Hello family and friends! It is May 14, 2016 and we are en route to Koh Samui, Thailand after 3 great days in Singapore.

Backtracking a bit, we spent Tuesday, March 8 in Penang, Malaysia. Just to alert you, the ports in this part of the world, at this time of year are hot, hotter and even more hot! We left the ship with every intention of walking to Little India, and as we walked through the terminal, we had to run the gauntlet of taxi drivers, guides, etc hoping to take us in their vehicle. Only one driver was kind enough to give us precise directions to Little India, but said it is quite a distance and very, very hot. He offered to drive us there and wait for us for $15 an hour. We are so glad we took him up on his offer. He was terrific! We ended up spending four hours with him. Mohamed Rizal, whose phone number is 016-405-0838 (if you find yourself in Penang) has 6 children and he and his wife and children live in a 2 room house. His 2 older children are in college, the other in public school. Public education is free, and college is free after one semester. He is hoping his children will be able to find work in Penang after graduating college, but he says that Penang has lots of unemployment. His car was old and rather shabby, but spotlessly clean and air conditioned—a vital component! My goal was to buy a sari in Little India. I found one I liked in a greenish-teal color with gold embroidery and trim for the outrageous sum of $13 US. My outfit would not be complete without a blouse to go with it. Mohamed drove us to a tailor who advertised “Blouses made in 1 hour!” However, the shop owner had no tailor. We had more luck with the second shop. With the help of a young woman from Indonesia and a tailor, both of whom spoke almost no English, we made ourselves understood and I choose fabric in a coordinated pattern. The blouse was promised in 2 hours. Mohamed gave us a tour of Penang and showed us the Colonial area of Georgetown. The architecture from the British occupation period is reminiscent of other colonial occupation of the British in other countries, down to a cricket field. There is new, modern construction, but nothing on the scale of Kuala Lumpur. We did, however, pass Lexus and Mercedes dealers and luxury malls. We went to the Thai Buddhist Temple where the 4^th largest reclining Buddha in the world can be seen. Even more interesting were the huge mirrored mosaic dragons guarding the temple! Across the street was a Burmese Buddhist Temple with a very large standing Buddha in gold leaf. The embellishments are colorful and, at times, whimsical. We stopped a flea market and purchased a great backpack for $15 US to use on our overland trip to Kyoto. By this time, my blouse was due to be ready. When we returned to the tailor shop it was finished, and the tailor had done a great job! The blouse was trimmed to match the sari and the tailor and hemmed the entire length of the sari. Fabric and labor, a custom blouse cost us $20 US. By this time, we were ready to return to the ship. We gave Mohamed his fee for 4 hours plus some extra. He tried to return the extra to us, and, we, of course refused. I highly recommend him if you need a driver in Penang! He gave us a great day!

Our Stewardess, Martha helped me with my newly purchased sari and I wore it on formal night.

I should mention lunch options on the ship, for those of you who have not sailed Crystal. There are several places for lunch: The Lido Cafe, Trident Grill, Tastes, The Main Dining Room, The Bistro and, of course, room service.

The Lido Cafe is a large, attractive area with stations of various food choices, from salad bars, to carving stations offering roast lamb, tenderloin, roast chicken, pork roast, etc. The offering changes from day to day. There are also Asian foods on offer everyday. Each day has something different: Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Japanese, etc. I think I included photos of other food items in an earlier post, but there are a multiple of choices available ranging from whole large shrimp, herring, choice of 2 soups, pasta station, other meat entrees, fish entrees, marinated salads, etc., not to mention the huge selection of desserts.

Tastes offers an out of door cafe feel and has a set menu everyday with Asian chicken salad, potstickers (shrimp, pork, chicken or vegetable,) pork dumplings, stir-fry noodles, a grilled Ruben sandwich, or a hamburger plus the soup of the day.

Trident is a grill, also giving an out of doors type of experience with steak sandwiches, grilled ham and cheese, salmon or chicken burgers, fresh ground hamburgers or cheeseburgers, chicken wraps, great gazpacho soup—my favorite and the perfect dish after returning from a hot tour, hotdogs, onion rings, sweet potato and regular fries, fresh fruit, etc.

