Colombo, Sri Lanka

From Thailand we sailed southwesterly across the Bay of Bengal down to Sri Lanka (formerly, Ceylon), located off the southern coast of India.  This island nation is slightly smaller than Ireland, but is occupied by 21,000,000 people.  Almost 5,000,000 people per day come into the port city of Colombo for work each day so it is a bustling area.  There are over 8,000 taxis in the City called Tuk-Tuks which are small, open 3-wheel vehicles. 

We looked forward to this stop on our world cruise because Brian's father spent some time here during World War II in the Royal Navy when it was part of the British Commonwealth and was called Ceylon.

We took a tour of Colombo that drove us by a busy, seemingly endless marketplace called the Pettah Bazaar, a colorful Hindu temple, an upscale residential area known as Cinnamon Gardens (named after the spice trades of yesteryear), and a public monument commemorating Sri Lanka's independence from Britain.  We visited the national museum which was very interesting.  At the museum there were several groups of students touring the museum.  They were dressed in their school uniforms and their female teachers were in their colorful saris.  The children all greeted us with "hello's", "goodbyes" and "what is your name?".  They were very engaging and fun as they giggled at our responses.

Next, we stopped at the beautiful Taj Samudra Hotel and enjoyed tea and a snack in the rooftop restaurant overlooking the beach area facing the Indian Ocean.  Our last stop was a visit to Gangaram Temple, a Buddhist temple that was filled with colorful statues and shrines.

This stop in Sri Lanka was a good transition for us offering a cultural change from southeast Asia before we get to India.  The City of Colombo is divided into 15 distinct districts.  Colombo 1 which included the Pettah Bazaar area was very "third world" with considerable poverty.  Colombo 3 and Colombo 7 were just the opposite with modern office buildings and 5-star hotels and shopping areas.  Sri Lanka is rich in natural resources and is definitely a developing area.  Our tour guide told us they are working on a beautification program in Colombo to attract more foreign investment which was evident to us.  The Chinese have built a sports arena in the city center and the large port was extremely busy with containers and cargo ships from all over the world.

Skyline of Colombo

Busy industrial port

Hindu Temple in Colombo

Tuk-Tuk

Independence Square

Independence Square

Throne of the last King of Sri Lanka

National Museum

Enjoying a snack at the Taj Hotel

View of the beach and Indian Ocean

Next stop - Cochin, India.

Phuket, Thailand

From Singapore, we sailed through the Straits of Malacca into the Andaman Sea northward to Phuket, an island off the southwest coast of Thailand.  It is a top holiday destination for people from all over the world.  On Monday, March 31st, we anchored in a beautiful bay and tendered in to a pier within walking distance of several beaches.  We walked along the busy beach road to an area called Patong.  We spent some time in the morning walking around the beach resort town.  Brian got a haircut at a local salon.  After exploring the town, we were ready to hit the beach for a swim to cool down.  We rented a couple of chaise lounges with an umbrella and settled in for the afternoon.  We met a young couple from Australia that were spending a 10 day vacation in a resort there so we asked them a lot questions about their experience vacationing there.  They, in turn, were curious about our cruise experience as we looked out at our ship anchored in the bay. 

There were a lot of tourist activities going on at the beach -- jet skis, parasailing, banana boat rides, snorkeling, etc.  We noticed that safety regulations and liability concerns are definitely different from the U.S.  The parasail operators use a driver in the boat and a mate on land that accompanies the parasail customer by simply hanging onto the ropes -- no harness!!  They also land right on the beach smack in the middle of a row of chaise lounges with incredible accuracy.  We saw them take a lot of children up for rides, including a child that was only 5 years old.  All went well, thankfully.

Both of us agree that the best part of this trip so far has been to experience the souls of the people that you meet from such a different culture and background from us.  As a small example, when we rented the chaise lounges on the beach for the day, we paid the vendor, then 2 young guys attended to us, positioning the chairs and adjusting the umbrella for us.  One of the guys was a boy about 12 years old with a beautiful big smile.  He spoke English pretty well.  Periodically, he would just appear and adjust the umbrella for the changing sun and sweep the sand from our cushions.  At one point, seeing that we had finished our beers, he offered to go fetch 2 cold Singha beers for us.  Brian gave him a $500.00 Thai baht (local currency) and told him we would need change.  He promptly returned with the beers and change. He took care of us all afternoon and never asked for any compensation.  Of course we took care of him for his good service and pleasant demeanor, but, more importantly, a great memory for us of a trustworthy, gracious young man working so hard to please the tourists on the beach.

On our stops in southeast Asia we often marvel at the overhead electrical wires that we see dangling above the sidewalks and wonder how those tangles of wires are maintained.  Below is an example that we saw in Patong.

