Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

June 10, 2023

When our ATW itinerary was changed a few months before we departed, they removed China and Hong Kong due to post covid restrictions, so they were able to add Taiwan to our itinerary – you can’t go to China and Taiwan on the same itinerary. Today was our first day in Taiwan and it is a port we have been to twice before. So you can check out the previous posts for lots of information. Today we booked a private tour with Erin and two other couples. Here are some pictures of our sail in to the city.

Our guide was Tom. We had a van with just enough seats for the 8 of us and it took a while for the vehicle to cool down. We have had hot and humid weather for weeks now.

Our guide today was Tom. He toook us on a long drive into the countryside and to the town where he lives. I mentioned in previous blogs how many 7-Eleven shops there are here. This town was no exception. Our arrival into port was at 10:30 and we met him at 11. So, when we got to the town, he thought we could have lunch aat 7 -Eleven. They have everything in these stores here, including so many selections of food that they cook for you. But we really wanted to sit in a restaurant. Tom knew the town well so he took us across the street to what turned out to be a duck restaurant. There were only local people in the place and there was no English menu so it was a good thing he was with us. I had a rice noodle soup with just vegetables and lemon grass and others had soups with meat or rice with pork or duck.

What a surprise when our bill for all eight of us, including our food and bottles of water, came to $20 US!

We had changed some money at the port because we thought we would have some entrance fees but it turned out t hat since all of us were over 65, we didn’t have to pay anything. So we can use our Taiwan money tomorrow in Taipei.

On our drive, I got to visit with Ron who we have met before but didn’t know much about him and his wife. They now live in Connecticut but lived near Somerville NJ (where I was born) for many years. When I told him we lived in Chambersburg for 25 years – another co-incidence! They have spent many weekends there going to the Totem Pole Playhouse, Kenny’s and the Igloo. It is still surprising how small the world is.

We visited a 17th century church which Tom says is the main Catholic church in the whole area and that on feast days 500,000 people come to the town. This area of Taiwan is mostly aboriginal people whose ancestors have been here for over 10,000 years.

Tom was both our driver and our guide and he answered questions but really didn’t give us too much information in between. He took us to an Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park where we had to take a shuttle up into the hills where we went to a cultural show in a theater. It was interesting and rhythmic with beautiful singing but we really didn’t understand anything about it and he didn’t provide any explanation either.

It turned out that we hadn’t done anything that was on the original tour desccription that Erin booked, Tom just took us where HE wanted to go. We decided that we wanted to return to the ship as we were a good distance away and we needed to be back by 6:30. But then I guess he felt compelled to take us to two other places that were on the original itinerary. And Sonia asked to stop at a temple. Before we reached those places, suddenly everyone in the car had a loud noise coming from our phones and the following message. Tom says they have 300 earthquakes a day here and most are not even able to be felt. But this one was a 4.3 and although we didn’t feel it, we heard later that others did.

Here are some pictures of the railroad bridge and of the temple and the tile factory.

When we got back to the ship, we had just enough time to take a shower and dress for our dinner with Marilyn and Charlie (on their 34th anniversary) as well as with Laura and Keenan from our entertainment team, Laura’s parents and brother. It was a fun evening. Tomorrow we are in Taipei for 2 days.

June 9, 2023

I am not sure how many cruise ships come to this port, but they certainly put on a nice show when we arrived. This fireboat sprayed water – and it was on our side of the ship so we got to watch for about 10 minutes.

There was a large group of dancers on the other side of the ship, but by the time we got off they were resting. Another group gave us these necklaces as we disembarked.

Our tour today was the Ilocos Norte Culinary and Heritage Tour.Our guide was Albert. He gave us a lot of information about the area which is in the northwest of the country. They rely mostly on agriculture here including products such as tobacco, garlic and both yellow and white corn. In his sense of Filipino humor he said that they have yellow corn and white corn but no unicorn. Groan. He also said that a lot of people (including his mother) think that garlic will keep evil spirits away. He also mentioned that is is the National Flag day and Philippine Independence day is next week so that explains the large number of flags we see everywhere. The drive through the countryside was quite beautiful, with the mountains in the background and lots of fields with goats, buffalo and cattle grazing in them.

Our first stop was the Basilica of Juan Bautista which is a Catholic church built in the 1700’s. It is constructed in bricks with no metal and with very thick walls. This, according to Albert, makes the building earthquake proof since the bricks can move with the movement of an earthquake. He said that there are always steps outside which allowed people to climb up to the roof.