The Main Dining Room offers some of the same dishes as the Lido, but other choices as well, in a quieter setting.

The Bistro is more like a cafe with a choice of great specialty coffee drinks, cheese, cold cuts, fresh fruit, rolls and breads, and desserts.

The 24 hour room service menu is extensive and now Crystal has 4 dedicated room service personel.

It is impossible to go hungry on Crystal. By the way, if lunch was not enough, there is tea from 3:30-4:30 everyday and the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream stand!

After Penang, Crystal Serenity stopped at Langkawi, Malaysia. This is a small island in the Langkawi Archipelago, home to resorts and beautiful beaches. This was a day off for us, with a quick trip into town and a day doing laundry and catching up on emails when we returned to the ship. We knew we would have 3 busy days in Singapore!

Singapore! Three days and two nights! I wish we had more time, because this city has so much to offer. One thing we found every day in Singapore was that it is HOT! (Is this a theme in this blog?) Singapore lies less than 90 miles from the Equator. It is small—only 250 square miles and is situated on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. In 1954, Singapore declared itself a self-governing state and Lee Kuan Yew was named Prime Minister. His forward thinking policies encouraged a good economy, modernization and growth. Currently, his son is Prime Minister, and Singapore works! It is clean. Education is free. People are thriving and owning their own apartment. The government has a plan where it pays 17% of the person's salary, and 27% is withheld of the salary, so that after 3 years, a couple has enough to buy their own apartment from the government. The city is one of tall housing blocks, and there are very few individual houses because of the lack of space. Singapore has done a lot to keep green areas with lots of trees. There are many parks and novel uses of space. It is a healthcare center for Southeast Asia, with Johns Hopkins having a presence here as well as other international medical facilities. It is also an amazing consumer society, with high end mall after mall on Orchard Road. We visited the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Mall and there was the largest concentration of luxury shops I have ever seen, far more than Beverly Hills.

Our first day was spent with our friends, Ken and Sharon Henry. We took a taxi from the ship to the Gardens by the Bay. What an incredible experience! The complex is made up of 2 large glass domes, probably the size of a football field in several levels. The first that we toured was the Cloud Forest. The plants and trees and landscape that is seen as you travel up, up, up into the mountains is the setting. You walk through the clouds, past a huge waterfall and lots of sculptures and carvings from all over the world. Refreshingly cool and interesting! The second dome is the Flower Grove, and represented are trees, plants and flowers from all the geographical areas of the world in garden form, including cherry blossoms from Japan. It is on multi levels and the view as you climb higher and higher is exceptional. Also on the campus of Gardens by the Bay are “trees” several stories high that contain a new way to grow plants as an alternative to horizontal farming. We spent the morning at this amazing location and walked over to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel—the iconic hotel with the ship and infinity pool on the roof. We walked through the hotel to the mall heading for a dim sum restaurant: Din Tai Fung. It was mobbed with locals, always a good sign, and we waited approximately 25 minutes for a table. We over ordered, but everything was delicious! From there, we walked the mall a bit and then headed back to the ship by taxi. It was an easy day to get the optimum number of steps!

We came back to the ship a bit early because we had the second World Cruise Shoreside Event that evening. At 5:25, we were to meet in the Galaxy Theatre where we were escorted to waiting buses. Our destination was Sentosa Island (owned by Genting, the owner of Crystal Cruises among MANY other enterprises including Star Cruises, resorts, bio-medical research, etc.) The location on Sentosa Island, which has a huge entertainment complex including Universal Studios, zip lining, shops, outlet malls, cable cars, etc., was the Undersea Aquarium. We were greeted by the Captain and officers and John Stoll from the head office. Singapore slings were served and mermaids, jellyfish, and King Neptune mingled among us. We were given wristlets of flowers and had the option to have a caricature done or henna tattoo. We were then escorted through the exhibits of the aquarium. Sharks, manta rays, jelly fish, moray eels, octopuses and many, many fish were in giant tanks. As we finished our tour, we were led to a large hall with chairs set up and a GIGANTIC glass tank, both vertical and over our heads. Heavy hor d'ourves and drinks were passed. The food was prepared with recipes from celebrity chefs affiliated with Genting's Resort World. There was a concert by a harpist, and the fish seemed to move with the music. Then a band and singer performed and we sat with friends in a smaller room where we were surrounded by the sea creatures. At about 10 pm, we transferred to buses for the trip home. When we arrived at the ship, a big buffet was set up in The Cove. Apparently, some people did not think they got enough food at the event and left early to complain to the front desk and the Maitre d'. Originally, the buffet was supposed to be just dessert. Believe me, there was more than enough food at the aquarium, but some people are never satisfied!

