WEDNESDAY, MAR 31ST--AT SEA

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary. It is an absolutely beautiful day at sea here in the Indian Ocean so what better way to celebrate it. We had another extra hour of sleep with time change last night so I was up at 6:30 and went up on deck to the walking track and spent an hour walking and talking with Allan. Then we sat in the shade by pool and chatted with some other folks. Great morning! Elaine was up walking and I mention that because I know she is reading my blog. She is a lovely lady inside and out. After returning to the suite I decided to sit out on our balcony and do some reading. It is not that humid today so really enjoyed sitting out. After showering we went to the “coffee connection” and then I went to lectures from 10am to noon. I just got back from a great wine lecture and tasting again given by a PhD from Cornell University. Today he talked about wines from Spain & Portugal. Rebecca was in gym while I did that and now she is getting ready to go the tea time quiz. After writing this I am going to the gym. We are in a “dead spot” for satellite coverage so no internet this afternoon. Not sure when I will be able to post this. Our travel agency back in Dallas sent us a very nice bottle of sparkling wine (champagne) for our anniversary. This afternoon room service brought us two glasses of sparkling wine and a piece of cake with a candle in it from Captain Dag. We also received a very nice hand written anniversary note from Pastor Ned (he does our church services on Sundays). At lunch we met another couple who is also celebrating their anniversary today and will be also going to Prime 7 for dinner tonight. We thought we would share our sparkling wine with them for a toast. I also talked with Richardo, the sommelier, about a nice bottle of cabernet sauvignon to go with our big ole steaks tonight. Appropriately, it is called “Wings” from Napa Valley. Richardo will be there to open it early to let it breathe then will decant it when we arrive. Alina, the manager of Prime 7, remembered my favorite table and has it reserved for us tonight. Jeff, my son, saw a picture on the blog of us at this table and remarked it was the perfect table for me--right in front of the wine case. I got a good chuckle out of that. Show tonight is by a guy called “Big George”. Apparently he plays multiple instruments so will check him out. I believe the moon is full so should be a great anniversary night. We had a beautiful sunset last night and got some photos of it. Last night we crossed the Equator again heading southbound. Tomorrow at 5:00pm we are arriving in the Seychelles which consists of 115 coral & granite islands and will be there for basically 3 days.

TUESDAY, MAR 30TH--AT SEA

It’s another beautiful day sailing in the Arabian Sea with basically calm water and only a slight swell. Temperature is again 85F as that is the water temperature here. At about 11:30 this morning I saw a school of about 30 to 40 small dolphins playing (jumping out of the water) as we past by them on the right side of the ship. Unfortunately I could not get my camera out in time for photos of them. We had a marvelous night last night with Marilyn & Tom Billings. Tom was telling me more of his hair-raising adventures as a B-17 pilot during WWII. Marilyn had been a flight attendant and was telling some great stories about her times on the Super Constellation aircraft. We just lounged around in our suite all morning. I checked via internet to make sure all my bills were being paid back home. This afternoon I made some adjustments to our tours when in the Seychelles. I want to try to do some snorkeling there. I tried snorkeling about 10 years ago and about drowned . Figured since I have more fat on me now I might float better! The beaches and water there is supposed to be incredible. I have ordered veal parmesan again for our dinner tonight. I want to go sit out on our balcony for a while and read my new Cannon camera instruction manual some more. Want to be ready to take some good animal pictures when we go on safari on Apr 11th-14th. Rebecca is in the gym now and I want to go in an hour or so. Tonight’s show is “Listen to the Music” production show starring the ship’s talented singers and dancers. We have seen this show a couple times already but love it and never get tired of it. Tomorrow is another sea day. Probably no new pictures until after we leave the Seychelles Saturday night and folder will be named "Seychelles".

MONDAY, MAR 29TH--MALE, MALDIVES

Maldives is a country where 99% of its total area is ocean. There are over 1000 tiny islands and Male is the country’s capital. Male is only one square mile in size and the whole island is a city. The country has 120,000 citizens and half live in Male. 87 of the small islands have been transformed into luxurious and intimate resorts. The resorts have beautiful beaches and some of the world’s best diving can be found here. Tourism is by far their source of income here. They do have some fishing as you will see photos I took in the local fish market. I don’t think they export the fish as it is mostly used on the resort islands. Almost everything has to be imported as the islands are too small for agriculture. Although I did take some photos in the local fruit and vegetable market. Nearby the markets, large house boats were loading up with fish, produce, and other necessities to be taken to the country’s other islands. The waters here have beautiful colors of blue and aqua depending on the depth of the ocean. The ship is anchored about a mile from the city and we have to take the ship’s small tender boats to the shore. So we ventured ashore about 10am and opted nThe ot to do our scheduled tour at 12:30. I wanted just to take some photos, and of course, Rebecca wanted to check the shops out. Coral jewelry is made locally so I bought Rebecca a matching coral necklace, bracelet, and earrings for our anniversary which is on the 31st. As you will see in the photos, the streets are narrow and sidewalks small so it was an interesting walk. The men were out on the sidewalks trying to convince the cruise passengers to come in their souvenir shops. There really was not much to Male but I found it an interesting place. I bet the resort islands are very nice. No night life on Male as alcohol is forbidden as is nudity. So tourists can only have fun at the resorts. Temperature is fairly constant here year round as we are close to the equator. Today it is 85F. We all had a fun time last night at our “Texas Night” cocktails and dinner. The group consisted of Bruce & Cathy, John & Cynthia, Allan & Carolyn, and us. We all live in the Dallas area but John & Cynthia will be moving to Maui in a few months. We talked so long at dinner that we missed the show and did not leave the dining room until 10:30pm. Tonight we are having dinner with Marilyn & Tom Billings from Houston. Tom was a pilot during WWII so I always love to hear those stories and think he enjoys my Vietnam stories. They both are so delightful and I know we will have a great night. Movie night in the show room tonight. It’s called “The Walker”. We will be sailing at 6pm with two more sea days before arriving in the Seychelles. Will try to add pictures today.

SUNDAY, MAR 28TH--AT SEA

At last night’s formal cocktail party Captain Dag briefed the passengers on some special procedures to be followed, if in the very unlikely event, the ship is attacked by Somali pirates as we approach the east coast of Africa. I believe everyone feels very comfortable and safe with all the precautions Regent and Captain Dag are taking for our safety. So do not worry about us. The show last night with Jamie Michael Stewart was one of the best we have seen on a cruise ship. Can’t wait for his next show. Ok, as for today, at 9am we attended the Palm Sunday church service and also took communion. Then at 10am I attended the lecture on “The Silk Road and The Travels of Marco Polo” and 11am lecture on “Combating 21st Century Piracy”. We had lunch with our next door neighbors, Don & Caroline. I just got back from a health & fitness entitled “Fighting the Fat” by Brandan the ship’s fitness guru. How appropriate is that lecture on this ship. Sad to say but there were only 6 people attending it. Guess everyone else was busy eating cookies. Next is tea time quiz at 4:30. Tonight is “Texas Night”! The four Dallas area couples are having dinner together. Show tonight is with ship’s singers and orchestra so want to see it. The ocean today has looked like a mirror-smooth as glass. Just the way we like it! We are scheduled to dock in Male in the Maldives. I have never heard of them but they are located a little south and slightly to west of southern tip of India. After 3 days at sea it will be good to set foot on land again. Again no new photos today.

SATURDAY, MAR 27TH--AT SEA

WOW! What a nice day here in the Gulf of Bengal. Basically calm seas with no swells, sunny and 84F. Perfect cruising seas and weather. After coffee this morning we went to a lecture at 10am on “Spies in High Heels” and at 11am a lecture on “Asian Pirates of Day Gone By”. We had a light lunch in our suite because tonight is formal night and know we will be over eating then. I have been laying off the exercising the past several days as my knees are talking to me again. After writing this I plan on going to gym and do some free weights. Rebecca is heading that way now. Past several days we have been setting dates to dine with other couples. We have met so many wonderful folks and seems we all can sense the cruise coming to an end even though we have 7 weeks to go. We will have 23 sea days from now to the end so it is a good time to visit with our new friends. Our friends want us to join their “teatime quiz” team at 4:30 this afternoon. At 6pm there is a special cocktail reception for Seven Seas Society members so will have to have the tux on early for that. Jamie Michael Stewart in the headline entertainer in the showroom tonight. He is recognized as one of Europe’s top male vocalist entertainers and during the 1960’s he and his band was the opening act for the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Elton John. In the 70’s Princess Cruises invited Jamie to be the featured vocalist on the TV series, “The Love Boat”. For the past 20 years he has made a career of performing on cruise ships. We are looking forward to seeing his show tonight. No new photos added today.

