MARCH 14, 2008 – IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

The alarm(s) rang much too early this morning but we both rolled out, had some fruit and showed up at 8:15 am for the Komen “on deck for the cure”. Again there was a respectable sized group and JJ, the cruise director, kept his word and wore his tutu outfit from the skit “If I were not upon the sea…” Ed led the pack in pledging a dollar for each lap JJ took so dressed, and that turned out to be 51. We know of at least one other participant who pledged the same.
The breeze was incredible on the upper deck and we all asked for extra credit for walking against the wind. I hasten to add, that it was not at your back on the other side of the loop. Few people were able to keep their hats on so many of us tied them somewhere on our person and ambled on.
HOLLYWOOD SONG AND DANCE MAN: The previously mentioned BBC producer talked about Gene Kelly today, whom he had met on two occasions. I knew almost nothing of his personal or professional life. He was a multi-talented, perfectionist who was also a very nice person. Like so many aging male stars, his last years were marred by marriage to a woman 50 yrs younger than him who was to have ghost written his autobiography. She never published it and refused to allow his children to see him in his final days. It’s all so sad.
Barry has a wonderful selection of video movie clips that he explains before they are seen so that you can properly enjoy them. His presentation style is pleasant and without pomposity.
INTERNET: I didn’t walk the full time. I’m still feeling lousy. But I did go to use the internet; good thing too because I had 42 emails, most of which is deleted.
Nancy sent two interesting emails: one is a listing of Useful Facts. This is the trivia corner and I took them to the trivia group and we had to study these hard because they’d be good for trivia questions.
CONGRATULATIONS are in order for Nancy. She has been accepted as a Fellow for the Effective Leadership Program 2008/2009 Fellowship Class; United States – South Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values, Duke University and th College of Business Southern University, Baton Rouge, under the leadership of Ambassador James A Joseph. I’m glad that all my kids are life long learners and especially happy for this achievement for Nancy. I look forward to learning a lot through her.
TRIVIA: Well we placed below 2nd place but not by much. Frankly, we didn’t have a clue about the answers to a few of the questions. Thank God for the Aussies who are also good on most British questions as well.
LUNCH: We shared a table which included Fr. Austin again with his unqiue Irish perspective on the world highlighted by well placed Irish sayings. We had sat with many of the other people before as well and enjoyed a nice visit about things we had seen. The USC booster and his wife were at our table too.
CDS: I showed Ed where photos and videos were on the hard drive and he made CDs for Linda and Claude who have been very generous with their photos, and John and Doris since Ed took a movie clip of John getting a massage from the baby elephant. There’s one more to be done for Lea and Bill but those files are in different places so I may wind up doing that one if I can’t con Ed into making it.
SHIPS AHOY: This was an impromptu discussion led by a fellow passenger who has been a sailor most of his life. It is risky to listen to fellow passengers and while there was some pearls buried in his remarks, he has some strong anti biases that were off putting. One of his themes was that the labor unions have ruined cruising and the industry. I had promised that I’d attend the last hour of the book club meeting so I left early and Ed stayed to pick up any details that might be useful.
BOOK CLUB: the book Secrets was in the discussion today. I had given Lisa a copy of it and so I had some familiarity with it even though I have not read it cover to cover. It is a compilation of self-help ideas from a number of sources. Always good reminders. Some of the participants shared different parts of the book and thoughts generated by that content. I enjoy listening to the views of others and it is especially interesting when we are not all Americans.
The next book for the club is the Kite Runner. It turns out that all of us in the group I was with have read it. However, we took it to review so we’ll be ready for the next book club meeting. I still have the second book they discussed Water for Elephants which almost everyone said was excellent so perhaps I’ll try it. I still have Maggie Anton’s second book of the trilogy about Miriam that I want to get into.
DISTURBING CAMBODIA: This was a get together to discuss Cambodia and Thailand reactions among the passengers. It had a good attendance and Ed shared some of his experiences in Cambodia and Thailand many years ago. It was interesting to hear people’s reactions and the lack of knowledge about the particulars of the Khymer Rouge and Pol Pot (including this writer).
END OF PHOTO CONTEST: We picked up our photos. Neither of us voted for our own photos. There were 72 photos entered and the quality is astonishing. I can’t begin to guess who will win but any photo is worthy.
It turns out that the lady who won last time had done some heavy campaigning for her photo and made promises to those who agreed to vote for her entry, such as giving you a copy of the photo. It was worth it I presume since she won a very nice camera and is not allowed to enter subsequent contests. At the end of the voyage, a representative from Olympus cameras will select the winning photo from the winners of the 4 contests. This time was Animals, landscapes; next is Architecture, villages and towns.
The winner is to be announced this evening at the entertainment.
FINAL TRIVIA (with this group anyway): The awesome crocks were in modest form this afternoon. We did well by ourselves; we are always among the top scores but no winners tonite. We weren’t too upset: the prizes were clocks.
Afterwards Eric bought us all a drink and we told bawdy jokes. We had such a good time and the goodbye hugs were sincere. We will miss them so much; it’s hard to convey how fond we are of them after this short period of time.
DINNER: Twyla and Dave were there. The dessert tonite was Baked Alaska. Not that we needed any more calories I assure you: those margaritas we had came to us in No. 9 bathtubs.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: I have found the address of a blog posted by another woman on board. She includes a lot more photos than I do. Here’s the address: http://duaneandarleen.blogspot.com
And for more photos and info (the web master has Irish geneology as one of her passions), try taking a look at: http://community.webshots.com/user/georgeannmalowney or http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561502476RgDHBt I have permission to share these links. I’ll try to remember to put them on my blog site.
