THE CATES

Southeast Asian Cruise Continued...........

Day 8: Day at Sea

The boys enjoyed a game of dodgeball after breakfast

We all had a lot of fun playing scattegories and made some new friends

You can see all 3 kids in this photo doing their own thing

I'm in the gym working out and Jeremy is doing his favorite thing... meeting new people on the ship

We decided to try to win the jackpot - $4,500!

We all got close but no winners

It was fun watching the kids get so excited!

Jeremy and I took a Samba dance class by a Ukrainian staff member

We decided to celebrate Connor's 18th bday a day early so it didn't get consumed with New Year's Eve activities. Jeremy book a reservation at Modero - the Brazilian Churrascaria on the ship

The staff brought Connor a cake and sang to him for his bday

Happy Birthday Connor!!! We are so proud of you!

Day 9: Singapore

The boat docked in Singapore overnight so people could go into the city to celebrate NYE. Since we already had a couple of nights here we thought it would be more fun to stay on the ship that night and see the fireworks from the water. That gave us the day to explore a new part of Singapore!

We took the subway to Little India and I have to say.... we love the Singapore subway! So clean and easy to use!

Henna Tattoos was on Whitney's bucket list

We found a huge "food court" .... I could have stayed here all day eating and trying new things and flavors!

I guess this blesses the food so it's safe

Very iterested to watch how they make Naan

So many different types of Naan and a huge peice for only S$1 (which is about .75 USD)

We thought it was funny that Durian Fruit is not allowed on the trains. It's right up there with flammable goods! lol!

Downtown

We found a huge, fancy mall

Birthday shopping

Back on the ship in time for an intense game of Monopoly. Whitney won just as fireworks started going off 2 hours before Midnight!

We ran up to the deck to watch the fireworks and wait until Midnight

All the teenagers partied on the roof

A huge laser clock did the countdown for us

Happy New Year!!!!

LOL! We suck at Selfies!

Day 10: At Sea

Today was a lazy day after staying up late last night watching fireworks

We had so much fun playing Scattegories the other day we decided to play again. Only this time the staff did not know how to play and was having us all do it wrong. Jeremy tried to explain the game to her, IN HER OWN LANGUAGE (Portugese) but she was so upset and embarrassed that she started crying and ran away. It was unbelievable!

We also had a lot of fun laughing at people doing Karaoke!!

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset that evening as we sailed somewhere between Singapore and Thailand

Jeremy and I enjoyed an equally beautiful moon that night.... even though you can't tell from this picture.

Day 11: Phuket, Thailand

This is the one stop on the cruise that I was looking forward to the most!

We had to get to the island using the tinder boats again.

I didn't even see this snake when I took the picture!!!!!
It wasn't until I was going through my photos on my phone that I noticed it!

Aiden caught this fish with his bare hands

Genius! A woman with a bucket of aloe vera leaves was selling them to people who had too much sun

Hoping these are from a dog and not a human

LOVE the food here!

Hooters girls look the same here I guess

Day 12: Penang, Malaysia

Our driver insisted we try some Malaysian coffee. We tried at least 12 different kinds. It was delicious! Even theh kids loved it!

Then he recommended the botanical gardens which had a lot of fun wildlife

Can you see the lizard?

Our driver kept suggesting a museum so we finally said ok. It happened to be the most unique museum we've ever been to.
We weren't really sure what it was... when we went inside they told us to take our shoes off and wait in a waiting room where they were playing a practical jokes tv show.
When it was our turn, the workers took my phone and told us what to do.
After they showed us the pictures, we realized that we would look upside down. It was hilarious!

Looking for a place to eat

No thank you on the Pork Organ Soup

Interesting lunch

Leaving Penang

Another beautiful sunset as we pulled away from Penang

The last show was tonight and it was major!

Day 13: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Our last stop on the Cruise and, to be honest, we were a little unmotivated for this stop.

Connor didn't even come with us. He enjoyed an entire day on the ship by himself!

All the busses and taxis ready to take us away.
This picture ended up having more significance than I thought it would later that day.....

We didn't really have a plan, we were just wandering around and found another really nice mall

Jeremy with his polka dot umbrella! lol!

More salted egg flavored foods.... this time donuts!

The main tourist spot in KL apparently: The "twin towers"
You had to buy a wide-angled lens in order to get a picture so, of course, there were 100 locals selling them to all the tourists for a variety of prices. lol!

Worth every penny!

Ok, so.... we had to be back to the ship no later than 4:30pm when it was scheduled to leave the dock. We were about an hour away and wanted to get back an hour early just to be safe. We got into the cab at 2:30pm. At about 4:00 our cab driver pulls over and goes into a coffee shop asking directions. This whole time we just thought it was bad traffic but he honestly didn't know where our ship was. He was yelling out the window to people asking for directions and then would tell us every time that he knew where it was now and it would be 10 minutes. At 4:17 he drops us off at a ship and we realize that it is a Royal Caribean ship. We tell him that it was not our ship and he just said "Thank you, get out". We ran out and found another taxi driver, told him our situation and he said he knew where we needed to be but that it was 10 minutes away. He said it would be 50 (about $12). We jumped in and then he starts calling his friends on his cell phone asking for directions. We were freaking out. We tried to use his phone to call the ship but our calls would never go through. Our passports were on the ship... along with OUR SON!!! All we had was an address that apparently meant nothing to our drivers and the picture I took of the dock that morning when we left. We finally got there right at 4:30 and were soooo relieved to see a long line of people waiting to get on the ship. That's when we paid the driver and he said "no, $50 in USD".... we were like you have got to be kidding and did not have enough of their currency! We ended up giving him 150 ($40) for a 10 minute taxi ride! Soooooo happy to be back on the ship though!

We enjoyed our last dinner on the cruise with our friends from the very first excursion and were so, so grateful that we were all together again!

Day 14: Disembarking

It's time to have one last breakfast and get off the ship!

The sea of suitcases when you get off

We had a full day to wait at the airport but Singapore seriously has the most amazing airport I've ever been to and had everything we needed to relax before our flight!

Connor and Jeremy watched Star Wars and the rest of us watched Jumanji

We played with our new lens by the huge indoor waterfall!

I had to take this picture for my mom who bought me this dress for Christmas. It literally came the day before we left for the Cruise. I wore this dress every single night to dinner. It was causual, yet dressy enough and super comfy and made me think of my Mom everytime I put it on!

The airport had a Jumbo restaurant... famous all over Singapore for their iconic dish: Chili Crab. You can't really tell but we all thought it was interesting that they put our purses and backpacks into buckets at our table and then covered them up with blankets... I guess so they didn't get dirty.