Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: March 2025

Monday, March 31, 2025

Day 40 Lazy day

It’s been a bit of a lazy day today. I discovered where the gym is located and spent the afternoon sewing whilst Andy went to a talk on Singapore- “Was it Founded by Raffles or Farquhar?” He said it was very interesting!

This evening we went to the Indian restaurant on board and sat next to a couple who I’m sure are related to Jeremy Vine! The man had exactly the same voice and mannerisms. We were talking about doppleganger spotting on board and the look a likes that we had seen. He mentioned that they have a friend that compares everyone to makes of cars! Apparently he is a Volvo P1800 and his wife is a Jaguar Mark 11 with a walnut dashboard! (the car that Morse drove). I’m not sure what car I would be, but I think Andy would be a Hummer 😂.

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Day 39 St Austell Brewery Ozzy

Another day at sea… I went to a really interesting talk by Rob Forkan, who’s the founder of a flip flop company called Gandys, but it’s the reason behind the company that’s interesting. Rob and his 3 siblings were on a family holiday in Sri Lanka in 2004 when the Boxing Day Tsunami hit the island they were all staying on. His parents died in the Tsunami but Rob (who was the oldest child - 17 at the time of the tsunami hitting) managed to save his 3 younger siblings, hitchhike with them 300 miles across Colombia with no belongings, passports or money, and get them all on a flight back to the UK. Rob and his brother have since set up a successful company called Gandy’s which sells flip flops all round the world with the aim of funding and setting up children’s homes, primarily in Sri Lanka. It was a very inspiring talk and quite moving to hear the horror of the tsunami first hand. He found his two younger siblings clinging on to the top of two coconut trees. 230,000 people were killed in the Tsunami which had waves of up to 30m and travelled at 500mph at its peak.

This evening was formal night so Andy had to squeeze into his kilt and everyone was dressed up to the nines, some in roaring 20’s style! After dinner we ended up chatting to a lovely Australian couple called Ray and Linda who were from Adelaide. Ray looked about 65, but he turned out to be 80, and still working as a magistrate! They were on a trip to Southampton to then head down to Cornwall. When they had visited the UK previously, they had stopped at a random pub in Devon and were sitting at the bar having a drink when Ray noticed a photo of his grandpa behind the bar. After much discussion it was established that his grandfather was one of the founders of the St Austell brewery! They visited it the next day and were shown lots of the original artefacts and archives relating to his grandfather.

There we go, another day dusted off and another clock change tonight: -1hr. Great, an extra hour in bed, we quite like these 25hour days!

Dressed up for formal dinner

He’s a happy chappy

Windswept and interesting!😂

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Day 38 Missing Planes and Tap Dancing

Today we woke up to…..sea, sea and more sea! We have 6 days at sea now, next stop is Mauritius next Thursday. On a ship, sea days mean lots more activities to keep everyone entertained. I thought I would give Zumba a go today, and discovered it’s really not for me! It’s a kind of Latin dance exercise class and if ever I was in doubt that I can’t dance, this confirmed the fact I’m not coordinated and have two left feet. I’ll give that class a wide berth tomorrow.

Next up…..craft class which was much more up my street. A lovely Irish lady and her retired headmaster husband (who’s now been demoted to his wife’s classroom assistant 😅) took the class and helped everyone make a spectacle case.

After that, Andy and I went to a brilliant talk which was given by Captain Chris Rigby. Captain Chris went into great depth about what could have happened to the missing Malaysian flight M370 that disappeared in 2014 with 239 people onboard. Several myths were dispelled and Captain Chris put forward his thoughts on what might have happened.

After dinner, we went to the theatre and watched a show by The Tap Step Brothers who were a tap dancing duo! They were very entertaining and Andy’s even contemplating going to the tap dance taster session tomorrow morning!

The day finished with a spot of people watching by the dance floor. There have been many doppelgängers spotted on the ship, so much so, we’ve started a list! People of note so far are:

David Attenborough

Mr Myagi

Ozzie Osborne

Martina Navratilova

Vera (aka Brenda Blethin)

Patsy and Eddy (Ab Fab)

Bill Oddie

To be continued

Top score of 10 for busting some legendary moves on the dance floor is awarded to Mr Myagi.

The night was completed with a quick visit to the Commodore Club on the top deck for a late night game of crib and a Margarita. (I won which reduces the deficit to a mere 5 games now!)