PASSPORT SITUATION: I’m really left with almost no space for stamps; the immigration people are being very clever but if we get near a US consulate or embassy and I have my passport with me, I’ll have additional pages added. I’m going to suggest (assuming I’m present when they are stamped) that they put some in the upper and lower margins of pages with instructions on them. Tomorrow we must carry our passports with us onshore. I don’t recall this being the case when we were in Singapore 4 years ago but who knows.
ENTERTAINMENT: Well it’s that gorgeous guy from Montreal again. He really is talented. (I’m told I missed a fantastic show last night!) If he weren’t so good, I’d pass tonite as I’m feeling pretty lousy. Here I thought I was done with colds when I finished my chronic bronchitis on the last bout!
The singer tonite was Claude Eric again. We just can’t get enough of this young man’s singing. And his choice of material is phenomenal. He doesn’t have any CDs with him but he said they could be ordered from claudeeric.com (play with the address until you get it right.) Listen to a few samples if he has some on there. The line to talk with him after tonite’s performance was very long; I don’t think there was one person from the audience who didn’t stop to talk with him.
PHOTO CONTEST RESULTS: There were 272 votes cast for the 72 photos. The winner got 27 and the photo was an amazing close up of a yellow and black bird atop a red flower with a hazy green background. The second place got 20 votes but they only gave the number of the photo, not the subject matter. We took ours down and will frame them at some point even though they have the number on them.
We said our final good byes to Eric and Val; they gave us some hints of things to look at in Singapore. We arrive there at 9 am and the ship leaves at 6 pm. We haven’t decided what we’ll do just yet but there is a large variety of options.

March 13, 2008 – KO SUMAI, THAILAND

Ed and I both have sore throats and post nasal drip again. This is now the second day. We don’t know if it’s the a/c on the bus, in our room, or the fact that our carpets were cleaned while we were gone. I had about decided I could stop all the pulmonary meds I’ve been on, but now I think that’s premature.
We moved some of the stored stuff around so we could have things a little more organized. Some of our ideas worked, some didn’t. We don’t have much room to work with.
We dragged around and finally got ready and went up to the buffet to get something for breakfast before they shut down. We have an 11:30 call for the tender so it takes some planning to eat before we leave.
One lady from the Seam Reap trip stopped to ask us how we were doing after the ordeal. She said she had a pedometer on and she had walked 6 ½ miles that day, something she probably hadn’t done since she was a child.
The ocean is a lighter green and the ship stirs up silt as it turns to put the anchor down so it must be pretty shallow here. This is a tender port and there is a local, double decker tender alongside so I presume that’s for some of the tours. The captain got us here 1 ½ hours early. When we leave this evening, he will be running full throttle to make it to Singapore on time. Tomorrow is a sea day and our last “Awesome crocks” trivia group meeting. Eric is treating us all to a little “drinkie” at the end. I’ll miss those Aussies something terrible. Almost every Australian we’ve met has been a delight.
The Susan Komen walk is again tomorrow morning so we know we’ll get at least 3 miles in.
TENDER PORT: There was an announcement earlier this morning discouraging people with mobility problems from going out as the movement of the water on the pier was difficult. I don’t know how many observed this request but it wasn’t that many from the looks of things. The water near the ship is calm interestingly enough.
We boarded three busses for this tour and our tour guide Sally was a 7th generation Chinese in Thailand. She was a delight. We later learned that all the guides and busses were brought here from Phuket because there are not enough local facilities to manage the number of us; on this tour alone there were at least 120. They also brought an additional elephant over because of our large number.
Tomorrow is a sea day, then Singapore, then another sea day, and then Phuket. These guides and busses will be there by then for our tours.
SITTING BUDDHA: This was an all gold, huge Buddha on the top of a hill with many smaller buddhas on the way up. It is the largest Buddha (I’ve forgotten the details). We spent a few minutes here before moving on to the highlight of the day.
ISLAND SAFARI ADVENTURE: www.islandsafaritour.com This involved several activities and they divided us up into four groups to accommodate all the activities. Our group went to the baby elephant show first. One was 7 yrs old and the other 3 yrs. Old. They are simply adorable. They played basketball, stood on their hind legs, front legs, sat down and crossed their legs, walked on their hind feet, and more.
They asked for volunteers for an elephant massage. Ed volunteered and the little elephant was so gentle with his foot and pressing down all over his back, all the while he was massaging Ed’s scalp with his trunk. Ed said he used suction to do this. It was darling to watch. The picture I’ll post is a photo of the photo the folks at the sanctuary took. They rescue elephants and save them so it is kind’ve a way to support this good work. They also took a photo of us on the elephant ride which is a good one too but we only have the original of that one.
Next we went to ride the elephant. You climb stairs to a staging platform and from there you step on the elephant’s back and onto the seat for two people. They lock you in with a seat belt and off you go.
Our guide had told us to practice: left, right, forward, back. She was right. You use new muscles to keep your balance on these things. A camel is easier. But it is fun. The elephant we rode is 25 yrs old; don’t ask the name, it was Thai. She got hungry and went to a side patch to get something (I think this was the ruse of the driver). We saw banana groves, coconut trees galore, and other things in the refuge on our 30 min ride. The driver gave me a hibiscus to wear in my hair and while he has been driving the elephant, always with quiet words (not English), he was making each of us an origami ring out of palm leaves. Somehow all of this reminded me of the movie Hatari with it’s elephant walk.
The ride was over way too soon, and we went for a potty break where I found a very pregnant cat languidly sleeping on one of the tables at the concession stand. As always we have been given cold water regularly and “refreshing tissues” whose fragrance is always subtle but wonderful, so we just waited for the others. Oh yes, and these were Western toilets; the ones at the Buddha statue were squat toilets.
Then we had another Thai cooking demonstration and they made the same salad we had made in Bangkok. Ed said it’s still good.
