Boog's Blog

Monday, late morning tendering at the tropical beach/jungle Ko Samui. Our last port excursion.

Dinner last evening was a Thai buffet. Highlight, for me, was the fruit. Star fruit, jack fruit, dragon fruit, papaya, pomelo, passion fruit, juju, guava…… Most of these were on my plate.

Twelve meter Buddah, a highlight of Ko Samui

Ko Samui has about 70K people and about 2 million tourists a year. Pukhet, in the South, has 400K people and 16 million, yes I asked again, tourists a year. Ko Samui was crowded enough.

Coconut farming is the second industry here, second to tourism. They use the trained monkeys mentioned earlier for harvesting. Work normal hours, fed rice and bananas, and are part of the family.

Water buffalo at the area near the above Buddah

Formerly a fishing village, now much of it, except the coconut growing area, looks like a beach town. There are many beaches here, some, like the Four Seasons ($2K a night and V. Putin’s place), high end. The beach we visited was nice but not as nice as Da Nang

At the beach KB got to dip toes into yet another water – quite warm it was.

Thai iced coffee on the beach. Quite a process to make, sweet, and good for an occasional treat. Expresso, condensed milk, foamed milk and ice. Lots of stirring during the processing.

Elephants at the waterfall.

Monument to the Southern Chinese who peopled some of this island.

Tuesday, a day at sea. Bridge tour, quite extensive. Got to understand a bit about how navigation systems work and rules of the road and communication.

Saturday. All day tour day. M arranged a special tour that we joined. 8 of us.

First stop the Royal Palace. No Feng Shui by in my views. Far too many ornate and beautiful places stuck together. No gardens. Crowded with tourists like us. About 2 million square fee of palace grounds.

Discussed with the guide how the opulence reminds of the West with big palaces that led to revolutions when the poor saw how the royalty lived and took their money. Not here, “the king has his own money, people are happy to give, from wars…. “. No concept of distributing the wealth.

Visitor from Saigon was queried by me. How do you like it here. Too hot, not like Saigon. So the world turns.

Gold leaf being put on a Buddha by QB. Traditional in Thailand at temples. One buys a small gold foil and applies it. The one pictured has many, including the one by QB.

Long tail boat ride among the canals. Some slow riding and some fast riding. Great way to see the diversity, both of the wealthy and mostly the poor living along the canals.

See additional pictures here.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rXKPCraurEbybKvs6

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Sunday morning, very early, trip to the floating market in Bangkok. Now quite a way out of town. Used to be close by but faded away when farmers distribution changed to trucks and roads. The market now is far away and mostly for tourists. Maybe 80% tourists. As a side note, 80% of population is still agricultural.

On the long boat on the way to the market. Through many such canals with houses built right to the water way. Canals under flood control.

Drove through miles and miles of salt pans and coconut farms. In parts of Thailand they use Malaysian trained monkeys to harvest. Here farmers climb up. Now introducing a new variety that is just 2 meters tall and provides fruit in the fifth year.

At the floating market street food. Tom Yum pictured but also had fried bananas, covered with rice, and mango slices with sweet rice.

Campaign slogan developed by Michelle and QB: Drain the swamp, flush the toilet.

Cloud photos from today. https://photos.app.goo.gl/h5d7eZidbq8xKCTs7

Friday. Mid-day arrival. As this is a smaller ship we were able to go well up river and dock within 30 minutes (bus) of central Bangkok. The larger ships dock about 2 hours away from the center. And that is with normal traffic.

Bangkok is now visited more than London or Paris. 22% of the 70 million people live in Bangkok, this crowded with locals and tourists. The onboard speaker said that Bangkok has the highest median temperature in the world. This is because places like Cairo cool down at night but not here. Bangkok not the hottest but the highest median temperature.

The ancient city contains three types of dwellings. Original reconstruction and fabricated.

Some shots of the day.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8pBsYBc9xyxyrjb18

Wednesday, half day before cruising again

Sit down breakfast notable only for the choice of fruits available. Nice collection of local choices but missing fresh jackfruit; was quite good last evening.

In 2007 stayed at the Majestic hotel, only about 1 km from here. Wandered over there after a nice walk up the main colonial area streets. On one of them a great find: Kinokiniya. QB acquired a reasonable amount of stationary. Yes, a great find.

At the Majestic in their coffee area.

Successful street shopping as well, t-shirt, and coffee.

Final thoughts after leaving Vietnam and heading towards Bangkok. Apart from the obvious growth (building and prices) since my last visit the corruption seems to have increased significantly. Two guides told us similar stories. I doubt I would have heard either story in my previous visit.

