WW - Lunch by the Beach in Phuket

This was the view from the restaurant that we had lunch in Phuket. We went there a few years ago before the Tsunami hit. It was such a nice relaxing time. I can't wait to go back again with the whole family.

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Carnival Cruise - Day 5 - Grand Cayman

Here we were in Grand Cayman. We woke up early than usual today. I had packed what we need for the excursion today the night before. I knew that we would have little time to prepare. I'm glad I did. After quick breakfast, we headed down to get our tender ticket. It was so easy. I thought we might have to wait for a while. But we got the ticket and they told us to head down there right away. The time zone was a bit confusing for me. I didn't bring my brain to work during vacation. But basically, Cayman Islands is 1 hour behind the ship time.

When we got of the tender ship it was around 8am ship time. So it was still 7am local time.. Way too early for anything to open. I had booked an excursion with Captain Bryan. The meeting time was at 10am local time.. We had about 2-3 hours of free time. So I had to change my plan. Originally, I was planning to go on excursion first and then check out 7 miles beach afterward. With so much time on hand we decided to go to the beach first. I'm glad we did.. I will tell you why later..

We took a short walk to check out where we were supposed to meet and then headed back to the port area to catch a taxi to the beach. The ride was quick and not that expensive. $4 per person. They dropped us off at The Reef Restaurant. We walked to the beach area and were in awe. The beach is so beautiful and it was so peaceful. Got there early enough we felt like we own this private beach. In the beginning, the kids were afraid to get in the water. They just played with the sand and the wave. But soon enough, we all were in the water trying to catch some waves. The sand was soft and fine.. We could have stayed there all day. Next time, I wouldn't bother book any excursion.

After about 2 hours, we packed up with a lot of resistence from the kids. I was sad to leave as well but was also excited for our next adventure to the Sting Ray City. We rinsed off at the restaurant and caught a taxi back to the meeting place. Now that we got accustomed to the time, we started to worry if we would get back on-time. The schedule for this excursion was from 10:30am-1pm so it means we would get back 2pm (ship time).. Very close to the last tender time of 3:15pm.. I was glad we did the beach first since I don't see how we can fit the beach time after the excursion. So they were several fellow cruisers who were worried about the timing as well. They were talking about leaving earlier so we could get back sooner.

We got on a bus around 10-ish and headed to the pier. I guess it was the loading/landing site for all boats to Sting Ray City. The reason we picked this excursion with Captain Bryan was for the sail boat. And he didn't disappoint us at all. The crews were very nice. The boat ride took about 30 minutes. It was a nice relaxing ride. Once we got to the Sting Ray location, we saw several boats from various companies. At first we planned to just take turn going into the water. But the water was shallow enough that we took the kids down with us. We still had to hold them but it's manageable. Miss J was afraid in the beginning. But later on she felt clamer. I got to kiss one of the sting ray. They said I will have good luck for 7 years. We will see about that. :) The sting rays swam all around us. It was an amazing experience. So much fun.. The skin was as soft as velvet. It wasn't what I expected. After 30 minutes in the water, we headed back on the boat and headed to the snorkeling sites. The excursion included 2 snorkel sites. I wasn't too impress with what I saw though. There weren't as many fish as what we saw in Cozumel. I guess it was more for diving than snorkeling.

Then it was time to head back to town. Mr. Z felt asleep on the way. I would have done the same way if I didn't have to hold on to him. It was so nice. We had such a great time there. The water as blue as the clear sky above.. We got back on the bus around 1:30pm local time which means we had about 45 minutes to get back to the port. The bus ride was very stressful for us since we kept checking our time. The bus arrived at 2:14pm.. Got 1 minute to spare. But when we saw the line for the tender boats, we started to feel panic. We didn't know if we will make it to the boat. But then we realized that most people in line were also on the Victory. We made it! But we didn't get a chance to pick up any souvenir at all.. Not even rum cake or my Hard Rock Cafe pin. Well, guess we have to come back.

Once we got on the ship, we took shower and planned to take a quick nap before dinner. Guess what.. We all slept till the next morning. We were that tired.. We didn't even make it to dinner that night. What a fun day in Grand Cayman!

Carnival Cruise - Day 4 - Another Fun Day @ Sea

Day 4 on our trip .. We got another Fun Day @ Sea. We took it easy today. Slept in and had late breakfast. Oh.. this is what I call V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N.. No set plan. After breakfast, we got ready to explore and enjoy the ship. We started off at the swimming pool. I found that the pool in the morning hours were more child-friendly. There were more kids in the pool than drunken adults. I guess they still hung over in their cabins.

