Bangkok Adventure

Wow, you may say. That looks a lot like a motorcycle under that van. We had a little excitement on our way to the airport. Zipping past anaccident scene with police lights flashing and whistles blowing we happened to pick up an extra vehicle. Fortunately, the rider (slight injuries we were told) was not on his bike at the time we scooped it up at 60 mph. The unfortunate biker left his ride in the left lane.

We were actually the third vehicle to hit it, but we took it to go. Our alert driver decided to pull over a couple of hundred yards down the highway where he and our guide along with some of the biker's friends worked to dislodge it. The good news: No flashing lights on our dash (no oil leak, coolant leak, fan belt broken) and it got hooked on the chassis before it had a chance to puncture a tire.

This is not a big deal in Bangkok. After a few minutes of rocking and reversing we freed the stowaway and we were back on our merry way to the airport. According to local custom, this accident was preventable and blame falls squarely on the shoulder of the policeman who was parked on the left (our right, they drive on the wrong side of the road here but that was probably not a factor) flashing his lights and blowing his whistle because he did not cross three lanes of speeding traffic to drag the errant cycle off of the roadway. As a matter of
fact, you can sue that policeman for dereliction of duty. (I want to know the result of that lawsuit.) By the way, seat belts are not required in most Asian countries for passengers, only the driver. That's the question we need to ask ahead of non-smoking driver and
english speaking guide.

Motorcycle for sale, needs work. Girl in thongs not included, although she may be looking for a new boyfriend with wheels.

Happily, I am writing this email from the comfort of the Thai Royal Orchid lounge featuring free beer and other goodies as we while away the time until our flight. We had a wonderful day today, speeding to the floating market for our first stop. It is a short 2 hour drive.

We took a lot of pictures and ate a lot of food, some a mystery and some not. Cruising down the canal in a long boat felt like a Disney ride, or what a Disney ride is trying to be.

We were waiting for the anamatronic crocodiles to jump up.


She is making coconut crepes. I have a video of the whole process. She passes her bagged products to boats with a basket on a long stick and takes in money the same way.

Here is one happy customer.

I need to interrupt here so we can get on the plane. More photos to come some time in the future. Maybe I can sort them on the plane.

We expect to land at JFK around 10:30 am your time, a little more than 25 hours from now. We have a 4.5 hour layover in Tokyo to stretch out legs and shower.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

Feasting in Bangkok

We made it to Bangkok. Farewell Diamond Princess. The weather is better than in the Phillipines where they are getting the brunt of the typhoon. Scattered thunderstorms tomorrow too, just like Florida. Looks a lot like Florida too except for the mountains. We have a great suite (got an upgrade). Should have spent 31 days here. We just returned from our massages which were very good so this email will be short.

Our guide took us to Chinatown for dinner but he kept buying us stuff from street vendors. "It is very clean." There is a vegetarian celebration going on and we stuck to vegetarian fare (hold the necks) which was all pretty good but mostly unidentifiable. Some of what I know is below:

Some rice cooked in bamboo

Wraps with something inside

A lot of fried stuff (how do the locals stay thin?)

Dim sum sumthin'

We had something wrapped up that tasted like cotton candy, some spicy fruit which actually tasted good, coconut milk in a bag, roasted chestnuts. . .

This at least looks familiar.

Almost rice crispy squares

And much more . We had to tell him to stop, it was like a cruise dinner compressed into 15 minutes instead of two and a half hours, and standing up. There are 7-11's every ten feet. Literally across the street from each other. (You can actually cross the street here and people don't try to run you down like Saigon) Stand in front of one and you can see another one, or two. Makes the Starbucks in NYC seem sparse. And they sell hand wipes like wash 'n drys except they are cloth towels inside instead of cheap paper which rips when you try to unfold it.

There is plenty of gross food if that is your preference. How about a dried flattened duck? (Looks crispy!) You could put it in an envelope to carry it home.

I've seen road-kill look more appetizing. Even the flies aren't hanging around.