Next was the monkey school. They teach monkeys to harvest only ripe coconuts and carry them to the water buffalo basket. The monkeys are all male and at least 2 yrs old. They are macaque; ours was Michael. Before Michael showed off his coconut harvesting skills, he was available for photos, so I went up and he was sitting waiting with his hands folded in front of him just as the Thai do when they greet you. Then when I put my hand out, he put his hand in mine. I expected his hands to be calloused and rough, but they were actually soft. This was great fun for me as I’ve always loved monkeys.
These trained monkeys return to their country of origin with their boss or owner. They had a problem initially because the monkeys only understood commands in Thai; now they use English commands. They can work until they are 12 to 15 yrs old.
I wanted to ride a water buffalo but that wasn’t offered here even though you see them here and there. Maybe somewhere else or another time.
This was such a short time in this resort where many Brits and Germans retire. There are numerous condominiums and time shares. Prices are cheaper than in the states but not by much. And then there are the complications of being a non-citizen. The resorts here are marvelous and the beaches on the opposite side of the island are sugar white we were told; many folks went snorkeling there.
We returned to the ship on a local 2 decker tender. This was a unique adventure and quite safe though some folks were uncomfortable with this. There were two small boats which came up next to the tender we were on and I overheard some folks speculating that these could be pirates. We are entering the areas where pirates are known to take over ships. Sometimes I get really annoyed with this nervous nellies who immediately think of all the awful things that could befall us. Why did they sign up for this trip in the first place?
I was glad to get back to the ship as I’m beginning to feel achy. I took a pill, drank lots of water, sprayed my nose several times (here I thought I could give it up), and laid down until dinner.
DINNER: All except Hank and Erna were here tonite. Lea and Bill went to Seam Reap also and we talked about our various experiences. They will be doing the Taj Mahal on their own as well but opted to take the ship tours for Valley of the Kings and other Egyptian sites due to the security issues there.
When we are on these jaunts, especially when the heat is so hot, (the tour guide asked me about my flushed face), I don’t worry too much about calories as I’m am so drained. It isn’t the exertion per se; it’s the heat and humidity.
I downloaded the photos, all 300+ and converted two which I’ll post and then began to write this blog. Ed went to the entertainment but it didn’t sound like it was worth the effort. Besides I don’t want to get behind on these blogs.
OH NO! Tonite we have to put our clocks FORWARD one hour! We’ll get the hour back later but we are so spoiled by now. And the Komen walk begins at 8:15 instead of the original 9 am I thought based on our last experience. So I’m going to try to get to bed early tonite. Let’s hope Ed agrees.

MARCH 12, 2008 – BANGKOK

This was an early call for us. Initially the ship was to dock right in Bangkok. Then a crane fell on the pier and we were rerouted to Laem Chabang, a port that is 2 – 2 ½ hrs from Bangkok. We signed up for the Bangkok, off the beaten track tour. Our group was headed down the gangplank by 7:30 am. We had ordered breakfast by room service to conserve time.
TRIP TO BANGKOK: We got a very cute tour guide with a robust sense of humor, mostly at her own expense. But don’t be misled, she was terrific.
The trip between Laem Chabang and Bangkok has changed so much since we were here 4 yrs ago that I didn’t recognize a thing along the way. They have built an elevated expressway with several toll booths along the way. Many people retained their homes which are now directly under this expressway.
Thailand is immediately recognized as cleaner than Cambodia, and more prosperous. It’s still a long way from a first world country, but it’s clearly making great progress. Some of the ship passengers were stunned that we weren’t accosted by begging children here.
JIM THOMPSON HOUSE: This was an American who had been stationed in this area during WWII and returned after the war and developed the Thai silk industry. I had first heard of him when Ed brought some silk items back from Bangkok. This man never married, was an architect by training, and collected Thai artifacts wherever he found them. So much so that the Thai government would regularly appropriate many of the items he had searched out and paid for. He found this old home made out of teak at a far away location, had it dismantled (very few nails are used in Thai construction), and recreated at it’s present location. He continued to add to the grounds through his life. Thompson disappeared at the age of 61; no sign of him has ever been seen or heard of. Ultimately, a foundation was created and they currently run all the industries: silk, store, tours of house.
You must take your shoes off and leave all your bags in a locker. Then a teeny, tiny little lady who spoke very passable English, guided us through this lovely home full of much Thai history. The grounds are lovely and there is a boat pier on the canal right in front of the house.
The selection of items for purchase is modest but of consistently high quality befitting his commitment to the Thai silk industry. We did pick up a few things but I am not a good shopper when I have only 20 min. to look and decide. The Thai Baht is 31 = $1 USD and that complicated my calculations (brain dead these days).
BUSSARACUM RESTAURANT: www.bussaracum.com We had a cooking lesson at this Thai restaurant. They taught us three dishes; I have photos of Ed making the beef dish. Later we ate these with the rest of our buffet lunch.
The first item we made was a very cute and absolutely delicious appetizer. You make a dough of rice flower and lavender juice. This is cooked until it’s like play dough and then you form it into little bowls into which ground chicken is placed. Then you mold the dough into a shape about like cone incense only larger. At this point you take a utensil that looks like a large pair of tweezers and you create flower petals. I did a passable job and got many kudos from my tablemates and the staff assisting us. These are then steamed (they puff up a little and then the flower design really shows). They are really delicious. You can make them in different colors and it would be a fun thing for 4th of July and other celebrations.
The other dishes were a papaya salad and the aforementioned beef dish Ed made.
When we finished with this, we went downstairs and helped ourselves to the buffet while the staff brought down the dishes we had made and put them on our tables. I couldn’t begin to tell you all the Thai foods we saw and ate but all were very tasty. At the end I visited the dessert table and took some of a dish that reminds me of frog eyes: tapioca beads in a green gelatin type gel. I put some in a small dish and started to walk off when a local, pulled me back and said: “Let me show you how to eat that” at which point he put something like yogurt or coconut milk or something on it. It really was very good.
