October 15 2007

Our first port of call was Port Klang as mentioned in previous posting where saw the KL Tower, The Blue Mosque of the East, Thean Hou Temple, Independence Square and shopped at Suria KLCC which is directly below the KL Twin Towers also known as Petronas Twin Towers. These photos were taken from ground level looking up one of the world's tallest buildings:

and this is what we had for lunch this day at a Malaysian Restaurant. Chicken Curry with Roti and fruit gelatine's for dessert.

Day three (in Penang) will be posted tomorrow, but in the meantime a lot of the photos of this cruise are on the flickr site here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leonefabre/

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First Port of Call - Port Klang - Malaysia

Port Klang is the name of the port in Kuala Lumpur....... we docked at 9.00am on Monday October 15 and disembarked at about 9.30 for our tour.

We did "The Asian Melting Pot" tour on which we saw the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque ( or perhaps better known as the Blue Mosque of the East) It has four soaring minarets with blue enameled domes each measuring 52 metre's in diameter and 107 metre's in length.
From there we visited the Thean Hou Temple situated in Robson Heights, the striking six tier temple is regarded as one of the biggest Chinese Temples in South East Asia.

Next we saw the KL Tower.....the fourth highest concrete tower in the world. John went up and took some photos while I stayed below eating an ice cream!! This is the tower and the views seen from that tower:

The rest of our "tour" included shopping at Suria KLCC, Malaysia's premier shopping destination nestled between the Petronas Twin Towers.....

but more about that tomorrow!!!

The Fabre's are back home.........

Yes, we is back.........

........ have returned home to Singapore safe and sound today - Sunday October 21 - after a wonderful 7 days of complete rest. Yes, we did do a few 'day tours' at Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Phuket, Langkawie etc...... but overall it was a very relaxing holiday.

The Gemini is a small cruise ship, by 'small' I mean the gross tonnes is 19,093 that is comparing it with the Virgo that is 76,800 gross tonnes. There were 550 passengers to start with, but we picked up a few more at KL that came on board for a 5 day cruise, dropping them back at KL yesterday. Photo is of the SuperStar Virgo departing from Singapore at 4.00pm last Sunday (Oct 14) and we left just 2 hours later at 6.00pm.


This photo was taken while both were berthed at the HarbourFront, Singapore, so may give you a better idea of the size differences..........

This is the tug boat getting ready to help the Superstar Gemini depart:

Over the next few days will upload more photos of places we have been and things we have done...........like riding the Elephants in Thailand and taking a tour in a Trishaw in Penang or chasing the monkeys after they stole my camera on Pado Island. yes, we have had a few adventures!!!

we are sailing.........

Hopefully by the time you read this we will be sailing....... off into the far blue yonder, well not quite, just the Straits of Malacca!!

... and hopefully the ship is a little larger than the one shown.

If we get a chance to update the blog along the way, we will.........and on our return will upload a few photos to the flickr site here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leonefabre/

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Hump Day today.........

Today is a very warm, humid, sticky day........I think I will go and have a dip in the pool or perhaps a laze in the spa bed as seen here:

Must admit it is very relaxing and soothing to close ones eyes and just drift.

The temperature reached 32 a few hours back and the humidity was up to a high 94%, but it is rapidly dropping and it is at this time (3.00pm) a cool 30 deg (86f) with 66% humidity, so in fact quite bearable.

Today I had a clean out of the "maids room", though we use it as a store room. We seem to collect an awful lot of 'stuff'. Anyway, gave it a thorough clean out and re sorted a few things. .... and no, I didn't manage to throw anything out!

The balcony had a good clean too...... scrubbed all the white tiles with bleach and rinsed well, looks nice and clean again. The base of the pot plants always leave a dark brown stain and is difficult to remove, which is why about once a month I need to clean it with the bleach.

............... and being Hump Day, we are on the down hill run for our holidays starting on Sunday. Just FOUR more sleeps!

the countdown has begun.......

today is Monday October 8, so that means seven sleeps till next Sunday when we head off on the cruise!!

Yipppeeee eye ayye .......

This is a 7 night cruise called the "Straits Adventurer", travelling right up the Malacca Straits towards the Andaman Sea. We are staying in an Oceanview Stateroom complete with portholes, but no actual window that you can open...!!

we depart at 6.00pm from Singapore Harbour as seen in this photo showing the tug pulling the Starcruiser GEMINI out of dock:

After the tug turns it around it heads off down the harbour towards Kuala Lumpur, being its first port of call by 9.00am the following morning. Staying only one day in KL, departing at 7.00pm for Penang, Langkawii, Krabi and Phuket. See map above.

arriving back into Singapore on Sunday October 21 at 9.00am...

boo hoo..... the girls have gone!!!

Janine and Julie left here this afternoon to head back home to Melbourne. They have been here a week and their goal seemed to be to eat everything that was "different" and for 2 females that were not going to do much shopping, let me tell you, their credit cards were smoking...... !!!!

Handbags, shoes, tops, slacks and a few other bits and pieces.