Both were University trained, both spoke decent English. One was trained as in chemistry the other in the humanities. Both wanted to teach school; neither could get a job as they had no connections and not enough money for a bribe.

Thursday, cruising all day. QB chose to work out at gym. I enjoyed being a bum, time enough to return to sweating back home.

When I went back to the room QB was napping; so much for the gym.

Monday, a cruising day on our way to Saigon.

Brunch was a fine catered dim sum event. Dinner, not pictured, was Raj based, both cuisines. Also quite good.

Tuesday Oct 22. Did not rain as forecasted. Hot and humid of course.

Morning and mid-afternoon tour as arranged by M. Private tour, just the four of us.

Flower market tour.

Honda, meaning all motorbikes, spare parts tour. Interesting section of the town. One could build a full motorbike from the parts being displayed.

Wholesale (and retail ) market of almost everything. Two story, crowded, motor bikes going between isles 3 feet wide, motor bikes, people and vendors delivering goods.

Politics discussion: Started with a question I asked: How do the locals feel about HK, pro-Beijing or pro-HK. Very much the latter. Then the guide mentioned that Obama got an enormous and friendly welcome. Large crowds. As did Clinton. So I asked about if Trump showed up- no one would come to see. When Xi came there were unfriendly protests and banners.

Outstanding lunch, one of the best. The kind that would be $150 a person in Palo Alto. Menu and food pictures in the link of the days pictures.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0r_PkJwfbaaFP8TJs_rymrPew

Cyclo ride around the Colonial area. To Notre Dame, the Post Office, the Opera. After this all too tired for even coffee so back to the boat.

Gigantic white buffet. Everyone dresses in white and eats enough food for an army. Actually quite well done with multiple cuisines. I had soft shelled crabs, sashimi, tuna, dragon fruit pomelos jackfruit etc.

Friday, final day in Ha Long Bay, then onto Dan Nang area

A relaxing day of doing nothing but reading, QB off to the spa and snacking on Jackfruit occasionally. The pomelo of yesterday was a complete and soon in the garbage failure. I enjoyed pomelos of outstanding taste all throughout my bike trip years ago. This was not to be one of the good ones, hard, tasteless. A great disapointment.

The jackfruit chips, are not a disappointment. No objectionable smell, crispy, a good dried fruit taste. Now, after yesterdays shopping adventure have three bags full, or less than full.

Picture of sunning themselves

Michele’s birthday champagne and dinner this evening. Someone on the ship recognized it was her birthday and surprise decorated her room. Her credit card gifted her some champagne.

Birthday “girl”

Along with birthday cake and a fine dining experience at the upscale restaurant.

Sunday, to Da Nang area, rain forecasted. Got a downpour during lunch but cleared quickly. Considerably warmer on the room balcony. We have been heading South since HK and it is noticeable

Michelle arranged an all day private tour. Just six of us with a local guide (one couple dropped out due to pneumonia and had to be sent home ruining, of course, their cruise. I don’t know if they are one of the many on the ship that have cruised 20-30 times. When I ask frequent travelers where they live my first thought is to ask them where they store their stuff.

First stop, Cham temples in My Son. Visited them in 2007, second visit better as the guide was better.

Cham kingdom 2nd to 13th century when they were defeated by the Vietnamese. The temple area has been under restoration well before my 2007 visit. Enormous area just for religious observance. Hindu statuary, likely peopled by persons from Indonesia.

Hoi An, old city tour. Part Japanese, part Chinese, part French. Old architecture, large crowd on Sunday (also Womans Day.

Day finished with a stop at Marble mountain, really five special hills, the lovely coastal beach and Vietnamese buffet dinner on the boat.

Far too many pictures to include but each area can be googled for images running into the millions as these are all popular tourist spots.

Wednesday, fair skies. Onto the boat and getting settled. Signed up for their slow, one device at a time, internet package. Time will tell how functional.

Leaving port.

Got to the room and found that we are to set back the clocks one hour. Tricky with only one device on net; no time sync.

Thursday – at sea all day. Heading to first stop, Halong Bay. Just a down day, reading and eating,

Friday. Arrival in Halong Bay; Off boat excursion.

Halong Bay, known to many of us as Haiphong, consists of 1989 islands, of which 980 have no name. Apparently some/many of the bombs are still in the harbor. The bay is part of another infamous name, Gulf of Tonkin.

Boat ride on the bay with a visit to a large cave. The two rocks below are the icon of Halong Bay.

Cave of course. 250 steps and about .5 km to get through.

