drron29

No passengers but in Singapore there was a food court in the terminal and I did catch a crew member with a Macca's bag.

A welcoming party. We were now off on the Ubud on your own excursion. basically a shuttle bus to Ubud. Probably about 40 years since we had last been.

The next morning saw us steaming into Benoa, Bali.

Aussies would never put dangling corks on a cowboy hat.

Though on our Muse cruise in Atlantide the side of fries was as you said and truly pathetic but our waiter Pablo brought all the others to our table as a proper side dish. But I got thoroughly bored with the veggie accompaniments to virtually every main dish. I mused that in the Galley there was this large number of plates all loaded with veggies just waiting for whatever the main ingredient was to be placed beside them. SS please stop this.

With Avian flu present this is not going to change any time soon. maybe a Galapagos cruise is not a great idea for the next 1 - 2 years unless you do like snorkelling which is excellent there.

Australian men shouldn't wear cowboy hats. They should wear Akubras. And if from the land the older and more battered the better. That fellow is a disgrace to his country.

Yes it was to Viking. her husband worked there and she was friends with Sujith Mohan who was our first ever SS butler. now General Manager for hotel services at Viking. We had dinner with her soon after her return. she came back because Viking wouldn't let her perform her show. So I think @Dolcevita Diva hit the nail on the head.

And on Silversea they seem to like inviting Australians to the hosted dinners. On the first 2 segments we had 4 hosted dinners. All of them had at least one other Australian couple and with one it was 3 Australian couples. On 2 of those dinners plus once on the Captain's table on the Moon earlier this year were the same Australian couple. thankfully we got on rather well.

The sunset the second night looked like it was going to be good but storm clouds intervened. That night it was back to Kaiseki. I feel fine paying a premium for Kaiseki on the Muse as it is a Teppan meal. with lobster, fish and waygu steak that would be expensive on land. however it doesn't come with the theatrics. The food however is excellent. yore served some edamame first. fortunately Rojaan left a few for me to photograph. Next comes the appetiser. You can choose between meat, fish and vegetarian options. each option comes as 3 dishes. A seaweed salad and with the fish seared tuna and snow crab salad. with the vegetables tofu and a vegetable gyoza. The main courses being cooked. and served. The lobster was very nice but the miso glazed fish was excellent. The waygu was quite thin but not overcooked. Then some fried rice. And finally tempura ice cream. You can have matcha ice cream instead but neither of us likes the green tea flavour. An enjoyable meal with the ever smiling Roberto.

Dinner in Atlantide. Rojaan had the teriyaki glazed chicken thigh then her usual lamb chops. I had the steak tartare, pumpkin soup and the chateaubriand. it was excellent. Lunch the next day was at Kaiseki. Note a different sake. My usual drop had run out.

A lovely sunset from our balcony. It was the Captain's Welcome party tonight. The silver muse trio who were aboard our Moon cruise earlier in the year performed. We like their music. Senior officers. And Captain Giovanni Schiaffino on his third day as Master of a Silversea ship. He is a breathe of fresh air. Down to earth. Talks to crew and passengers. turns up at activities such as trivia. To cap it off one morning i was up at 0630 so did a few laps on deck 11 whilst it was cool. The crew had just started to put out the sun lounges. The Captain appeared and talked to them as well as helping by putting out the little side tables. By the end of the cruise it was obvious the crew thought of him highly. He comes from a little village near Portofino. His father was a ship's Captain.

.The last of Singapore's lights. Now the start of 2 sea days. Taken up by my walking the inside track and in the afternoon trivia and golf. Went very well at trivia with honors shared with another team. However my putting disintegrated and my luck failed me for the first 10 days. In the last 4 my luck changed and several holes in one even though they were no better than the shots of the first 10 days. The highlights of course were meals.First lunc h at Atlantide, Rojaan began with the prawn cocktail which was excellent. I had the smoked trout salad which was very good, Rojaan had the bow tie pasta and I the maple glazed chicken thigh. we both enjoyed our meal. And we both had cheese cake for dessert.

The pilot gets picked up.

Sail away continues. The view back to the dock. The yacht comes with it's own chopper.

Wow!

The next 2 days were sea days. We left Singapore at 6pm on our second day there. This housing is on the land that surrounded the Keppel dry docks.

For dinner with 4 of our Trivia partners it was La terraza for dinner. The first appearance for us of the abbreviated menu. We were told it is to be fleet wide. Rojaan had the fish of the day and I the fillet. Not quite as good as Atlantide. To finish Rojaan had the cheesecake and I had cassata.

We arrived back at the ship in time for lunch at Atlantide. Rojaan had the Avocado and prawns whilst I had the papaya salad. Both were nice. Then Rojaan went for the veal. And I the chicken korma. We were both happy. To finish she had the banana dish and I the cheesecake.

Map showing the position of the farm at the top left of Singapore. The green area is a military reserve. currently major roads being built plus a new Air Force base. They have patented this system. Some outdoor farming using the land until more systems built. So now it is a long drive by Singapore standards back to the ship. A new metro line being built. An older block of units.

They have connections around the world to develope technology. The Farm stay unit. Way too squeezy. Spare area so they grow some indoor plants for sale. Fish farm. A nearby neighbour has 8 stories of fish farms.

Now came the interesting part of the tour. Intensive agriculture. Some pictures of the set up. And some information. Here was our guide and boss of the farm. A really informative talk and thoughts on the future. They incorporate fish farming on the ground floor of their vegetables. They are looking to incorporate furnished rooms fr fsrm stays -but the demo unit was far too sqeezy. A restaurant is on the plans. Also looking into the feasibility of growing meat. Then taken on a tour of one of the units. Everything is monitored at a central station - temperature, humidity etc. Note the yellow plastic. It is for catching insects on it's sticky surface. Now the simple system for rotating the plants.

We had the old Terraza Menu on the Muse until we reached Singapore on November 8th. But on the Singapore to Carns sector it was the abbreviated version. Despite our warnings one of our trivia team had the Osso buco and it was so tough as to be nearly inedible. I also thought the Lasagna was a poor imitation of that on past cruises.