We visited the home and museum of the artist Luna. Many of his works were on display there, but the real reason for the visit was the first of two food tastings. We had two types of sticky rice wrapped and cooked in banana leaves, a crunchy corn, a coconut drink with fresh coconut shredded into the drink, another large rice cake, a roasted banana with syrup on the outside and skewers of a sweet sticky dough. I liked everything!

Next we visited the Ferdinand Marcos Museum and had a chance to learn more about his early days and his political career. There was an area that highlighted his 11 day courtship of Imelda and their marriage. No mention of later shoe escapades.

Our last stop was at a food court where we ate the empanadas that are famous here. Usually they are made with vegetables, egg and meat but mine was just the vegetables. They were very big, and delicious.

Empanadas are popular, but just down the street was a McDonald’s!

Our bus was parked right next to this sign!

We had about a 45 minute ride back to the ship and it did feel good to be in air conditioning. Tomorrow we arrive for the first of three days in Taiwan.

June 5, 2023

Last evening we had another Captain’s Cocktail celebration. We had dinner with Marilyn and Charlie and although we rarely have dessert at dinner, we had these good ones last night. Norm had the Cappucino parfait and I had the 20th anniversary macaron.

One of my friends on board had this picture from Cambodia and the two young boys with their mom, the one who makes the beautiful cards.

Nha Trang is a new port for us and is our last port in Vietnam. It was a nice sail in.

Nha Trang has a beautiful bay and lovely beaches. The American soldiers came here for R & R during the Vietnam war. The bulk of foreign tourism now is Russian and signs in Russian in the main tourism area are more common than English. There are also many Chinese visitors. Gambling is also illegal here, like in Cambodia, and casinos are visited by foreign visitors. The Vietnamese also love to gamble and they visit other countries to do so legally.

The crew member on board raises the Vietnamese flag as we approach the port.

I have written about the role of the pilot as we approach different ports. We have learned that the pilot comes on board to guide the captain around any dangerous or problem places as they approach the port. The pilot is not actually sailing the ship. The only place in the world that the pilot is in charge is in the Panama Canal.

Our tour was called Life on the River. Our guide was Thang, which he said means Victory in Vietnamese language, so he said to call him Victor! Nha Trang has a population of 300,000 and has 7 km of beach. He told us that he swims there early in the morning and later in the evening. As we have heard before, the Vietnamese people cover up in the sun and you never see them at the beach during the day. It is not unusual to see people walking and on their motorbikes being completely covered with clothing and masks.

We had a 30 minute bus ride to get to the river and the boats. Victor told us about Vinpearl, a resort on the island that is their Disneyland. In Vietnam, prices are much less than in the US. In a 4 star hotel, you would pay about $50/ night and that would include breakfast. When he visited San Francisco, he was shocked by the price of a hotel room – and without breakfast.

Some of the sights we saw on the way to the river.

As we walked from the bus to the river, we saw how some of the local people live. This is a picture of the locals who are contracted to collect the trash in their neighborhoods.

The place we boarded the boat is actually a residence of the man who builds the boats and his family. This is his kitchen.

The fishing boats have lights and they group in a circle at night which is when they fish. The lights attract the fish and because the boats are in a circle, they can easily catch the fish in nets. The fishing boats all have “eyes” painted on them which they believe brings the fishermen good luck.

Vietnamese folk religion is practiced in most areas of the country. In coastal villages, there is always a temple devoted to “Mr. Whale”. They believe that whales are guardian angels that protect fishermen. Here is the whale temple in Nha Trang on the Chi river.

Our first stop was to a local village where we saw this potter making the small fireplaces made of clay. Victor said it is a dying art because no one wants to do it anymore. This man has been making them for many years. The charcoal goes in the bottom and the pots sit on top. They are still used in restaurants and some homes, including his. Here his wife is making a lemongrass and chicken dish.

Even though gambling is illegal, they do find a way. Here is one of the chickens used in the popular cock fighting.

Some other sights along the river…

We saw these women making straw mats. Victor said that this is another dying art. We bought 2 for $3 each. The women make only about $10/day once they pay for the materials.

There was a woman selling chickens. People come and pick out the live one that they want, then she cleans it and bags it for the customer who returns later to pick it up.

This wooden bridge has metal stilts on the bottom and is made with wood. Only motorbikes can cross it. The bridge is taken apart every year during flood season (October – December) and rebuilt again after the floods. It costs about 25 cents per vehicle and no charge if you walk, but walking with those motorbikes is dangerous. I went far enough to get a picture.

