After Singapore, there was only one day at sea before three in port.  On the third port day there was another Distinctive Voyage shore excursion, so this was going to be a busy sea day.  First I got a newsletter out because there was a cocktail party later and people forget stuff when there’s been a port day.  I spent most of the day doing the kind of paperwork we never used to have to do.  The passengers, or the ship, would present our passports to Immigration Officers and that was it.  The new, improved, method has us entering our information into the country’s web site, which is often full of bugs.  Sri Lanka’s one drove me nuts.  I was trying to do all for a family of four, but if I dared to go off the straight path to look back or if I made a slight error that needed correcting, I had to go all the way back to the beginning.  Between that and the arrival cards, it pretty much took me the entire day, and I wasn’t entertaining fond thoughts of Sri Lanka by the time I was done.

There was a DV welcome party at 5:30pm in Sir Samuel’s and it was fun.  The four new people came as well as a couple who hadn’t come before, and the usual suspects.  Five of us, continued on to dinner in Britannia and I opened the very special bottle my Melbourne friends had given me.  It was fabulous.  See if you can lay your hands on some of this:

The next day we docked in Penang, Malaysia.  I wanted to go out in Penang, so I got up extra early to clear my emails, etc.  Amanda had missed the party last night.  She’s on a different schedule from the rest of us.  Her muse sat in the wee hours and the morning’s emailbox brought this:

I wrote a poem instead …
hope you enjoy ….

Some people live for sports
They talk endlessly about the game
Their whole lives in action
Chasing the day
From sunrise to sunset
They’re running at dawn
Attending every event
They never get bored
But it doesn’t satisfy
Doesn’t hit the mark
This life in action
Soon grows dark
They ask themselves
Why? what can I do
To be the best
To be renewed
Better than most
How can I find
A game that works
A game that’s bigger
Better than best
On top of my form
Ahead of the rest
My life is slipping away 
Ahead of my age
Losing in time
Stopped in my tracks
There’s no winning game
That satisfies this
How can I create something 
Greater than me
How can I cheat death
Decay and dis-ease
How can a formula make me beat
This chase to slow down
My fate with eternity
Running the rails 
Never get stuck
My inner voice whispers
Good luck …

Amanda is writing a book of poetry.  She has credentials.  She was a singer-songwriter back in the day.  Google “Amanda Blue Leigh”.  I replied: “and that’s one of the ways.  Write one that’s good enough to immortalize you.  We make our own luck.  I like making people happy – have fun – live…  and I have been ageing backwards for the last couple of years.  I have this great exercise program.  It is pretty easy to do and damned if I am not gaining mobility, losing my pot (work in progress) and gaining more and more energy.  It’s http://www.essentrics.com The creator is an old ballerina – older than you.  I think she’s 73.”

The real news of the day was that one of my people broke her leg and was in a Hospital in Singapore.  The ship never told me.  I found out through an email from her caregiver.  I responded with sympathy from afar, an exhortation to get on with the insurance company ASAP, if she, the caregiver wanted the best treatment and the possibility of finishing the trip with us.  I threw in a couple of Singapore restaurant recommendations, which she doubtless ignored, and the cafeteria at SGH was likely pretty good, anyway.  I alerted my contact on the ship, finished off the SriLanka visa project and started on our next shore excursion in Lisbon, because that had just come in.

And, believe it or not I still went out in Penang.  It was three o’clock in the afternoon, but we weren’t sailing until nine, so I was going out for dinner.  My best girlfriend, from my Hong Kong days, is Linda Chew, a Malaysian-born Chinese with a Harvard MBA.  She has been back in Malaysia for years, now, and I have visited her on a number of occasions.  She couldn’t meet me in Penang, but she had some good suggestions.  I had been reading about Somerset Maugham’s time in Penang recently, too, so her ideas fit right in.

There’s a street in the old part of town called “Armenian Street”.  It housed a number of businesses that catered to expats, both day and night, if you know what I mean, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.  At the ocean end of said street is Chew Jetty, and Linda can trace her ancestry back to there, and likely farther. I got into a taxi and had myself taken there.  The taxi driver wanted to tour me around, too, but Linda had recommended a trishaw, so I just asked him where the best Chinese seafood around was and got off at Chew Jetty.

