18. Homeward Bound.

Our last day on board the ship was a sea day so we had to try and fit in as much as we could in terms of facilities and activities.

The day began well when our usual international trivia team won the morning session by two clear points. The prize was a much sought after Princess cruises carabiner clip. Unfortunately we got nowhere in the other quizzes that we took part in that day but nevertheless felt that the team went out as the Morning Champions. As a reward we tried out the ships pizza (first class), hot dog and chips and a cold beer for lunch. The afternoon activities included napkin folding, so providing we can remember the folds, our Christmas dinner table is bound to look a little extra special this year.

We also hit the casino for the one and only time and I'm glad to report that we very quickly made a 75% profit by turning our $20 stake into $35, so that paid for the evenings drinks.

Over the last couple of days of the cruise the ships Christmas decorations were put up so everything was looking very festive. We ended up chatting with the two Kiwi girls whose job it is to erect all the decorations. They have sole responsibility for decorating all the ships in the Asia Pacific region, flying from port to port and ship to ship, all expenses paid just to put up Christmas trees and fairy lights. Please tell me where to apply.

Disembarkation was quick and efficient. Our package included a transfer to Singapore's Changi airport, the road from port to airport being along Marina Drive which includes a tunnel section two miles long and six lanes in each direction. It's mightily impressive. We checked our bags into left luggage and caught the MRT back into the city for our last few hours. As luck would have it, the daily rainstorm arrived as we got to our station so we didn't venture out of the mall so we joined the locals in the national pastime of shopping and eating. Our lunch consisted of coconut rice, ginger and lemon chicken, and mixed vegetables with noodles, all washed down with sour plum and lime fruit juice. Totally delicious. I was also brave enough to try some durian fruit which smells like rotting cabbage in a sewer (in fact it's smell is so pungent that it is illegal to carry on public transport), but has a rather odd, sweet taste which is palatable and with a puréed texture. 

And so our grand Asian adventure is almost at an end. We have had a great time having an introduction to this corner of the world. Without exception, everyone we have spoken to has been hugely impressed with Singapore, as have we. It's a great city, easy to get around, spotlessly clean and safe. It probably does have its problems, but they must be hard to see and if only every city could take Singapore as a role model, the world would be a far better place.

Our favourite ports of call were the two stops in Vietnam. It has had 40 years of development but it still feels like you are entering a totally different world. The jury is out on Brunei, but it was probably the hottest day of the trip and therefore I doubt we saw it in its best light.

In Thailand, Phuket could be compared to any island in the Balearics whilst Bangkok was much larger than I had imagined and would need a good week to do it justice. Koh Samui was less spoiled than Phuket but is obviously a tourist magnet.

Like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur is another big city undergoing tremendous development. Penang has a certain charm but our time ashore that day gave us limited exposure to the area.

Although it was built back in 2004, Sapphire Princess is wearing well and as always, the crew and staff were magnificent. On the downside, we felt that the shows were generally mediocre and the menu rotation in the restaurants seems to have been to reduced to seven days rather than fourteen.

We met some lovely people along the way, especially the Aussies who are always especially friendly. The weather was almost uniformly hot at around 30C with a daily threat of thunderstorms. Seas were, for the most part, flat calm. We managed to fit in a swim most days.

Thus this travel blog now closes as I sit in the departure lounge in Dubai airport with my head telling me it is 5.45am and my watch telling me it is 1.45am, so please excuse all the grammatical errors! I shall hope to catch some fitful sleep during the homeward leg to Gatwick and bid everyone goodbye until next time!

17. Koh Samui, Thailand.

Koh Samui was our last stop before returning to Singapore. The ship anchored some distance from Nathon, the main town and it took some 30 minutes aboard the tender to get ashore.

We did not have any plans other than to have a look around. Nathon is just a small town and after running the gauntlet of taxi offers we reached the main street . There were a couple of points of interest, the first being yet another ornate and colourful temple, so we left shoes at the door, entered and were immediately overwhelmed by the smell of burning incense. 

A little further down the road was the local market, interesting enough in itself but health and safety would have a field day. Weaving between the stalls it was difficult not to put a foot through the rotting floorboards, whilst the birds nest of telephone and electricity wires cackled and spat overhead.