After a good couple hours in the pool, we dried up and picked up a set of putt-putt ball and clubs. We didn't get to try it on the first day. It was very busy. Mr. Rojo thought he was in a real golf course and felt the need to show golfer etiquette and wanted to let another group ahead of us. I had to remind him that.. it's a putt-putt.. Plus we were on the ship.. what's the hurry.. Also the group in front of us wasn't gonna be any faster than us.

We dropped the kids off at Camp Carnival after the golf game and headed to our cabin for some power naptime. Mr. Rojo went to visit his familiar faces in the Casino. He did pretty well in the casino. We are not big gambler. We set a limit of the money we are willing to loose and that's his fun money. It's just like purchasing another ticket to an excursion. :)

After dinner, we went to the Bingo game and Magic Show. It was a fun night. We didn't win anything but the kids enjoyed the show. The guy was pretty funny. After that we headed back to our room and was greeted by Mr. Dino.. A big day ahead of us tomorrow. Grand Cayman!

I know there were a lot of activities at night that we could join. But for me, that's the beauty of cruising.. You can do as much or as little as you want. There is no rule.

Check out what we have done so far on this cruise here.

13 Countries I Have Visited

This week Thursday Thirteen is all about the countries that I have visited. I don't list it in any particular order. Enjoy!

1) China - I went there during a couple of business trips with the company I used to work for. What a great experience! We got to see the Great Wall, Forbidden City and shopping at Silk Street. If we have a chance, I will go back in a heartbeat.

2) Hong Kong - We went there a couple years ago during our family trip back to Thailand. It was like a family reunion trip with my mom, my sister, my brother and my cousin. We had so much fun there. What a lively city and the food was incredible and exotic.


3) Mexico - Our recent cruise had a stop in Cozumel. We only spent a day there. So I know that I will have to go back there to experience and explore more of this beautiful country.


4) Cayman Islands - Love it, love it, love it!!! Another port of call on our recent cruise trip. Oh what a beautiful beach! I think I can just stay there by the beach all day long.


5) Jamaica - Colorful and interesting country. We didn't get to explore much this trip. But I know that we will find another opportunity to go back and be more adventurous next time.

6) England - I went there about 10 years ago with my mom and my brother. Big Ben, London Bridge, Trafalgar Square and Harrod's.. Too little time, too many things to do. I need to go back there before my friend moves away.

Picture by fraise

7) Switzerland - On the same trip to London, we also went to Switzerland. Checked out watches and stayed in a beautiful B&B. What a beautiful country!!

8) Germany - I couldn't believe it has been 10 years already from that trip. We stopped by Heidelberg. Checked out the castle and enjoyed lunch at the town square.

Picture by mattwyn

9) Italy - Rome.. what can I say.. No need to explain. We have to go back. One trip is not enough for this country full of history and great architectures.

Picture by RZen

10) Scotland - A business trip took me to this lovely country. We got to check out the Edinburg castle and visited Glasglow in Ireland. Very peaceful place. I would love to go back there with Mr. Rojo.

Picture by sZelee

11) France - Shopper heaven.. Not so much for me at that time. As a poor student, I didn't get to enjoy all the brand name stores. But who can forget your experience in Paris. There is no other city like it.

Picture by idreamofdaylight

12) Bahamas - The Carribean paradise. Our first visit was for our honeymoon and followed by our first cruise. We had a great memory there for blue ocean and great snorkel.

13) Singapore - Another great oppotunity from my ex-company. We got to live there for over a month. What an experience!

Picture by travellingzenwolf

Since a handful of the countries I visited were from way before the digital camera era, I didn't have the digital copies of those pictures. Thanks to the internet I am able to find great pictures from other flickr users.

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WW - Would You Eat This?

This is an Elephant Trunk Clam we saw in Hong Kong seafood village. Does it look appetizing?

Carnival Cruise - Day 3 - Cozumel, Mexico

I hope everyone still enjoys our journal for our trip on Carnival Cruise. Now that we were on 3rd day of our trip, it was the day at port of call - Cozumel. I had planed today excursion to be at Chankanaap Park. We woke up a bit earlier than usual but still not early enough to see the ship arrived at the port. We got off the ship around 8-ish.. if my memory serves me right. This is one of the reason I want to start our blog.. Gosh.. where did my sharp as a knife memory go? I can't even remember what I had yesterday. Anyway, off topic.. back to Cozumel..

