Cruise - Day 3 Phuket Thailand

It's taking forever for me to go through the photos and complete the posts. We took too many photos! And I want to show as much as possible. Slowly, but I am getting through them... Here are some more - enjoy!

Day 3 started very early - we were arriving in Phuket Thailand. From the deck side we could see a beautiful sunrise:





The ship stayed on the sea this time so we had to get on a tender to get to the pier.



Since we were on board Oliver was very confused he couldn't see his big ship. When we got off in Malaysia we came out of the ship and it was too close to see the whole ship, all he saw was the steps. Finally this time he could see the big boat he was sleeping on and he was very happy :)







Ready for another big day!



Patong Beach - it was very beautiful. Maybe because it was still early but it wasn't crowded at all. I couldn't imagine the big tsunami hitting there a few years ago.



Of course our boy took off his shoes straight away and enjoyed walking on the sand and splashing the water :)





We chose another shore excursion and hopped on a bus to Phang Nga Bay and Khao Phing Kan which is well know as James Bond Island.

On the local boat heading to the island.













Water village - reminded us the ones in Brunei



Beautiful scenery:









Arriving on the island: It was great to travel with another family - I got to be in the photos!







There it is - the famous James Bond Island:



We had a little swim. Not long enough though... I would have liked more time on the island, as some people were late for the excursion assembly we had only an hour or so - boo. Hans managed to swim around it in this short time though.







After another boat ride and long bus ride we finally got back to Phuket Island.
Heading back to our cruise ship:







Our busy day wasn't just over yet. It was the Gala dinner night!

In the tiny cabin

Even though we were in a non-balcony cabin we still got a view!
Nah... not really but good enough for the boys!





They gave us a baby cot and a double bed which wasn't too bad for us. There wasn't much room to move around but we managed to keep the boys entertained somehow - thank you ipad!



I should have taken the whole view of the cabin and amenities to show you how not spacious it was but I forgot. But the shower and bathroom was quite spacious. We had some problem with hot water but as soon as they came and fixed the problem it was lovely!

But still next time I would prefer with a balcony to get some fresh air I think.

Cruise - Day 2 Penang Malaysia

We had a nice breakfast at the Western Restaurant on board (the food was very good there so we ate all the rest of our meals there).







After a good feed we enjoyed the view from the top of the ship approaching Malaysia.





And time to eat again?! By the we got ready for the big afternoon ahead it was lunch time already. We felt like we were constantly eating! Luca loved all the different food he was given :) even a shoe (ha ha ha)



They were still full from breakfast so enjoyed checking out the view.



We arrived in Penang Malaysia just after lunch time. We chose to do a shore excursion organised by the Cruise line.

View from the tour bus:









We first visited Wat Chayamankalaram, which had the world's third largest reclining Buddha (33 meters in length!).







They had different golden buddhas for each of the 12 Chinese zodiacs. Here is our rabbit year boy:



Then we walked across the street to visit the Dhammikarama Burmese temple.



Another huge golden buddha. Oliver was sneaky trying to blow out all the candles - funny!



We had a short stop at a famous white coffee producing tea house. You can try all sorts of white coffee and some strange herbal drinks. We weren't really interested in the tasting and the shopping so we took a stroll to the shore.





Then the main event, visit to Kek Lok Si Temple, which stands on a hill - yes on a hill, what does that mean to us? encouraging the toddlers to walk up the steps and carrying babies in the heat! Can you see how far to the top of the pagoda?





Ready for the challenge!



To my surprise Helen and Oliver walked very very well.









Oliver loved this pond full of turtles!



I wish we took our baby carrier with us... this sort of worked anyway.



The temple was apparently known as the Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas.









Great view of Penang from the top:





There were many stalls like the ones we find when visiting temples/shrines in Kyoto but they were little bit non-authentic (like Angry birds t-shirts?) to me.



It was certainly a challenging day but we were glad we did the tour to see some of the important places in Penang in a short time.