1/31–Shawarma but not Shawarma

After getting organized, we head out into town checking out our old haunts and looking for new possibilities.  The night market is still the same, except now they leave the tables out over night!  That’s a change.  They used to tear everything down and rebuild each day, but inside Ansuran, all the tables now stay. Smarter!

It’s quiet tonight, because of the Sunday walking street.  We walk through all the restaurants, O’Malley’s is still here (of course), but there are lots of new places surrounding it – a lot of Lebanese and Indian.  Sadly, our favorite Indian place, The Silver Eagle, is gone. We had figured that out since we’d not seen anything about them for quite a while and the last review was really old.  We’re sad, but there are at least 3 other Indian options on the market, so we’ll check them out eventually.

The Bamboo bar is still there – with the same great bartender!  We wave as we go past, heading to The Roadside – which is all fenced up.  Oh no!  We can’t decide if this is a Sunday night thing, or a permanent thing.  We’ll have to come back tomorrow and check out if they are ever open.  That will be a big bummer if they’ve gone too.

We stop at Bamboo on our way back for a beer and wine, and the bartender remembers us and chats for a while.  Just like Sanibel only better – it’s been 2 years! 

Afterward we head back to Sababa for dinner, because we are craving Shawarma (for Ed) and Babaganoush (for me).  Dancing man is still there – but he’s all alone and crazy busy! We are lucky to get a table!  We sit, ask for beers and go through the menu. Hey! No Shawarma.  No Babaganoush.  What gives?

Dancing man finally comes back out apologizing for the wait, 2 people didn’t show up so he’s all alone.  We ask about the Shawarma – he says, yes, he still has it, here – well, the menu says chicken cutlets or something – so whatever.  I ask about Babaganoush and he says no – he can’t stand it – it makes him throw up so he won’t make it.  His partner used to make it – but he says “that other guy is gone” – so – no Babaganoush for me.  Pooh.

I order the Shawarma but not Shawarma and Ed orders the cutlets. They were good before.  As it turns out, we both end up with Shawarma (or not)….

Ok, so it is really only chicken cubes or cutlets that were probably at one time on a skewer.  They are good, but they ain’t Shawarma.  And the cutlets? Who knows. He’s so busy, we aren’t asking, we consider ourselves lucky we have any food at all!  A good meal, but certainly not what we had in mind after 2 years.

Ah well, you just have to adapt to change.  At any rate, it is a lovely night for our first night back in Chiang Mai, sitting outside, watching the traffic flow by, enjoying our chicken whatever it is and getting adjusted to being back in Chiang Mai, at our Twin Peaks home away from home. 

We finish up, grab Dancing man out of the kitchen to pay (poor thing – he’s stressed!), then walk the 3 blocks back, passing what we are now calling “Cane” (dog in Italian) Corner – where every night the dogs comes to sleep.  Too funny…

…back to our little balcony to spend an enjoyable end to our first night in Chiang Mai, sitting and relaxing above the pool.

1/31–Off to Chiang Mai

Travel day, so we are up and out early.  We have a 10:05 am flight, which means being at the airport by 8:05.  It is only about 1/2 hour to the airport, but we don’t want to risk long taxi lines, or lines waiting to get off the ship, so we are coffeed up and ready to go around 6:35.  We are scheduled to walk off at 7:00, but since the ship has been in port all night, we don’t think we have to wait. We wheel our bags down to the Rendesvous lounge, which is where we are supposed to meet to walk off, but there is no one there – and heck the gangway is right there and open – so…..

…we head out, bing bong out and say goodbye to the security guys – and we are off!  We walk our pre-scouted out route, grab the lift down (we’re the only ones around), scan through customs and are out in the parking lot in no time.  The limo taxi drivers are all there milling about and when we politely say no, we’re going for a taxi, they tell us there are no taxis here now.  Well, nice try, but I can see them out there!  It’s a longer walk to get to them, but I think we can manage – and do quite easily, thank youy!

There is no one else waiting, 4 taxis all lined up to go, so we are on our way well before our 7:00am disembarkation time.  Nice!  Oh – and we also only pay 20 Singapore dollars ($14 US) as opposed to the 55 Singapore dollars ($40 US) that the smallest limo taxi charges.  So there!

Airport check in is a breeze.  Security at this time of the morning is a breeze. Although its a really strange security, only our bags are scanned and we don’t have to take anything out. Hmmmm….that must have been agricultural, not “real” security.  But – whatever.

We’ve got lounge passes from our stay at the Village Katong, they are dated for 1/17, so we’re worried they might not work 2 weeks later – but they do and we are lounging by 7:10am.  Nice quiet space, watching planes take off and land, free wifi, good coffee, lots of water and eggs and bacon if we want it.  Great perk – that hotel was the best! So, we spend the next 2 hours in relative peace catching up with the world, reading and enjoying the view.