::Getting Around::

Once we got off the ship, we realized that we had forgotten to bring our floating strap for our underwater camera that we bought specifically for this trip with us. So Mr. Rojo had to run back to the cabin and fetch it. The port is connected to a small shopping plaza. Basically, it is a tourist trap, just perfect for us. hehe.. We almost caved in and rent a Jeep to drive around the island. But being an obessive, compulsive, controlling person, I didn't feel right renting without knowing the fact beforehand. And I would not know how much the rent should be and I could see rip-off report in the near future. So against our temptation, we decided to stay with our plan. We walked to the end of the strip mall and got on the taxi. I was so afraid that we wouldn't be able to communicate. This excursion was the only one that we would be on our own. No tour, no Carnival guide.. but.. There is no need to fear, Underdog is here.. oh.. wait.. It's not the movie.. Anyway, it seems everyone can speak good English for communication. Heck better than some South Floridians I met in the Miami mall.

::Things to do::

We hopped on the taxi for $10 and headed to the park. Using the coupons I printed from their site, we saved an extra $4 for all 4 of us. The entrance fee were $16 per adult and $8 per kid. Money saved here means more for our shopping.. yeah..

We arrived to the park fairly early. We didn't have any problem finding a chair to sit. Actually, it was kinda lonely.. Just us and probably another group at the beach at that time. We settled down and tested out the water. I sent Mr. Rojo to the water first. Well, lucky him.. He found that his snorkel didn't work properly. It was a new one and did I tell you that we hardly snorkel. So we couldn't figure out what wrong with it just that it didn't take in as much air as it should.

We took turn getting into the water for an offshore snorkeling. It was really nice. I was amazed at how many fish I saw. And I didn't even have to swim too far. The kids were just playing right there by the entrance to the snorkeling area. I was worried a bit that they would get swept away by the wave. Next time, we will buy a floaty vest for them. So we don't have to rent it there. We went to the diver shop there to rent fins for us and floating vest for the kids. They only had one kid size vest! One! How could that be? Don't they know that most of the time there will be more than one child in the cruise.

After about an hour at the snorkeling site, we moved to the small beach area so Miss J and Mr. Z could really enjoy some beach time. I wasn't impressed with that area. It was just a rope-off area with stagnant water near the restaurant. However, they did enjoy their time there building sand castle (not so much a castle but a lump of sand) and floating in the calm water. I understand that this park is more about snorkeling and swimming with the dolphin so I wouldn't say that Cozumel doesn't have nice beach. We just didn't have a chance to check it out this trip. There will always be a repeat trip. :)

Later we moved to the pool area. I really like it. It's next to the dolphin area so you could enjoy the show. The pool was really nice with the bar right there that you can swim up and enjoy your drink. It wasn't busy at all. It was a nice way for us to rinse off our salty feeling from the beach. I wouldn't mind stay there for a whole day. But Mr. Rojo was hungry and we didn't want to mess with hungry man. :) We headed for lunch.

::Place to eat::

We had lunch at the restaurant there. La Laguna Beach Grill was right on the beach. The service was great. Along with music. Mr. Rojo couldn't resist requesting La Bamba.. tourist! I had Fajitas which I think it was delish! Maybe I was too hungry or maybe it was the place.. Either way, it was paradise meal. The breeze and the food was so nice. I didn't want to move.

::More things to do::

Before we headed out, we walked the botanical garden. We didn't really slow down to see all the plant. The heat was too much for us. Yup.. even us. So we caught another taxi back to the pier.

We decided to head back to the ship and had quick shower before headed back to town.

There were a few places that we had in mind.. First I needed to check out Hard Rock Cafe to get my pin. I was rather disappointed at the pins collection this time around. I loved to get guitar pin of each city I visited. They had a good design that really capture the city. But this time, I didn't see anything that give me Cozumel feeling. So I was on the fence about getting the pin there. Mr. Rojo suggested that we should check out another HRC in town which is about 10 blocks away.

Then we walked around the plaza a little bit before decided to walked to check out another HRC about 10 blocks away. If we had more time, I think it would be really neat to head to town and really experience the town.

Then we headed to Starbucks. Mr. Rojo couldn't resist order coffee in the 90 degree weather. Crazy man! He got his Cozumel Starbuck mug for his collection. It was a long day.

We got back on board and waited for the sail away. We were able to find a hidden door to access the front of the ship on a few decks. Unfortunately, the best one is reserved for crew member only. No chance to post for Titanic moment on this ship.

The day was over but the night was just begun. We washed up again and got ready for dinner. The next day would be Fun Day @ Sea so it was a great schedule. We had a break from a long day in Cozumel. Next trip we will definitely look into snorkeling tour or renting a Jeep. Adios.