FRIDAY, MAR 26TH--AT SEA

So here we are today cruising in the Indian Ocean and will be for two more days. It has been smooth today but this afternoon we are getting a little rolling motion due to swells. All-in-all a good ride. It is 3:30pm now and I just returned from an outstanding wine lecture and tasting presented by a PhD from Cornell University. I spent most of the morning down in Club.com with Christian helping me to add a new photo album to my blog. I think the new way he taught me will require less time to get my photos added onto the blog. So now you will see a new album with my two Malaysian ports’ photos in it. Today has just been a mostly relaxing day for both of us. We really enjoyed our dinner last night with Paula & Charles, our safari companions. Our veal parmesan dinner was the best yet. After dinner we all went to the showroom where Jerry Vasi sang with the orchestra as well as his playing of the guitar. We enjoy his playing almost every evening up in the Observation Lounge during our cocktail hour. Tonight we turn our clock’s back another hour so we will be 13 hours ahead of you in the central time zone.

THURSDAY, MAR 25TH--PENANG, MALAYSIA

We were late leaving Kuala Lumpur last night because of getting provisions (food & booze) on the ship. Several of the suites on deck 6 aft (that is where we are) do not have passengers in them and are not stuffed full of cases of water, sparkling wines, wine, and liquor. I was awakened at 3am and 4 am this morning with someone going in and out of these suites so reported it to Manuela, the ship’s concierge, this afternoon. Then at about 5am was awakened due to some big thunderstorms. We sailed into Georgetown, the port for Penang, a little late this morning. The weather had passed so was nice sailing in. Penang is a small island about 10 miles from mainland Malaysia. There is a ferry and a bridge that connects the two. The population here is around 640,000 and they are Malaysians, Chinese-Malaysians, or Indians. Penang’s main income comes from electronics factories with tourism being #2. New factories and new high rise apartments are abundant. Our “Penang and Snake Temple” tour was about a half hour late due to arrival. The first stop on the tour was the Snake Temple. The small green Wagler pit vipers were on two stands above the temple altar and were sedated due to the burning incense in the temple. This area of the island of Penang use to be forested and these poisonous vipers use to live in the trees. Now there are no trees, only new buildings. In the building next to the temple you could pay $10 to hold some snakes while they took a couple pictures of you. Of course I had to do this but no way Rebecca would. Will attach pictures I took last two days tomorrow sometime, if internet works. We drove over the big hill to other side of the island for a stop at an old village to see the houses. They were built on stilts as it sometimes floods during the rainy season. You will note in the pictures that the poles the houses are built on are square and not round. Reason: Snakes can climb round poles and not square ones. Good reason!! We drove past fruit and spice plantations. Nutmeg and cloves are grown here. Lemon grass is normally grown near the houses as it is a good natural mosquito repellent. Continuing around the island we came to a small handicraft factory. Here we saw how the colorful textile, batik, is made. The process is hard to explain but maybe the pictures will show you. These colorful designs are made on clothing, tablecloths, and things like that. Then we continued past the beach areas with all the 5 star hotels and back through Georgetown to our ship. I had wanted to take a short trishaw ride but the tour ran long and not enough time for it. However, I got some pictures of other of our passengers doing it. After some lunch Allan and I entered the shuffleboard tournament and won! We did not fare as well in the Baggo tournament after that. The ship was scheduled to depart at 2pm but again we were delayed until 3:30 with more provisioning. Not sure what the problem is with getting our supplies onboard but this was second day in a row. We had to take on lots of food and drink as it will be about 2 weeks before we hit Africa when we can get more supplies. Only 4 days at some small islands in between and nothing there. Other 7 days are at sea. I better start getting ready for dinner. Tonight we are dining with Paula and Charles. They just boarded back in Hong Kong. I started talking to Paula a few months before the world cruise started. She found out we were doing a safari in Africa and wanted to know the info about it. Anyway, they ended up booking the same safari, through the same travel agent we were using in Cape Town, South Africa. So we will be on the same 4 day safari with them on April 11th. How exciting!!

WEDNESDAY, MAR 24TH--KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

“KL” or Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s capital city a with population of over 7 million. Probably the most famous landmark in the city is the 1453 foot high Petronas Twin Towers, headquarters of the national oil company. When built, it beat out the Sears Tower in Chicago as the world’s tallest building but no longer holds this distinction. Malaysia has large offshore oil and gas reserves. There are tin mines in the area and the port is a very busy one. We are having a very relaxing day here on the ship. Port Klang is an hour and a half from Kuala Lumpur. Regent has a shuttle bus operating every hour (1 ½ hour ride each way) to the malls downtown but we are shopped out as well as templed out. There is a nice cruise ship terminal here with nothing in it but one small souvenir stand and a little store. It took me at least 5 minutes to check it all out this morning. Next to us is a Star Cruises cruise ship, an Asian cruise line, that is undergoing heavy maintenance so there is lots of clanging and banging outside our balcony. It is so old it has no balcony cabins, just portholes. Most passengers left the ship this morning on tours so we had ship practically to ourselves. I have spent a lot of the day on my computer as the internet is really fast since I am about the only one using it. Too bad I did not have any photos to upload. Speaking of that there are no new photos today. I did finish the second batch of Bangkok photos yesterday. I will start a new album for next pictures. Probably no new photos for a couple days though. Will combine the 3 or 4 I took today with the ones I take tomorrow in Penang. We sail at 8pm tonight as Penang, also a Malaysian city, is not very far away and will dock there at 8am. We have a 4 hour tour, “Penang and its Snake Temple” as soon as we arrive. More about that tomorrow afternoon. Time to go to the gym. By the way, last night’s show with Stephanie Baldwin singing Broadway tunes, was arguably the best headline show so far. As I said yesterday, she is the wife of our general manager, Michael, and she was also Miss California 2001. Tonight’s show is “Jazz Legends” starring the ship’s very talented singers and the ship’s fantastic orchestra. We have seen this show twice before but can’t wait to see it again. Note: I posted yesterday’s and today’s blogs today so read both.

TUESDAY, MAR 23RD--AT SEA

We lost an hour last night so slept in a little this morning. I was down in “Club.com”, the internet room, by 8:45am to talk with Christian, internet expert onboard to help passengers. I was hoping he could help me streamline the way I upload by photos on the blog as it is taking way too long. He suggested that my blog albums be a lot smaller. I have about 1000 photos in each of the two current albums, and as I am sure you will agree, it takes too long to open them. So from now on I will be making albums with just a few ports in each one. I finally finished uploading the rest of my Bangkok pictures this morning and removed as many “double” pictures as I could see but am sure I missed some. At 2pm I went down to enter the darts tournament but did not do well. It was a fun group playing and that is all that matters to me. I did not enter the Baggo game at 3pm as we were about to pass by Singapore. It was on starboard side so could watch it from our balcony. It is a high overcast day, with excellent visibility, and comfortable temperature. Capt Dag said we would be 3 miles from it as we sailed past and had a great view. We have sailed past miles and miles of cargo and tanker ships anchored in the waters around Singapore. Most of them are empty and waiting for loads which is a sign of the weak economy of the world. Singapore is one of the largest and busiest ports in the world. Capt Dag just gave a PA saying we were passing “Raffles lighthouse” a prominent landmark here and remarked that he has never seen the visibility as good as today. This evening and night we will be sailing through the narrow Malacca Strait between Indonesia and the Malaysian peninsula. Tomorrow morning at 8am we are scheduled to dock at the port for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The next day we will be in Penang, Malaysia. The experienced world cruisers and even Capt Dag say these ports are not very interesting. We do not have a tour scheduled yet for tomorrow. Maybe I will hire a local guy at the pier to take us on a private tour. There are always cars for hire at every port. Several of the ship’s tours include stops at mosques and temples. I have seen enough of them to last me for a long time, but they are beautiful. Rebecca has returned from her workout in gym and I better head that way. We requested the chef make us veal parmesan again tonight as the regular menu did not grab us. Definitely want to see the show tonight as Stephanie Baldwin will be singing. She is the wife of our ship’s general manager, Michael. Back from workout and now internet is down so not sure if I can post this today. We are sailing in the Strait now and the water is smooth as a swimming pool. The weather is finally cooperating with the cruise. We are only about 80 miles north of the equator now and it is only 82F.