Stepping back off the beaten path to the rear of the market were the local village homes. Although most were extremely basic, constructed of wood, corrugated sheets and tarpaulins, and consisting of just a single room, they all appeared to have a satellite dish on the roof. Talk about extremes of technology! In general, the island is extremely lush with many areas of very dense jungle.

We had a walk along the town beach and paddled, but the best beaches are located on the opposite side of the island and we did not have time to explore further as the ship was due to sail away in the mid afternoon.

Our last few Baht spent, we got the tender back to the ship as the very black thunder clouds loomed ominously over the hills surrounding the town.

16. Bangkok, Thailand.

The ship docked in Laem Chabang which is the main seaport for Bangkok, about 2.5 hours drive from the capital. Thus it was another early start.

The journey in to the suburbs was on a six lane highway and not too difficult. The views along the way were of a rather built up countryside, consisting of light and heavy industry, warehousing, housing and the inevitable shops and stalls along the verge. The closer we got to the city, the more dense this became.

Bangkok is a big city, and when I say big city, I mean a very big city and with a traffic problem to match. The endless skyline is one of tower blocks and skyscrapers which hide most of the narrow streets, apartments, and slums. It is certainly a city of contrasts. Approaching the city and throughout downtown , the motorways become "double or even triple deckers", but this does little to alleviate the congestion. For the pedestrian, there is an overground rail system known as the Skytrain which appears to run efficiently over a wide network. The city centre is therefore a concrete jungle in every sense.

Our main purpose of the city visit was to go to Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Now, I am not always a great one for culture but the main temple and its surrounding ones were something to behold. The Buddha is easily 30 metres long and painted with gold leaf. There are also hundreds of smaller icons, also all gold leaf and the towers pointing skyward are incredibly intricate and ornate.

After our visit we then ventured into the city centre proper. Many of the routes were lined with yellow flags, flowers and pictures of the King as it was his birthday just a few days ago. (In Thailand each day of the week has a particular colour). Unfortunately time was short as it was a long drive back to the ship so we only had time to have a brief look around some of the local streets where the vendors and small business owners were hard at work. This being Thailand, we did however want to have time for a bit of lunch and enjoyed a local Thai green curry with rice and pad Thai noodles with chicken. Very tasty indeed! 

To make things a little more comfortable on the return drive, the seats on the coach came with built in back massagers....I expect the nearest thing I will ever come to a Thai massage!

15. Phu My, Vietnam.

Sunday has been another long but exciting day in Vietnam.

In contrast to yesterday, the ship arrived into the port of Phu My in hot sunshine and clear blue skies. It was an early start for us as we were booked on a three hour drive across the country to explore a small  part of the Mekong delta. Phu My is the main seaport for Saigon. (Yes, I know it says Ho Chi Minh city in the atlas but everyone refers to Vietnam's largest city as Saigon.)

The main route from the port to the city is a good one and because Saigon is the regional commercial centre, there is a lot more traffic on the roads, both four wheeled and two wheeled. This increases the fear factor for us passengers tenfold but fortunately in some stretches there is a mopeds only lane and on the expressways, bikes are not permitted at all. Therefore our small group of six, plus guide in our minivan, could make relatively quick progress where the infrastructure allowed. 

As we neared Saigon, the number of bikes grew exponentially. Traffic lights, in many cases, seemed to be for decoration only and anyone attempting to cross the road at a zebra crossing must have some kind of death wish. There also seemed to be a competition as to who could carry the most dangerous and unwieldy load....amongst those spotted were;

A ten foot stepladder....being carried sideways,

Six medium sized gas canisters,

Eight large water containers (it would have been ten, but the driver appeared to have lost a couple a little way down the road),

A load of hay so large that he was having trouble keeping balance, never mind negotiating the traffic,

A family of five...two adults, two children and mum holding a baby,

Three on the bike carrying a 42 inch television screen ( but not in its box).

The financial district of Saigon has a skyline to match any reasonably sized city with a skyscraper or two reaching well over 50 stories. However, the older quarters are a maze of choked streets with, for example, an ornate pagoda sandwiched between a coffee shop and a bike repair shop, people milling everywhere and the usual swarm of mopeds. There is also a fair amount of construction work going on in the suburbs although much of it appears to be the featureless apartment blocks so beloved by communist governments.

Eventually we reached our destination on the Mekong river and we were ferried up and down a stretch of the muddy water, dodging all the other river traffic, both large and small. We passed the fishing fleet, barges carrying everything from sand to coconuts and viewed the ramshackle houses on stilts that lined the riverbank. Across from the boat station we disembarked onto a small island where we first had some of the local tea (made with honey and cinnamon), fresh tropical fruits and a little later, some lunch. Lunch was typically Vietnamese - fish (known as elephants ear fish as that is was said to resemble although after a couple of cans of the local brew it could have looked like anything), rice, prawns, noodle and vegetable soup and a delicious deep fried rice cake of pure stodge.

Before returning to our boat we were taken in groups of three on a small rowing boat along the Mekong backwaters and amongst the dense, watery, jungle foliage. Intrepid explorers indeed!

All too soon we were back at the boat station and had a few minutes to hunt for souvenirs. I found a nice t-shirt and had no option but to put my hand in my pocket and get out my Dong. (The Dong is the Vietnamese unit of currency you smutty people).

The long drive back to the ship was no less interesting and no less hair raising. We passed a local wedding party with the bride all dressed in red (as red is considered to be a lucky colour in the country) and the views of the locals toiling in the rice paddies were iconic. Interestingly, many paddy fields contain gravestones which look very out of place. However it seems that local custom says that if you are a landowner then you can be buried anywhere you like within your property.

We returned to the ship around 5.30pm and the sun was already setting, so after a shower and a change and watching the sailaway from the top deck we were armed with many stories to swap with our fellow travellers over dinner.

14. Nha Trang, Vietnam.

Of all the places that we were to visit on this trip I was looking forward to Vietnam the most and it definitely exceeded expectations. Upon our early morning arrival into Nha Trang bay we were greeted by the inevitable thunderstorm and the rain was on and off for most of the day, but it failed to dampen our enjoyment of this fascinating country. It is also a photographers dream.

For those of us of a certain age, we can remember the times in the late 60's and early 70's when every news headline seemed to mention the terrible conflicts affecting the region. So upon stepping ashore it is immediately obvious that this is a poor country. (We later learned that earning around US$200 per month is good going.) Most people are unable to afford a car and mopeds outnumber other vehicles by a hundred to one. Indeed, only thirty years ago, bicycles were the main means of transport.

We booked ourselves onto an excursion which was to take us off the beaten track and into the countryside in order to experience just a little of village life. Nha Trang is a relatively large city and is building up its tourism industry but once we left the main road, it was like stepping back in time. It was difficult to establish where one village ended and another one began as the roadside was one continuous line of huts and shacks, one man businesses and workshops as the locals eked out a living. People, bicycles and especially mopeds and scooters were everywhere, with many scooters loaded precariously with produce or building materials. On more than one occasion we saw expressions of panic on the drivers faces as they weaved in and out somehow managing to avoid our bus, other road users and livestock.

We stopped many times in order experience village life close up. The first of these stops was at a local temple and orphanage where we watched the youngsters attending their lessons. We gave a handful of after dinner sweets, secretly garnered from the ships restaurants, to the children and saw their faces light up. We then moved on to the local market which was packed and contained all kinds of colours and smells and noise as the villagers bartered for the best deals. The stalls held all kinds of fruit and vegetables, some recognisable and many not, nuts, eggs of various kinds, meats and clothes. The stall holders were happy for us to take photographs of them and their children beamed back.

We ventured onward into a slightly more rural area and stopped to watch the farm workers in the rice paddy fields. Like us, they were not put off by the incessant rain as they toiled ankle deep in water. Alongside, the water buffalo chewed their cud and watched us watching them.

We stopped at a typical village house with its bare wooden walls and roof, sparse furniture and open stove cooking facilities. All houses contain their own miniature temple in ornate reds and golds and the Buddhist icons are easily the most valuable objects in the house.

