Today is Monday, March 15 and we are at the Hilton Hotel in Narita, Japan outside of Tokyo. It is 7:00 AM (Mark is still asleep and snoring) and 3:00 PM on Sunday the 14th on the west coast of the U.S., 6:00 PM on the east coast. I think that includes the change to Daylight Savings Time that just occurred.

I haven’t kept up this blog as well as I would have liked (I’ve been focusing on uploading my photos onto our Picasa web site), but I promise to fill in the gaps after we’re back home and have had a chance to recover from our trip. I will now chat about these past few days.

We visited Singapore on Monday March 8 and it was the first time we had been there. Singapore is a blend of old and new and its skyline is very impressive with many, many tall and beautiful modern skyscrapers. It also has a magnificent Botanic Gardens which we visited for a short time with an emphasis on the Orchid Garden. It was extremely hot and humid as is all of South East Asia especially at this time of the year. This type of weather is very difficult for me. Mark seems to handle it better.

We actually saw relatively little of Singapore as we spent five hours visiting the worldwide headquarters of Amega Global, a company that produces a number of products that restore the natural healing abilities of the body by using a proprietary system based on Zero Point Energy. Mark and I met the leaders of the company and were very impressed. Our good friend and healer, Dr. Dan Gleeson, had only recently signed up as a distributor for Amega’s products. When he learned that we would be visiting Singapore on our cruise, he helped set up our visit to Amega’s headquarters. We were so impressed with what we experienced with the AMWand on our bodies, that we joined the company as distributors. We’ll let you know more about this significant opportunity as we move forward.

A shuttle bus hired by Princess Cruises took us back to our ship in the late afternoon. There were 19 shuttle buses hired by the company to offer free transport to and from the port to the city. Singapore is the third largest port in the world and we were absolutely amazed by the thousands of shipping containers stacked up and being moved over miles of port areas. I have photos of the port to give you an idea of how huge it is.

This is a good time to tell you about how we experience the various ports the ship stops at. Every cruise line offers its passengers tours at each of the ports it visits. The tours cost extra and can be quite expensive. As you might expect, Princess and the other cruise lines use local guides and drivers to take people to visit local sites of importance. Generally they use air conditioned Greyhound- type buses which are very comfortable and hold about 50 -60 people. The benefits include comfortable transportation to and from the ship to the places the guides take the passengers, knowledgeable guides from whom we learn a great deal, AND never missing the ship! A cruise ship will not leave its port until all the buses are back- IF it is a tour sponsored by the cruise line. Now for non-cruise line tours.

Many long time saavy cruisers hook up with other cruisers on web sites such as cruisecritic.com which offer a wealth of information about all kinds of topics related to cruising. One of the hot topics is learning about private tour companies from people who have already used them at the ports you will be visiting. These tour companies and guides are almost always much cheaper than similar tours offered by the cruise line. They have the additional advantage of using custom designed vans holding only 4-10 people which means greater personal service and the ability to ask lots of questions which Mark loves to do. For this cruise, we used private tour guides in Tauranga and Dunedin, New Zealand; Hobart, Tasmania; Adelaide, Australia; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Other than Sydney, Australia where we went to the Opera House and Botannical Gardens with friends and went out on the bay on our own, we used Princess tours at the other ports of call. The only downside to private tours is that if you can’t get back to the ship before it is scheduled to depart, it won’t wait for you and you have to find your own way to the next port!

After leaving Singapore on the 8th, we had a day at sea. When I go on a long cruise I like to have a day at sea after each port to rest and recuperate. You might not think it but visiting a city or town can be very tiring as well as exhilarating. However, too many sea days are not our thing either. We are not sun worshippers so laying by the pool(s) turning brown does not appeal to us nor do we think it’s healthy for our skin.

On Wednesday, March 10th we arrived at Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Our private tour guide picked us up at the port for the two hour drive into Saigon. (He first had to drive two hours to get to the ship). Visiting this famous city was an experience. For those of you reading this blog who remember the Vietnam War, you will understand the importance this city (and country) has for the United States. Never was a war more disputed than the Vietnam War which most people felt should never have been entered into by our country. On our way into the city, we passed through rural villages which reminded us strongly of Ecuador. In fact, except for the signs in the Vietnamese language, it COULD HAVE BEEN ECUADOR! We came to the conclusion that developing countries all over the world have a lot in common including poverty and very basic conditions of life.

In Saigon, our guide first took us to a Buddhist Temple (see photos on my Picasa web site). It was filled with worshippers and reminded us of Buddhist temples that we have seen in Japan and China and South Korea. We then visited a factory where lovely lacquered pieces are made. Our guide then took us to the War Remembrance Museum. Here we saw very grim reminders of the war. Vietnam is a communist country now (albeit with a strong capitalist economy like China) and this museum’s photos of the horrors of the Vietnam War- many of which were seen in American newspapers at the time- were slanted towards what the American soldiers did to the Vietnamese soldiers and people. Very gruesome and very sad.

