Like Noah: Forty days and forty nights to go

DATELINE SOMEWHERE NEAR BANKOK – WHAT A WONDER FILLED TRIP AND MORE TO GO. Its a big world out there. It goes round every day. But we rarely get to go round it. Thanks for sharing with us Kiki!
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To review to date, Southampton to Singapore. All links to posts, in order of trip appearance:

Portland, Maine starting trip

Fireworks of Southampton sendoff

On-board lifeboat drill

Barcelona, Spain

Off Sicily

Heraklion, Crete

Pirates of Suez

Greeks bearing gifts

Port Said, Egypt

Lights around the World, from Egypt

Going thru the Suez

Pyramids, Sphinx, Camels

Safaga, Egypt. Sunny with a chance of Champagne

Transiting the Red Sea, AUDIO FILES

Food moment on the Gulf of Aden

Scottish night at sea. With Haggis. VIDEO

Riding camels, and high tea in desert

Not your momma’s burka, Dubai (world’s biggest Cruise liner meets world’s tallest building)
CRUISE AND CRUISING. Oh, btw, yes, that photo is of THE tallest building in the world, and it is THE tower Tom Cruise was actually climbing in the latest Mission Impossible movie: Mission Impossible 4 Ghost Protocol. Check out the behind the scenes link. If you have a strong heart. Gulp.

Further btw, Queen Mary 2 that Kiki rode into Dubai on is the largest Cruise Liner in the world.

Abu Dhabi, men with whips, falcon, bazaar, VIDEO

Bright colors of India, w/VIDEO

Ape-filled streets of Cochin, India VIDEOS

Spa is expensive, Indian Ocean

Bathtime at elephant orphanage, Sri Lanka, VIDEO

Langkawi, Malaysia, islands or Maine blizzard

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia start of Chinese New Year

Chic chic Singapore

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Welcome to Singapore. What goes around, goes around

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DAY 30 SINGAPORE … Where the penalty for not flushing a public toilet is $150 and the penalty for drugs is death. Anyway, we had a good time and only got edgy when Diarmuid dropped a tissue (penalty for littering, $1,000).

kikidiurmuidwheel2Hip baristas – without the tats. We had fried prawns with hot sauce and drank mugs of iced sugar cane juice in a divey lunch spot.

We rode Singapore’s ‘millennial’ ferris wheel.
Back on the ship, happy not to be fined or dead.

Stew note: You can see the millennial wheel over their shoulder?

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MORE MALAYSIA. AND SHARK FOOD TOO.

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DAY 29, DATELINE KUALA LUMPUR – Asia Modern: young and beautiful with high-rise luxury malls, sophisticated metro, crowded bazaar, dreamy colonial architecture and fabulous food.

The place is decked out for Chinese New Year with red lanterns everywhere. The other twin towers

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Muslim kids – and tons of men streaming to mosques with prayer rugs under their arms for Friday prayers

Do they really mean shark?

Stew note: Burger Villa, Burger King, Burger Shark? Shack? Who knows if it is seafood special or not. Surely you tried it, Kiki? Did it taste fishy?

WHERE’S NEMO?

Day 28, DATELINE, LANGKAWI, MALAYSIA – A beautiful archipelago of mostly uninhabited islands. Kind of like that Leonardo di Caprio film. The ship is equally uninhabited. Everyone’s gone ashore.

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snowywindowNote from Stew:

It could be worse. In fact, it is. Kiki you are missing Nemo the Blizzard of ’13. Thirty inches at the Portland Jetport. This snap, to the left, is from our window, in dark gray, Gray, Maine. We haven’t been out the door for 30 hours. And counting.

This video link is from camera in your office, Kiki. So you can see the Maine Weather you are missing in real time!

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Bathtime at an elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka. Video

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Day 25 DATELINE SRI LANKA – More dancing men greet the QM2 on its maiden call in Colombo. The elephant orphanage was sweet. We saw them bathe, be bottled and babied. Once they’re rescued, they remain at the orphanage with an occasional gig at a temple or festival.

You know how the sign says to refrain from getting close to the elephants? Not true. Their curious trunks and huge bottoms were right in your face. Here they’re on their way back from the river for a nice lunch. They eat 250 kilos of veggies a day.
Sent from my iPhone

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Fun trying Skype last night. Will try again tonight. I am so baffled by these recent, almost nightly, time changes. We’re 11.5 hours ahead of you today – 12 tomorrow. I’ll try you at 10:30 am EST and will be on the deck where reception is better – unless it’s raining again. Apparently we’re hitting the leading edge of rainy season. Who knew? I’ll scan the laptop around so you can get a 360 view.

We’ll be in Singapore for Chinese New Year!

Got the new STV web site rough – nice!