How Sweet it is With Chocolate

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click images to enlarge

Attention Twitter Chat Fans

I'm one of the moderators for #FoodTravelChat which takes place every Wednesday at 8 PM ET.
This fun-filled Twitter chat picks a theme each week and creates several questions to get the chat rolling.  The conversation is very quick and lively.

Tonight, I invite you to join us for one of my favorite topics:  Sweet Treats 

It's #NationalChocolateDay so I expect to see lots of sweet treats made with chocolate.

Those that follow me on my various social media, know that as a travel advisor, I can be found sailing the high seas.  Can you think of a  better way to get to the chocolate around the world than via cruise ship?  I can't!

While on board the ship, I'm often treated to some special chocolate delights, including the one pictured here.  This was on Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas. 

During our National Conference on her sister ship, Symphony of the Seas, there was a similar buffet there as well.  I thought I'd share a different picture with you though.  This was a display the crew assembled for one of our evening events.  The conference theme – DARE – was inspired by the acronym for parent company World Travel Holdings’ mission to Deliver A Remarkable Experience. 

Chocolate isn't only available in Milk and Dark.  I also like white chocolate which can be flavored or in a variety of colors.  The above display was created by Royal Caribbean crew on Symphony of the Seas for our National Conference #2019DareConference.

Following are some of our favorite chocolate discoveries around the globe:

Chocolate Boutique - Penang, Malaysia	Chocolate Boutique - Penang, Malaysia
Chocolate Boutique - Penang, Malaysia
Bruges, Belgium	Cologne, France

 

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Where have you explored? 

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Where is Chris - Museum Comes to Life Day

In our Where is Chris mini series, we've often written blog posts related to one of the day's themes as featured on checkiday.com.  We couldn't resit "Museums Come to Life Day" which occurs on June 24th each year.    The first thing that came to mind when seeing this day, was the "Night at the Museum" movies.   Wouldn't it be cool to be in your favorite museum when the "inhabitants" came to life?   Before reading the text, can you guess Where is Chris?

Click to enlarge - National Museum Album

We've visited many museums around the world, so we thought we'd feature some of them here and you can let your imagination bring them to life.

National Museum

Let's start our journey through museums of the world in one of our most recent visits. While on a Southeast Asia cruise we visited Kuala Lumpur, or commonly known as KL, Malaysia. Our first stop was at the Malaysia   National Museum, which was built in the style of a Malay palace. Can you just imagine if these pre-historic figures came to life during your visit?   Visit the virtual gallery where the museum comes to life.  (flash enabled)

Sabah Museum Album

Sabah Museum

Next stop on our journey today is the Sabah Museum in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The first thing that greets you as you enter the museum are enormous skeletal remains. My first thought was dinosaur! It was only when I walked closer and read the information that it was a Bryde’s whale.

As you walk through the museum, you come across a Bajau horsemen in full regalia. These horsemen perform as outriders for ceremonial and state functions. Imagine he comes to life and takes you through the rest of the museum,  just like in "Night at the Museum". He'd probably lead you to the Galleri Busana Textile Gallery, where some of his friends were waiting to tag along.

Salesian Museum

Salesian Museum Album

Our final stop on this museum tour today is in South America.  After seeing penguins in their natural surroundings in Punta Arenas, Chile, we explored the city.

The tour took us to the Salesian Museum. One of the most visited rooms is the one devoted to Southern Patagonia, which displays a faithful recreation of the Cave of the Hands.

The objects and documents from the Salesian days, the handicrafts and tools made by the natives, along with the fossils and petrified animals from the area are also part of the displays in the museum.   Imagine if these cave men or the animals came to life.

These are just a few of our candidates for museums that could come to life.   If you've not found enough inspiration, explore many more museums in our Cruise Diaries posts.

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Dreaming of Malaysia

Travel has taken a pause this year, but we can #KeepDreaming.    Our original plans for this year included visiting Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after departing Australia on Majestic Princess.

"We are proud to showcase the beauty of Malaysia, and what better way to do that in this climate than by utilizing our digital assets and giving our global audience a sneak peek through virtual experience. I hope that this also incites excitement in our fellow Malaysians to explore our lands once it is safe to travel again,”   
                                                 (Datuk Musa Yusof, Director General of Tourism Malaysia)

As we cocooned at home during the pandemic, we continued to be on the lookout for virtual content to share with our readers. We learned about a video which recently won an award. A promotional video released by Tourism Malaysia has reached the juries of The Telly Awards based in New York,  and won the silver award for Non-Broadcast under the Travel/Tourism category 2020.

The promotional video entitled DISCOVER BREATHTAKING MALAYSIA was produced in October 2019 as part of Tourism Malaysia’s initiatives to promote Malaysia which targets the millennial market segment. The 4-minute video takes viewers through Malaysia’s touristic attractions as well as hidden gems for travelers to explore, complete with suggestions for captions and hashtags on social media.

We invite you to sit back and enjoy this video which includes highlights from several attractions which we had planned to visit.  We fell in love with Malaysia during our first visit - we hope that this video will encourage you to include Malaysia in your future travels.  #AdventuresWorthSharing

Read our blog posts from our previous visit to Southeast Asia:  Diary of Southeast Asia Voyage which included stops in Penang, Langkawi, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia .
Congratulations Tourism Malaysia for well deserved award

In mid-February we embarked on a cruise from Australia to Singapore. Unfortunately, Covid-19 was starting to get traction across the globe and before we even left our first port of call, we learned that the Asian portion of our trip would not occur.  We've been to Asia before, and had been looking forward to visiting Malaysia and Singapore again. 
Follow our journey to the destinations we were able to complete before heading back home.
  Just click the image (left) to our diary post.

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Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat