Singapore to Mombasa...plus
Vietnam thru Philippines
Saigon
1/21-1/22 -- Scott kind of freaked out the first day back in this frenetic city: Too much noise, too aggressive hawkers, too hot and too many people trying to scam you or make your possessions their own. Got into the center of town, checked out the local market and walked partway back with a pedicab ("bicycle rickshaw") for the last half mile or so. Good fun albeit a death-defying act.
The second day in Ho Chi Minh was a bit less stressful. We honed our street-crossing abilities, Scott donned shorts (uncommon with Vietnamese city dwellers, but we don’t exactly blend in with the locals anyway). It cooled both he and his temperament down a bit. We made a morning foray ostensibly to the "War Remnants Museum", but the driver, who we'd made certain knew our destination, took us to a farther-away (higher fare...) place for a better fare. We toured it then walked toward our original destination. Textiles seems on sale just about everywhere, along with laquerware and all other "things tourist". Viet Cong cap, anyone?
The evening brought us back into town with a nice member of the crew with whom we have frequent dealings. It was Scott's birthday so we had a birthday dinner (and avoided the embarrassment of bad cake and singing Waiters, on board our ship) at an upscale Vietnamese place. Snails, squid and a lotus root salad appetizer, chicken with lemongrass and chilies plus "water spinach" with garlic sauce. All hits. Dessert was a Hue (a city in central Vietnam) style cake with a "secret" sauce. The secret was pandan flavor -- no secret to us but made a nice accompaniment to the cake.
We got ripped off twice today -- both on taxis. Yesterday it was only once (incorrect change). Not a bad average, but room for improvement. Can't win them all. Maybe we're out US$ 5.
1/23/10 -- At last. Kathy's port lectures for Vietnam are done. She was a star - well beyond anybody's expectations or previous experience with Port Lecturers. Maybe a new career? These have kept her working in the cabin basically since we got on board in Singapore. She put a lot of effort into the presentations, and it shows in passenger feedback & compliments. The last presentation was on our final Vietnam port, Halong Bay / Hanoi. We love Hanoi and wish we were able to visit there again.
Nha Trang & Halong Bay
1/24/10 -- Departed Nha Trang after a whirlwind half-day tour (Kathy escorted, Scott went on as a regular passenger). It was OK... coconut farm, pagoda, couple of short boat trips... all in all exhausting.
1/25/10 -- Halong Bay, which we'd visited once before (and found glorious) was shrouded in fog for all but about 15 minutes of our visit. Too bad for photography, but it was an interesting stop. We escorted a full tour ("escorted" means "go for free for acting as shepard for the passengers on the ship's behalf"). Meditation retreat about an hour from the bay up at 3000'; wander through a farmer's house and land (billed as a "typical" farmer; this guy had a 2 bedroom house + separate kitchen + extra room with a washing machine(!) and was building an addition. Not so "typical", wethinks.) Visit to a ceramics factory (more on this later), and a fabulous 7-course lunch at a 4 star hotel -- the best food we've ever had on a tour!
Our guide in Halong was cool. Enthusiastic, articulate, he talked about his own life (went to Poland during the Vietnamese, err "French/American" war, studied Diplomacy. Speaks English & French, as well as typical life in the area (salaries, what things cost...). His understanding of English was limited (one passenger asked whether there was lead glaze on pottery, for example, and after several minutes of back-and-forth with the passenger, him, and the pottery folks, she gave up in frustration), but once you got used to the accent, he spoke very well. Kathy bought an ao dai (traditional Vietnamese dress) which she looks lovely in and has received many compliments. We had to bargain fiercely (but politely) to get the price down from D500,000 to a mere D350,000. Still, almost $20! Our biggest purchase to date!