They stopped traffic on the highway so the royal family could go by. Just like in the U.S. There is a king but he is old and sick and there was a revolution three years ago but I couldn't get the story straight. All I know is they closed the airport for two days and a bunch of Canadians got stuck here. The old king was born in Boston so he's technically a US citizen. I'm sure you can get the real scoop online. We see some palaces and buddhas tomorrow. He said the huge golden buddha is closed for renovations. Gotta save something for next time. Nice to have real internet.

Good night.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

Singapore is much like home

Singapore was very nice and the most "western" of the ports we visited, probably including Anchorage. Every familiar chain restaurant is represented. McDonald's has a McCafe on the sidewalk open 24 hours, which is very much like a Starbucks. Same baked treats etc.

We could have had a normal meal ashore (at a normal restaurant with a familiar name) but the last bus back to the ship was at 2:30 so we had a pretty short day and decided to have lunch on board. I did find a restaurant serving duck necks, feet, etc. (surely for the locals) and I now believe what I was served in Qingdao which I thought was a chicken leg was really a chicken neck. You can get three duck hearts on a skewer for only 38 cents! Now that's a value. I think they're even cooked. You'll be pleased to know that this restaurant received an award for "The Fine Culinary Skill." You wouldn't want your duck head or pig tail prepared by an amateur.

Another restaurant was serving Japanese Handmade Pizza with mostly civilized ingredients and it looked pretty good.

As for disgusting, cigarettes sell for $8.30 US per pack and the packs feature color photos of cigarette ailments along with messages like "Smoking causes gangrene, Quit. or "Smoking causes 92% of oral cancers, Quit" which makes the Surgeon General's warning seem pretty lame. You have to look at that photo when you open the pack to enjoy your smoke. Kind of takes the glamour out.

Singapore is very clean as you probably have heard. Many things are expensive. To buy a car you need some kind of permit which costs $!0,000 then you can buy your car. (Heard aboard so details may be incorrect.) There are a lot of rules to follow. We were warned on our landing permit "Death to Drug Traffickers" so we did not traffic any drugs. This was the only port where we were required to carry our original passports. Every other port, a photocopy would suffice or some other document which they provided. No thermal scan here.

The shopping is very expensive, or very cheap. We did not stumble upon normal stores. We found movie popcorn at a movie theater (where else?) on the fourth floor of a shopping center but they would not accept American dollars or a credit card. Where is the ATM? In the basement. We eventually got local cash and found another movie theater for a wonderful treat.

Most of our stuff is now packed but it is always that last minute stuff that just keeps coming and puts you over the limit. We can do a final reorganization in Bangkok. It is mostly sunny so Im heading out to the pool for the afternoon. Real high speed internet tomorrow!

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

Unexpected Vietnam Experience

We had a great day in Vietnam, a place which was the LAST place on earth I or most people wanted to go to when I was a teenager. It turns out that the Vietnamese people are the friendliest people we have encountered, maybe anywhere. I have more to say but we have an early tour tomorrow so this is just a teaser email, more to follow in a day or so. Our ship called on Nha Trang, Vietnam today. For me this was my best port for pictures because the people were so friendly and receptive to having their pictures taken and we walked in neighborhoods with our guide. I haven't been able to go through all of today's pictures yet so here are just a few quickies.

The welcome committee may be fewer in number but are much better in quality.

The masks here are not for swine flu prevention as in other places. Vietnamese men value fair skinned women so many women are covered head to toe. The face masks usually coordinate with their outfits. This women is wearing a face mask, hood, gloves, long sleeves, long pants and socks. I might add that it is hot as he--. Actually hotter, and more humid than Florida in the summer. There are beautiful beaches here so you may wonder how the locals use the beach. The locals are on the beach at 4am and leave when the sun comes up. The tourists take over later in the day.

Another fair skin cover-up.

This is a fishing village. They are poor. There is no plumbing. Almost no plumbing. The shacks in back over the water are the bathrooms. The one on the left has a drain pipe which may qualify as plumbing to some.

These school kids lit up when I took their picture so we talked them into posing with us. We didn't speak the same language but as you see they got the message.