MONDAY, MAR 22ND--AT SEA

I spent about all day in the suite working on the blog. I finally left at 4pm to go workout. I still have not gotten half of the Bangkok pictures uploaded on the blog. I had to stop as it was adding two of the same pictures and I cannot figure out how to get rid of the extra one. I have an appointment with the ship’s internet expert tomorrow morning for some help. So sorry about the double pictures. Not much to write about since I was on the computer all day. Have not had much to eat so far as we had scrambled eggs from room service this morning and Slim Fast bars for lunch. After the weekend food orgy in Bangkok we needed to cut back. Smooth day of sailing today and sunny. We will cross back south of the Equator again tonight and we will be setting our clocks ahead one hour tonight. So now will be 11 hours ahead of you in Dallas. Tomorrow we will be passing by Singapore and will be at sea again. Time to head up for cocktails and dinner now. Show tonight is Glen Amer, a singer and piano player. Don't forget to read the Saturday & Sunday Bangkok posting as it was added this morning.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAR 20TH & 21ST--BANGKOK, THAILAND

We arrived back to the ship at about 4:30pm today, Sunday, after spending yesterday and today in Bangkok, Thailand. Lots to tell you so let me begin with our arrival Saturday morning, on schedule, at 7am in the port of Laem Chabang, which is a 2 hour drive south of downtown Bangkok and is the closest port for a ship this size. All but about 80 of the 450 passengers that are the ship now chose to leave the ship for a night’s stay in the Shangri La Hotel in downtown Bangkok. We took our over night bags with us to the bus and went on the 5 hour “Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha” tour which would end up at the hotel at 1pm. Our drive took us past rice fields, tapioca fields, pineapple fields, shrimp & fish farms, and industrial areas. I did not recognize anything from 38 years ago when I rode to Bangkok from Utapao AFB (probably misspelled it) which is further south from here. Back then I remember a two lane road through mostly countryside with only shanties (their poor houses) along the road. Now there is 4 lane but most of the way is 12 lanes of highway. I would estimate that 95% is new since then. Same way in downtown. We arrived at the Grand Palace which is a huge complex dating back to the late 1700’s. Also there is a beautiful temple which houses the Emerald Buddha. I took over 260 pictures the past couple of days so will try to get them uploaded tomorrow. I took several pictures here at the palace and temple for you. It was VERY hot and humid for our visit here. Temp was already in upper 90’s so everyone was dripping with sweat after our 90 minute walk around the grounds. As in most cities the “hawkers”, people selling souvenirs were all over us. We were happy to get back on our air conditioned bus for a ride through the city with our great guide pointing out landmarks. Next stop was a market (actually one big store) where we could buy Thai silk scarves and clothing, as well as, all kinds of precious stone jewelry. We finally arrived at the Shangri La at 1pm and went into a special room for check-in. Regent and the hotel had everything well planned and this only took about 2 minutes. This is a 5 star hotel and they had colorfully dressed young women greeting us at the front door and directing us everywhere. There was even one at the elevator to press the up button for us. Our room was on the 24th floor which was one of the 3 Horizon Club floors. Category D and lower full world cruise guests were on one of these 3 floors. Category C and up were in a separate wing that had a balcony and butler service. Allan and Carolyn had one of these and we saw it. Actually I preferred our room as it was on a much higher floor and was beautiful. We had an incredible view of the Chao Phraya River that runs through Bangkok and right next to the hotel. Too hot for a balcony anyway! After unpacking we headed down to one of three hotel restaurants that we could eat lunch in. We chose the one with an International buffet. Then we walked some streets around the hotel with Allan and Carolyn to do some shopping. It was hot and we were tired so no buying. We returned to the hotel, showered, dressed, and went to the Horizon club lounge which was serving complimentary hors douvers and drinks from 5:30 to 7:30pm. We only had one drink as had to be downstairs for a 2 hour sunset cruise on the river. This was with canapés and open bar and for only the full world cruise passengers. You should have seen the “canapés”! It was more like a dinner buffet. There were two boats and we chose the second one which was good as it did not have nearly as many people on it. The inside was air conditioned and had nice tables with chairs to sit at. It had an upper deck in the open air also where I went for photo taking. Surprisingly it was not that hot in the evening after such a torturously hot day. We cruised up the river and back. Kind of like Hong Kong, the lights were very nice at night. When we arrived back at the hotel two hours later but before we got off the boat, Regent had arranged for one of the most spectacular fireworks displays over the river that we had ever seen. It was literally right over our heads. Then, as if we needed to eat more, we went into the hotel ballrooms for a very nice dinner buffet. Then back up to our room for a great night view of the lights along the river and bed time. The next morning we dressed and packed our bags before going down for breakfast. It was one of the biggest buffets I think I have ever seen. No biscuits and gravy though! The bus back to the ship was scheduled for 3pm so we had until then to shop. We checked out of the hotel and checked our bags with the concierge before striking out on our own. Regent had a couple of local people at a desk to answer shopping, touring, and dining questions. I ask her where we could get some knock off designer purses. She personally led us across the street from the hotel into what appeared to be a small souvenir shop. Then she took us up through some doors to the 3rd floor to a room with all kinds of knock off Channel, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, and Fendi purses, scarves, sunglasses, & wallets. In addition they had fake Rolex watches. There are different degrees of these fake designer bags and watches and this was high quality stuff. Rebecca got two Louis Vuitton, a Prada, and a Channel purses. As an example, she paid $75 for the Channel purse and it would cost around $2000 if you bought the real one in the States. You can’t tell the difference either. We both bought matching Rolex watches also. Then we hired a “tuk-tuk”, 3 wheel open, small taxi, to drive us around the streets for an hour. You will see photos of them. We darted in and out of traffic on this sometimes hair-raising ride. The day before we had seen some of the “red shirts” demonstrators driving very fast through the streets but they were on the way to a protest and did not bother us. We headed back to the hotel but stopped at some street food vendors right in front of the hotel and sat for a soda with them. We were on the first bus that left the hotel for the 2 hour ride back to the ship. Again I was amazed at how everything had changed since 1972. Well, I guess I had changed some too! Once again Regent had a very nice surprise waiting for the buses as we all arrived back at the ship. The band was playing on the Promenade deck, the stewardesses were lined up next to them holding signs spelling out “welcome back home”, about 100 of the ship’s officers and crew were lined up and were cheering us as we walked to the gangway. More of the crew carried our luggage from the buses to our suites. I have some photos of this too. We had a great time in Bangkok but it was so nice to see the crew’s smiling faces and the ship again. The two days in Bangkok, including bus transfers, hotel room, and all food & drinks, was included in our cruise price. We would like to return to Bangkok and spend a week or two there some day as there is so much to do and see here. I’m sure I have left out some things about our short visit to Bangkok but maybe my pictures will tell a better, visual story. Before dinner last night we attended a 45 minute church service. Then we had a cocktail up in the Observation Lounge before dinner in Prime 7, the steakhouse. This morning I am finishing writing this and will start editing all the pictures. Depending on the ship’s internet I hope to get them uploaded today also.

FRIDAY, MAR 19--CRUISING GULF OF THAILAND

Today we are cruising in the Gulf of Thailand and heading for Laem Chabang which is the port for Bangkok. The port is a 2 hour bus ride from our hotel, the Shangri-La. We will be spending the night in that hotel and returning to the ship by 5pm the following day. So at 8am tomorrow we will be doing a 5 hour tour, “Grand Palace & the Emerald Buddha” and end up at the hotel around 1pm. After checking in there will be a buffet lunch at the hotel. We will then have some free time to shop. At 6:15 there will be a Regent special event for only the full world cruise passengers. We will attend a private sunset cocktail cruise, with open bar and canapés, along the Chao Praya River which runs through Bangkok and is next to our hotel. At the end there will a special fireworks show before our international buffet dinner in the hotel. All of this including the hotel room was included in our cruise fare. Don’t have any tours booked for the next day so will probably shop and explore Bangkok some more. I was here on “R&R” back in 1972 during the Vietnam war but I am certain it has changed a lot from back then. As we will be quite busy and my computer will remain on the ship, there will be no postings to the blog for the next two days. This morning at 10am we went to Sandra’s lecture entitled, “The History and Culture of Thailand”. Then at 11am we listened to Morton Dean’s lecture about the political campaign trail and some inside stories about how the news media covered it. Lunch up in La Veranda restaurant was Mexican buffet today. That will be good for our 2 hour bus ride tomorrow. So this afternoon we have to pack our over night suitcases and we will both go to the gym. Tonight we are dining with JR, one of the cruise staff, and Shelly, the art auction person. That will be fun. The ship was rocking last night after we left the river and was again in the South China Sea. Today it is smooth again with lots of sun and 82F. Forecast to be upper 90’s in Bangkok tomorrow. The satellite has been in and out all day long so I hope I can get this posted later today.