We head out into the melee an hour before our flight, simply because we don’t know where the gate is located and we want to be sure we are in line on time (boarding can be an all out scrum sometimes, and we’re flying Air Asia – the discount airline – so we don’t know exactly what to expect).  The walk to the gate does take about 15 minutes, so we are glad we left early. Plus, we end up very close to the front of the line – and here is the real security – at the gate.  Wow!  Every gate has security?  How much does that cost? All those machines?  Revolving personnel, but still, they’ve got to have way more personnel for individual gate checks than they would if it was centrally located.  Guess we know where all those Singaporean fine fees go!

Fortunately, I’d not filled up my water bottle, but had taken a little bottle from the lounge.  The little bottle got jettisoned, but there was a water fountain inside the gate area where I could fill up my empty bottle, so I was all set.  Even though the plane didn’t arrive until very late, we boarded and pushed back right on time.  Guess it is easier to turn around discount airlines where you don’t have to restock the plane every time.

The flight went off without a hitch and we landed at Don Mueang International Airport (the old Bangkok airport) a little early.  Which was probably good, because the ticket agent and the gate agent both made a point of telling us to go straight to our gate in Bangkok.  Ok, yeah, why wouldn’t we?  Our bags are checked straight through, so of course we’d go to our gate. Well….we’d not been to this airport so we didn’t know the score.  When you get off the plane there are airport people standing there with signs for transfers to Chiang Mai – pointing down a terminal walkway.   We figure that’s us – and stop to show our boarding passes.  No, that’s not us. They tell us to go through immigration.  Huh?

Ok, so, we stand in line at immigration – and of course pick the wrong line where the doofus 3 in front of us hasn’t filled out his entry or exit card – sigh – what the heck was he doing on the plane? Or in this line for that matter!  Finally we get through and I ask the immigration officer how to get to the gates – well – we end up going through immigration, passing through baggage claim, walking to the next terminal over, going up to level 3 and through security again and into the domestic terminal.  Very strange – but now we know why the agents were so adament about telling us to go directly to our gate.  Got it!

Plenty of time to spare still, we stop off for beverages at a cafe, then head to our gate to board the plane for Chiang Mai.  Yay!

We’re ontime, smooth as silk, except as we deplane, an Air Asia agent has a sign with a bunch of names on it – ours included.  Turns out we have to go to the International terminal to pick up our bags.  What? Well, I guess it sort of makes sense because our checked bags haven’t cleared through customs yet.  Bizarre. After an interminable wait for everyone on the list to show up, we are guided through the back halls and walkways, around immigration and into the international area where – voila – our bags are all lined up and waiting for us.  Cool.  That went well.

Then out into the terminal we go, looking for Richard.  We end up meeting him halfway down the terminal – he was expecting us in Domestic (as were we) and finally figured out we must be in International.  It’s great to see him again and get caught up on all his doings – selling units, buying units, trying to slow down (yeah right, not a chance!), etc.  We spend an enjoyable trip to Twin Peaks just getting caught up on everything.

Once here, he shows us to our lovely home for the next month – new unit we’ve not stayed in with 2 baths and overlooking the pool where we will be spared most of the hot sunlight during the day. Nice!

We bid Richard farewell, and work on getting settled in – easy to do – dump everything in the closet.  We’re set!  The condo is really well equipped, with lots of storage space, extra sheets and towels and loads more cooking utensils than normal.  Perfect for us.

1/28–1/30–Two days at sea and Singapore

Two days at sea, and we are unusually busy because of all the lectures. We’ve been so lucky with the good and interesting content (well, except for the one lecturer who talks about the ports from a historical perspective – he does not have a lot of facts right and I’ve come to really dislike his lectures for the mistakes) – and we even get a bonus on these 2 days, the DJ gives 2 great lectures on Marilyn Monroe.  Fascinating.  So, we keep ourselves busy.

We arrive in Singapore on schedule at 2pm – but this time we are not getting off the ship.  There is no reason to go outside – we’ve nothing we want to see, and we have made reservations for the Olympic restaurant at 6:30 that evening. Too rushed – and of course – for what?  We do end up getting off and just figuring out the port layout because we’ve decided to walk off our luggage in the morning.  We figure out how to negotiate our exit, where the lift is, where the taxi line begins, and then get back onboard to finalize our packing and go to dinner.