The word "Vietnam" carries a lot of weight with Baby Boomers like us, as we watched it unfold on TV in our youth. We've written a bit about this previously. Our last tourist visit to Vietnam was just after September 11 (which carries it's own weight); Vietnam has progressed over these years just as (we hope) we have. Our guide talked about having cable TV (and satellite) with 72 channels ("I like CNN and MTV"). Cost about US$4 per month for 2 TVs. Gasoline is expensive: (D16,000/litre, which is 75% of what we pay in Canada -- but income in Vietnam pales in comparison to Canada). There's a 2-child policy ("we have to pay a fine, and I have only daughters but if we have another child, I could lose my job"). The abortion rate is high -- he didn't mention whether this was "selective" as occurs in India (boys are preferred because they must take care of their parents in their old age). Education is compulsary and students study English and French.Our guide taught English at some point which does not bode well for his students...
In a land where water buffalo are still a primary farm implement ("the poor man's tractor"), there's a metaphor for kids that don't study hard: "if you don't get an education you will follow the buffalo's tail for the rest of your life" -- meaning the dropout will work the rice fields. Kind of like kids in America not getting high school diplomas and sentenced to "flipping burgers" or other menial tasks.
On to Hong Kong
We're off to Hong Kong. Should be fun: we've visited a number of the tourist sites over the years, as Scott's employer had its Asia headquarters there. Now we've got friends and "friends of friends" we can visit. One of the lecturers on board Discovery at the moment is Mr. John Haynes. He's an older Lawyer ("Barrister") with what he'd call a checkered past. He's semi-retired, takes 4 or 5 cases a year, specializing in complicated cases like murders. Sounds morose but he is anything but.
We connected with him at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (one of the few HK organizations that retained the "Royal" part after the handover of Hong Kong from Britian back to China after its 99-year lease). And we got to meet "Angela", she's the "Significant Other" of our friend and Lessee (he rents our condominium in Vancouver each winter) Dave, aka "Hong Kong Dave". While we digress, Dave's a wonderful character and is known by this moniker all over the Vancouver restaurant scene) In addition to being a fine person and first-class tenant, he writes exceedingly well and shares Scott's penchant for gin martinis... Angela, the two of us, and two of her friends went out for a proper Chinese meal; one of her friends (their Cantonese Instructor as it turns out) practically interrogated our taxi driver and found a great restaurant at which we were the only Westerners.
Hong Kong was a major embaraction / disembarcation time for the ship, with about 400 people getting on or off over two days. The ship docked on the Kowloon side right by the soft of "shopping epicenter" of Nathan Road. We had a couple of days there and did some of the touristy things (Peak Tram, mid-level escalator). Weather was relatively cool and overcast most of the time, so we're short of spectacular photos. But trust us, we did have a good time!
Manila, Philippines
We arrived to Manila on February 2 around 7:00am. Intense sun was already beating through our cabin portal. At 7:30, we started to hear what turned out to be an extravaganza of musicians & dancers – perhaps 100 in total. Looked like a mini-Mardi Gras right at our dock. This is the first time MV Discovery had been to Manila (the ship had visited in a previous life). The crew was unusually cheery, not surprising as the overwhelming majority of them come from the Philippines, and many of those are from Manila and surrounds. We spent the entire day on board, meeting the families (kids, spouses, sometimes parents) of the Philippine crew). It was really heartwarming, but perhaps bittersweet as the families only had about a half hour on board, then parted from their loved ones once again.
Philippines Day 2
Feb 3, 2010 – After spending yesterday on board, watching gleeful group after group of crew families taking the opportunity to tour the ship with their on-board family member, we were looking for a little slice of Manila that wasn’t aboard ship. So we both escorted tours to St Augustin Church (a UNESCO World Heritage site) and fort nearby. We’ve seen more than our share of churches, Hindu temples, mosques, and the odd synagogue here and there; they all tend to look the same after a while. However, Scott found this one unusually interesting – whether for the vastness of it, or the photo-opportunity it provided. “UNESCO calls it “the best preserved example of an urban ecclesiastical complex in the Philippines”. Given the number of churches in the Philippines (more than 85% of the population is Roman Catholic) – seems pretty high praise.
Next: Malaysia, Brunei & Singapore
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