Just a word about Singapore security. Upon leaving the ship each time, and returning to the ship each time, we had to go through immigration. We had to carry our passport and landing card with us at all times. After passing through immigration, that took approximately 20-30 minutes each time, we then had to pass through a metal detector and our bags and possessions went through the x-rays. This happened going into Singapore and going back to the ship every time. According to our guide on the night safari, there are a lot of people who commute from Malaysia into Singapore every day for work, and passport inspection is far more cursory.

The ship's terminal is part of the largest shopping center in Singapore, and has many restaurants and good internet. It was a great place for the crew and they look forward to Singapore because of this.

The second day, we mastered the subway system and took the subway to Chinatown, where we walked around and then had food from Hawkers on Smith Street, the Chinatown food street. After Chinatown, we took a taxi to Raffles Hotel, a classic, colonial hotel, quite commercialized now, but still with shady verandas typical of the British style Colonial architecture. We took a taxi back to the ship to get ready for our evening shore excursion—the Night Safari. At 6 pm, we boarded a bus to go to the northern most tip of Singapore. Once at the Safari Park, we transferred to a tram that took us up close and personal with a variety of animals who are far more nocturnal than we would see in a zoo. The lighting is kept soft to replicate moonlight and the animals are uncaged and roam free, with some barriers for the more dangerous animals, consisting of moats or shrubbery. We saw elephants, tigers, lions, bears, tapirs (huge and standing right next to the tram!), many kinds of deer, hyenas, wild cattle, etc. It was an interesting excursion, but the park had thousands of people present because it was the start of school vacation. We tumbled into bed upon our return after a long day!

Yesterday, our last day in Singapore, we took the subway once again. The subways system is easy to navigate, clean and orderly. This time, our destination was Little India. Lots and lots of produce stalls, food outlets, clothing, household goods, jewelry shops, etc. My big purchase was earrings to wear with my sari. My earrings were not decorous enough! I have never been so hot in my life after walking through Little India. The heat index was 105 with 1000 % humidity. We took the subway back to the ship, after changing subway lines, no mean feat! Too cool off, we walked through the mall attached to the cruise terminal and I got my haircut, shampooed and blown dry for the equivalent of about $30 US. The stylist did a great job and I finally cooled down. Interestingly, for the shampoo, instead of a seat where the back reclines and your head is in the shampoo sink, the entire seat reclines so you are laying flat. This is far more comfortable, especially for those of us with short, peasant necks!

Last night we had dinner with Ken and Lynne Rees (Nancy, they send there very best to you and Larry!) in Tastes. At night, reader, as you know, it is turned into a lovely sidewalk cafe environment with a selection of small plates to share. The menu has changed from the last cruise, so it was fun to try new dishes. The evening passed quickly with great conversation and laughter. For those of you who have not sailed Crystal, Ken is a former television journalist from the UK, who has covered events all over the world. He and his lovely wife Lynne are on for the full World Cruise and Ken serves as the Destination Lecturer. His talks are very well attended, not only for the information, but for his dry wit, too.

Today is a welcome sea day, and I am leaving you to go to Art Class. Last cruise was jewelry, which David became quite proficient at, and this cruise we are doing water colors. Linda Perlmutter is a great instructor and the classes are full with eager students!

More after Thailand and Cambodia!