THURSDAY, MAR 18TH--SAIGON DAY 2

We had a very interesting dinner last night as we were joined by Peter & Yasuko. Peter was a young British officer during the D-Day invasion and landed on Sword Beach. He is now 85 and sharp as a tack and tells stories about it as if it happened yesterday. He seemed more interested in my stories about the Vietnam war. As I said, I was suppose to leave at 7:15 this morning on a tour of the Mekong Delta but decided I had had enough hot bus rides. Probably should have done it as I’m sure I missed some good pictures for you. Instead we took the free shuttle bus downtown and was dropped off near the Rex Hotel with shopping streets all around it. The Rex Hotel was US headquarters during the Vietnam war and was where General Westmoreland stayed. It was also where military briefers did the news conferences for the press. We only spent an hour and a half shopping but found more Ralph Lauren polo shirts for $5 and Rebecca bought some scarves for $5 each. Funny thing was one of the store clerks was squatting in corner while she ate her lunch. I ask if I could have some and she said yes. I politely declined rubbing my stomach saying I was too fat already. She said my stomach was "smiling Buda" not fat. While waiting on the bus to return to the ship we walked through the Rex Hotel. There were some souvenir stands next to the ship so did more shopping after we had lunch on the ship. I bought a suitcase (bigger than airplane roll-aboard size) for $18 just in case we need it at end of cruise. We both bought more Polo shirts. I bought 3 DVD movies: Up In The Air, The Hurt Locker, and another one for $2 total. So it is now 4pm and we just left the pier and are sailing for the next port which is Laem Chabang, the port for Bangkok. Tomorrow is a day at sea however.

WEDNESDAY, MAR 17TH--SAIGON, VIETNAM

We sailed up the river a couple of hours before arriving at our docking place near Saigon this morning. At 9am I boarded the bus for what was to be a 5 hour tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels on the outskirts north of Saigon. It was to be a 1 ½ drive to and from this place but at noon, 3 hours later, we arrived. That is not the worse part however. Unfortunately our bus’s air conditioning system was not working very well and it was in the 90’s today. I would say our bus temperature was in the 80’s. We had to drive through Saigon city itself and the traffic was unbelievable. Motorbikes by the hundreds of thousands madly racing in and around the cars, buses and trucks. The best way I can describe it is, “uncontrolled chaos”! On the way our tour guide was telling us about the Vietnam war and how the “American Army” was responsible for destroying villages and killing women and children. He also told how the “American Army” ran his country. He went on and on until I had heard enough and politely invited him to sit in the seat next to me so I could tell him about the war. This man was born 4 years after the war ended in 1975 and he proudly stated that his parents were Viet Cong, the enemy of South Vietnam. I informed him that the “American Army” had been invited to help the South Vietnamese defend themselves from the invading North Vietnam army. I reminded him that we trained and fought beside the South Vietnamese army. Then I told him that South Vietnam was run by its Presidents (there were several different ones during our involvement). So he finally went back up to the front and after a few minutes he got on PA and ask my name. I said, “Rick”. So he said “Mr Rick” had made some correct points to him. Then for the next 10 minutes he admitted that the history books used in their schools teach what he had earlier espoused. This history is what he learned and it said the US had invaded Vietnam and ran his country. He admitted that it was untrue, and that indeed, the South Vietnamese Army was fighting side by side with the “American Army”. I received applause then and other kind comments from my fellow passengers. Rose Ann, the bridge instructor, thanked me and said she had had it up to here also. That was the end of his war comments on the bus. The Cu Chi Tunnels were a museum and tribute now to the Cu Chi fighters who fought American and South Vietnamese forces from tunnels deep underground that had been actually dug during when the French were fighting them. So I expected misleading statements and propaganda there and I got it. I took a few photos there but not many. They proudly showed probably 20 different booby traps they used to kill and maim the “American Army”. The Cu Chi fighters and Viet Cong lived in these tunnels and came out at night to ambush. We had the opportunity to go in a tunnel and several did but I could not due to my knees. After spending 1 ½ hours here we finally headed back to the ship. This time the bus was even hotter. We arrived back at 4:15, two hours late. I composed a letter to Phil, our excursions manager onboard, about our experience on today’s tour. Well, it is about 7pm and time to go for dinner. I missed lunch as we had no food on the tour so am a little hungry. Dieting probably helped me though. I am scheduled for a 7 ½ tour tomorrow to the Mekong Delta but am rethinking this. Have a nice St Patrick’s Day!

TUESDAY, MAR 16TH--NHA TRANG

“GOOD MORNING VIETNAM” Remember that quote from the Robin Williams movie? This morning we docked in Nha Trang, Vietnam, which in the central part of the country. As I said the huge US air base of Cam Ranh Bay was located here during the war but is now their international airport. This area of Vietnam is truly beautiful, especially the 5 mile long beach right next to the city. We had a perfect day here weather wise as was bright sunshine all day and lower 80’s with low humidity. We boarded the bus at 8:30 this morning for our 4 hour “Rural Life” tour. We drove to the outskirts of the city to visit a kindergarten. I don’t know who enjoyed who most, the cute little kids or us. Passengers had brought the little candies that are placed on our bed every night by our stewardesses and gave them to the anxious children. They loved to pose for our photos of them. Their precious smiles warmed everyone’s hearts. I took another 160 photos today but not sure when I will have time to upload them. You will see what I am talking about for yourselves then. Next stop was at a local market place where the people shop every morning for fresh meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit for that day’s use. I took several pictures of this very interesting and bustling place. Right across the street was a pharmacy so we enlisted the help of our guide to buy some Z Packs of antibiotics. Rebecca paid $70 for 1 Z Pack on the ship and here we got 20 packs for $11. After leaving the market we stopped to see some women weaving floor mats and place mats. We bought 4 hand made place mats for $8. There was also an elementary school here and we got to observe them in class and also in court yard exercising and playing “ring around the rosie”. Once again the kids loved their foreign visitors and our cameras. Next we visited a colorful temple (I’m about templed out). Back to the bus for a ride to the countryside where we stopped in a little village with, yes another temple! We saw some rice paddies that were about 2 weeks from harvest and some that were ready to be harvested. Here they use a machine to harvest the rice. We saw some farmers preparing the ground for planting and they also had brought some water buffalos for us to see. We then got to see a typical farmer’s house. In the center of the front room was a place to worship and a bed was on each side of that. I had to walk around to the back to get pictures of the very small kitchen (not sure if they wanted me to do that). In front of the house was a woman making incense sticks. We walked further into the village to see a woman making “rice paper”. Not to write on but used to wrap veggies or seafood in before eating. Guess you would say a Vietnamese taco of sorts. She used the husks from the rice grains as fuel to cook with as it burns slowly with lower heat that wood. They use all of the rice they harvest. The stems as animal food, husks as fuel, and rice grain for human consumption. A farmer can get 3 harvests of rice each year off his land. 60% he sells, 10% he keeps for seed to plant, and 30% for his own family’s use. A typical farmer has an income of from $8000 to $10000 a year and the government gets 15% of that. After harvesting they have to spread the rice on a flat surface for 2 days so the sun can dry it. The women are constantly stirring the rice so it can dry faster. Some farmers also grow vegetables to eat and sell barter in the markets. Next stop was at a restaurant of sorts where we sipped cocoanut water from a cold cocoanut. I trekked down a street on my own during this time and had a conversation with a nice lady named, Heeb. I enjoyed joking with her and trying to get her to pose for a photo. Finally she consented. Prior to this I came upon a very young couple and the boy wanted me to take a picture of his girlfriend. She finally agreed. Almost everyone I take pictures of wants to see the picture. Now we headed back to the ship. You will notice that the women motobikers are almost totally covered: long pants, long sleeved shirts, gloves, hat, mask. Our tour guide said they do it to protect themselves from the sun. The men do not care. So we were back at 12:30 and at 1:00p I boarded a bus to the pedicab place. Rebecca did not want to go so I gave her ticket to Norman, a friend. The pictures I took describes what this experience was like. It was a lot of fun but I was worried that my legs were getting fried from the sun. As you can see there was a little canopy over my head. They peddled us all over Nha Trang for an hour. We ended up at a market place where we were to be for 45 minutes but the tour guide helped me negotiate a $5 cab ride back to the ship. Good price as it was 15 minute ride. Glad I came back early as I tried on the shirts I bought from the pier side stands were way too small. I bought L sizes but needed XXL in their size. Paid $6 for Ralph Lauren polo shirts and $3 each for embroidered T-shirts. Our “stuff” is growing and growing so hoping we have space in suitcases to get it back home. I was very impressed with Nha Trang and our tours here. Tomorrow we will be in Saigon but they choose to call it Ho Chi Minh City after the war. OOPS! It is time for another “block party” so have to go have a glass of wine with our hallway neighbors. May not have time to do blog posts until after we leave Saigon and will be there next two days.