But they did enjoy themselves trying all the different foods in the Hawker Markets and Food Courts .......forgot to ask what their favorite was, but I think the Chilli Crab may have been up there on the top.

So much so that we all went there for dinner last night. Four large crabs, plenty of rice and sauce, bread, drinks and fruit to finish off with for the four of us came to the sum of $62.00. Now I don't think there would be too many places that you could have such a scrumptious meal for four people for that price. That is $62.00 Sing dollars or about $50.00 Aus dollars.

http://www.sbestfood.com/luckycafe.htm

After eating at the Lucky Cafe we continued on to listen to some Jazz at Southbank.......then back home for a good nights sleep before getting up this morning and heading to the pool.

See photo of the Chilli Crabs we had last night AND the messy leftovers!!!!!

enjoy your weekend my friends.....

enjoy your weekend my friends.....
Originally uploaded by Leone Fabre.

Find Happiness in Everything You do

Find Happiness in nature
in the beauty of a mountain
in the serenity of the sea
Find happiness in friendship
in the fun of doing things together
in the sharing and understanding
Find happiness in your family
in the stability of knowing that someone cares
in the strength of love and honesty
Find happiness in yourself
in your mind and body
in your values and achievements
Find happiness in
everything
you do


(Susan Polis Schultz)

more photos ......

These are more photos on the continuation of the trip to Batam Island ......

Saturday September 29 we left Bukit Batok at 7.00am to take the MRT (train) to Tanah Merah Rail Station. This is where we then catch a cab to go to the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.We had already booked to depart on the 10.00am Ferry to take the 45 minute trip across to the Indonesian Island of Batam. All the earlier Ferries were already booked out.

The Indonesian Island of Batam

Saturday September 29 we left Bukit Batok at 7.00am to take the MRT (train) to Tanah Merah Rail Station. This is where we then catch a cab to go to the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

We had already booked to depart on the 10.00am Ferry to take the 45 minute trip across to the Indonesian Island of Batam. All the earlier Ferries were already booked out.

First photo is leaving Tanah Merah ferry Terminal......and the next photo is nearing Nongsapura Ferry Terminal.

The Fast Ferry trip was uneventful and upon arrival our friend Sandra was there to greet us......she actually lives on there the Island and loves it. She had made arrangements for us to have a driver for the day which was very convenient.

Our first stop was at her home for coffee and from there we had a lovely walk along the walkway that runs around to the Turi Beach Reasort where we had lunch. The driver then took us on a tour of the Island including some shopping centres, local markets and the bridge where we stopped to admire the amazing view across the smaller islands.

We caught the 6.30pm ferry back to Tanah Merah and then a cab all the way back to Bukit Batok and HOME to bed after a very exhausting and wonderful day.

Will "post" more photos later........ !!

AROUNDTOIT

So much has been happening and I keep meaning to "update THE blog" but I never seem to get AROUNDTOIT.......

I write letters, you know, those REAL ones you put stamps on and put them in a post box and they arrive at their required destination a few days later ...... if you are lucky. Writing REAL letters takes a lot of time and thought, mainly because you want to write with feeling and thoughts for the receiver. So I probably write about 6 letters a week....if I can get AROUNDTOIT.

Then on top of that there are emails to reply to....heaps of them. Now it is not so easy to reply to these immediately, but if you don't reply within the required 24 hours, then the sender is sending another one and asking "where are you"??? Hang on a minute..... I have a few other things to do first and then I might get AROUNDTOIT!!

Apart from the real letters and the emails....there is now FACEBOOK!

Yep, good old Facebook with it's walls to write on, messages to send, replies to be done, beers to be sent, a few hugs to be sent as well don't forget......oh, yes, then there are the quizz's to complete. My gosh, there goes another hour of the day.....and yes, I will post a message on your wall when I get AROUNDTOIT.

OK- we have gone thru the real letters, the emails, facebook and whats next?

Yes.......time consuming FLICKR!!!

Flickr where a lot of my photos are uploaded for others to view and where we have many contacts and friends that leave nice comments on your photos and then if you have lots of contacts and flickr friends.....then you need to go look at their photos and make nice constructive and helpful comments too. With this though I am very lucky as I have some really nice friendly contacts that take extra wonderful photos and so I enjoy taking a wander thru their photostream and leaving nice comments.....and then if I can get AROUNDTOIT I will go look at some other peoples photos and that takes a lot of time once I get tied up and engrossed in looking at all these exceptionally beautiful photographs!

So there are real letters, emails, facebook, flickr and whats next?

Aha ha..... SKYPE....... now there is a lot of time spent on SKYPE........ that is when I get AROUNDTOIT....I could easily spend an hour or more a day chatting to family and friends. So cheap and easy to make contact with anyone at anytime. But you gotta make sure you have left some time during the day for this too.

Now I have mentioned real letters, emails, facebook, flickr, skype.......we should add cell phone calls, landline calls and SMS messages too.....

and then, last but not least, THE BLOG....and now that I have got AROUNDTOIT....I will update it today....

yayyyyyyyy!!!!!!