The Olympic is – as advertised – elegant and fabulous food.  We had a special offer of 2 for 1 cover charge, so we jumped on the opportunity to eat here. We have never been disappointed in any of the Ocean Liners restaurants, and tonight is no exception. Flawless service, flawless food, superb experience.  The saddest thing is that Celebrity is getting rid of these restaurants, converting them all into Tuscan Grilles – which are no more than a steakhouse.  So disappointing.  One of the waiters who serves us tells us that they’ve already converted on the Infinity, and the restaurant is still not full.  Shame.

We spend the evening at the show, then head back to watch the lights of Singapore from our balcony for our last night aboard.

1/27–Boracay

It is a windy and cloudy overcast day as we sail into the anchoring point off of Boracay island.  It’s our kind of beach day – but we are betting lots of people will be disappointed in the weather here today.  We’ve heard this is a beach resort, with the best beach – White Beach – filled with resorts and restaurants and shopping. Does not sound like our kind of place. As a matter of fact, we are seriously thinking about not getting off today.  It’s a tender ride, it’s a “resort” town, why not stay aboard?

In the end, boredom gets the better of us and we decide to head ashore.  The tender ride was easy, although they were having issues with the wind apparently, our ride wasn’t bad at all, and only took 10 minutes (as opposed to the 20 or 30 the cruise director said it would take).  Once ashore, there was a little folklore show…

…which was nice, but made it incredibly hard to hear the tricycle and multicab people and their offers.  The tricycle guy tries to hit us up, but we actually end up in a multicab (which is a motor scooter with a 6 person pickup on the back) for 20 php each (which is like 42 cents – crazy!). We are in the cab with 3 local girls who are going to sell/pick/do something with vegetables and a French couple who Ed gets to chatting with.  Off we go, out of the jetty area and into the hurdy gurdy little streets of Boracay – this is nothing like what we expected! 

Crazy streets, dirt some places, pavement others. Houses and businesses jammed together crowding out the street – this is more like Vietnam than any resort town we’ve been in!  Wild.  The driver says he’s taking us to the mall – we’re like – ok – where ever you say! we’re clueless.  On the way, he wants to talk all about the ship – how many people, what type of people, how many Chinese (they are obviously a problem!), where are we going, where have we been. Then he wants to know about America, where we live, who lives there, are there alot of electric vehicles.  It’s a long drive – seriously long for 43 cents! – and he asks questions the whole way, which is seriously cute! So, I’m talking to him the whole way, Ed is talking to the French – who spent the last 2 weeks in India and thought Singapore was heaven (oh well, what can we say?). 

We finally get to the “the mall” and the driver points us in the direciton of the beach.  This isn’t like any mall we’ve ever seen.  It is more like the street stalls in Vietnam or Cambodia! 

There are souvenir places interspersed with street food looking restaurants.  We wind our way through the mall, in the direction of the water and are rewarded with a great beach – stretching for miles in both directions.  Again, way more 3rd world higgly piggly than resort.  Tons of different areas where you can rent beach chairs, loungers and umbrellas.  People hawking boat rides (thanks, have already paid for a big one!), food, souvenir hawkers, really fun.

We wander along the beach for a bit, just sort of exploring and getting our bearings.  This side of the island is where the “resorts” are – and the shopping and eating.  There are 3 different areas on the beach, called Stations.  Station 2 (where we were dropped off) is the central hub for all the activity, Station 3 is a little less busy and Station 1 is least busy of all.  We decide to head up to Station 3 just to get the lay of the land – and also because from there we can head back to the main road and try to cross the island to look at the other beach – Bulabog. 

It is a bit quieter up at Station 3, not as many restaurants and shops, but still enough commerce areas to make it lively.  Back out on the main drag, there is a  little less traffic up here, and the shops are mostly local shops – some touristy places, but no real restaurants or things like that. We are at the point where we want to sit down for some coffee or water, but there really isn’t anything here on the main road.

So we head in the direction of Bulabog and actually find a cute little place called the English Bakery.  We order a coffee and water and sit and relax a bit by the lagoon out back.

After our refreshments, we head down the road to Bulabog, which is the water sports beach. 

It is the windward side of the island, and you can definitely see why it’s the water sports area! Wow – those winds!  And the number of kite and wind surfers!  100s. Easily.  We’re suprised there aren’t more accidents with the number of people out there. 

We hang out there for a while, then walk down the beach a bit, watching all the activity.  It is still early, so there isn’t really much open here yet. All the food places won’t open for a while, and there isn’t really anything else over here (but the wind) to hold our attention, so we head back across the island to White Beach, passing local shanties on the way.

Again, not at all what we expected.  Celebrity had tours going to resort spa for a day (with full use of the pool and beach loungers) for $65 US and if you added a BBQ lunch you were up to $100 US.  So we were expecting Ixtapa or Cancun or something. Not this fun little quirky island with tons of different places, food and atmosphere.  And you know us and beaches – not us! But the more we saw, the more we really liked the unusualness of this place.

