Sunday, January 29, 2012

NEW YEAR'S EVE DINNER

After a lovely day in Phuket, we hurriedly dressed up for our New Year's Ever dinner at the ship.

Here's Sabrina with her cousin Sophie all dressed up and ready for the festivities.

Here's the menu for the special dinner.
Here's the hat to greet the new year!

I liked the bread that they had that evening. Cranberry bread and corn bread. Both freshly baked!
Here's the family. I had no idea that most of us decided to wear red hahaha. 
Here's the first glass of bubbly for me!


Sabrina's pasta...again...
Here's my soup with wonton.
Salad with artichoke hearts, grapefruit and walnuts.
Surf and Turf
Mother and daughter in our New Year head bands
Dessert...Chocolate cake with white chocolate mousse.
Here's Sabrina and Sophie partying with the other guests. Dancing to mamma mia!
Balloons, waiting to be dropped after the countdown.

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1! Happy New Year! Happy 2012.
Sabrina and I had so much fun in the cruise. I think we will do this again!!!

Monday, January 23, 2012

CRUISE 2011 DAY 4 - PHUKET

 Day 4 is Phuket Day! I love Thailand and I love Phuket! Sabrina loves it too. So, here she is, ready with her straw hat. She says first stop should be the elephant ride.
 Still waiting for our group to be called to get out of the ship, Sabrina poses with her Mamita.
 After at 10 minute boat ride, we're finally on land. There's the ship...a few hundred meters away.
 The kids wanted to swim already but we said we'll take them to the see the elephants first.
 While the kids rode the elephant, I waited by this area and spend a few hundreds to see what the elephant can do.
 Hoola hoops for this elephant.
 Of course, after she performed, I had to give her some treat...sugar cane. Ok, by this time I'm so liking this elephant and I'm wishing that I had her as my pet.
 After feeding her plenty sugar cane, here she is...she kisses me with her trunk to say thank you!
 This is the area where the ride starts and ends.
 Here's baby zoe feeding the elephant also.
 There's this restaurant we told the driver to take us. It's called Lotus. He took us to this place instead. The quality is nothing compared to the Lotus at all...but what can we do, we're here already.
 This is my view from my seat.
 This is the menu...

 Here's the food...soft shell crabs with garlic,
 Stir fried squid with vegetables,
 Fried calamari with garlic,
 Seafood fried rice,
 Shrimp with red curry,
 Pad thai, not really good for Thailand standards,
 This one was good. Steamed fish with chillies and lime. 
 After the lunch, we headed to a shop where they sold cashew and other Thai food products.
 Here's how they get to crack the shell open and still keep the nut whole. 
 Here are shelves of cashew products that they were selling at the store.
 After the cashew store and before heading to the big buddha, we went to the Jim Thompson store. Of course, we bought our cute bags, hats, cosmetic cases etc. Ok, after that, we headed to the Big Buddha.

This Big Buddha is made of marble. There's a walkway to go up to the buddha but I personally decided to not to walk up to it. it was too hot that day. Even the cats slept due to the heat.


We wish we had more time in the island to explore but we needed to head back to the ship already. We had to get ready for the new year's eve dinner. Time to get ready for the count down! 

Thursday, January 19, 2012

CRUISE 2011 DAY 3 - LAGKAWI

 Day 3, we dock at Langkawi. We woke up early so we could get out of the ship early.
 As soon as we got out, we hired a van to take us to the dock where we can take a boat ride to see the mangroves.
 Here's the port where we stopped to ride the boats.
 The weather was nice...cool, breezy and sunny.
 This is me...with my hat, shades and vest.
 We saw some monkeys waiting for us to throw them some food.
 Here we are, about to enter the crocodile cave. 


 Here's a floating restaurant along the banks.
 This is Sabrina in the bat cave. It was cold, creepy and stinky but we still went in.


 Here we are, posing outside the cave.
 After the bat cave, we headed to a floating restaurant that served Thai food. Don't ask me why I'm eating Thai food while in Malaysia. 
 While waiting for the food, the kids walked around to look at the fish that they had in the pond.
 On our way back to the ship, we stopped by a chocolate store where we bought some chocolates, hot cocoa mix and coffee.
 Then, time for dinner. It was an Italian night so I had the antipasto platter for my appetizer.
 Then I had my lamb shank.  It was very good...flavorful and tender.

 Here's Sabrina with her favorite head waiter... Sashko.
For dessert, molten chocolate cake. After dinner, I was too tired to watch the show so I let Sabrina watch the magic show along with her cousins and I just stayed in the room to rest. It will be another early day tomorrow.  Next stop is Phuket.