TEAK MANSION: This was a building near the sea shore that belonged to the king but which he never used. So he had it dismantled (do you get the drift of all this dismantling?) and rebuilt on the property adjacent to the Royal Palace here in Bangkok. It has 72 rooms and is really quite lovely. One of the kings (the one upon whom The King and I was based: Rama IV) loved photography from the beginning and he took lots of photos which are displayed around the house. The carpets are from China and the furnishings are Louie the XV type (I don’t recall the names of all this furniture types but you get the drift) and they would be oppressive were it not for the huge size of these rooms which still seem to have a sense of intimacy to them.
We took our shoes off here as well and left any packages. Further, if your shoulders were exposed, you (female) were wearing slacks or shorts, you were given a Thai wrap to cover up. Men could not wear shorts either. One of the folks on the tour, not a passenger, seemed unable to follow the rules anywhere. If it said not to take photos inside the building (this was everywhere we went), she acted dumb and when reminded, turned her flash off and surreptitiously continued to take a shot. When it said not to sit on furniture, she did. She had spaghetti straps and simply put on a cap sleeve T shirt. She had hip huggers on and she put the Thai wrap around her hips. Her underwear, tattoo and cleft of her buttocks were frequently seen. Many folks commented about her behavior; she seemed oblivious. I am embarrassed when tour participants act as if the rules apply to everyone but them. The only good thing I can add is that she is not American but does speak English. I hope folks can place the accent so they’ll know that, for a change, it wasn’t an American.
It was hot and humid everywhere we went and we were reluctant to complain that the air conditioning on the bus, while cool, was too high. We survived by being grateful we had anything like that. The “motorcoach” today was a very nice one. We were regularly offered cold water and “refreshing tissue” to wipe our hands and faces.
SHOPPING: the last stop was one of the tourist traps you become used to when traveling on tours. They sold gems, jewelry, silk items and handicrafts. We had 30 min. here. I was interesting to see the different items and ooohh and aaahhh over everything.
The trip back was about like this morning: rush hour traffic, stop and go; the expressway helps though. Along the way, our tour guide gave us each a Thai cooking certificate to frame. This was unexpected but fun. We got back to the ship at 6 pm and the ship closes the doors at 6:30. there were some stalls in the ship terminal and we looked around there as well. We got better prices on the items around Angkor Wat so no takes. We made it back on the ship at 6:25p. There were 25 more people unaccounted for as we checked in.
It occurs to me that you may not know that we have credit card ships ID with a mag stripe. Everytime we enter or leave the ship, we swipe this card. It has a photo attached to it. Occasionally we hear someone’s name called at the last minute to call the purser’s desk; someone hasn’t clicked in.
SUPPER: the dining room was closed so we went to the Panorama Buffet for supper. Renzio, the Matre d’, stopped me and asked how I liked the cooking class. Ed came much after me and Renzio asked him as well. Now we have to ask him how he knew that we had a cooking class! He’d first have to know what tour we were on (our group was very small: about 18 of us), and what we were doing.
ENTERTAINMENT: It’s the flutist and the Benny Hill comic. Ed went down; I want to get caught up on the blog.
TOMORROW: We are at Ko Samui, Thailand, one of the largest of their islands. Here we have an ELEPHANT RIDE scheduled. This time Ed will be joining me. The ship is in this port for only a few hours so we don’t leave until about noon and the ship leaves at 5 pm.
MARCH 8, 2008 –
TO SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

I went down to the purser’s at 8:30 am to get our passports. Mine wasn’t there; they said it was still being checked “upstairs”. When I got it later, the problem was finding a page to put the visa onto. They moved my immunizations page to one that had stamps all over it. I also got some money changed into USD for use in Cambodia where they accept American money freely as long as it is fresh bills in small denominations.
We took the shuttle downtown to see a few things in Saigon and then came right back, had lunch, and double checked our packing. There really wasn’t enough time to do anything else. Everything is very dirty here; rubbish everywhere. Traffic is indescribable but I have some photos. Still Saigon, actually Ho Chi Minh City, is looking more prosperous than last time with much construction going on.
We were to meet in the Cabaret Lounge at 2:30 p. I went down at 2:15 pm as they called our names so I called Ed to tell him. He wasn’t happy and neither was I because I’m always early to things. I won’t ventilate where this all went but we went to the airport in Saigon. I try to get a seat on the right hand side of the plane near the window to accommodate my Reid sleeve. I don’t have good luck generally. However, the clerk did accommodate us in 17 E and F. They don’t make provisions for disabled or folks with small children; everyone crushes you to get onto the plane. It doesn’t help to be near the gate—they’ll run you down.
SEAM REAP: You leave the plane on the tarmac and are greeted by the smell of incense from the temples. It is dark by now and the building is lit up and looks wonderful in reddish teak color with the upturned corners of the roofs. We were served a good sized snack and water on this 45 min. flight.
We collected our luggage, managed immigration, and boarded the busses for the trip to the hotel. We were about 150 on this overland tour. The hotel we stayed at is at least 4 star and perhaps 5 star. It is a resort and spa, Sokha hotel, with a reflecting pool and an outdoor stage. The grounds are gorgeous.
We picked up our room keys by identifying our ship cabin number. Then we went to get our ID for the temple pass which would allow us to get into all temples.
We thought we’d died and gone to heaven when we got to our room (yes, I got photos). There were light housecoats and slippers waiting for you, wonderful amenities including a free bottle of water daily (you can’t drink the tap water here). You got fit our cabin in the bathroom with room to spare. And there were apples and oranges for us to snack on.
Dinner was a wonderful, but relatively disorganized, buffet of many types of foods, all delicious. You get two drinks with your meal; one choice is beer or house wine. Such a deal.
After taking a wonderful shower, we fell into bed knowing we had an early wake up call.