MONDAY, MAR 15TH--AT SEA

We had a very nice day at sea relaxing from our long day yesterday with our 11 hour Hanoi tour. I managed to get the Hanoi blog written and posted by noon today and am uploading the pictures now as I am writing this. The internet has been down for most of the afternoon. Just came back from the gym (5:30pm) and Rebecca is napping. She is fighting off a sore throat now so is resting a lot today. She went to Morton Dean’s lecture this morning and I played shuffleboard. Came in second today but there were only two teams! I listened to a rerun of Mort’s lecture on TV this afternoon while editing the 160 pictures I took yesterday in Hanoi. Don’t worry, I am only uploading 92 of them on blog. It is about sunset now and we are going to have an incredible one and perfect view from our balcony. I have requested veal parmesan with pasta as special dinner again for tonight and Allan & Carolyn will be joining us. Performing in the showroom tonight will be a violinist. I was talking with one of the ship’s band members today and he said he was very good so may go. Vanessa, one of the ship’s singers who always does the games with her singer husband, is celebrating her 25th birthday today. Everyone who plays the games surprised her before the Baggo game today. One of the dancers lead her down blindfolded and we sang Happy Birthday when the blindfold was removed. Must have been 30 people there and it was lots of fun. Tomorrow we will be in Nha Trang, Vietnam. It is near the huge air base used by the Air Force during the Vietnam War called Cam Ranh Bay. Now it is Cam Ranh International Airport. Nha Trang is more commonly know as “China Beach”. It is a big tourist city now due to its pristine beaches and was the site of the 2008 Miss Universe contest. The sun has set and time for me to get ready for cocktails.

SUNDAY, MAR 14TH--HANOI, VIETNAM

I had been anticipating this day for years. Not really knowing if I wanted to visit this place that I had been 30,000 feet above on the nights of Dec 18th & 20th, 1972. It was on those nights that 11 of the 15 B-52’s were shot down by the North Vietnamese air defense system’s SAM’s (surface to air missiles) during the 11 nights of intense bombing from Dec 18 to 29. I was lucky! Anyway, 741 B-52 sorties dropped over 20,000 tons of bombs on Hanoi and Haiphong during those nights and forced them to sign the peace treaty in January 1973. By the way there were also hundreds of Air Force & Navy fighter-bombers pounding Hanoi and another 12 of those fighter-bombers were also shot down. We sailed into the port city of Hong Gai which is in Halong Bay about 130 miles east of Hanoi early in the morning. We boarded our tour bus for the 3 ½ hour drive into Hanoi. It was a long but very interesting drive through small villages and past miles and miles of rice fields. The farmers were also raising some vegetables and we saw some corn fields. There were many big, black water buffalo and cattle roaming the fields that were not flooded for the rice production. Vietnam is only second to Thailand in the amount of rice that is exported. The farmers live in small villages and walk or ride bicycles to their fields. It was Sunday but we saw many women standing in the mud and water covered rice fields pulling weeds from their crop. Our guide said 6 weeks after planting the rice they weeded before spreading fertilizer on it by hand. There was NO mechanization. Although I did see one man plowing with a water buffalo. Every thing was done by hand. I’m not sure how they could work stooped over every day for 12 hours a day. You will see pictures I took of the village houses right along the highway. They are very narrow with 2 to 5 floors. The bottom floor is their shop or little store and they live upstairs. The parents and young kids live on the 2nd floor and married sons and their families live on each of the upper floors. Vietnam is a “young” country. By that I mean 65% of the 87 million people have been born since the end of the war (1975 is when Siagon fell). The most remarkable thing about the whole day is that during the 7 hours of bus riding to and from Hanoi, we were not killed nor did our bus kill anyone. The drivers are insane. There are hundreds of motor scooters on the edge of both sides of the roads and buses, trucks, and cars playing the game of chicken down the middle. I guess they know how to play the game as I only noticed where one truck had ran off the road. The sound of horns was continuous the whole day even when driving in the city of Hanoi. We stopped about half way for a restroom break at an arts and crafts factory with a huge showroom of stuff for sale. I took some pictures of the girls at work sewing before I was nicely told “no photos”. Their work was beautiful and the pictures they were hand sewing took a month of work to finish. The picture I took of the cat face would cost $75 to buy. First stop when we arrived in Hanoi was at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum where we walked around with our guide for about 45 minutes. There were huge lines of Vietnamese people lined up to go into the mausoleum. We did not go inside. We saw the two houses where Ho Chi Minh lived. No lavish lifestyle here for sure! While walking, I saw two old men in what seemed to be old military uniforms so I eventually got up enough nerve to go over to them, as they sat eating some ice cream, and ask if I could take a picture of them. They slide apart and offered me a place to sit between them so I did and Rebecca took the picture. I am not so sure how nice they would have been if they knew I had dropped bombs on their city. It will be uploaded on the blog. All the people treated us well during our time in Hanoi. Then we drove to a temple but I have seen enough of them to last a long time so stayed on the bus. The city streets were clogged with motor bikes, millions of them, parked on the sidewalks if not on the street itself. Next stop was at what our driver called a “five star” hotel for a Vietnamese lunch buffet. Well, the Hanoi Daewood Hotel was maybe like our Holiday Inns and the food was not very good. I enjoyed the local beer though. Our drive after lunch took us through the old French area with the villas they built in early 1900’s and that now house most of the Embassies of other countries. We stopped for a guided walk through some old market streets. Each street had a specialty, like shoes. I have never seem so many shoes in my life! We enjoyed this part of the tour. The streets were packed with people on Sunday afternoon. Last stop was at the Hoa Lo Prison better known as “The Hanoi Hilton”. It was built by the French in early 1900’s so they could imprison Vietnamese resistance leaders but during the Vietnam War it was used to house US pilots that had been shot down. This is where Senator John McCain spent 6 years. Most of the prison has been torn down and replaced by new office buildings but what remains was turned into a small museum. Most of the museum was about how terrible the French treated their Vietnamese prisoners. Only 2 small rooms dealt with it use as a POW prison for US pilots. I found the place disgusting. The pictures of the POW’s were only ones showing them playing games and smiling like they were being treated well and having a good time. Nothing was mentioned about the years of torture, lack of medical attention, and lack of food our heroes endured. Then they had big pictures of the war protesters back in the US. I could tell that our guide did not want to talk about the subject and was nervous when he did. I found Hanoi not to be a modern city, as the Chinese cities were, and it was very dirty. The air was very polluted and many citizens wore masks over their nose and mouth. Ok, so I have seen it once and never plan to return. We headed back to the ship on another 3 ½ hours of hair-raising bus riding with again a stop at another crafts factory enroute. Our bus was the last to return at 6:40pm and we were last ones off the bus. As we stepped off the bus we were handed a cold wet wash cloth. Two waiters held silver trays with glasses of Champaign also. Very classy!! We were last two onboard and by the time we got up to our suite the ship was already sliding away from the pier. Even though we were very tired we showered and dressed for dinner up in the La Veranda. Rebecca retired after dinner but I went to the production show with the ship's singers and dancers.

SATURDAY, MAR 13TH--AT SEA

HUMP DAY! The cruise is half over now. It’s going way too fast. This afternoon we are passing through the Hainan Straits, a passageway between mainland China and the island of Hainan just off Vietnam. This evening we will be in the Gulf of Tonkin where two US aircraft carriers were stationed during the War in Southeast Asia, better know as the Vietnam War. Visibility here is reduced some due to fog but now I can see China from our balcony. There are hundreds of small fishing boats in this strait and buoys with fishing nets under them that we are sailing past. The Captain said this morning that you need a special permit to sail through this strait and it has to be at a reduced speed. He also said that we did make contact with the ferry boat last night. There was one short “scratch” on the bow (front) of our ship about 12 feet above the water line. Had he not maneuvered it would have been much worse. So all is well with our ship and I was worrying for no reason. We will be arriving early tomorrow morning in Hong Gai in Halong Bay. This is the closest port to Hanoi where we will be visiting tomorrow. From the port to Hanoi will be a 3 ½ hour bus ride each way. Our tour is an 11 hour one so only 4 hours of it will be in Hanoi itself. Tour time will be at 7:15am but we turn our clocks back an hour tonight so will get extra sleep time. I am having mixed emotions now about going into Hanoi but need to do it. Well, with the beginning of this segment we went from “silver” level on Regent to “gold” level as we now have over 75 days of cruising on Regent. So now we are getting a free copy of our home town newspaper, The Dallas Morning News, every morning. We will now have an additional 2 hours of free phone time (had 1 hours as “silver”). The newspaper helps us feel closer to home so is very nice. Seems like I am jumping all over the place with this posting. This morning we went to Sandra’s lecture entitled, “The Music of Vietnam and Thailand”. I did not last too long here so left and was sitting in Centrum area reading my paper when a passenger walked by who is from St Louis. We had talked on a tour one day. We started talking and I discovered he was a Vietnam vet also so we had a long discussion and shared stories. At 11am we went to a lecture by Morton Dean entitled, “A Reporter’s Notebook-The Vietnam War”. For those of you old enough to remember, Morton was seen many nights on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite reporting from Vietnam. It is my contention that the liberal news media during this period was partly responsible for the terrible treatment us Vietnam vets received by our fellow Americans when we returned from the war. Back then 15 minutes (half) of the evening news every night was footage of Vietnam and they like to sensationalize that war. How many minutes of the evening news today is of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars? Answer: Practically none. Enough of that. At 3pm I am going to enter the golf putting tournament. Tonight we were booked to go to the “Dinner and a Show”. It is dinner in the French restaurant then a 40 minute lounge show featuring the singing of our general manager’s wife, Stephanie. I cancelled as it is a formal night tonight and the menu in the Compass Rose, main dining room, is my favorite. Show in the show room tonight features a headline singer named Sally Jones and we will be going to hear her at 9:30pm. As we are on tour all day tomorrow I will not post again until the day at sea after we leave Hanoi. Will be uploading just a few pictures later today.