Andy breathing in for the photo😂

Just chilling in the cabin

Friday, March 28, 2025

Day 37 Penang and the silks

This morning when we woke up, we were in Penang! After a bite of breakfast we decided to hop off the ship and go for an explore ashore. As we disembarked, we were greeted with the loud drumming and two dancing dragons! How the people in the dragon costumes managed to jump around in all that regalia in 30 degree heat I’ll never know but they were very entertaining.

We didn’t opt for one of the organised tours, instead, we had a wonder through the streets to see what we could find. This turned out to be a great option - we stumbled across an area called Little India which was full of the most beautiful Sari shops - there were gorgeous silks and fabrics everywhere. We went into one of the larger silk shops and didn’t emerge until an hour later, as I looked at fabric after fabric, trying to decide which one to buy. There was another lady in the shop having a similar problem, only it was shoes she was trying to decide upon. The silk Sari shop also sold the most sparkly glittery bejewelled shoes that you can imagine, she was trying on every shoe in the shop. Apparently it was a very big decision as the lady was going to a wedding. As we left, she was still trying on numerous pairs and undecided.

We walked past a man delivering eggs on a moped - he had huge square trays of eggs strapped on the back of his bike - he was very brave! Something else unusual to us….when people have bought a drink, they are given it in a plastic bag - imagine a freezer bag with the iced tea poured in and a straw sticking out the top. I saw a few of these hanging from a mopeds handlebars! See the photos below.

The ship dock was next to an old fort called Fort Cornwallis which has a steel framed lighthouse poking out the top and ancient cannons stationed all round the walls. The lighthouse was built in 1882, has a 21m white steel framework and a visual distance of 16 nautical miles! The fort is the biggest fort in Malaysia and was built by the Earl of Cornwallis (who was the governor of Bengal) for the British East India Company.

When we are out walking we find ourselves always looking for the shady side of the street as it’s so hot! It’s amazing what a difference a bit of shade can make and I’ve become a magnet for the tiniest bit of it.

We spent the afternoon cooling down back on board the ship - Andy went for a splash in the pool and I caught up on the blog before I completely forgot what we had done.

This evening, we ventured to the onboard theatre and watched a show by a lady called E.Sarah Carter who had travelled round the world with the Lord of the Dance Show…..she was the solo fiddle player and quite incredible she was too! Sarah was very entertaining and played lots of toe tapping Irish tunes and high tempo blue grass songs amongst other things. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

The dancing dragons

Eggs on a moped

Fort Cornwallis

Sari silks

Penang buildings and temples

Drinks in a bag!

Finding the shade 😆

Cooling off by the pool

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Day 36 Big towers & Temples

We woke up this morning in Kuala Lumpur, so, after much deliberation, we hopped in a taxi and headed to the city centre which was about a 45 minute drive. The things that first hits you about the city is the amount of tower blocks and sky scrapers, aren’t just a few of them, they are as far as the eye can see. I’ve never seen so many tall buildings in one place that sprawl out for as far as the eye can see. First stop were the Petronas Twin Towers - a pair of 88 storey, interlinked 452m tall buildings. From 1996-2004 they were the tallest buildings in the world, until they were surpassed by the Taipei 101 building, but they remain the tallest twin towers in the world. For such an iconic landmark, there were few tourists around which made visiting them very pleasant!

Next stop, the Kuala Lumpur Tower, which stands at 421m tall. We bought tickets to have a trip up this tower so zipped up in the lift (again, it was very quiet and no queues) and took in the views from the open sky deck on level I don’t know what, but it was very high up! The views from the sky deck were spectacular across the city. There were security guards dotted all round the outer perimeter of this floor, because they get base jumpers throwing themselves off the roof for sport! There was a mural painted on the wall of the base jumpers and also people running up the stair case, so I asked the security guard about these paintings. There is an annual competition each year to run to the top of the tower - a mere 2,058 steps and in temps of around 30 degrees. There is also an annual base jumping event which allows professional base jumpers to throw themselves off the top of the building in the name of sport! I could think of nothing worse.

Next stop was a wonder through china town where we saw all sorts of stalls selling everything you can imagine. We saw numerous temples and places of worship before stumbling across the most spectacular temple which we had to go and look in. Shoes were left outside and ladies legs had to be covered to I was given a sari to wrap around my waist. The temple was beautiful, with colourful carvings and paintings of elephants and various gods adorning the floor, walls, pillars and roof. Everything in Malaysia is so vibrant!