MARCH 8, 2008
WAT DAY
Frankie from the ship was with us. He’s a pleasant, well traveled fellow of undetermined age, who doesn’t get ruffled. He arranged a wake up call for 6 am. I thought this was smart on his part because if you leave it up to folks, they will wait until the last minute and many of these folks need a lot of time.
We had set our Treos, and got up and dressed and went down to breakfast. I went down first, alone as Ed’s timing is definitely a different drummer. I went next door with one of the other tourists and took photos of a temple next door. It was 7:45 am and almost all of the busses were loaded. I tried to save a seat for Ed but they kicked me off the bus since it was holding them up. So I found Ed in the dining room visiting and told him the busses were waiting. He was the last one on the bus. Not a good way to start the day I’m afraid.
PREAH KHAN: This is the place where the trees have infiltrated the stones and it’s a dilemma whether to cut them down (to prevent future destruction of the stones) or leave them alone as they are holding up many of the structures. These trees are enormous. The early morning light meant some great photos. It was warm but the humidity is what wears you down. There is a lot of walking and as I’ve described, most of these folks are not walkers.
Along the way was a musical group comprised of men who have lost limbs and in one instance, vision, due to land mines. The government teaches them to play native instruments so they can make money. They had CDs for sale.
THE KIDS: We were here on a Sunday which I suspect made it worse. The kids are persistent and annoying in trying to sell you the items they have. Their English is pretty good; one person asked them where they learned their English and she replied: “From you.” They are hagglers but some of the passengers delight in squeezing them down to the lowest possible price. In at least one instance, a man got a fiddle type instrument for $2, not because he wanted it, but for the sheer delight of making the seller beg. It’s really disgusting past a certain point.
I can’t possible remember the specific details of the places we visited so I’ll simply list them and tell you of what sticks in my mind. On this day our agenda has these places (I’ll deal with Angkor Wat on it’s own): Angkor Thom, Famous Bayon, Baphuon, Terraces of Elephants and Leper King, Ta Prohm; in pm: Banteay Srei, Angkor Wat and Thom. We passed on shopping at the Central Market.
LUNCH: We were returned to the hotel for buffet lunch. Again, delicious. We were supposed to get there at 12 noon; we didn’t arrive until 2 pm and the tour guide told us 20 min only for lunch. There was a passive aggressive revolt: we didn’t leave until 3 pm for afternoon tour which meant we didn’t get to everything on our agenda and arrived (if you didn’t go on to the central market) at the hotel at 6:15 p. This was only because one of the passengers had an appt. for a massage ($45 USD for 90 min) in the spa.
DINNER AND FOLKLORICO SHOW: Dinner was scheduled for 7:30 pm to include a folklorico show on the stage in front of the pool area. I went down at 7:15 pm and probably 75% of the people were already eating (do you get the sense of time here by now?). This time I didn’t call Ed; he eats fast anyway. The buffet was sumptious and had been set up around the pool so we could watch the show from our tables. There was no lip on the side of the water areas and one lady stepped up to get a better shot and fell into the pool. Only her dignity was hurt (and perhaps another camera bit the dush); she went to her room and changed and returned quickly.
The show included several dances with peasant themes and then those gorgeous Balinese type girls dancing. They are so beautiful and graceful. I got cramps in my feet just watching them.
ANGKOR WAT: Nothing quite prepares you for this huge complex. I thought the Forbidden City was impressive. It is but this is right up there with it. At one time, all of these wats were covered with gold. Over the years, they were abandoned and the jungle took over. When you see the jungle areas, you have a small idea of the work that has been done to uncover all of these huge structures. The stones are not from a quarry near these sites. How did they get here? Not sure. The purpose of the different edifices is speculated but probably close to the reality.
I can’t do justice to all this so I’ll just refer you to a book about these sites and I’ll show photos when we get home.
ANGKOR THOM: This site is also very interesting in it’s own right. Faces are carved everywhere. I’ve forgotten the actual number, but it’s in the hundreds. I posted one photo of one of the towers on this blog’s gallery site. We saw this late in the afternoon and the lighting was gorgeous. Of all the places we had to climb and walk through, this site had the steepest, narrowest, worn-down stone steps of any other—and no handrails folks. You manage but you’re also very slow and very careful. If you get hurt here, it would take a helicopter to rescue you! Especially since we tourists make about 3 of the natives in terms of size and weight.
RECOMMENDATIONS: This was the first time Princess has offered this overland trip. The locals want to please you and are justifiably proud of these sights. However, they tried to cram 3-5 days worth of sight seeing into this one day. You had no time to really enjoy and savor where you were. Further, if I ever get back, I want to go to Angkor Wat for sunrise, and Angkor Thom for sunset. And we saw no elephants and apparently sometimes elephants give you a ride from one area to another. We did see monkeys (another photo I posted) but tourists feed them and that isn’t a good idea; they won’t know how to fend for themselves soon and the foods are surely not good for them (or us for that matter).
CARE OF TOURISTS: Each time you return to the bus, you are offered a “refreshing tissue” (these all have wonderful fragrances!) and a cold bottle of water. There is a 10 min pee-pee break mid morning and mid afternoon at a tourist rest stop that is maintained and for which there is no charge. Jim finished in the men’s room, saw the long line for the women, came over and told us there were 4 stalls in there not being used and to go for it---which many of us did. We hollered out warnings to the men who went in as Jim has gone to take pics somewhere. The staff sat there and had a good laugh at all of this.
MARCH 10, 2008
SIEMREAP TO PHNOM PENH
THEN TO SIHANOUKVILLE
There were two groups for the airplane; one left at 6 am for an 8 am flight; we were in the group that left at 8 am for a 10:20 am flight.
We went separately to breakfast; the bus was supposed to leave at 8 am for the airport. Ed had agreed to be in the lobby at 7:30 am. I should have been more specific. He brought everything down and went to breakfast. Again he was the last one on the bus to the airport. Do you see two patterns here? One of which is that these Cambodians and this passenger population are early birds. This is actually fine with me as I hate waiting for folks who are never on time.
AIRPORT: We survived immigration, checked in. Ed asked for a window seat for me on the right hand side and the nice man must have liked my smile because he put us in 2E and F! We had other ship’s folks in first class too but I felt so appreciative. Again we had a small snack for this quick flight. (note to God: can you arrange for first class across the pond on our return flight? Thanks for listening).
I may not have this correct, but I believe the “international” airport at Phnom Penh was the former US base. It is pretty much open style like the one on Maui. We were greeted by our local guide and shepherded to our bus. We visited the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. These are gorgeous sites to visit and I can’t do justice to them in this blog. We had only 20 min. and the guides at the Palace and Pagoda tried their best but these are usually 1-2 hr tours. The grounds are gorgeous; silver covers the floors in the silver pagoda and there’s an emerald Buddha (and a good sized one at that) on display—but too far away to touch. Again, we are getting good at taking our shoes off. I should have brought slippers.
Next we were taken to the National Museum where the Museum’s guide takes over. Again passable English and I learned a lot from the guide, but while the grounds are so gorgeous, it mostly contains old artifacts that we all agreed we could live without; we’d have preferred spending that time at the Palace. Again, too much crammed into an outrageously short period of time. Making it worse is that we are hot, sweaty, and in the case of many deconditioned folks, cranky and not feeling well.
LUNCH AT ROYAL HOTEL: Since we were running late, this guide also told us only 20 min for lunch. (Did they coordinate with the guides in SiemReap?). We quietly rebelled. The offerings were delicious; there were many military eating here from many nations. On the bus we were told that we had to be back to the ship one hour earlier than we had originally been told. I don’t know if this was true or a ruse to get us to hurry. If it was, it failed miserably.
DRIVE TO SIHANOUKVILLE: We drove 4 hours, with a quick potty stop (where two guys bought a case of Angkor beer to take back) along the way. The tour guide discussed the history of Cambodia including much detail about Pol Pot. You’ve all heard about it but hearing it from someone who lost so many family members (taking to the killing fields and shot) makes it so real. What a story.
Along the way saw the crops, animals including water buffalo (still haven’t ridden one of those guys), and little kids walking and bicycling home from school. I catch photos from the bus now and then: some are good, most aren’t but I live for the occasional good luck shot.
We got back to the ship around 6 pm, which was the original time we were scheduled to return. Ours was the last of the 5 busses. Ed and I went down to dinner but we were the only ones. While Dave and Twyla had been on the this tour with us, they were too tired.
ENTERTAINMENT: A young woman who plays the flute, piccolo, and penny whistle. She played a program from Henry Mancini music plus some unusual pieces written for one of the instruments. She’s a keeper. Oh yeah, she also played one of my favorite pieces: concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo.
THE LAUNDRY (again): Of course, we had sweaty clothes from our trip and added to what we had before we left, I decided to see about doing the laundry. I dialed the laundry and finally a man answered. I asked if there were any washers free; he said yes; I said I’ll be right up. So I grabbed a bag and asked Ed to bring the other stuff along. I got two washers right away and when the 3rd opened up, I called Ed to hurry up before someone else got it. So I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It’s 9:15pm when I start this; others are coming in and out checking their laundry. Remember the man who offered me a $1 bill when I put 4 quarters in his dryer since he had left it unattended? Well he was the one in the laundry room this evening. A lady from our overland came in and only needed a dryer. One was stopped but it had clothes in it that were not yet dry. She mulled this over, we talked for a while, and she asked me what I thought. I told her since the party wasn’t here to attend to their dryer (I didn’t have enough quarters to splurge on this one: the purser only doles out these quarters in a few dollars at a time), I felt she was justified in taking the clothes out and putting hers in. This she did. Just as she was about to go out in the hallway where it was cooler, this aforementioned man comes over, feels the clothes and tells her that those are his clothes and why did she take them out. She was very apologetic, removed her clothes and he put his in again and started the dryer with change. This woman and I looked at each other with astonishment. What the hell did he think we were discussing this whole time???
And Mike, you’re right: some writer could write a good stage play just around the laundry room on ships.
Eventually dryers opened up and Ed came to help me fold things. We had a few things that still had to be hung for a little more drying, but overall, we were done. Hallelujah! And we scampered out the door at 10:55 pm – they close up at 11pm.
I still had my stinky clothes on, so I did my hand laundry and included these things. The shower was full of hanging, dripping clothing. As I write this, the slacks still have a wet waist band, but the compression garments are all finally dry as is the top I washed.
Amen.

MARCH 11, 2008 – BANGKOK TOMORROW

I want to write up today before I get too far behind and then I’ll gradually write details of our wonderful trip to see the Wats including Angkor Wat. Tomorrow we are on a long tour in Bangkok, and the day after at Ko Sumai where we have an elephant ride scheduled: Yippee! I think Ed is even going to risk it this time.
Despite being up very late last night (doing the laundry: you know you’ll hear more about this later), we got up before 8 am and managed to arrange stuff and be dressed and ready for the port talk at 10 am, complete with it’s decidedly unique perspective on these ports. Some folks stay just long enough and then leave; I stay for the photos as much as anything else. While listening to this, I worked on some of the photos we took in Siem Reap; there are several hundred. But I have the two cameras charged up and ready for the next two days.
TRIVIA: It turns out that the couple who were being auditioned for our positions didn’t show up while we were gone. So the 4 of us were in good form again. Ro had the questions from the trivia meetings while we were gone, one session of which had been created by another passenger. Bad mistake. Never turns out well.
We didn’t win this morning but then we only missed by a little as we were #2 (Ok, well there was a tie for #1 and two of us tied for #2!) Eric told us to study hard for this afternoon.
