gunships outside my window

No seriously, there are. I see two of them! And they’re from the Singapore Navy. Now, you be reading this and asking, “Chris, why are there such powerful pieces of machinery floating alongside our kind and peaceful ship?” Four words: The Strait of Malacca. We were stopped for most of the day today while our ship was anchored and refueled just off the coast of Singapore (it was a great tease not being able to go ashore). During that time we were joined by 2 gun ships from the Singapore Navy (photo above) who will be by our side for the next few days as we trek through the Strait of Malacca. Many of you may not know this but earlier this morning a terror threat was announced for the Strait of Malacca on all ships passing through there (i.e. us). The threat comes from a tip regarding terrorist groups targeting oil tankers traveling through the Strait. While this is a bit concerning seeing as there are oil tankers everywhere and that nearly 15 million barrels of oil are carried through the strait every day, I urge you not to be concerned because we are being kindly escorted by some pretty fierce navy ships. You can check out more of the story under the “World” section on cnn.com. We should be out of the strait in a few days time, safe and sound. I heard all this today and after checking it out online I saw that it wasn’t the product of an outrageous rumor.
 Anyways, I thought it’d make for any exciting post. Other than that, everything is going just fine and we are all eager to get to India (in about 6 more days). The weather is getting incredibly hot as we near the equator but we have to get used to it for India! I hope everything at home is going well with you and I will check back in once more before landing at our 6th port! Take care friends and family, I miss you all!

- Chris