STATUS UPDATE

Shortly after 8:00pm we pulled up the anchor and continued on out of HK harbor. We are doing around 19 knots now which is a normal speed. Will have to wait until the Captain's daily PA at 9:00am to see what our new arrival time will be in Hong Gai, Vietnam (port for Hanoi). I will be back later but probably in the middle of your night. Just wanted to let you know we are fine.

FRIDAY, MAR 12TH--HONG KONG DAY 3

I just discovered that I left out one day’s posting to the blog. That was our sea day after Xiamen, March 8th. Well, nothing exciting happened I guess. I probably spent all day uploading the Shanghai photos, So today was our last day in Hong Kong (HK). We cancelled our scheduled tour as just wanted to do a little more shopping and relax. As it turned out I have spent several hours writing blog posts and uploading HK pictures for you. I am so glad I had taken lots of pictures the first two days as today was overcast with some fog and a little rain shower in the afternoon. They took another passenger off the ship this morning and headed for the hospital. I think that is #8 to remain behind in the hospital. We left our dock at 5pm and was sailing out of the harbor and I was out on our balcony and saw a boat that was attempting to cross our path in front of the ship. I could see it was going to be very close. The Captain reversed the azipods to stop the ship and sounded our ship’s horn. Now we have stopped and dropped anchor in the harbor. Captain Dag came on PA and said he wanted to do “an inspection” before continuing. Knowing him, I think some damage has been done to the ship. I am not sure if we did hit it or if the azipods (propellers) were damaged when doing the emergency stop. The ship was really shaking during this time. It is 6:30 now and have been doing the “inspection” for half hour now. As I was watching us sail out, it seemed to me that we were going too fast for so much traffic in the harbor. I have a really bad feeling that our world cruise may be over. Now 7pm and going for cocktails and dinner. I’ll post this now and make another post tomorrow with what is happening.

THURSDAY, MAR 11TH--HONG KONG DAY 2

Our second day in Hong Kong (HK) was another sunny and even warmer day with high of about 70F. Today was the end of the 3rd segment of the world cruise so some people left the ship and new ones embarked during the day. Our 4 hour tour, “Insights Into Heart of HK” began at 9am. Once again our tour bus took us though a tunnel under Victoria Harbor to HK Island’s Western District. Here we exited the bus for a walk through the narrow streets to visit the area where there were shop after shop selling ginseng and bird’s nests. The bird’s nests were from a special bird and not like the ones we know in the States. They were VERY expensive and mostly used in bird’s nest soup. We then walked down Hollywood Rd where all the antique stores were. Rebecca could have spent all day here. Next we visited a herbal pharmacy store. In the back sat two “herbal” doctors at little tables. A customer would sit down and tell them what symptoms they had and he would write a prescription which the two herbal pharmacists would fill. The prescription we watched being filled contained about 10 different dried herbs which were all wrapped up in brown paper. This was very interesting to watch but not sure how effective the cure was. The older Chinese believe in it for sure. HK Island is very hilly and reminded us of the streets in San Francisco. Next we took the world’s longest “covered” escalator up over streets. It was 2400 feet long which is nearly a half mile. Forgot to mention a break for some local refreshments at a little diner. We enjoyed a traditional egg custard tart and some Chinese tea or a “half & half”--half coffee and half tea. I took a picture of some Peking ducks hanging in the window. Next we walked through streets with dried seafood’s of all types plus some other dried items, like snake skins. I could not believe they eat this stuff. Turtle bottoms, minnows, whole fish, bats, deer horns, eel, sea cucumbers, shark fins, and much more. Our walk through all the streets this morning was most interesting. Now we got back on the bus for a short ride to the Central District and Star Ferry. We rode the ferry for the 8 minute trip across the harbor back to the Kowloon Star Ferry terminal which is right next to our ship. Our dock was so convenient as there was a shopping mall right in the cruise terminal and two more malls a short walk away. Plus all the shops nearby on Canton and Nathan Rds. We cancelled our “Hong Kong by Night” tour as we were beat from two days of touring. Since we had such a beautiful view from our balcony we decided to dine in our suite that night and again watch the laser light show. Now on Regent during the hours the dining room is open, you can order from room service the same menu that is being used in the dining room. So I ordered shrimp cocktails, salads, garlic bread, and a bottle of chardonnay to start with. Later I ordered linguini with clam sauce as our entrée and cheese cake for dessert. They have a cover for the coffee table in our suite that makes it into a table and they bring a white table cloth and silver service. I thought the laser show was better and we really enjoyed dining in. After dinner we watched a movie on our DVD that I had brought with us. The ship has hundreds of DVD’s available to check out also. I had to call reception desk again last night to complain that the music in the Horizon Lounge below us was too loud and bothering me.

WEDNESDAY, MAR 10TH--HONG KONG DAY 1

Maybe I can catch up a day on the blog posting this morning. I believe my last post was on Tuesday after leaving Xiamen and it is now Friday morning here in Hong Kong (HK). This will be Wednesday’s post. We sailed into HK’s Victoria Harbor just before noon on a beautifully sunny day. The harbor was alive with ferries, harbor tour boats, and the smaller sanpans darting about in a kind of water ballet. They all somehow managed to miss each other and get to their destinations. We were the largest ship in the harbor as we approached our docking berth next to the Star Harbor Ferry pier at Kowloon. HK is on a peninsula of mainland China and is comprised of The New Territories, Kowloon, HK Island and 266 other small islands. You will notice on my picture captions I called it a river that separates Kowloon from HK Island but it is really Victoria Harbor. Captain Dag gave the starboard side suites (that is us) an incredible view across the harbor to HK Island from our berth. We walked off the ship right into a huge shopping mall, a dangerous thing for husbands. HK Island is only 30 square miles in size with a mountain on it. It has many very modern skyscrapers which house the banking industry and many other company offices. It also has many different markets areas and interesting things to see and do. HK has a population of 7 million people and was under British control for 150 years prior to reunification with China as a Special Administrative Region in June of 1997. Kowloon also has its skyscraper office buildings but it is also a shopping Meca. All the super expensive stores that are found on LA’s Rodeo Drive are here plus hundreds more. I guess the economy is doing well as there was a line outside Channel waiting to get in. At 12:45 we boarded a tour bus for our 4 ½ hour, “HK Orientation” tour. We drove through one of the tunnels connecting Kowloon to HK Island. We arrived at the Victoria Peak Tram for our steep ascent to a viewing area 1800 feet up. Thankfully we had a sunny day to enjoy the incredible views of HK which I tried to capture in my photos. Our bus met us at the top and we drove back down to Repulse Bay on the southern side of the island where there were some beautiful beaches and then made a stop at Stanley Market for a little shopping. We discovered right away that shopping prices were much better back in Shanghai. Next stop was at the old fishing town of Aberdeen. There we boarded noisy sanpans driven by old ladies for a 20 minute ride to see the house boats, fishing boats, yachts, and the famous Jumbo Floating Restaurant. This restaurant was huge and you have to take a sanpan there to dine. Last stop was at a jewelry factory. We were running late at this point and no one really wanted to go in but our guide pretty much insisted. I remained on the bus! After we finally departed it became obvious why he wanted to stop there. I saw him slip the driver his share of the commission the store gave them. We arrived back 40 minutes late and I was not very happy about that. That night we dressed and went up to Observation Lounge to get a good window seat so we could watch the laser light show from 8:00pm to 8:13pm. The light show is every night and use to be fireworks until an accident killed someone. Just prior to 8pm I went up to the top deck outside so I could get some good pictures hopefully. The laser lights are located on the tops of several tall buildings on both sides of the harbor and go off at different times. You must see it!! After the show we headed to the dining room for our dinner. Early to bed as another tour early tomorrow.

MONDAY, MAR 8TH--XIAMEN, CHINA

Just back from our “Highlights of Xiamen” 4 hour tour and we will sail in a half hour. Xiamen has a population of 2 million people and is due west of Taiwan. After Shanghai we were somewhat disappointed here. Once again they had nice, modern roads and there was a lot of construction under way. The roads we traveled were particularly nice as all along them were beautifully manicured shrubs and flower beds. Our first stop was the South Putuo Temple. It as built during the Tang Dynasty more than a 1,000 years ago. Monks are still living here. We saw several Buddhas and the Chinese people were burning incense outside and kneeling to pray in front of the Buddhas inside the temple. My pictures will show you this. Then we continued to a Chinese tea house and witnessed an authentic tea ceremony where we learned about the different kinds of teas and how to steep it. Of course they wanted us to buy some after the demonstration. We drove along the coastal highway to make a photo stop at a beach. Last stop was at a museum but don’t think many in our group enjoyed it. So all in all, I think we should have skipped the tour today and taken the shuttle bus downtown for shopping. It is overcast again today with a breeze and temperature in lower 50F’s, so is chilly. Last night we enjoyed another great dinner in the Compass Rose restaurant. The osso bucco was excellent. After dinner we enjoyed the ship’s singers and dancers in a production show from front row seats. Don’t laugh, but yesterday and today for lunch we had Slim Fast bars. Well tomorrow we be arriving in Hong Kong by noon. Weather should be much nicer and warmer. Hong Kong is the end of the 3rd segment of the world cruise and again some passengers will be leaving and new ones boarding. In the pictures that I will be uploading on the blog today, you will see some of the golf tournament I played in yesterday. Yes, it is silly but was lots of fun. We are sailing out now and the sun just came out!

SUNDAY, MAR 7TH--SHANGHAI DAY 2

WHAT A DAY!! Shanghai is a truly remarkable, beautiful, and intriguing city that is changing constantly. The largest metropolis in China and fifth largest city in the world with a population of over 17 million. It has its charming old buildings dating from the early 1900’s to the skyscrapers of the new Pudong area that have all been built in the last 20 years on what use to be rice paddies. I uploaded photos of our first day in Shanghai last evening so you can now see what I am talking about when I mention the “Pudong” area with the Oriental Pearl Tower as its most interesting landmark. Having lunch in it, 876 feet above the ground, was breathtaking. The most amazing thing about this city is, the literally, thousands of 20 to 30 story apartment buildings. Most of them are modern buildings and really quite nice. As an interesting aside, our guide said apartment prices are really escalating as she paid less than $100,000US for hers 7 years ago and it is now worth over $500,000US. When they marry here the man has to buy an apartment or they will not marry. Prices are so high now that the parents of the man now help him make the 30% down payment. In Shanghai couples are limited to only 1 child. Having a car is discouraged in Shanghai because there is not much parking and the roads would not handle cars for 17 million people. So the government limit’s the number of license plates issued and they are bid for on the internet. A license is good for 15 years and may cost as much as the car itself. As a result bicycles, electric motor bikes (gasoline ones are banned because of pollution--noise & air), buses, and the subways are what most use to get around. Our tour bus took us about an hour drive out of the downtown area to the ancient water town of Zhujiajiao (dare you to pronounce that) which is called Shanghai’s Venice. Apartment buildings lined the road as far as you could see for the whole drive. New, modern highways and interchanges were being built. Investing in the Chinese construction industry seems a good one! So this ancient town dates back 1700 years and has a canal running through it with small boats that will transport you much like the ones in Venice, Italy. I think my pictures will convey what a wonderful experience our 15 minute boat trek was. There were several foot bridges over the canal that our oarsman had to duck to get underneath. Our cruise director, Jamie, and Diana, his camera operator, were in our boat and they were filming a segment for his “Jamie’s Journeys” that they produce in very port for viewing on the TV in our suites. Our tour guide was also in our boat and Jamie was interviewing her. This was a very special experience for us and I suspect we will be “movie stars” on this new segment. After leaving the boats our group was led on a walking tour of the town. We went through a post office dating back to the Qing Dynasty. There will be a picture of the oldest mail box in Shanghai and one of the mail boat that delivered mail on the canal. Long ago paper was rare and expensive so they wrote messages on bones and shells. The post office is still in use today. Then we visited a fascinating ancient pharmacy. It is still being used and we watched the pharmacist fill a prescription for an old woman the old way. No pills here! He weighed herbs & drugs on old scale then ground them in special stone container with a stone. Then he poured in on brown paper and folded it before handing it to the woman. She was using an old plastic sack for her purse. Folks, this was such an experience and one I shall treasure forever. Back out on the narrow pathways through the town with all the shops lining both sides and an occasional motor bike winding its way through sending the people scurrying to get out of the way. We were then turned loose for an hour of exploring and shopping. Even though we dressed warmer for today’s tour, we were still freezing. That was not going to deter us as we were having such a great time soaking up every bit of this unbelievable experience. We had arrived at 9am and the streets were almost empty but by noon, when we left, they were full of city people out to spend a Sunday in the countryside. Needless to say the two Regent tour groups were the only Caucasians there. Rebecca bought a pashmina and a little snuff bottle and the woman wrote her name inside it. Try that one! We also bought some interesting covers for wine bottles that we will use when we take wine to give as a gift. The fun part for me was haggling over the price. I brought some candy from the ship and would give it to the little kids. I gave one to a very old woman and her face lit up. I made her day and she certainly made mine!!! We were frozen when we got back on the bus but loved every minute of this tour. Back at the ship we grabbed some hot soup for lunch before once again boarding buses at 2:45pm for the Chinese Acrobatic Show. It was in the 900 seat showroom at the Ritz Carlton Hotel located in the expensive shopping district of downtown Shanghai. Regent had reserved the whole showroom for a special acrobatic show just for us. Sorry, no photographs during the show were allowed. For the next 1 ½ hours our mouths gapped open as we watched one amazing fete after another. The Chinese acrobats do traveling shows in the States occasionally so do not pass up the opportunity to see them if you can. So we were back at the ship by 6pm and I worked until 8pm uploading pictures of day 1 on the blog. Then we rushed down for a quick dinner before heading to the showroom to watch the movie, “Inglourious Basterds” on the big screen. We are watching the Academy Awards this morning as I write this and it is up for several awards. So today we are back out in the East China Sea sailing for the Chinese port of Xiamen. At noon it is overcast and 49F with the ship moving about some but not too bad. This morning everyone, even the crew, had to have their temperature taken and logged for our arrival in Hong Kong on Wednesday. We will have 3 days in Hong Kong and can’t wait. This afternoon I will try to upload yesterday's photos.

SATURDAY, MAR 6TH--SHANGHAI, CHINA

We had a very interesting day here in Shanghai. Unfortunately, after lunch it started a downpour right when we were to visit the Yu Garden so most voted to bypass it and shop in an interesting Chinese market place. So first we departed the ship and drove along The Bund, the famous waterfront boulevard. Interestingly, they are now building an underground road that will open in two months and traffic will no longer be allowed at Bund street level. From The Bund you can look across the river and see the Pudong. It is the “new” part of Shanghai (built during last 20 years) and has only new buildings that are mostly skyscrapers. The bus continued on through the French “concession” area with its sycamore tree lined streets. Here we saw some of the older parts of the city. Then we took a tunnel under the river to The Pudong, or new city. We were to take a walk along the Riverside Walkway where we could look across the river once again but this time we had a great view of The Bund. It was a very cold, damp day and we were freezing so we waited for the group inside a nearby hotel lobby. Next we had a very short walk to the Orient Pearl Tower. I have several pictures of it so you will know what I am talking about when you see them. When inside we visited the very nice Shanghai Historical Museum for about 45 minutes. Then we took an elevator up to the 876 foot high revolving restaurant for a buffet lunch. Unfortunately, the day was not a good one for views due to smog, fog, rain, and low overcast clouds. I tried to take some pictures from there but they were not good. During our lunch it started pouring rain for last half of our tour. Back on the bus and under the river again for Yu Garden as I have discussed at beginning. At the shopping place called “Old City at the Old Street of Yu Garden” we went into a silk shop. There we heard and observed how silk is produced from silk worms and made into products. This shopping area was made up of hundreds of small shops with all types of Chinese products. We headed for a jewelry shop that our guide recommended as Rebecca wanted some nice fresh water black pearls. Starting price was $400 and I finally paid $170. Then of course, had to have some earrings to match. At the shop next to it we bought a 18 inch wide by 4 feet long painting on rice paper and framed in silk. This will be hung in our guest’s bedroom when we return home. Rebecca also collects snuff bottles so had to get one. I bought a large tea mug that changes color and picture when hot water is added--very neat. Finally back on the bus and short drive back to the ship. We have 2 hours here before our next event. This will be a special Regent event for all full world cruise passengers only. It is an “Ethnic Fashion Show at the Bund”. So we will take be transferred by coach to Three on the Bund for cocktails and canapés while listening to Chinese music and watching models dance in colorful costumes. This will be followed by a fireworks display outside over the river on the Bund. Our guide said they only have fireworks like this on the Chinese New Year but this one is special just for us. Thank you Regent!! After having a big lunch we will wait until we return to the ship around 9pm to eat dinner. I will not have time to upload pictures onto the blog until probably day after tomorrow. Too much to do and see here!