We tasted some cashews which is a huge crop here.

Our last stop was to the home and orchard of a farmer. They grow all types of fruit here and we had tea and tasted many of them.

We got to see inside his home. There are three doors, the middle one always leads to the in home shrine, one is for the family (the one on the left) and the other is in case the King comes!

On our way back to the ship, Victor gave us more information about Vietnam. He was an interesting and enthusiastic guide. He told us that he is 45 and people always say he looks so young. He said the Vietnamese people look young and then all of a sudden at 65 they look old! He told us some funny stories about how people mispronounce Vietnamese words. Some of them look the same but there are 6 different tones. The word “ma” for example, can mean mother, graveyard, ghost, rice seedling, but or horse! Pho, the wonderful noodle soup, if pronounced incorrectly can mean prostitute.

Pepper is a big export here, 50% of the world’s pepper comes from Vietnam. They are second in coffee production and they export 6 million tons of rice each year. 50% of Samsung phones are made in Vietnam. The tiger shrimp or prawn, considered a high end, niche product, is produced here and Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of giant tiger prawns.

It was a fun and interesting day. We will have 2 days at sea before we arrive in Manila, Philippines.

June 1 and 2, 2023

This is our 5th visit to Bangkok- a huge and bustling city of 12 million people.  We have seen so many sights here so today we decided to go local and we took a tour by tuk tuk to the Klang Toey market.  We are lucky – as a small ship we can come into the river and dock much closer to the center of the city – the bigger ships dock more than 2 hours away since they cannot come into the river and under the bridges here. This building we saw from the ship looks like it is crumbling from the top!

Our tour guide was Gina and she was very good.  We were a group of only 16 people. We arrived after 2 and it was already almost 99 degrees.  We went by bus to the area where we met the tuk tuk drivers – we got into our tuk tuks (named for the sound they make when moving) and headed through the traffic to the market.

The market was a lot like the many we have seen around the world. This is not a tourist area and it is where the local Thai people purchase their food.  It is open 24 hours a day – and you see almost anything here. The first thing we saw was many cages full of live ducks and chickens.  The market has wet floors in many places due to the ice used to keep the food cold.

Here are some of the other sights in the market. There are lots of food stalls and all kinds of food.

Gina bought me some mangos and she bought mangosteen and sticky rice with mango wrapped in banana leaf for us to sample later.

After the market, we went to a local coffee shop called  Café Amazon (no connection with the Amazon we are familiar with).They are a chain that is quite well known here.  I had an iced tea and Norm had an iced coffee.  We sampled the sticky rice and the mangosteen.

We wanted to go out to dinner near the river, so we asked if we could just stay with our tuk tuk instead of going back to the ship and Gina arranged it with our driver.  We went to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel which was absolutely beautiful. It was quite a distance from the coffee shop to that part of the city, and interesting to do it by tuk tuk.

The dining area on the river was lovely but we found out that after 6:30 Norm could not go in wearing shorts.  They do have trousers for patrons but they are made for Asian bodies, not “European” as they say there.  Dress codes can be strict, no sleeveless tops, no flip flops, etc.  So we took the river taxi across the river to the Peninsula Hotel and had dinner at their Thai restaurant also outside on the banks of the river.  It was beautiful and delicious.

As it got dark, the lighted boats were so nice to see.  And there was a woman playing music at the restaurant.

We took a taxi back to the ship, relaxed and got ready for a second day in Bangkok.

Today we took the shuttle to the Central World Mall.  It is an amazing mall, 7 stories and just huge.  I wanted to buy some shoes, and the store had areas with at least 20 different shoe brands. Very confusing and a bit overwhelming.  But I did find a pair I liked. They had Aunt Anne’s pretzels so of course I had to have one.  We stopped for a coffee and continued shopping – well, really mostly looking in amazement.  Many of our familiar stores were there but there were also more than 100 restaurants and some local stores too.

We had spring rolls for lunch, and when we were ready to go back to the ship, I found out that if you spent a certain amount of money, you could choose one of these adorable elephants!

Today was the beginning of the new segment, Bangkok to Tokyo, so there were many new passengers when we returned to the ship.  I got to say goodbye to a favorite casino dealer, Hitesh, who was leaving for his vacation.  I went to the spa raffle – didn’t win anything – then I re-did my Ko Samui post and composed this one. Now we are watching the sights along the river as it gets dark before dinner.

Tomorrow we arrive in Cambodia about 1 PM.