The picture explains it.  When you walk in, all you see are store fronts.  Every family doubtless has one or rents the space to someone with something to sell.  I had been meaning to buy a tiny little lucky cat, since they came out with the solar ones, and I found it here for less than any other place.  I named him “Chew Jetty” and he sits on my desk for office hour. 

The restaurant was closed but would reopen at five for dinner, so I had myself a very delicious hazelnut-chocolate gelato and found myself a trishaw. 

It was a great ride all in and around the old neighborhoods, Indian and Chinese.  I took a lot of silly pictures just to be polite, and because it was so nice to be able to without the structure, and dirty windows, of a tour bus.  I let him give me some more time on Chew Jetty, so he could rest, and got my best picture.  This is Linda’s ancestral temple:

Around 5:30, he dropped me off at the restaurant

And I settled in to have my meal.  There were zero tourists:

I enjoyed my Tiger Beer with Chew Jetty, while I waited to be served:

When a half hour passed without anyone coming to me, I asked a few questions and learned the system.  I needed to go to the fish tanks, choose my food, while it was still alive, order and pay for it, first.  So, I did that.  I ordered Chili Crab, Fried Flat Noodles and Ginger and Spring Onion Squid.   

 All of that came to about $25, a very good bargain, given the quality, and as it came with WiFi, which I used for a WhatsApp call to my caregiving friend in Singapore.

 

Once I was well sated, I wandered back out into the street and there was my trishaw waiting to take me back to the ship.  I gave him a very nice tip, because that was just perfect.

Another day, another port.  This one was Langkawi, Malaysia  on March 26.  I worked a bit on tomorrow’s shore excursion,  finished getting out a newsletter, reminding everyone of the tour in Phuket tomorrow, and of the fact that they could not assume the ship had done their ETAs, unless they has asked it to.  It was after two when I got out in Langkawi.  All I had time for was a shuttle bus ride, to an aquarium that I didn’t want to visit, and a few seedy looking restaurants.  It was a twenty-five minute walk to town and my Singaporean friend said they hadn’t seen any particularly good-looking restaurants. 

There was a seafood restaurant across the street from the aquarium, so I decided to brave it.  It had a good few of our crew members there, which is a decent indicator.  It did have fish tanks, too, just a lot of the seafood didn’t look to healthy.  I made sure my crab was wiggling desperately, before I agreed to him.  I reversed the treatment, having chili squid and ginger and spring onions crab. 

It was all delicious.  They didn’t have much for dessert but there was an ice cream vendor across the street and I got a nice cup of chocolate ice cream and mango sorbet to take to the waiting shuttle bus.

Then I went to sailaway, skipped dinner, and stressed some about Phuket being a tender port. 

I was up at seven, in Phuket, on March 27,  not so worried about how the tour would go, as how it would start.  The tender operation was well underway by the time I got up, so it was looking brighter.  My people were good, on time and ready, and we got an escort to the tender at the designated time. 

Our guide was at the other end, was where he needed to be, waiting.  He had interesting things to say on he bus ride.  The economy of Phuket at this point is almost 100% tourist based.  Patong beach, where we landed, is famous for its night life, mind you it’s a sort of seedy claim to fame.  Bring on the sex tourists.  Did you know “Thai” means “free”, so this really is the land of the free. It was never colonized by Europeans, which is unique. 

Before we got to our first stop, I had presents for everyone, little packets of Watson’s Keenex, suitable for taking into dodgy toilets, in case we met any.

Then he took us to the promised old Phuket Farm, which turned out to be an experience center – purpose built, rather than an old farm.  It served its purpose, though, and we did see how rubber was made.  Did you know it’s a sap, like maple sap?  There were flora, rice paddies, a couple of water buffalo, and a nice replica of a Thai house on stilts, with its upstairs uncommonly well furnished.

Lunch at One Chun was the hit of the day.  It was bountiful and delicious.  We got a fabulous yellow crab curry with glass noodles, pork belly that was as divine as a pig’s stomach can be, two whole fried sea bass with onion and ginger, squid with butter egg sauce, fish balls, six vegetarian dishes, and a lovely frozen desert.  I bought beer and wine for all and we were very happy.  But when we got back into the street for our tour of Phuket town, the heat was overpowering and we could hardly wait to get back on the bus.  Back on the ship, I went to sailaway, had two chocolate desserts and slept for eleven hours.