The fishing boat has lights to attract fish at night. The round basket in back with the oar inside is a dinghy. It takes skill to row and not just go around in a circle. Unfortunately, the fishermen were all at home so we couldn't see anyone rowing a dinghy to their boat. It is now the middle of the night here and we can see the boats at work in the dark with all their lights on. We are cruising to our next port at this time.

We found the Apple store. We had seen iPhones sold in other stores in other cities but this is an official outlet. Not sure if the Genius is in.

Try to cross this street.

We had questions as to who won the contest announced in "Taipei in the tail of the Typhoon:" There was something hidden in the email Beijing to Xi'an in short. We had a few correct answers but the first to reply was Nikki Miller and the answer was hidden in the face of the terra cotta warrior, someone you should recognize. Thanks to all who entered, it is nice to hear from you.

That's it for now.

Regards,

Steve

Fun in Hong Kong

Note,

I've heard that a reader has been receiving versions of the email with no text after the pictures begin. I have noticed that the blog (which I email the updates to) has the same problem which I have corrected in earlier postings. Please let me know if the emails you have been receiving from me seem to end abruptly and I will at least try to fix it on my blog. Or you can get a Mac. Laurie and I would like to hear back from you if you get a chance. If you do reply to us, please delete my email from your reply because email is extremely slow on board and receiving my pictures back in a reply gums up the works.

We've been in Hong Kong for the past two days. The first day we docked at a pier where we met our guide and took a shuttle to town. Then, at 6:00 pm they moved the ship, sailing past the harbour during the 8pm light show, then anchoring until the end of our second day in Hong Kong. We stayed ashore (passed up a cruise dinner) so we could have dinner ashore and watch the light show from the Hong Kong Island side. It was the first time I watched the cruise ship I'm supposed to be on sail past without panicking. We took the tender back to the ship around 10:30pm. The tenders were not lifeboats, but large ferries and the trip took close to an hour. It was reasonably planned and executed by Princess. They made the best of the anchoring location they were assigned to. I understand that things will not go as smoothly and they predict three hours to tender everyone ashore in Vietnam where we have a private tour scheduled. They were only docked earlier in the day so they could provision the ship. Now we have bananas again as well as fresher salads, etc.

They were not as excited to see us as they had been in Qingdao. The welcome committee dwindled to 8 drummers but they had 5 dragons and a guy with a cheap mask.

I finally managed to get a photo of a thermal scan screen. They have all been different but this is an example of the ghosts marching by. They had a more colorful rendition in China but that was in China and this was in a lounge on the ship as passengers were preparing to disembark in Hong Kong. I'll probably get another chance in Vietnam tomorrow.

Hong Kong is incredible. Not as much buildnig going on, it's already built. They are making more room by leviling a mountain and pouring the rock in to the harbour. Makes usable land at both ends. There is a lot of prosperity here. There is a 50 year agreement with China to leave things alone here and people are happy with that.

We changed our itinerary to include some shopping stops. Our guide took us to a place that makes handbags inspired by designers. They are not knockoffs, but really improvements on the original without the label. Laurie was quite pleased.

Laurie and read that this was a great place to get prescription eyeglasses made but I didn't see the bargain. The cheap glasses are the same cheap glasses that you don't want at Lenscrafters, and I think the name brand ones are no cheaper (or not enough cheaper) to make it worth the bother. Laurie did get some non prescripton sunglasses that are nice.

Custom tailors are all over the place but we (Laurie) only liked the fabric at the most expensive tailor so I am having three shirts made. We returned for the fitting yesteday afternoon and naturally they fit well. We should be able to pick up the finished shirts later today. (update: Shirts fit great.)

Interesting fact:

They use bamboo scaffolding instead of steel for scaffolds up to 30 stories high. Bamboo is better than steel because it is unaffected by the weather, it is strong and flexible. They just tie pieces together with plastic strapping.

Note the worker on the bamboo scaffold. This is a zoomed in photo of the previous building.

They just tie the bamboo together with plastic strapping, no screws, nails or other attachments.