Last stop was for a cooling drink then we headed back to the ship. Driving along a motorway here is very different as they are lined with tropical trees everywhere - it’s a bit different from the concrete of the M25!

Once back at the ship we had a mozzy around, dinner and some games of crib in the commodore club bar ….I lost as usual!

Next stop tomorrow….Georgetown, Penang.

The Petronas Twin Towers

Andy up The Kuala Lumpur Tower

The KL Tower Base jumper mural

Reluctantly up the KL Tower!

Temple

Inside the temple

Temple art work

Inside the temple

Chinese Temple

On top of the KL Tower 😜

Cooling down!

Kuala Lumpur

Just so you know which lane to get in 😅

Day 35 Ship Ahoy!

It’s packing day again! Andy and I are heading off to find our sea legs and embark on the sea part of our big adventure. We had the morning to squeeze everything into the bags, say a big goodbye to Dougal and Chloe 😓 and head to the Queen Anne ship which will be our home for the next 17 days.

The Queen Anne is Cunards new ship and we are looking forward to having a base for a couple of weeks!

We travelled down to the cruise port in good time for boarding at 3.30pm and whizzed through security.

The Queen Anne is beautiful. Once the bags had arrived at the cabin Andy took great joy in unpacking all his things and hanging them neatly in his wardrobe! I was slightly less enthusiastic about the unpacking of all my stuff!

There are two sittings for dinner, we had opted for the earlier one but are now thinking this may have been a slight mistake as it’s really rather early….at 5.30pm however, we’ll see how it goes. The waiters are so lovely and very efficient. Andy took great joy in heading to his favourite area on the ship….”The Commodore Club” which is a rather dapper bar and lounge on the top floor at the front of the ship. As expected, it’s beautiful.

Dangerously, the buffet restaurant is only one floor above our cabin so Andy decided it would have been rude to not sample the midnight buffet - he did and it was delicious!

Tomorrow when we wake up we will be in Kuala Lumpur, hooray!

All aboard the Queen Anne!

Bye bye Singapore

The lovely Duxton Reserve Hotel

Monday, March 24, 2025

Day 34 The Cloud Forest

Today we ventured down to the waterside again and visited the Gardens by the Bay, in particular the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome whilst Dougal and Chloe opted for an attraction called Disney Floral Fantasy!

It was a very easy journey, just a two minute walk from our hotel to the tube and then 4 stops to arrive at the Gardens. The Cloud Forest is an enormous cooled conservatory featuring one of the world's tallest indoor waterfalls and a diverse collection of exotic plants which grow on the indoor mountain! There are suspended aerial walkways which allow you to walk high up amongst the plants and get a unique view.

Upon entering the huge glass building, it was instantly a fabulous place to be as it was much cooler than the 30degrees outside! The first thing that greets you is the enormous indoor waterfall which really is quite something that stands at around 35m (115feet) tall. We then entered a lift which takes you up the inside of the mountain and you then meander along the aerial walkways which take you slowly back down the mountain side as they wrap around the plants. It really was beautiful and we saw some spectacular plants and trees.

Next on the list of things to do today, was visit the second huge glasshouse which was next door to the Cloud Forest….this was called the Flower Dome. The Flower Dome is a 1.2 hectare cooled conservatory that holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest glass greenhouse space! It’s made of 3,332 glass panels which cover 16,000 square meters of surface area. There were all sorts of different and unusual plants on display from round the world. We loved the cacti and Baobab trees, the biggest of which weighed 32 tonnes and had come all the way from Senegal (how they fitted that on a plane or ship I have no idea!).

When we left the Flower Dome, the heavens opened and let me tell you, when it rains in Singapore, it really rains! After dodging the downpours we headed home and had a catch up with Dougal and Chloe who had been out exploring, doing a spot of shopping and visiting an Ice Cream Museum, which sounded fabulous!

Everyone was a bit pooped today so we had a lovely Chinese meal in Yellow Pot, the hotel restaurant. There was much hilarity as our waitress was very entertaining with her assumptions and questions about Dougal and Chloe. All the staff here have been so lovely, we’ll be sad to say goodbye to them.

The evening was finished with a dominoes rematch between the 4 of us, I can’t remember who won..so it obviously wasn’t me!