By the way, many former American soldiers who fought in the War have come back to this country to revisit and see the result of what they had fought for as well as put some old ghosts to rest. We did not see the exact building where that famous photo of the last helicopter taking off from the rooftop on April 30, 1975 was taken (the building had been dismantled) but we did see the grounds.
In Saigon we also visited the beautiful main Post Office, the five star Rex Hotel, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. We had lunch at a modest restaurant whose main claim to fame was that former President Bill Clinton had eaten there- complete with framed photo reminders! The food was delicious. After lunch, we had 45 minutes at the huge main market (we have many photos) which again, reminded Mark and me of the markets in both Cuenca and Quito, Ecuador.The market is huge occupying 4 acres and has about 1000 individual stalls.

Finally, our last stop took us to the Reunification Palace which was originally a Palace built in the early 20th century and then modernized when Vietnam reclaimed their independence from France. All in all, it was a very full day where we learned a great deal about this wonderful country. By the way, the capital of Vietnam is Hanoi which is in the northern part of the country but Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), in the south, is the largest and most prosperous city with 9 million people in the city and surrounding countryside. As you can imagine, when we returned to the ship after the two hour drive back, we were exhausted!

The next day, Thursday, March 11, we had a sea day and began our packing in preparation for our disembarkation on Saturday. A word about packing. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, Mark and I have made repeated vows about taking less “stuff” with us when we travel. These vows have come to naught! On this trip we took the following:
2 large suitcases 1 medium suitcase 1 duffle-type bag 2 wheeled carry-ons 1 large camera case 1 large laptop 1 carry-all over-the shoulder bag 1 backpack- 10 pieces in all. Insane you say? I agree. But we couldn’t seem to pare it down so that we would have everything we might need for our 6 week journey. Things like snorkeling gear including fins, a tripod for the camera, formal evening wear for those special nights, and lots of other clothing. To make it clear, we DID wear just about everything and I did laundry aboard the ship six or more times! However, other passengers packed much more lightly and I do admire them!

Back to the sea day. The Diamond Princess has some beautiful venues. On this last sea day, we visited those we hadn’t spent time at before. The three-level atrium is the heart of the ship and on the bottom level which is deck five, “Maurizio” plays a white piano and also has several synthesizers which make his playing sound like an entire band. We sat and heard him play and really enjoyed him. Have I mentioned that Mark and I risked our egos by dancing at Club Fusion and the Explorers Lounge on occasion? We need a lot more practice with Mark leading and me following the various ballroom dances we had learned but we’re on our way. When we do manage to dance in synch, it’s a lot of fun!

On Friday, the 12th we docked in Cambodia. We actually didn’t dock but instead tendered in to the port of Sihanoukville (pronounced shan-ook-ville named after the King of Cambodia, a constitutional monarchy). Tendering involves using the ship’s life boats as water craft to take the passengers ashore when the ship can’t dock for whatever reason. Each tender holds 150-160 people. We’ve used them before on other trips and they provide an easy way to get to shore provided the waves aren’t too high. This time it took 20 minutes to take us to shore.

A word about Cambodia. Cambodia is a very poor country, perhaps one of the poorest in the world outside of Africa due to the many wars they’ve suffered over the past 50 years. The latest war was an internal war which occurred after the Vietnam War in 1975. The Khmer Rouge, wanted the country to be Communist following Mao Tse Tung’s policies in China. As a result of their viciousness, 2 million Cambpodians were exterminated. This was a mass genocide of horrific proportions. Cambodia is just in the beginning stages of rebuilding their country.

The weather the day we were there was very hot and humid. Once again, as we rode through the countryside, it reminded us so much of Ecuador (but not the weather) where we had lived for almost 3 years. But poorer. Our first stop was a visit to a private house where a family of twenty or so people lived. Very basic. The family was very friendly and although they had agreed to have our guide bring people to see their way of life, it must have been overwhelming to see a busload (actually several busloads) of people coming into their house. They were very sweet and gracious however. Our photos show their home.

The next place we visited was a rural school. I had been looking forward to this since before we began our trip. I had read on the cruisecritic.com web site that previous cruisers had brought school supplies in anticipation of visiting the school. (This was a ship’s tour so we knew what to expect). I had brought with me many different kinds of supplies such as pens and pencils, pads of paper, scissors, glue sticks and pencil sharpeners, colored pencils, etc. I was very happy to pass these out to the students. The children crowded around me during this distribution and the teachers patiently allowed this time away from their studies. A highlight of my trip.
We then went to the main local market that had only very basic and cheap things for sale. This was a big contrast to the market in Saigon which had at least five times the amount of things for sale and much higher quality. However, the Cambodian market only served a population of 250,000 people as compared to Saigon’s population of 7-9 million. A big difference.