We visited the bird market. Because living spaces are so small, people have birds instead of dogs or cats but they still take their pets out for walks.
The bird market is the place to buy your bird food but singing birds prefer live grasshoppers. You cut off their legs (the grasshoppers) so it is easier for your bird to catch his meal and their meal won't hop out of the bird cage. You can also buy crickets or worms by the bowl. Live ones. I have movies too because it's more disgusting to see a vendor scoop out a cup full of wiggling insects. The grasshoppers are in plastic or net bags, already counted out for your convenience.

Live grasshoppers in the bags.

There is also fresh honey for sale at the Flower Market.

Maybe a little too fresh. Don't forget to use your strainer to get rid of the bee parts.

Speaking of fresh we went into a supermarket (I found Dr.Pepper canned in Australia made with sugar instead of HFCS.) and they had big tanks of full grown live fish. They stopped me from taking pictures because I was too slow on the trigger. I guess I was standing there with my camera out and my jaw dropped, watching the spectacle. They take out the live fish of your choice, whack it on the table to dispatch it, scale it (and I don't mean weigh it), gut it, bag it, then weigh it. That's fresh fish. Don't stand too close or you'll be smelling not-so-fresh later in the day. I did not see any llve chickens in the store. This was a modern grocery store, not a little back street Mom & Pop establishment.

We took a harbour cruise past a floating fishing village.

Aberdeen fishing village is on the water with modern buildings in the background. Fishing families have two boats, one to live on, and one which they take out for fishing. They do have to pay to keep their boats here.

There are subsidized apartments for the "sandwich people." Sandwich people earn too much for free government housing but could not afford a regular apartment without a government subsidy.

Sandwich apartment buildings.

We stayed ashore for the light show. There are many unique skyscrapers. We saw a 4,200 square foot apartment selling for $20,000,000 US.

The building with the diagonal lights has sharp edges like a knife and has upset it's neighbors because the feel the sharp edges interfere with their "Feng Shui," harmony with nature.

Our ship sails by without us.

We decided to take the shuttle to the top of Victoria peak the next day but it was foggy and the view was shrouded. We enjoyed Hong Kong. There are more stories to tell but no more time. We are in Veitnam for the next two days then another day at sea. We move the clocks back another hour tonight. We'll be 12 hours ahead of the east coast again.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

Taipei in the tail of the Typhoon

Sunday, October 11, 11:45 pm ship time, 11:45 am east coast time.

We visited Taipei Taiwan today and planned to take in the magnificent view from the top of Taipei101, the tallest building in the world. However, the weather did not cooperate. Tail of the typhoon. We have rain and mist and wind so we decided that we would skip the view. As miserable it was on the ground, we figured it would be more miserable 1500 feet up.

We did find a vegetarian restaurant which Laurie liked. Her meal had a mushroom which tasted like grilled chicken but they did not know the name of it. We would have been suspicious had this not been a vegetarian restaurant.

The restaurant had free high speed internet and I had brought my computer. We were told that Taipei is one of the world's most connected cities with 90% of public space offering wifi. We were in the other 10% most of the time so internet at lunch was my treat. We would have used skype if not for the 12 hour time difference.

We found a Japanese department store which was interesting. Laurie found something she liked.

Our guide on the bus ride back to the ship entertained herself and us with some jokes which I will share since it was not a busy day.

A couple had three sons. The first two were very bright but the third son was very dull. One day the father was frustrated with the third son so he asked his wife, "tell me the truth, is he really my son?" To which the wife replied, "yes he is, but the other two are not."

Our guide could hardly contain herself.

Do you know what DHL stands for? Deliver half way, then get lost.

A young boy asked his grandmother why she didn't have a boyfriend. She pointed to the TV and told him "When the religious program is on, it makes me feel peaceful. When the funny program is on it makes me feel happy so the TV is my boyfriend." The picture was not so clear so she hit the TV on the side. The door bell rang and the young boy went to answer the door. It was the priest. The priest asked "where is your grandmother?" The boy replied "She is in the bedroom beating her boyfriend."

Fortunately, it was a short ride back to the ship.

We are at sea tomorrow enjoying more of the tail of the typhoon. Hong Kong on Tuesday and hopefully the weather will improve by then. We were told to expect the same rolling motion as last night which was OK.