So, back to White Beach we go, through the mall (which turns out to be called D’Mall – and there is a sort of outdoor mall area that we had missed with stores and lots of restaurants, etc.) and onto the beach again. Now we are looking for food though.  There are 2 more local type restaurants that have squid reasonably priced, which is what Ed is after.  Then there are more expensive options in D’Mall area (including a Greek restaurant Ed had read about that got good reviews – but boy was it on the pricey side).  So we wander and peruse menus, and then decide it is time for a beer. So we end up at The Hobbit.  It’s a great looking restaurant, all bamboo and thatched roof, with a cool bar and great open air breezes!

We sit at the bar and have a beer (San Miguel!) while watching the procession of people walking through D’Mall (mostly all Chinese it seems).  It’s a great people watching place, and I love the name. And as it turns out, it has meaning besides just the books/films.  Everyone here, except the bartender, are little people!  We didn’t really notice until the bartender went to get us our beer and you can see the contrast between him and one of the servers. How wild is that?

Fun.  So, thirst quenched, we head off to get squid.  We finally decide to try the more “local” looking place – only to find out they have no squid.  Darn!  Back to the drawing board. Menus, menus everywhere and no squid in sight (well at least none we are will to pay the price for – that’s for certain!).  So you know what?  We’re back to the Hobbit.  Why not?  The beer is good, the bartender friendly, they’ve got a big menu…and the kitchen is right there behind glass so we can watch our food being prepared. We’re there!

And it ends up being quite an enjoyable lunch.  We are bad and get the garlic bread (which are called garlic logs, so we think we are getting something more than bread, but turns out not).  We try to order the fried fisherman’s platter, but they are out of that (we are batting a thousand here folks!), so we end up with the fried calamari which is fantastic – and so artistic the way they plate it. Watching the chef, he really is proud of his work, and he fusses over every dish that comes out.  Nice!

There is a singer that comes on, so we even get great music while we eat.  We work through a couple more San Miguels, but Ed had wanted a local beer that wasn’t cold yet. When we go to order another beer, the bartender pulls the local beer Ed wanted out of the ice – he had put it there just for Ed.  How nice!  

Done with food and beverage, we hang out for a while listening to the music, then make our way back out to the main drag looking for a multicab or tricycle to go back to the jetty port.  It takes us a little while to figure out the system – get on the correct side of the road, find a taxi “stand” sign.  But eventually we find a tricycle to take us back for 100 php or a little more than $2US.  Well worth it – it’s crazy trafficky here and the roads are narrow and hilly.  No way we’d try to walk it – not worth even considering for the price of the transportation here.  Plus it is just way more fun riding around and watching all the craziness from the side of a tricycle!

We get stuck in a traffic jam near the port with construction, but even still we make it back with plenty of time to spare.  And plenty of Phillipine Pesos too.  Bummer.  But, heck, we’ll just tip Maria, our wonderful barista bar server, with what we have left over. We’d have given her US anyway, and this way she can have her own money without having to exchange it.

Tender ride goes off without a hitch, and we’re back onboard in no time.  Great day – we are so happy we decided to go outside. We would have been sorely disappointed if we had missed this.

1/26–Show before we sail from Manila

We are back aboard, cooled off, and hanging around.  Taking pictures of the skyline from the aft deck of the ship.

We will find out later that this is the first – and only – time that the Millennium will be in Manila.  So it is very special for the crew, of course, but also for the city.  They have pulled out all the stops for us and it is lovely.  We mentioned the band in the morning, but there is also a show this afternoon before we leave.  We can sort of see it from our balcony, but end up heading to the promenade deck to get a closer view.  What a great show.  There is the marching band which is made up of the widest assortment of people – young and old – so it isn’t a school band.

They have accompanying Majorettes who are just great at dancing and twirling and so fun to watch.

And then there are the flag girls.  Oh my.  They are precious.  There are some who are older, but a most are little – maybe 7, 8 or 9?  And one who just steals the show! 

I could watch them all night!  As we sail away, they all march down the dock to the very end, serenading us as we pull away.  It is so amazing sweet and heart rending.  Love it.

And, as an odd, and totally separate aside – as we were in dock, there was a US naval ship across from us, being fueled.  We watched as sailors came back aboard in what looked like sports uniforms (maybe basketball or something?) and then a bunch of uniformed officers boarded.  Just interesting that it was a US ship there.  So over the course of the next couple of days, as we were reading about the US naval vessel that sailed a little too close to the Chinese islands that are in dispute……yep…..it was that ship!  Pretty wild, huh?