Our final stop was for some refreshing coconut and tropical fruit at a small hotel alongside the river. The coconut milk and flesh was the sweetest I have ever tasted and among the new fruits we tried was jackfruit....absolutely delicious!

All too soon it was time to return to the ship but not before we had a chance to look through one or two of the simple souvenir stalls on the quayside and had a go at haggling for a traditional Vietnamese coolie hat, a bargain at just one dollar!

13. Bits and pieces.

Today, Friday, is a sea day. We have just finished the morning trivia (and our team lost the tie break again). I am sitting right at the top of the ship the Skywalkers lounge looking out over a mostly cloudy sky and no doubt the daily thunderstorms are brewing somewhere over the horizon. The seas so far have been very smooth with just a low swell but today there is just a touch more wind as there are more ripples on the surface. A large freighter is passing on our starboard side but unlike the Malacca Straits there has been very little shipping in view here in the South China Sea.

It seems that there is no majority age group on this trip....thee are just as many 20's and 30's as 60's and 70's. However most of the passangers are Chinese (probably 70%), with Australians about 20%, a few Americans, a few Brits and a smattering of just about every other nationality you can think of. Indeed, last night we had dinner with a couple from Khazakstan. Unfortunately they could speak very little English but we established that he was the coach to the Khazakstan 2012 London Olympics modern pentathlon team. Now, if that isn't a claim to fame, I don't know what is.

As always, the staff and crew are unfailingly helpful, efficient and polite. Many of them are Chinese also, which, given the itinerary and clientele makes good sense. We have done all the jokes about the waitress being called Wei Too Yung and wondering if Ping Pong is a good entertainer. (No offence intended!). 

The entertainment has been good, without being exceptional. Last nights show was a magician who was okay but didn't do any tricks that we hadn't seen before. There is a classical duo (violin and Spanish guitar), who are very good and the house band is British. They play the usual standards well although the girl playing lead guitar would look more at home in a library than fronting a rock band. The cruise director's staff are great....but then, that's their job.

As always, it tends to be a bit of a bun fight in the Horizon Court buffet at breakfast and lunchtimes. The worst offenders are the Chinese grandmothers who are four foot nothing and with elbows as sharp as knives. However, in chatting with a couple from Hong Kong, they explained that because places like HK are so crowded, the only way you can walk the streets is by elbowing people out of the way, so it's a perfectly acceptable practice!

12. Brunei.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was a sea day and so we had ample time just to sit and relax...if you can ever call a sea day relaxing. We took part in two rounds of trivia and took the runners up spot both times, we attended a talk about cyber crime which was mind numbingly boring, we had a swim, had ice cream, watched the champagne fountain being poured, listened to the captain's introduction speech and ended the evening up in the nightclub for a little bop. Needless to say we didn't get to bed until after midnight.

Today, Thursday, we have been in Brunei. It's a bit of a strange place.

The drive from the port into Bander Seri Begawan, the capital, did not take too long and the scene from the roadside is pretty much of impenetrable jungle. The city itself is not particularly large or busy and its main streets are wide with little traffic. However, for what is a reasonably wealthy country, and  with a mega wealthy Sultan, there is certainly a gap between the haves and the have nots.

We passed some very smart looking gated properties, we passed some very large and bleak looking housing estates (which looked empty), and we saw some pretty squalid shanty town areas.

Most days this trip, the temperature has been around 30c, but today it seemed a lot more and the heat and humidity were oppressive. Even the Aussies on board said they found it hot. Because of this, we did not explore too much in the city but we did take in the golden domed Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, saw the Royal Regaila museum, crossed the Brunei river to wander through a village built on stilts and managed a bit of souvenir shopping.

It is clear, to me anyway, that Brunei is not really geared up for tourism. But perhaps that is no bad thing. The coach journey organisation into the city and back was rather chaotic. There are very few taxis or shops catering for tourists, the main mosques and museums have limited opening times (especially for non-Moslems), and restaurants are closed between noon and 2pm for lunchtime prayers.

We got back to the ship before melting completely and went straight for a dip in the pool. Having then cooled down it was off to the Trident grill for a hot dog and chips and a cold beer. That's what holidays are all about! By then it was sunset and as darkness fell the lighting flashes were becoming ever more ominous on the horizon.