May 2018 – Wanderwiles

Port of Phuket, Thailand: tenders to the beach, an aggressive Thai massage and local food

Patong Beach with cruise ships anchored in the distance.

After a day at sea from Singapore, the first stop of our one-month cruise to Europe was Phuket, Thailand. During prime season, ships anchor just off the town of Patong and tenders drop passengers off at floating docks right on a beautiful beach. This is one of those rare cruise ports where tenders are not bad; ten minutes on the tender lands you at a spot you can actually spend the day. (The short distance and smooth water meant that there wasn’t much of a wait for the tenders either as they were able to shuttle back-and-forth pretty quickly.) That said, Patong is a touristy, party town full of restaurants, bars and shops, and isn’t exactly pristine Thailand. read more

The start of a one-month cruise from Singapore to Italy

The 8 “Sweet Sixteen” port-side cabins on Celebrity Millennium class ships are just above the “S” through the blue space after the “N” in “CONSTELLATION” the photo above.

As part of our 3-month around-the-world journey, we spent one month on the Celebrity ship Constellation. This was actually two 2-week, back-to-back (“B2B”) cruises. The first two weeks were more a traditional cruise with many stops: Phuket, Thailand; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Cochin, Goa and Mubai, India; Muscat, Oman; Dubai and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. The second two weeks were more along the lines of a repositioning cruise, i.e., fewer stops and a bargain price as the ship moved from one region to another for a season. This cruise took us from Abu Dhabi back to Muscat, Oman, through the Suez Canal, to Piraeus (Athens) and Katakolon (ancient Olympia), Greece, and dropped us off at Civitavecchia, Italy (the port nearest Rome, although we did not go back to Rome on this trip, but rather picked up a rent car to spend a couple weeks in Umbria and Tuscany before flying from Florence to Belgium). read more

A day exploring Central Java small businesses: tofu, batik, palm sugar & coffee

After visiting Borobudur Temple and Mendut, we wanted to see a little more of Central Java. I was particularly interested in seeing tofu production and the making of batik. Our hotel, Amata Borobudur Resort, suggested a horse-drawn carriage (an-dong) tour, but that sounded way too touristy to me…and I wanted to be able to return to the refuge of air conditioning periodically! My desire for creature comforts turned out to be the ticket to a really interesting day since a car allowed us to roam far afield and our driver wasn’t limited to the tourist “craft village” favored by the an-dongs. read more

Amata Borobudur Resort: Javanese bungalows with artistic flair

“Sunibya” bungalow at Amata Borobudur Resort

Eschewing the Manohara Hotel next to Borobudur Temple for something more exotic, smaller and with better dining reviews, I chose Amata Borobudur Resort for our 4-night stay in Central Java. At about $80/night, it was more expensive than a lot of options in the area, but about $60 cheaper/night than the Monohara and with what looked like a lot more local charm and an interesting setting. Amata also provides free transportation to Borobudur Temple (including for sunrise) which is only 10-15 minutes away. read more

Central Java: Sunrise at Borobudur Temple

When Bali topped the list to kick off David’s “3-month birthday party,” I knew I had to add Borobudur Temple in Central Java to our itinerary. I first heard of Borobudur 15+ years ago from a Frenchwoman at a conversation group in Paris. Her description of this once-lost magnificent Buddhist temple in the jungle sounded magical. An Internet search confirmed everything she said. Now, after all these years, Borobudur was going to be a short flight away from where we planned to be. The opportunity was irresistible! read more

Nusa Dua, Bali, and some really deadly creatures

Tidal pools appear every afternoon at Nusa Dua

We spent four days at gorgeous INAYA Putri Bali entranced by the tidal pools that emerge each afternoon and are filled with all kinds of beautiful and unusual sealife. There were thousands of starfish, large sea hares, any number of little fish, sea slugs, eels and more.

On the second day, I was able to trail along behind a banded sea snake as he tried to make his way to deeper water. I knew it was a fatally venomous snake (50x more poisonous than a cobra per Bali Animal Welfare Association), but non-aggressive and I didn’t crowd him. read more

INAYA Putri Bali: A sprawling Nusa Dua resort offers a lot of bang for your buck

Beautiful beach at INAYA Putri Bali in Nusa Dua, Bali

[I’m way behind on blogging our 3-month, around-the-world adventure, so this is the beginning of a catch-up now that we’ve settled into our home-away-from-home in Antwerp for the last few weeks of our journey. Most of the upcoming blogs of this trip were written at or reasonably near the time of travel, but spotty or slow Internet made uploading photos difficult…and I wanted to focus on the trip a whole lot more than I wanted to post about it! – Tamara, May 25, 2018]

Nusa Dua, Bali, is lined with high-end resorts, some charging astronomical prices, especially for usually-cheap Bali. Then again, Nusa Dua is hardly usual Bali. It’s an exclusive beachfront enclave sheltered from those less-than-picture-perfect, third world aspects of the rest of the island…along with much of the authentic culture and charm. Still, I wanted to try a range of Bali lodgings and a big resort was in order. read more