Where in the World is Pat?

Yesterday we joined in with many of our fellow residents to take in some of the many water spots around Coron . We signed up through Get Your Guide, others used Trip Advisor and they both contracted with Psalms Travel Services in Coron. As I've explained before, figuring out our excursions in each port, is a big time suck for me. We prefer to find local venders without having to go through the big agencies (because you usually can get better service, pricing and customization) but sometimes it is just easier to stick with the big guys, when the excursion is super popular. Psalms turned out to be an excellent operator and I laughed when I saw they had used the below images on their Facebook page today. Didn't realize my pink dry bag stood out so much!

We are currently docked at the port of CORON , in the Palawan archipelago islands, of the Philippines . While the port itself is nothing special, and the surrounding town is hardly thriving, the people here are amazingly friendly, joyful and so happy to be around! You can see from below, they have a ton of hotels and restaurants but mostly it's their water actives that attract a fair number of tourist. Known for their crystal clear water, dramatic limestone cliffs and powdery white sand beaches. June is the start of the rainy season, but so far the weather has been good.

We only had about 8 hours of port time in KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia today, due to Port operations. I went out with Delia to see one of the most notable buildings in town, the floating mosque or Masjid Bandaraya. Our GRAB driver actually took our picture when we asked him to wait for us, and then take us to the mall afterwards.

MALAYSIA , on BORNEO ISLAND made palm seed oil their biggest export back in 1966 and was the top global exporter until 2008, when Indonesia surpassed them. Sadly, the resulting tropical deforestation has created major habitat losses and population declines for the Borneon Orangutans, Pygmy Elephants and Proboscis Monkeys . Many of us on the ship took tours to see these amazing creatures and I wanted to share some of their amazing photos too.

BORNEO ISLAND is a fascinating place, that I had honestly only heard of from the reality tv show Survivor. I'm still learning so much, but I had no idea it is the largest island in Asia and 3rd largest island in the World! It is a mini continent, with 3 different Countries sharing the island's land mass ( Indonesia 73%, Malaysia 26% and Brunei 1% ). We are only going to 2 ports in Malaysia now, one in each of the states of Sarawak and Sabah . Below is a video that highlights and explains thing well.

The Port of Singapore is massive and thus deserving of it's own post!

Right next to the Flower Dome in Gardens by the Bay is the Cloud Forest Dome .They sell the entry tickets as a joint package. The Cloud Forest currently has a special exhibit, Jurassic World The Experience incorporated into the forest.

Sunday, May 17th in Singapore was the last day for Tulip Mania at the Flower Dome in Gardens by the Bay . Sheri joined me in passion for flowers and we headed over to explore on our last port day here.

I have wanted to try the Dining in the Dark experience for years! Bosco had done once before back in San Francisco, but was game to do again. I was so excited when I found the listing in the Seeking Sophie website , looking for unique experiences in Singapore .

The Sri Mariamman Temple is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple, built in 1827. It is built in the Dravidian style and is located in the downtown Chinatown district and classified as a National Monument.The founder Naraina Pillai was a government clerk from Penang who arrived in Singapore with Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. Pillai set up the islands first construction company and also entered the textile trade. He rapidly established himself and was identified as the leader of the Indian Community.

Singapore’s ethnic makeup is officially classified under the CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Others) model. The citizen population consists of Chinese (76.2%), Malays (15.0%), Indians (7.4%), and Others (1.4%). The Chinatown area is the historic heart of the city, blending centuries old culture with modern energy. It has bustling pedestrian streets, historic temples and famous hawker centers.

Singapore at night is even more spectacular than by day! The city sparkles! I had set up another tour for us to take in some of the iconic light and water shows, this island is known for also on our first day. Decided we should go big and get a great first taste of things! We joined this tour at 6pm, right before dusk, so we had prime viewing!

The tour I set up was Architecture and Food, for our day one in Singapore . After looking at the Architecture our guide brought us to the iconic hawker center Lau Pa Sat in the heart of the Central Business District . We got there around 1:30 pm on Friday afternoon and much of the business crowd had cleared. The atmosphere is vibrant and you can feast relatively inexpensively. The locals asked us all weekend, if we had been there yet, as it is well used by all, with lots of favorite stalls!

SINGAPORE has been high on my list of must see destinations for a long while and WOW it didn't disappoint! Singapore is a highly developed sovereign island city - state as of 1965. It is famous for its safety, efficiency and lush Garden City nickname . With a population at 6.11M, it is a major hub for finance, trade and tourism. They say every 80 seconds a plane leaves and every 4 minutes a boat comes in or out!

Some days I just don't want to sight see! My birthday was one of them. I just wanted to indulge in a good movie in a comfy, cool theater, eat some popcorn and follow with a yummy lunch! That's exactly what I did, despite some of my friends trying to convince me go on a 5 hour van to see 2 gigantic temples.

The ancient temple of Soo Poo Kong was our next stop. We were all wilting in the heat by then, but they promised an air conditioned room for a 20 minute movie on the history - so we rallied! Basically, the Temple was erected as a thank you to the Chinese Muslim Admiral Cheng Ho who let the fleet stop here on their way somewhere else in Asia back in 1416 because his helmsman, Wang Jing Hong, was sick. Wang recovered from his illness in a cave on this site and built first the statue and then the temple to thank Ho for his life.

SEMERANG is the capital of Central Java , the world's 13th largest island and the 5th largest in Indonesia. Despite it's size, it is the world's most populous island, holding over 150 Million people (over 55% of Indonsesia's population). Today, I did a 50 person bus tour of some of the Semerang's history , so I could cover a lot in one day.

Today we are in the second largest city in all of Indonesia, Surabaya. The Port is huge and busy, as there are tons of freightors and ferries here. We had a warm welcome when we pulled in yesterday evening.

More FUN with the Elephants ! Washing this gentle creature was so special. The handlers at the Sanctuary are so informative and caring and took sooo many pictures for us!