The next stop brought us to the other end of the Cambodian economic spectrum. This was the Sokha Beach Resort, a five star hotel- see photos. As you can see from the photos, the grounds were very beautiful and the hotel was right on the South China Sea. I dipped my feet in the Sea which was the warmest ocean water I’ve ever been in. We tried some Cambodian food at the resort which was delicious. Four skewers of grilled meat and chicken with rice was two dollars!

Our final stop in Cambodia was a visit to the main Buddhist Temple in Sihanoukville- Wat Po. As the photos show, statues abound, all of them beautiful. Take note of the large pagodas in the cemetery built to honor the dead. We were told that after a person is cremated, a Buddhist custom, a small portion of their ashes is poured into a chamber in the pagoda protected by a small removal stone. All the family member’s ashes are poured into the same hole. There were many children begging for money there and when we gave money to one, many more materialized!
After arriving back to the place where we were to board the tender, we had to stand in line with many hundreds of other passengers also waiting - in the scorching sun- until we could get under the tent which had been set up. Then once again, and for the last time, we went on board the Diamond.

Next, Bangkok.
We arrived in Bangkok at 7:00 AM on Saturday, March 13. It was another hot, humid Southeast Asia day. Our friends, Al and Karreen, had arranged for a private van with tour guide to meet us at the ship (with all the luggage for the four of us) and drive us the two hours into Bangkok. A note here. The weekend of our arrival, a massive demonstration was scheduled by the Red Shirts who are supporters of the ousted Prime Minister whom they feel was illegally removed from office two years ago by a military and judicial coup. They feel the current Prime Minister, who was educated at Oxford in England, represents the rich Thai families and their business interests and not the rural farmers and other laborers.

We had had some concern about whether there would be road blockages but we had no troubles at all. In the late afternoon on Saturday we did see the beginning of the large gathering of Red Shirts scheduled for Sunday and I took some photos of them.
We had been in Bangkok In December 1989 and January 1990 (when we celebrated Marks 50th birthday in Ko Samui, a resort city on the Gulf of Thailand). At that time, we were on a 19 day tour that took us to all parts of the country, riding elephants for two days, sleeping with tribes people, etc. This trip was very different and so was Bangkok. We saw freeways, tall skyscrapers, lavish hotels and an infrastructure in place that was typical of Asian cities like Hong Kong, Shanghei, Singapore and Beijing. It was a new Bangkok for us.

When we arrived in the city, it was about 11:00 AM and we checked into the Millennium Hilton to freshen up and eat lunch before our afternoon tours. The Millennium is THE MOST BEAUTIUL HOTEL we’ve ever stayed in. I will post photos soon. It is very modern and spectacular in its furnishings and ambiance. After a delicious Thai lunch, our van picked the four of us up and we spent the afternoon touring temples and Buddha statues.
One of the temples, Wat Pho, is mainly famous for the huge Reclining Buddha statue it houses. At 20 acres large, it is the largest Wat in Bangkok, and is technically the oldest too, as it was built around 200 years before Bangkok became Thailand's capital. However, today the Wat bears virtually no resemblance to that originally constructed, as it was almost entirely rebuilt by Rama I when the capital was moved to Bangkok. It holds the dual honors of having both Thailand's largest reclining Buddha image and the most number of Buddha images in Thailand.
The highly impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long(150 ft.) and 15 meters high, and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. The feet and the eyes are engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha.

Mark and I had seen these temples 20 years ago but they were no less impressive the second time around. However, the heat and humidity was wilting so it was wonderful to get back to our hotel. The Millennium is right on Bangkok’s main river, the Chao Phraya, and since our room was on the 20th floor, we were able to have a spectacular view. The hotel provides a water taxi to the other side where we had an unimpressive dinner. All in all, we could have spent another two days in Bangkok, a very special city.

On Sunday, we flew to Tokyo Narita airport, a 5 hour flight, arriving at 4:00 PM Tokyo time. We checked into the Narita Hilton which was older and no where as plush as the Millennium but certainly adequate. We had room service dinner. Tokyo has a well deserved reputation as being one of the most expensive cities in the world. Although Narita is about 65 miles from Tokyo, the prices were as high. As an example, Mark and I shared a club sandwich with French fries with two small bottles of water and the bill came to $36.00! This was offset by the amazing buffet breakfast we had the next morning which was included in the price of our room (which was dirt cheap by Tokyo standards). The buffet was spread over several sections of the huge open dining area and included both western and oriental foods. W felt like we were back on the ship!
The hotel’s shuttle took us back to the airport- a 15 minute drive- and we boarded our final international flight to Los Angeles which took 9 hours and was uneventful- a word that you really want to use when you fly! After clearing Customs at LAX airport, our final flight took us home to SeaTac airport. HOME AT LAST!

In a few days I will post some final comments about our trip.