Precious Memories: From Thilawa, Myanmar to Langkawi, Malaysia

Three Days at Sea between Thilawa and Langkawi -- February 23~25, 2016

2016 HAL Volendam Asian Adventure - Day 8, 9, and 10

February 23, 2016

Weather: Light breeze, clear, 31C/88F

Our ship was undocked at 10:57AM, a little later than the scheduled time of 10:30. It seemed like all the passengers were on board instead of leaving port that morning since there is really nothing around the port area. It was basically being treated as a sea day with many activities planned on board.

The Mariner Society Brunch was scheduled on this day.

Again, I attended another digital workshop before the ship sailing out.

They were lifting the gangway with a crane as the ship prepared to leave port.

Finally leaving port at 10:57.

After we left port, the ship turned around, moved up a little, and then anchors in that position for a couple of hours waiting for the right time before sailing out along the Yangon River.

We attended the Marina Society Brunch at 11:30. It was open seating and we shared a table with a couple from Melbourne, Australia.

The menu was very limited comparing to the regular dinner menu.

Free champagne! We are not drinkers so we just concentrated on the food and enjoyed our time chatting with our tablemates.

The Barramundi was very good though. I always ordered Barramundi whenever I went to Lazy Dog but they took that off their menu a couple of years ago. The last time I had Barramundi was at the Fish Market in Sydney in 2014. So good!

On our way out, we received the HAL tiles as souvenir.

At 2:32PM, the anchor was lifted and we started sailing out to sea along the Yangon River.

Crow's Nest was the place to be at that point.

One of the many floral arrangements on the ship.

It was during the night when we sailed in three days ago so we did not get to see anything.

This time we were able to see some villages and activities along the river as we were sailing out.

I went and got a hamburger and some fries from Dive-In as we were sailing along but one guy took the liberty to remove my things and took my chair while I was gone. How rude! He didn't budge even after I told him that it was my seat and my things. I was so mad that I forgot to take a picture of the "Cannonball".

After a while we left the Crow's Nest and back to the cabin for the rest of the afternoon.

Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin

Cream of Cauliflower

MOR's New York's Steak from the everyday menu. He said it was really good!

My Picante Oven-roasted game hen.

Warm Chocolate Cake with Blueberry Sauce. I must say that Carnival do warm chocolate cakes better.

We turned the clocks forward one hour that night.

February 24, 2016 Day at Sea

Weather: Moderate breeze and clear

We were up for breakfast at 7:30. It was actually much quieter this morning at the buffet. We then went for a couple of digital workshops and just had a relaxing morning. Then we met up for lunch at the buffet. I guess because we have not been doing much that morning, I was not that hungry.

Just a few items from the Asian station.

and then a bowl of salad. They do have a great variety of fresh ingredients at the salad station where they will mix up a bowl as you wish. Very nice!

They served a pre-dinner drink that evening. I think it's something with cucumbers. They only had these pre-dinner drinks twice on this cruise.

Now, this not-to-be-missed Pineapple Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail was delicious! I especially liked the sweet Thai Chili aioli, different from the usual cocktail sauce.

Foie Gras and Strawberry. It's illegal to have foie gras in California, so this was a special treat.

Filet Mignon with Lobster Ravioli

Boneless Lamb Loin En Croute

Soft Shell Crab Pad Thai

Linzer Torte, blah.

Crepe Soufle

To remember our evening in Vienna, Sacher Torte.

After dinner, we walked around a couple of times on deck 3, hoping to get some calories off.

We moved our clocks another 30 minutes forward that night.

February 25, 2016 Day at Sea

Weather: Fresh breeze, clear, 28C/82F

Third straight sea days, and it started to feel a little boring. Other than the normal activities, there is not a whole lot of things that interested us. The library was pretty busy with many people reading or playing table games. There were people in the game room playing cards or mahjong. We basically relaxed in our cabin until lunch time. Usually we would do some laundry on sea days but we decided that probably many other people would have the same idea. We shall wait until tomorrow when we return to the ship after touring Langkawi.