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.