SALE: They had some items for 50 and 75% off. Such deals. So Ed we did pick up a few things because they were almost giving them away after all. It ended at noon so it was crucial that we make good choices early.
LUNCH: We were joined by some of our fellow Siem Reap travelers and some who didn’t go. One lady was concerned because she thought she was fit enough to go on these excursions and she’s finding that she isn’t. So she’s reconsidering and checking the little symbols they provide to warn you of how strenuous these excursions can be. By this yardstick, Ed and I are in great shape; we take all the steps and climbs in stride and our muscles do not hurt after it all. And we aren’t dying to get into bed afterward. I suppose we should take heart at all this.
Some of the folks who went to the Great Wall talked about hiring “pushers.” We had pushers on the Galapagos trip too but they did it to keep us from falling into the sea as we tried to get from the dinghies into the ship! It turns out that these Chinese folks are somehow officially sanctioned. They meet you in Tianamen Square, at the great wall or wherever and they have a wheelchair. They are very fast and efficient and they push you around in this chair. You do have to climb up the stairs by yourself (otherwise you’d need to hire two “pushers”) and then resume your seat for the next leg of the journey. These pushers don’t speak English but they’ve done this job a lot as it turns out.
EUROPE 2009: Ben told of some of the cruises Princess has in mind for 2009; none are out in print yet but he thinks we may get something after Singapore. We went as much to support Ben (who joined us for the Galapagos trip) as for the content and the pretty pictures. I continued to work on the photos while listening.
THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI OF DECEMBER 2004. This talk was done by a fellow passenger who has studied tsunamis all of his career; he was at Scripps in La Jolla. His wife has been taking the powerpoint classes on board and he had brought the Captain a copy of his book which included some of this info. So they copied the pictures and tables out of the book and he talked about them. It was actually quite interesting and he is clearly very knowlegable of his subject matter.
TRIVIA (again): we rejoined for another try this afternoon. We were again second and the prize was luggage straps. We’ve agreed we have to win these before the other two couples leave us in Singapore. Since we only have one more sea day before they leave, we have only 2 more opportunities to win. The questions this afternoon weren’t easy. Again some of us come up with answers out of nowhere and sometimes we’re even correct!
FORMAL NIGHT: Ugh. I really didn’t want to get dressed up in finery tonite but we did anyway. Dave and Twyla, Hank and Erna were there. Hank and Erna had made us a plaque to hang about the fireplace with a mounting of the fish we had on our patio. (The fish was made out of bread and they had made it so long ago that pieces of it had broken off and they had to glue them on.) It really was a funny thing for them to do and we have lots of photos. We don’t quite know what to do with it since it has one of the ship’s plates as backing and the bread isn’t going to survive the trip back anyway.
Twyla was wearing an Oriental jacket she got in Kagoshima; Hank was wearing a Hawaiian shirt with (what I call) coo coo nuts on a necklace. We had a lot of laughs over that too.
Dinner was delicious with lobster and large prawns. The dessert selections are sometimes a shot in the dark because the descriptions don’t quite tell you what to expect so we enjoy the mystery of it all.
ENTERTAINMENT: This was a comedy vocal impressionist. He was pleasant enough and clever but he wasn’t a ha ha ha type.
Since we are on tours tomorrow and the next day, it may be a while before I can catch up. That and the fact that there’s something weird going on with this computer. Let’s hope it disappears at some magical point.

MARCH 8, 2008 – IN HO CHI MIN CITY

UP THE RIVER: I awoke at 4:35 am and peeked out to see the river bed rolling by. It is still funny to me that I have learned to tell where we are by the behavior of the ship. I think I got more sleep but I was still aware of the movements of the ship. This river is muddy and there are water hyacinths in little islands moving down with the current. I first saw this in Cochin after a hard rain on our 2004 trip.
Ho Chi Min City (old Saigon); the view from the ship now that we are berthed is of very old buildings and water craft, almost all rusty. We are on the side away from the pier this time so it may look better on the other side. I did see some tall buildings in the distance as we approached the city.
I have to pick up our passports and get our packing done. We don’t leave the ship for Angor Wat until 2:30 pm and I’d like to get off the ship for a few hours to see the city. There is a free shuttle bus to the Rex Hotel, the site where most of the journalists stayed while stationed here during the Vietnam War.
I’ll write when we return. Love to all.
MARCH 7, 2008 – TO HO CHI MIN, VIETNAM

REMINDER: We are leaving the ship tomorrow to travel to the Angor Wat region so it will be several days before I’ll make another post.
WAKE UP, WAKE UP. Ok so I’m lazy to get up, but eventually we rolled out, caught up on some of the CNN news (which was of varying quality due to the satellite link.
HOLLYWOOD’S LEADING LADY: This lecture was done by Barry, the speaker h whom we had lunch yesterday. He has obviously put a lot of work into these presentations which are highlighted with video clips of movie scenes and interviews. Today’s biopic was on Bette Davis. There was a good turnout; clearly we trivia buffs were listening especially hard.
TRIVIA: The crocks were in good form…still we (barely) lost. What just kills us is when we have a correct answer and change it later to the wrong answer. That happened in two instances (we should have listened to Murray!). Our scribe for the morning (who shall remain nameless) put down the name she thought she heard instead of the correct answer which came from the lower end of the table. We should have double checked but we’ve never had that happen before. Had we gotten either of those, we’d have tied the winners. The Genius group won today and got Princess caps as their prizes. Eric offered to give Murray one of his (leaky) water bottles as a consolation prize, but Murray declined with a big laugh.
Some of these groups are soooo serious…not us, we howl with regularity and no one gets their nose out of joint if they gave the right answer and the group chose another. Sometimes we get so rowdy that others stare at us, some with grins themselves and we just ignore the sour pusses. As someone pointed out, each of the groups has won at least once. This population on board is a bright lot overall and they all have interesting and diverse experiences from which to pull for the answers.