FRIDAY, MAR 5TH--ARRIVING IN SHANGHAI, CHINA

It is now 1:30pm and we are in the East China Sea approaching Shanghai. About 4pm we will enter the Huangpu River and sail up it to our dock which will be close to the downtown area and within sight of the very famous “Bund” (Shanghai’s waterfront boulevard). So we should dock around 6pm but then Chinese immigration officials will come aboard and all passengers will have to present their passports to them so they can check our Chinese visas. This process could take 3 hours they say from previous experience. It is another foggy day with an occasional thunderstorm and 45F so not a very nice one. There are a lot of interesting ships and smaller boats passing by outside. We had planned to do some shopping tonight but looks like we will have to do it after our tour tomorrow. The internet reception is on and off today so not sure if I can make the blog posting. I hope the weather will be better tomorrow so I can get some good pictures. Now 5pm and we are going up the river to downtown Shanghai area and our dock. Really bad weather for taking pictures and now also getting dark. Definitely not going ashore tonight. Our tour tomorrow starts at 8:45am.

THURSDAY, MAR 4TH--SAILING THROUGH TAIWAN STRAIT

We just sailed past Taiwan where I guess they had an earthquake as we were passing by today. It is now 2:15pm and visibility outside is maybe 1/8 mile with dense fog. The ship is blowing it’s horn every minute or so to warn small ships without radar. I hope ours is working good. It was 72F this morning at 9am and has now dropped to 60F as we sail further north. The Captain said during his 9am PA that snow is now forecast for our Shanghai visit. We had a great time last night dining with Bjorn, the Chief Engineer. He will be flying back to Dallas when we arrive in Hong Kong so glad he shared some time with us before then. There were two other couples at the table: one from England and the other from Allen, TX which is close to Dallas. The 7 of us we having such a good time talking that we missed the show. The seven us are suppose to meet at 3pm up in the English couple’s suite, the Master Suite. Will be very interesting to see it. It is over 4 times bigger than our suite! We went to Sandra’s 10am lecture entitled, “Modern China”. So for the past 3+hours I have been down in the computer room called “club.com”, trying to figure out how to add a new photo album to my blog. I have no idea how I added the first one but finally bumbled and stumbled until I was successful. The albums are limited to 1000 pictures and already had 957 in the original one. I wanted to have it ready for the China pictures before arriving as will be very busy seeing as much as we can there. So there is one picture in “Part 2” now, one I took at Bjorn’s dinner party last night. Should be easier for you to view my new pictures now. I want to go work our later. Tonight we are dining in Prime 7, the steakhouse.

WEDNESDAY, MAR 3RD--CRUISING IN SOUTH CHINA SEA

The end of my day is the beginning of yours. This has been another smooth day of sailing with not a cloud in the sky over the South China Sea. This was first of basically 3 days at sea enroute to Shanghai, China. We are now about half way between the northern most part of the Philippines and Taiwan at 5pm. It has already started to cool off and in now 77F. This will probably be the last day of sitting out on balcony, as I am now writing this, until we get back to Hong Kong in a week. High temperature in Shanghai will be in upper 40’s with 60% chance of rain forecast for our approximately 48 hours there. Last night we dined with Allan & Carolyn, our Dallas friends, as I had once again ordered a special off-the-menu entrée of veal parmesan plus this time we had calamari as an appetizer. Jerry Vasi, the normal guitar entertainer up in the Observation Lounge, performed in the theatre. He is an incredible entertainer and we think he could be a headline entertainer aboard ships. I worked for almost 3 hours this morning editing and putting pictures I took yesterday in Manila on this blog site. At 11am we went to another one of Sandra’s lectures. This one was on ancient Chinese history. Not one of my favorites but tomorrow’s should be more interesting to me as it is on Chinese history from 1900 to date. I lost a couple of pounds the last few days so ate some lunch. Allan, Carolyn, Rebecca, & I then planned our strategy for Shanghai. With all the tours and Regent special events we have scheduled we are finding it hard to work in some shopping. So far I think we plan to hit the shore running when we dock in Shanghai at 6pm in a couple of days from right now. After that high level discussion I entered the golf putting tournament and won 1st place out of 14 entrants. I just got back from the gym where I did 40 minutes on the stationary bike. Tonight is a “formal optional” night as Regent now calls it. Most all world cruise and several "segmentalists”
(segment cruisers) as they are called, wear tuxedos for men and lots of beautiful dresses by women. We have been invited to dine again with Bjorn, the Chief Engineer. That is always a blast. He has also invited 2 other couples, one of which are in the over 1400 sqft Master Suite. It goes for over $400,000 for this world cruise. After dinner there will be another production show, “Listen To The Music”, by the ship’s singers and dancers that we will not miss. I’m hearing more and more complaints about the air conditioning system. The Centrum area is usually a little warm, the Horizon Lounge is always VERY cold (like a meat locker), the show room is usually too cold, the dining room has parts too cold and places that are warm. Last night in dining room was a rare night that I did not wear a sports coat for the evening. I had long sleeved shirt on and was very cold. I thought I was going to have to go back to the suite and get a jacket. We rarely go to the Horizon Lounge because it is just too cold there. Air conditioning is not a big problem for us as we know room temperatures and dress accordingly. A lot of people ARE bitching though. I mention this on blog as I know several Regent cruisers are following the world cruise blogs being written by me and several others. Time to get tux on!!

TUESDAY, MAR 2ND--MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES

We pulled up to the dock in Manila just before 11am to a sight that I had to fight back tears. As I said most of the crew is from the Philippines and a lot of their families were standing there to greet them. We have become good friends with many of these crewmembers over the last 6 weeks, and some, we feel like are like part of our family, especially Marjorie, our suite stewardess. So to see their husbands or wives and little kids standing there was so thrilling for me too. This has to be the best moment of the cruise so far and one that I shall never forget. When we walked off the ship and took about 4 steps on the dock, there was our Marjorie with her 4 year old daughter’s arms wrapped around her neck, squeezing her mother so tight. We were introduced to her husband and told him we would take good care of his wife as we loved her too. We just said hi and bye as wanted them to spend time together as a family. I will be posting pictures tomorrow and there will be one of them on the blog. The Silversea’s Silver Whisper cruise ship is docked just across from us and it is doing a world cruise also. Silversea is also a luxury cruise line just like Regent and the ships are similar in size. So we boarded our tour bus for our “Charms of Old Manila” 4 hour tour. First stop was Rizal Park and the old walled city of Intramuros. Dr Rizal is a national hero who was executed by the Spanish in 1896 because of his reformist views. Intramuros is Manila’s walled city built by the Spanish in the 16th century and is only 3 square miles. It has a wall that is 30 feet thick with a moat surrounding it for protection. When the American’s came here in the 1900’s the moat was filled in because it was mosquito infested and a health hazard. They replaced it with a golf course. Next stop was Ft Santiago overlooking the mouth of the Pasig River. It is a nice park now but has been used by the Spanish in the 1800’s, Americans in the 1900’s, and Japanese during WWII when they occupied the Philippines. Next we stopped at a museum but it was upstairs so I did not go due to my knees. Last stop was for a short shopping break. We arrived back at the ship just before 4pm. There was some shopping set up in tents just next to the ship so we bought several T-shirts. They had Regent 2010 World Cruise T-shirts that some enterprising Philippino was selling and doing very well, I might add. $10 each so good price! Our balcony is in shade this afternoon and overlooks the dock area so we have a perfect view of festivities. The Silverseas ship is preparing to depart now and there is what appears to be a small high school band playing for them. We have a ringside seat for that too. We are to sail at 7pm and I expect it to be quite a sight. More and more family members are coming and will be waving goodbye. I’m sure there will be as many crewmembers on deck as can be (some will be working as dining room opens at 6:30). We sail in an hour and the band is now by our ship and playing for us. I am going to sign off and enjoy the departure from our balcony while enjoying a cocktail. It is a very pleasant evening and not very humid.