Hong Kong we love you

Vibrant, crowded, clean, dense and smoggy but we loved every minute. It is a successful blending of communism and capitalism as well as religions and races. The architecture of tightly packed skyscrapers dwarfed the sea of humanity in the shorefront shopping streets.
Chinese New Year decorations are everywhere!

A Farewell drink in Hong Kong

We are on our way home - it will be wonderful to catch up with friends and family!

Hong Kong

Guangzhou (Canton)

China!!
This amazing city of 9 million, a show place mostly developed post-cultural revolution, is clean and orderly. Even though people pretend to be open-minded, superstition abounds. There is a Buddha for every taste, legends explaining events and attitudes and museums galore, the later slightly hampered by the destruction of all that was beautiful or intellectual during that despicable ten years of chaos.
The food was exotic and the people were friendly and optimistic.
Tonight we are on our way to Hong Kong.

More of road to Hanoi

You wouldn't believe what people haul on the back of their motorbikes! We have a collection of pictures. This man is taking home a mandarin orange tree to decorate their home for the start of their big holiday - the Lunar New Year. The streets were lined with these tree vendors - very similar to the Christmas tree vendors at home.

Again some of those pics are taken through the bus window so they are not all that clear.

Hanoi

The second day in Ha Long, Vietnam allowed us to do a private van tour to the capital, Hanoi. It as a very long day as it is a 3.5 hours each way from Ha Long to Hanoi. Who said vacations were relaxing.

This crowded and busy city of 4 million people sports the prison called the "Hanoi Hilton" by downed American pilots such as Senator John McCain

Hanoi is also the home of the Vietnamese hero Ho Chi Minh whose Tet Offensive led to the "liberation" of Vietnam from the Americans. He has become an object of veneration.

While most North Vietnamese endorse "free thinking" in religious matters, they also pray to their ancestors and heroes. These include nominal Catholics and Buddhists who hedge their bets in this way!!

The temple of Literature, built for Confucius was a nice change from Buddha. We are getting Buddhaed-out (new word). Confucius is treated as a dirty as well. He may deserve it more than the others as he at least had some wise observations!

We are currently heading towards Canton so technically we are in China - the northern end of the South China Sea in the Hainan Strait. We have a full day tomorrow in Canton (now called Huangpu).

Most of the ports have accepted US$$ but when we first arrive at a new country our ship arranges for money-changers to board. It is really wonderful to be on a smaller ship as we are able to get into smaller ports, consequently we don't see a lot of other cruise ships. When we arrived at Ha Long City we were able to go under the bridge into the main port but there was only about 10 meters to spare. There is a port pilot that come on board in almost all the ports.

Ha Long Bay, North Vietnam

This is a vast expanse of islands dotting the north end of the South China Sea. Poor weather and cool brought out our warm jackets for the first time!

Many of he limestone formations have names such as "rooster and hen". Floating fishing villages with their own one-room schoolhouses exist in relative isolation. Beggars in woven (porous) boats accost tourists mercilessly.

An amazing limestone cave in a mountain provided spectacular, multi-colored views (many steps up and down!!). Here in the north English is less well spoken or understood but everybody loves US$$!

Danang, Vietnam

Vietnam is an S-shaped country and Danang is about in the middle. Attitudes change between the south and the north. It was raining and overcast so most of our pictures were not great. We took a shuttle and then a taxi into the city, which is a study in contrasts. Poverty, begging and man-propelled carts contrast with gorgeous wide, landscaped, bonsaied (if that is a word) boulevards and new bridges. Danang is planning and building to be a tourist centre. It was difficult for us to get a concept of this because of the weather.

More of Ho Chi Minh City

The traffic is horrific with thousands of two and three-wheeled vehicles dodging at buy intersections. Today being Sunday, there were weddings everywhere.
We rode on cyclo-taxis through many of the busy market streets and it is truly amazing that there are not more accidents. Without exception the people are incredibly friendly.
The second picture in this blog was taken through the window of the bus so it is not quite as clear as it could be but it it is very representative. There are often four people on one scooter!

Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh City

HO Chi Minh, after whom the city is now named, is Vietnam's national hero. After "liberation from the Americans" in 1975, the communists suppressed them more for about 14 years. Then
they seemed to have figured it out. Saigon is a thriving, dynamic city of 9 million with 4 million motor bikes, and is an incredibly active port at the wide mouth of the Mekong River delta. There are freedoms here not usual in historically communist countries. Now, with private land ownership and low taxes, people are well fed and rice is abundant (and exported). Rice paddies and water buffalo are everywhere in the country. Even Buddha is smiling!
Small fish farms along the Mekong river channels provided us with well prepared luncheon fish rolls in a rice wrap.

Cambodia - Sihanoukville

Cambodia is a largely Buddhist and very poor country with one port (Sihanoukville) and many fishing villages. It is trying to pull itself up but is not quite sure how to do it. The beaches are beautiful. The streets are filthy. People are friendly. There are seven national parks, mangrove forests with jungles that contain cobras, boas and other snakes as well as many birds and monkeys. Shrimp fisherman with crescent-shaped nets, swimming oyster harvesters and net fisherman are everywhere in the shallow river near it's mouth.

The beer is great at $1 per can and their currency , the riel, sells for 4000 to the US$.

We did a boat trip down the Prek Toeak Sap River in Ream National Park for about 1.5 hours and then trekked through the jungle to a lovely swimming beach.

Cambodia is a democratic monarchy but we suspect that the government is quite corrupt. Where would one start - perhaps education, a program of recycling, waste and garbage disposal would help.

Many of our fellow cruisers did the 4.5 hour drive to Phnom Penh and back. Others went to Ankara Wat and will meet the ship again in Ho Chi Minh City. Another time.

Bangkok for 2 days

Bangkok is the largest city we have ever been in (12 - 15 million) and it just extends on and on and on. We could not possibly show the extent with a photo. At the pier where we docked, we were surrounded for 360 degrees by high-rises.
Thailand is a democratic monarchy and again there is a big emphasis on Temples and Palaces. Their kings, past and present, are revered, as is Buddha. The Buddha in this photo is the largest in Thailand.
In this very busy, bustling city there are pictures everywhere of the King.
Now we set sail for Cambodia - this is so exciting!!

Ko Samui

Happy Birthday David

David's BD we celebrated in Ko Samui, Thailand. These pictures were taken in the Polo Grill onboard, the evening of the 17th. Grant and Alice, I (Sandi) met on the snorkeling trip to Phangan island through very rough seas, rain and wind. They thought it was great fun too so I decided they were our kind of people and asked them to share David's birthday dinner. The Thai people are very friendly and accommodating and the snorkeling was pretty good too. We are enjoying the wonderful Thai food.

Singapore

Wow - we were not prepared for how gorgeous a city can be!

Singapore, financial Mecca, has replaced Switzerland as the banking capital. Land is in limited supply (obviously) as the buildings are incredibly tall and architecturally innovative. It is clean and has very little crime but tourists can still be fleeced!

This was the first day of the Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit with major celebrations in the extensive Chinatown. Those are roasted ducks hanging in the foreground, not rabbits.

We did two taxi rides, three different bus rides of the hop-on - hop-off variety, as well as a monorail back to our ship. We did NOT go shopping although most of Singapore is shopping malls.

This morning we said goodbye to the friends we have made over the last 35 days, so we are on to a new leg of the journey.

Kuala Lampur

This is our second port in Malaysia and a very impressive one. The architecture is ultra-modern and the city very clean, progressive and lush. It's nickname is "the garden city".

Kaula Lampur is in the state of Selangor in Malaysia and in 1974 it was separated to form the first Federal Territory, governed directly by the Malaysian Federal government (similar idea to Washington, DC).

They are in the process of building a new capital at Putrajaya, where we visited. Needless to say, these photos were taken there, the one across the lake being the new prime minister's house. We did not get a good picture of KL itself.

Penang, Malaysia (Jan 13th)

This is Thursday so it must be Penang, Malaysia. We did the sightseeing of Georgetown by Trishaw! The seats are not meant for westerners after 33 days of gorging on a cruise ship! We shopped for some wine, visited an opulent Chinese (Taoist) residence, tried to assimilate some history in the museum and by osmosis downloaded local culture. Tolerance and peaceful coexistence between Chinese, Indians and Malays further supported the claim that Penang is the "Pearl of the Orient".
We are leaving port again early evening to sail to Kaula Lampur. At least tomorrow we will have the same currency that we had today (the ringgit). It has been a challenge to keep up with changing currencies and exchange rates. What FUN we are having!!!