Friday, April 28, 2006

P615: The Final Cruise

These are the voyagers of the Pacific Sky. Its continuing mission: to explore strange Southeast Asian Countries. To seek out new massage parlours and ride Tuk-Tuks....

To Boldly go where no one has gone before..

(insert EXTREMELY gay rendition of star trek theme song here)

Well its finally here.... Embarkation Day of the final Cruise. I am sitting in the Singapore Terminal, on the internet sipping my orange juice waiting for my Cheesy Wedges, while Grit is doing the same on the computer next to me. Speaking of which, we found out the day before yesterday that next saturday the entire spa team (Grit included) goes back to the Steiner office in London, and from there they are told what ships they are going to. In a nutshell that means that next Saturday we say Goodbye and we still arent sure if its forever or not..... that is retarded. I guess it doesnt have to be forever, but I think you know what I mean.

This week I am going to try to get as many photos and videos of the ship (i realized last night that I have tons of photos of where I have BEEN but ZERO photos of where I have lived for the past 3 months lol.....go figure...)

So the final cruise consists of this: today Embarkation photos (jesus, not again...one last time, only one more time), then tomorrow Formal day (two more times only two more times) in Mallacca, then Port Kelang (i hope i can Finally see the Batu Caves), then Langkawi (sea eagle feeding and boat riding around the mangroves...what a rush), then Phuket (no time for elephant trekking, maybe a massage on the beach, goodbye Sweetheart), and then Port Penang (i cant get off because we are tearing down the machines), and then seaday (last time to really enjoy the open sea...at least for a while).

My Flight details are as follows: (at least I think.... I seemed to have misplaced my copy...damn spring cleaning!)

- May 9th around 12pm Singapore to Hong Kong
- May 9th around 5pm Hong Kong to Vancouver
its funny because since I cross the International dateline going the OTHER way this time, I actually arrive in Vancouver 3 hours before I leave Hong Kong haha

Alright, its time to head back onto the ship...passengers are coming and I dont want to be late for setting up the embarkation backdrop (ugh, 9 hours straight of hearing (in an australian accent no doubt) 900 "NO, NO NO photos" ..i love the accent but man oh man...900 no's a day in ANY accent....shoot me lol)

I hope to get online in Mallacca or Phuket...or on the ship if it works lol

see you all in next cartoon!
M

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

More photos!

Nyamh, Szymon, Will, Grit, and Me (with new gay hat) in Phuket after the Elephant Trek.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from the KL tower. Those are the Petronas Towers (largest twin towers in the world....now)

oh look guys, the guide found a bullet in the forest! lets go now, ok?

Langkawi wild monkey eating a twig....doesn't it look like he is just sitting on the beach, chillaxin' smoking a cigar? Monkeys are as common to see here as gophers in Alberta. Hands up, who wants rabies?!

Grit and Me aboard "Lady", and Nyamh and Will aboard....."Lady". Whoever said Thai people were creative? lol

2 more weeks to go...

I cant believe there is only a few more weeks to go before I hop on a plane and come home... I miss everyone so much, but this life that I have out here....its just hard to have to walk away. Grit still doesnt know if she is transferring onto the Diamond Princess with me or not either. Ugh.

These last few weeks are going to be spent as best as possible: with my new friends and family. I had some guy whom I only talk to once every few days come up to me in Singapore on Saturday while I was doing embarkation photos, and he asked to have a picture taken with me. When I asked him why, he said in broken english "You are nice to me. I want a photo with my friend." Things like this happen every day, and even though I always take it to heart, it still gets taken granted for. You just simply don't know what you have until its gone. Having said that, I know it doesn't make sense and sounds invalid because I AM feeling it, and I am NOT gone yet...but I think deep down my heart is already starting to break the ties from life out here. I am a cancer, its what I do. I live in my little shell, and I am proud. I just hate having to even think of getting emails from all my friends that I see 50-60 times a day just because I may never see them again. We were in Phuket again yesterday for example, and Szymon and I decided to take some more people back to the Elephant Trekking (photos to be added after I finish this post). So, Szymon, Grit, Nyamh (pronounced 'Neev'), Will, Elise, and myself all marched up and down the hills in two's, with our elephants. I was disappointed I didn't get "Sweetheart" again, but I did ask to see her when we finished. It was like going to visit a distant relative - a quick "HELLO, I miss you, I'm sorry I haven't called..." and then we were gone. She's just an elephant, I only met her once, she doesn't know me. Once we got back to the ship I looked at the photos from the day, and already felt nostalgic.

The bottom line is this:

The next time I crawl back in,
the shell that I live in
I'll see my new photos on the wall,
and all my friends are callin'
and they will come running in
The shell that I live in.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Puppies!

Ok, after that silly webcam picture I finally thought of something to do lol.....upload the puppy pictures!!! Adobe looks so tired but she makes me so proud and looks like such an amazing mum. I cant wait to see them all in May, I hope they are still there and not with their new familes..... who wouldnt love playing with 10 puppies?!??!?!?!?

Oh, the rain has stopped! I will chat with all of you later! Ciao!




Big Boredom in Little India...


Hey all, its Saturday so its Singapore time again...it is now 4pm and I have decided to spend my few hours off in Singapore's "Little India". Its....pretty big actually lol. There is a massive rainstorm outside at the moment so I thought I would take cover in an internet cafe. This one has webcams lol but unfortunately there is no one online at the moment to talk to....so here is one for when they ARE online lol:


Hello World!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Elephant Trekking in Phuket..

You want ME to drive?!

This is our elephant, Sweetheart. She was so amazing, she would flap her ears against your legs and if she felt you were falling, she would hold her ears tight to your legs to make sure you would stay on...she really WAS a sweetheart.

A baby male elephant playing with Szymon, tell me that isnt cute.

Sweetheart and I.

I felt a little like Ace Ventura here.... "Come to me Jungle Friends!"

Yet another goofy face from the ride... hey you cant help but feel you are riding into battle when you are sitting bareback on an elephants head lol

No matter what the fun however, when it all boils down to it, this picture still says it all. Sorry to ruin the mood, but it struck a chord with me too.

In Port Penang for a few hours...

I have until 4pm off today so i thought i would run ashore and throw some photos online...its so bloody hot here, i got a slight sunburn in Phuket yesterday (yes i FINALLY set foot in Phuket)... we went elephant trekking yesterday and damn what an experience that was.... some of these photos are just random ones that i thought i would share....getting more of a fanbase on the blog so i thought hey....why not show everyone more of what i am doing? :)

This is KohSan Road in Bangkok...this is a giant backpacking area where everyone around the world meets and has a great time... Ray, you were somewhere within a block from me when I took this.... but we never got to meet... so I slept at a prostitutes house with Szymon....long story...but hey, that should shock and awe a few readers hahahah only I know the real story ;)

My feet on Patong Beach in Phuket... where the tsunami hit the hardest on the island....imagine seeing it come in from this view...it hurts the heart. It really does.

I caught this lucky shot as we were doing morning gangway shots in Phuket. I thought it looked pretty neat.

Me sittin on the curb at a 7-11 drinking ChangBeer (bought from 7-11) on the way to Bangkok. I think this was in Laem Chabang...who knows.

Kids in Koh Samui. I thought it would make for a nice pic to get them to make faces at me. They really love seeing themselves on the screen on the camera lol