A visit to the town via a shuttle bus. Went to a mall to get pomelo, something I well remember from my bike trip. Took some effort with Google translate to ask for one ready to eat today. Then they took it away and peeled it, not what I wanted but fine. Will eat a breakfast tomorrow to see if as good as I remember.

Tuesday – rain finished.

Met a local on the elevator. American woman living here for the past couple of years. Some interesting comments:

1. USA press used to exaggerate the situation here, but now getting worse and coverage is closer to fact.

2. Friend of hers came in from the Mainland – meaning China – and her friend expected, based on how news coverage is in China, to be in the midst of constant protests and disruptions.

3. Main effect of the protests on those living here and the tourists has been the inconvenience of public transportation and road closings.

She got pancreatitis here and spent 24 days in a private hospital. Bill was one tenth of USA. Procedures were offered with prices: your CT scan will be $350, OK?

Beer at the penninsula. Stopped into the Peninsula Hotel, one I visited often 25 + years ago. Clearly maintained. Notice the persons opening the doors, colonial.

Star Ferry Water tour of harbor. Usual tour, this one with fewer comments about each structure on the water. The harbor here was mentioned as one of the three best deep water ports, San Fran and Rio in Brazil being the others.

Few places to get Rx drugs, have not seen pharmacies. Asked concierge about it, mentioned only a few places. Separate system of course for Chinese medicine.

Virtually no people begging people begging or homeless on the streets here.

Monday, rain promised, and some delivered but not much.

Escalators and large air-conditioned shopping centers on the plan.

Yesterday the streets were empty, weekend traffic. Today, like a normal city with lots of people on the streets and overpasses. The overpasses are the way to get around; there are many, covered, and pretty well linked.

Typical overpass.

The escalators were started in 1993 and head up one of the many peaks. Three main ones, each at a different street level, and then a series of smaller ones, 20, yes 20 of them, each their own levels. We rode them all.

First, to get there we tried a tram. Not modern to say the least. Price right at about $.15. Elder price, but normal price is only double elder price. Surface ride, more interesting but not with a/c like the MTR subway.

Tram ride above.

At one level we stopped at an open Starbucks. All of the other Starbucks have been boarded up due to the protests. The protesters have smashed and burned. According to the US press this is because the franchise owner is pro Bejing. I was able to ask an employee (snuck the question in while others were drinking) and she said that this one spared due to location. High up on the escalators implying hard to reach. O

Construction on the first level and one of the 20.

After walking down the 23+ levels cooling off was required and a shopping mall was just the thing. Landmark, one of the big ones, with a Starbucks reserve. Stores are safer inside big shopping malls. Dinner tonight will be in another large shopping mall.

In general we would not know that there have been protests here except when we check with the Concierge who advises maybe not go to that area this time. Has not been accurate. In Paris the subway stations were closed, and whole sections of Paris unavailable to tourists. So far, not so here.

Dinner at Dim Sum Library – decent food in Pacific shopping center. Usual dishes but well prepared.

On the way back from eating our first encounter with the protesters but this time an assembly. Went to take some pictures but George’s paranoia stopped me – got just one in and not a very good example. Most of the participants are young, wearing black and many/most black face masks and all quite peaceful. They were walking towards the assembly point at Central station and we were heading in the opposite direction. As a guess a thousand or so, but just a guess.

Side street, pic by QB.

Lights in HK

More traditional harbor view.

Sunday, HK time. Arrived to rain. Early morning, before 06:30

The pre-arranged car taking us to the hotel was able to zoom. No traffic and no protests. More on that below. The only indication of protests are the large plastic barricades at the sides of the road. They must be put up whenever needed for crowd control.

Great hotel, with another upgrade, thanks Michelle. Room with harbor views. Second not shown.

First up, a trip to get cash and an Octopus card, elder version (discounted). The card is used for public transportation, just like a wireless card or the old Oyster card of London. Rides are inexpensive but cash is not used.

Hot sticky high humidity walk to the Star Ferry, and old favorite of mine; it goes from Central to Kowloon. The ferry seems to be the same one I used 25+ years ago.

Wanted to go to Wan Chai area for touristing, food and the escalators but we were warned off. Protest planned in that area, shops to be closed early.

There has been much concern that I would join the protests, get arrested or ask far too many questions and be otherwise put aside. I promised, even though it pains me, to be “good” and “safe” according to the preferences of traveling partners.

Light show, HK style. During dinner we noticed several building with small light shows, most likely advertisements but logos not to our understanding. Discussing this with our server we learned of a nightly, yes every night, laser show on the harbor. Best viewed from Kowloon. Starts at 20:00. Short show but very popular.