Diving in Grenada

Posted on August 15, 2017 by David Cross

Did a couple of morning dives today in Grenada.

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The first one was called Purple Sands and was on the Caribbean side of the island. Nothing too memorable to call out.

The second one was on the Atlantic side and was a drift dive along the Shark Reef.  Can you see the lobster hiding in the rocks?

If not, check out this quick video I took.  It was a strong current, so we were moving pretty fast.

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Also we ran into a few small sting rays.

Also captured a short video.  The was down about 45 feet.  A fun dive.

I did not get a good picture, but check out this eel that was trying to escape the attacking divers that found him sneaking around the reef.

Stay tuned for the next post…we are going to check out the Carnival in Grenada!

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Running in Grenada

Posted on August 13, 2017 by David Cross

It is our first full day here…so what did we do?

We went running to explore the local town.  And yes, it was brutally hot.  90 degrees and you felt like you went swimming after a 10K run.

Lots of local farming.  Seems like goats are the most popular.

Not sure I know how to interpret this sign.  Are people carrying candy around?  We were running, not walking!

The island a friendly and diverse place.  Safe to go everywhere and everyone is welcome.

Of course, we had to run by the US memorial/monument from Operation Urgent Fury which was the US military invasion of Grenada to rescue the medical school students that were threatened into government takeover.  I left out the beer bottles that were cluttered on the side of the monument when I took this picture.

The best part of the run was to check out some of the emerging high end properties that were being developed on the one side of the island.  Check out the high end car visiting the development in the background.

Runs are always fun and adventurous! Some of my other favorite spots:

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Grenada Caribbean

Posted on August 12, 2017 by David Cross

You have to take a redeye from Seattle to get to Grenada… But it looks like August is a great time to visit this island.

It is a long ways from Seattle, but it appears to be a great getaway choice for our anniversary

We picked Sandals since we have had great experiences at previous locations.

We quickly booked some dives as soon as we arrived. We are Nitrox certified, so we wanted to try some dives here with our certification.

We got a great walkout room into a private pool.

It will be an ideal asset to take a dip into when we do our first local 10K tomorrow morning! 😎 You can see that blog posting as well as our diving trip in Grenada as well.

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Singapore Bird Sanctuary

Posted on March 18, 2017 by David Cross

Today, we went to check out the local dedicated bird park being a parrot owners ourselves.

Sometimes I started to think the giant Iguana zombies were taking over the place as they were everywhere!

They had a lot of nice aviaries and open areas to interact directly with the birds.

Needless to say, they were very tame and not afraid of human predators.  It is like the penguins in Antarctica.  They will just walk right up to you and check you out with no fear whatsoever.

of course, for lunch we had a quick stop to have the local Singapore chicken and rice.

I must admit, they have one of the best parrot collections we have ever seen in the world.

Then for dinner, what did we have to have in Singapore?

Red chili crab, of course!

We were lucky to get a reservation on a weekend night in Singapore, these places are packed.  They are also a late night crowd…a 6:30 reservation is only for kids!

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Singapore Running Club

Posted on March 18, 2017 by David Cross

We found the western side Singapore running club this morning since it was time for a weekend run…

The trick is to be part of a club, or you cannot carry enough water for the heat and humidity!

This morning, the location of choice is the Singapore Botanical Gardens.

Many kilometers of nice paved trails, awesome scenery and even some hills to get a hills workout. 🙂

It is also a location of choice for the Singapore ninja training club. They were practicing sword fighting this morning.

And, it became clear that the park is not just for nature and sports, it is also for art.  The movie club has a recent classic on the screen tonight for the local audience to enjoy.

Running around the world is always fun.  Some of my other favorite spots:

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Sentosa Island by Day, Singapore High Rise at Night

Posted on March 17, 2017 by David Cross

We had a fun day in Singapore and the nearby Sentosa resort island.

We decided to check out the local version of Universal Studios to relax a little.  I have to admit, it was a fun day and some great rides – but the prices were a little high. If you want to get a universal express pass, the ticket is almost DOUBLE. Yikes!

Even though the park is small, it has some great themes and it is easy to get around in only 15-20 minutes walk.

Everyone likes the music and opportunity to dance here.  All the roller coasters were AWESOME.  We ran out of time and did not get to check out the Transformers one…

The best one was the Battlestar Galactica one.  You have to choose Human or Cylon.  We chose human obviously.

We took a video of the short/fast ride if interested.

At night, the best place to go is dinner on top of the Marina Bay Sands.

We had a delicious local dinner at the Ce Le Vie.

People pay $25 just to go up and take pictures.  It is definitely worth the visit at night.

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Hanging out in Singapore

Posted on March 16, 2017 by David Cross

After 2 weeks of cruising around Siam Bay and the South China Sea, we have docked in Singapore and are going to be spending a few days around town to check out a few more sites before heading back to the US.


Last night we celebrated the adventures with a little champagne and also enjoyed the great bottle of Portteus cab reserve we found in the wine shop in Georgetown on Penang, Malaysia 😀

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Diving Near Phuket Island Thailand 

Posted on March 14, 2017 by David Cross

Lots of people like to visit all the sites in the James Bond and Leonardo DiCaprio movies…


But we snuck off and headed to Chalong Pier to join a dive team headed to Racha Yair.

This is a popular spot for sure. Hundreds of divers from around the world. We chose Steve from Phuket Dash Scuba Dot Com. One of the best dive boats we have ever been on!

We did a 2 tank dive and will be updating this post with videos when we get back home. Wreck dive, sting rays, bat fish,  Moray eels, lion fish, dancing shrimp…

And then and awesome local lunch between the dives 😀

Here are some videos:

 

 

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Running in Georgetown (Penang Malaysia)

Posted on March 13, 2017 by David Cross

We stopped at the island of Penang today.

Of course, we went running along the seaside course recommended by the Penang Forward Sports Club.

It was interesting that we kept getting buzzed by Mig-29s from the Malaysian Air Force. First it was the Thai Navy and not it is Malaysia…they were a little hard to see from my Nexus 6P camera, but the app calculated their speed at Mach .92 which was cool below 2,000 feet…

It was a combination of beach running, trail running and city running…but unfortunately most of the expensive Seaside real estate is being excavated for some reason with miles of construction equipment and digging.

Lots of historical buildings along the way.

And fortunately there are frequent little shops that are known as gurneys for this historical drive.

You need at least a liter of water for this 12K run in this heat and humidity. I found a cool shop next to this parking lot with lots of Rolls-Royce hanging out at the Pot cafe.

A lot of people wondered, can you buy wine in Malaysia? Because we explored on our run, we found a hidden wine shop 😎

and yes, we found a bottle of Portteus!  Stay tuned! We are taking a break at a local place with some good music.

Running around the world is always fun.  Some of my other favorite spots:

 

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Good Morning Malaysia! 

Posted on March 12, 2017 by David Cross

We pulled into a port known as Kelang.


It is definitely warm and humid… And it is hard to tell if the haze is pollution or the extreme humidity.


We then headed to Kuala Lumpur of course!


The city is a Las Vegas zoo. With Bellagio style fountains and music.


And very inexpensive shopping with a very strong dollar. Many things are 30%+ discount.


The highlight for us was a visit to the KL tower.


You can get a great view of the city and the Petronas Twin Towers.


And spot the hot/popular lunch spots since you have such a view from 300 meters up.

Here is what we did the next day in another part of Malaysia in my Georgetown blog posting.

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