Another thermal scan is in store for Hong Kong. The Captain came on the PA system to remind us that if we have any flu symptoms we should call passenger services or the health center so they can lock us in our cabin and slide food under our door.

It is time to announce a contest. There was something hidden in the email Beijing to Xi'an in short. We are surprised that nobody pointed it out. The first to reveal the secret will win the prize. If you already deleted the email, oh well.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

Okinawa is OK

A loyal reader commented that he was glad my communism email had not been censored. I suspect the vigilant Chinese authorities did not censor it because I waited until we were outside of China and on the high seas to send it. I have probably earned a place on a domestic list, however.

It is interesting to note that stations like CNN are not carried on regular TV, although CNN is allowed in 5 star hotels. While we did have internet in the hotels, we had no access to facebook or youtube because they are blocked in China. There are "services" which come up which offer to disguise your IP address so you can access those services for $15/month.

When I discussed with a guide, who had lived in the United States for some time, how the newspaper delivered to our room every morning, The China Guide "The National English Language Newspaper" was written with a very positive slant, he commented that they would never publish crime statistics as they do in the U.S. I'll share some headlines from the October 6 edition:

Bonds with Pyongyang Strengthened
Hong Kong takes over as top slot among world's wine markets
National drive launched to aid disabled
Indonesians hold weddings despite quake.
Crash tightens grip on erratic driving.

The crash in question occurred when an overloaded bus crashed (31 seats, 71 passengers, 17 killed) but the positive slant is that there will be a crackdown on dangerous driving. "If passenger vehicles are overloaded, the responsible parties will be severely punished." Everyone should feel safer now.

On the way from the port to Beijing, about a 90 minute drive, we passed trough two "Police Checks" where all vehicles were diverted from the highway. Some were waved through (like us) while others were sent to another area for closer inspection. Our guide indicated that we were possibly waved through because our license plate indicated our vehicle was from a different city. These are permanent structures, like toll booths for random vehicle inspections. I kept my camera low.

At first glance, things appear free and normal, but there is an undercurrent.

Enough of Communism for now.

We visited Okinawa today. We cancelled our tour (we're toured out) and instead took an exercise class in the morning and went into town on a shuttle later. We had to pass through an immigration inspection yesterday (at sea) where we were fingerprinted (scanned) and photographed (don't smile). Then, this morning, we had another temperature scan. We could walk past a video camera at normal pace and were given a "pass" to use on the way out of the ship.

I am becoming more daring (because I'm feeling much better and have had my temperature taken at least 10 times in the past week) so I stepped behind the camera to see what was up. I tried but could not get a good image of the video screen, but it looked like a parade of ghosts. Normal temperature guest filing past were white. Yellow guests were a little warm and red guests got a special health check and stayed in quarantine on board. We heard about a guest who was quarantined because he only ordered tea for dinner. (Must be sick).

Pardon the blur.

On our flight, before take-off and after the safety video, we were shown an animated feature which I recorded a little of, warning of signs of flu, creating a little paranoia. The China Daily contained no mention of flu.

Back to healthy thoughts, we had a nice day in Okinawa. It was overcast but not bad. We walked along a street with a lot of souvenir type merchandse and ended up in a department store which was a real department store (as opposed to a mall pretending to be a department store.) Upstairs they had a food floor with lots of samples, most or which we passed up.

At least with these you know what they are. Yes, those are toothpicks in the fish. Taste one! They're free! Chew them up, Yummy. I'd sooner eat the toothpick. Laurie bought some seaweed (vegetarian).


We found a Yogurt store selling yogurt for $0.64 / ounce, 50% more expensive than the most expensive yogurt by the ounce in the U.S. when I was doing my research for a potential business. Next highest, Princeton, NJ. We did not buy any because we had previously passed a crepe store which I planned to hit on the way back to the bus.

Laurie did find something to her liking in the department store, besides the seaweed.

We are in Taipei, Taiwan tomorrow.

Clocks move back another hour tonight. We skipped ahead for Japan. That 24 hour thing is too difficult to deal with, 25 hours a day is the way to go.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie