Looking through my photos, I realised that I didn’t take that many photos of life on board the cruise ship. It was a wasted opportunity that’s for sure but at least I got some anyway. The above photo shows the view from the basketball court on the top-level of the ship, right under the ship’s chimney/exhaust.

The next two shows the outdoor pool.

We only got to enjoyed it twice because out of the four full days at sea, the weather was only nice for two. We used the heated indoor pool and spa on the other days. Sorry, was too busy enjoying them and forgotten to take photos. Heh.

Being an American ship, the food on board were American too and that means high-fructose corn syrup.

Things with high-fructose corn syrup tastes just as sweet as things with real sugar in it but somehow lacks the mouth feel of things sweetened with sugar.

Also US beef don’t taste as good as Aussie beef. It’s true. But what was really good were these Alaskan King Crab legs. The legs were so big you eat them like lobster meat.

A cruise holiday is really good if you like lazing around and eating all the time. But it did felt like too much of a good thing to me over the course of 14 days.

We set sail from Singapore at approx. 8:46pm on January 8th. After a day and a half of cruising, the ship dropped anchor just outside the port of Na Thon of Koh Samui at approx. 7:56am on January 10th. At around 8:30am our family gathered at the ship’s lobby and got ready to get on one of the tender boats to get onto the island.

The tenders are actually also lifeboats.

The time from the ship to shore took about 20 minutes.

Greeting us at the port were tour guides including ours and taxi drivers.

The first stop was Na Muang Falls.

Like a lot of places in Thailand, there is a shrine nearby.

It’s rocky in parts but you can swim near the falls.

As it’s thirsty work trekking up hill to see the falls, you can buy a coconut for 20 baht which is about A$0.70.

Speaking of which, our next stop was a coconut plantation.

Where we got to see this … monkey picking coconuts.

And do this … monkey sitting on your shoulder.

The next place is one of those places where humans have arbitrarily deemed a tourist spot because of funny looking rocks – the Hin-Ta and the Hin-Yai (a.k.a Grandmother and Grandfather rocks). What you are seeing below is the Hin-Yai. You don’t need me to point it out to you right? Alright, fine – it’s the one that looks like a penis.

The Hin-Yai rock was a bit trickier to get to (I had to beaware of slippery) so I didn’t get a picture of it.

What does it look like? It looks exactly like what you think it’d look like. 100% anatomically correct even.

On the road again …

Next stop, a wet market. Feels like a wet market, smells like a wet market. There’s a sizable Muslim population in this area which makes for an interesting mix of people and food.

After stopping for a very ordinary (but apparently expensive) lunch which wasn’t even Thai (!) at a very nice hotel with a very nice beach front, the last place on our itinerary was Wat Phra Yai (a.k.a. Temple of the Big Buddha). The Thais are quite direct when it comes to naming places.

I climbed up at these steps, prayed at the foot of the Buddha, and enjoyed the cooling sea breeze for a little while.

When we got back to the ship at around 4:30pm we were all very tired but I quite enjoyed our first day of sight-seeing. Besides the places that we saw, I think Koh Samui is a great place for a nice and quiet beach holiday. The next morning, the ship will be docking at the port of Laem Chabang and we will be touring Bangkok and Pattaya.

I arrived back in Perth Thursday morning and I’m only just got to feeling “normal” again. I was quite lazy and cbf the past few days. Long holiday was long and sooo relaxing.

I’ve got plenty of photos to share and I will start with some taken on the first day. This is our first view of the ship at Singapore Harbour Front.

The baggage drop was smooth going but the check-in process was quite hellish. I estimated that we must have stood in this long line for at least 45 minutes.

A lot of the guests were elderly and I can’t imagine it to be a pleasant experience for them. I think a better way would be to hand out numbers to groups of guests and process us in batches, while allowing the rest of us to sit in a waiting room of some form.

This is what the corridors leading to the rooms look like.

This is what the cabins look like. It was small but cosy and just out of the photo to the left was the bathroom and toilet. The one that my brother and I shared was cheaper and had no port holes so once the lights were switched off, it was pitch black.

This is the view from the top deck looking out at Singapore harbour as the ship pulled out of port.

I will end with a shot of this – these hand sanitizers were everywhere on the ship. They take hygiene very seriously and they were very reassuring.

For mom’s 65th birthday last Wednesday, we took her to a Japanese restaurant called Zen in Subiaco. Because why? Because she lurves Japanese food. Ok, on with the food porn.

We had their signature dish, soft-shell crab sushi called the Spider Roll. It was NICE.

The mixed sashimi with a raw oyster covered with roe. Dad loved it.

We also had the beef tataki …

And tuna tataki.

It was an awesome dinner. Happy 65th Mom!

One of my core beliefs in life is that the destination doesn’t matter as much as the journey and the people you have around you on that journey. However when that journey involves a long drive, I better like being around the people who’s coming along. Luckily for me, this trip was just like that. Most of the time anyway.

Tham had wanted the trip so that we can bond. My initial reaction was why couldn’t we bond right here in the city, and if we must be by the beach and wineries, we got it here too. Yeah that didn’t go down too well. Hahahah!

Something noteworthy: a few days after we left Margaret River, the control burning by the Department of Environment and Conservation got out of control and ended up destroying 40 properties in the general vicinity that we were staying and visiting. Luckily, no one was hurt or killed.

On to happier thoughts, these were the merry bunch of the trip – Kayo, Selina, Howe Chern and Tham.

First stop of the journey was Busselton and the jetty for lunch.

The weather was beautiful and after lunch we proceeded to walk the entire length of the jetty (1.841 km).

At the end of the jetty was an underwater observatory. Since we didn’t pay for that, there wasn’t much else to do but do silly poses and entertain the people on the slow moving tram. Yup – if you didn’t feel like walking, there’s a tram.

Next stop, Simmo’s Ice Cream in Dunsborough.

I was told it was to die for …

It was good but it wasn’t THAT good. Heh.

Less than a hour later, we finally arrived at the place that we will be spending the next two nights in. It was a beach house and it was awesome.

It was a fully furnished 4-bedroom house with TV, WIFI, dishwasher, fireplace and a BBQ. At $300 a night, I thought it was comfy but some of the others thought it slightly creepy at night. Though that was probably because we were watching a few episodes of American Horror Story.

After we dropped off our stuff at the house, we explored the area around the beach. It was too cold to swim though.

The next day and a half revolved around food …

wine …

wineries …

pretty gardens …

and more alcohol.

Oh and there was bonding. More or less. We did the same activities that we would have done if we’ve had hung out together here in Perth. I didn’t say that but I thought it. Hahaha! But honestly, thanks for the memorable trip guys. It wasn’t that bad after all. Next time we can save the long car trip and rent a place near Cottesloe eh?

I had some leftover sausages from Monday night when I made those pork hotdogs so I decided to use them for this quick and easy dish. I got this idea a while ago from watching an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” where Sheldon said that he loves “spaghetti with little cut up sausages”.

I started cooking the spaghetti and then I fried up the sausages in a pan that I’ve already seasoned with some garlic oil.

When they were more or less cooked, I took them out of the pan and sliced them up.

And then I cooked them some more till they are nice and crispy on the edges.

Next I pour in the arrabbiata sauce and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Arrabbiata is basically a tomato sauce with chilli. If you like it even hotter, you can add in some cut chillies and use a spicier sausage.

And this was my dinner tonight with some for lunch tomorrow. Again, cooking, eating and cleaning up took about an hour.

My parents are away for a 4-week trip to Shanghai and Tibet which means I will be hunting and foraging for myself during that time. My brother should hopefully do some cooking as well because I don’t have that many things in my repertoire. Knowing that I need to add a bit of variety to my old standbys of pasta, fried rice, steaks and rice congee, I brainstormed and came up with: pork sausage hotdog in a Vietnamese roll with Chinese spinach stir-fried in garlic.

This idea was inspired by the pulled pork sandwich that is served with garlicky broccoli rabe as seen on an episode of Man Vs. Food:

Pulled Pork Is Roast Pork 2.0 At DiNic’s | Unbreaded.

If your parents ever tell you TV is bad for you, tell them they are wrong.

I will let the pictures tell the cooking story. These are the basic ingredients.

The Chinese spinach is stir-fried in garlic with pepper and fish-sauce to taste.

The sausages are then pan fried in the pan that is now seasoned with the oil and garlic from the stir-fry.

This is the finished product. The Vietnamese rolls are now nice and toasty after a few minutes in the sandwich maker.

It doesn’t look pretty but it was delicious.

All up, cooking, eating and cleaning up plus marinating tomorrow night’s steaks took me an hour. Not bad eh? And I covered the major food groups.