LUNCH: After looking over the temptations that Princess has for sale in the atrium, we made it to lunch where we were joined by a couple from the Geniuses, Bill and Lea, and another couple (of the latter, the wife is clearly a liberal Democrat; we fit the same category but knew that the table was probably dominated by Republicans some of whom are Bush—even though mildly—defenders). We talked about global warming and Gore’s documentary, a little politics, some of the ports, and such. Ed and I ordered a pork chop which we both expected to be on the small size. It was huge and delicious. I simply couldn’t leave any on the plate or I’d have felt guilty. So much for my calorie restriction resolve.
BOUTIQUE: I made the mistake of going into the boutique to look for a Clinique product I’m running out of. They don’t carry that brand of course but I wound up with a (way overpriced in my estimation) Estee Lauder product which is supposed to preserve my excellent complexion. (Sure, right. And it reverses the wrinkles and firms up the jowls too I bet). While there, we also took some fragrance samples of a new cologne which is supposed to enable Ed to Hypnose me.
LINDA’S STORY: ESCAPE FROM VIETNAM: There is a very sweet young woman on board whose parents have a horrendous escape story from Vietnam. Frankie asked her to agree to an interview. She had some photos on her computer to illustrate the tale, and a video of her brother driving a scooter through the streets of Saigon/Ho Chi Min City, so we could get a personal view of the traffic experience there. She was born and raised in Australia, but visits Vietnam to see family with some regularity. She is looking forward to the port stop in Ho Chi Min City to reacquaint herself with the family who remain there.
The audience was packed and there was clearly good interest in hearing this story. Val and Eric were there. We had discussed the fact that Ed and I will be gone for a full day of trivia and the crocks were going to have to decide how to handle that. So Eric told us on the way out of this talk that the group was going to be interviewing substitute group members for trivia while we were gone so we’d better be sharp.
GET TOGETHER: Ben had the folks who went to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos join at 4 pm for a get together. This posed a problem for us since we have trivia at 4:15 pm. Initially, these events were to be in the same room, so we assumed the get together would break up in time for the trivia. There was an announcement about a change of location for this afternoon’s trivia. So I left a note for the crocks to let them know why we couldn’t join them! I met Ro and Murray before then and explained to them.
There was a large crowd for this cocktail hour: the 38 of us who went to the Galapagos and the 100+ who went to Machu Picchu. We thought perhaps there’d be a program with a pitch or something. It was just cocktails and hor d’ouvres. It was nice visiting with Linda and Claude and some of the others. Jan had gone to Beijing and sprained her ankle on the Great Wall. She’s going with us to Angor Wat tomorrow. When I asked she said she’d bought a cane at the Great Wall so she’s ready. If nothing else, we are a hardy bunch.
Some of these shore excursions we go on, particularly the day trips, many people come back complaining about how tired they are. Many on the macau trip were like this. Ed and I aren’t any more tired than usual. You sit on the bus, ferry and such and the amount of walking and climbing is minimal truly. But these are also the folks who don’t ever take the stairs on the ship; they’re always on the elevator. Any exertion is too much so what do they expect on these tours?
We saw Val and Eric on the way to dinner. First thing Eric says to me is: “What’s the Spanish word for butterfly?” “Mariposa”. Correct he says. If I’d been at trivia today they’d have gotten it. There were other questions they shared with us. We are all so funny about those trivia questions.
DINNER: Dave’s pinkie is doing fine it seems and he’s still planning on Angor Wat tomorrow. I had seen Hank and Erna earlier today. They are both still fighting the cold and pulmonary sequelae; Hank in particular is having a hard time. They had come on this cruise especially to see Angor Wat and now they are too ill to join us. We are all so sad for them. There’s been some discussion of them flying back home to Hawaii. But they are just as good on the ship where your meals are all provided, your room is done daily, and the medical clinic is right around the corner. I can’t imagine the ordeal of packing and managing to get back home as ill as they are right now. And they’d lose all the money they’ve put on this cruise. So we’re reinforcing their decision to remain.
We told Rod that he’d be alone for the next few nights. Bill and Lea are leaving tomorrow as well to go to Angor Wat independently; they won’t rejoin us again until Bangkok.
PAPERWORK: We have lots of Cambodian and Vietnamese paperwork to finish so we can travel. We filled out one set, got our passport sized photos attached (Ilana took some really good ones of us!) and we’re set for that part. Then the Vietnamese forms cannot be separated so we had to complete a second set as I didn’t understand to separate them at the left staple rather than tearing the perforation on the right. They give you directions on how to fill all this stuff out and I’m still confused and I’m a high school graduate! Nonetheless, the nice fellow from India at the purser’s desk double checked and cleared everything for me on the second try. Our Vietnamese landing passes are supposed to be delivered to our cabin mailboxes in the night. I cannot imagine the behind the scenes stuff that the personnel have to complete for us to be able to travel into all of these countries with their differing regulations and forms.
TONITE’S SHOW: I wasn’t too sure but we showed up anyway. It was a singer, Claude Eric. WOW! Great voice, terrific selection of songs. But that’s not all. Val said: “Did you see those EYES!” and I’m sure half the women in the audience were saying to themselves: “Boy I’ll bet he’d be fun.” He’ll be back for another performance after we return. He’s from Montreal and fluent (and unaccented) in English and French. Some accused us of looking for a ‘toy boy’ but we all knew he had a wedding ring on and was probably young enough to be our grandson.
One of the songs he sang was by Josh Grogan and he dedicated it to his grandmother. It is about someone who has died and gone to heaven. It’s lovely and I thought as I listened to it that it would be a wonderful selection for my funeral. Val thought exactly the same thing and asked Eric to remember that.
YIPPEE! We turn our clocks back another hour tonite. These extra hours are like long awaited Christmas presents!