It was a great day on the beach for us.  It's easy to see why this "Pearl of Thailand" is so popular with tourists.

Patong Beach in Phuket

 

Kasim Beach in Phuket

Beach Resort Town of Patong in Phuket

Cooling off in the Andaman Sea

Patong Beach in Phuket

Parasailing on Patong Beach

5 Year Old Parasailer

Safe landing by the 5 Year Old

Typical overhead wires in Southeast Asia

 



 Next stop - Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 

 

 

 

Singapore

Singapore island is located 85 miles north of the equator and has a population of about 5.4 million people, most of whom live in Singapore City.  The City-State Republic of Singapore is made up of over 50 islands and islets, but the main tear drop shaped island is about the size of Martha's Vineyard in the U.S.  Singapore City is crowded, but is still a "spic-and-span" garden city and is the financial center for all of southeast Asia.

As we arrived on Saturday, March 29th (Friday, March 28th, Florida time), the first tall buildings that came into view were glimmering in the sunlight.  The air was clear, the water was clean and the port area was orderly.  We could immediately tell that this City was different from the other southeast Asia stops.  Also, on the way into port we passed lots of giant container ships and barges loaded to full capacity anchored off the bay waiting their turn to come into the industrial side of the port.  There is a tremendous amount of commerce going on here to fuel this island's booming economy.

After doing our research we decided to spend the day on our own exploring the City.  Armed with street maps, we headed to the train station known as SMRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit) and bought all day passes so we could hop on and off the train to get around town.  Our first stop was Chinatown where we spent some time looking around and shopping for souvenirs.  Unlike any other market district we have been to in southeast Asia, all the streets were clean and the vendors kept their inventory orderly inside their street stalls.  We were impressed by the beautiful Chinese baroque buildings.  It was a pleasure to shop for bargains in this historic area.

Next, we took the train to famous Orchard Road to walk along the street of tall buildings and high end stores.  It was very busy with Saturday shoppers and tourists, but orderly and clean.

We walked to the Singapore National Museum which is housed in a beautiful colonial building.  We spent about an hour and a half in the Museum enjoying the history exhibits (and the air conditioning).  It was a great museum, but we could only spend a short time there.

From the Museum, we walked to the famous Raffles Hotel where we were on a mission to fulfill one of our bucket list items -  drink a Singapore Sling at The Long Bar in Raffles.  Famous writers including Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham and Joseph Conrad drank Singapore Slings at The Long Bar so we just had to do it, too. The vintage colonial hotel opened in 1887 and is named after a British colonialist who had the foresight in the early 1800's to recognize Singapore Island's strategic location and potential as a thriving port and trade location for Asia.  Anyway, enough about history and on to The Long Bar.  We walked around the hotel and took a few pictures including Brian's picture with the doorman (see below), then proceeded to the second floor to The Long Bar.  We ordered an original Singapore Sling each and a basket of french fries and enjoyed our refreshments like all the other tourists in the bar.  Our bar bill totaled a whopping $77.00!!!!  It was definitely worth the money to have that experience at the home of the original Singapore Sling invented in 1915.

From Raffles, we took the train to another cool area of the island called Marina Bay.  The Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino is a huge hotel consisting of 3 spectacular towers rising about 600 feet into the air topped by a platform representing a surfboard which can hold up to 3,900 people.  The tip of the surfboard extends out about 200 feet in the air.  It is an incredible site to see.  Unfortunately, we ran out of time and could not go up to the top for the panoramic view, but enjoyed the chance to see the massive complex of the hotel, casino, shopping mall and entertainment district before we had to take the train back to our ship.

It was an extremely fast paced day of sightseeing for us.  We only scratched the surface.  One day in Singapore is just not enough.  Hopefully, we can come back here some day and spend more time exploring this exciting city.

We returned to the ship for a sail away deck party.  There was a big turnover of passengers in Singapore so there are a lot of new people to meet.  The ship is full.  Everyday is so exciting for us, we can't believe how much fun we're having and all of our fellow "Worldies" feel the same way; no one complains of being travel weary.

Massive container ships waiting their

turn to dock in Singapore

Singapore Skyline

Gondolas through the skyscrapers

Clean, modern architecture

Clean, orderly harbor

Beautiful buildings in Chinatown

Shopping in Chinatown

Buddhist temple in Chinatown

Famous Orchard Road area of Singapore

Singapore National Museum

The legendary Raffles Hotel

The doorman at Raffles

Heading to The Long Bar for Singapore Slings

Worth the Ticket Price

Check it off the Bucket List!!!!!

 

 



Next stop, back to Thailand to experience Phuket!



 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand (formerly, Siam)

We arrived in the port city of Laem Chabang, Thailand on Tuesday, March 25th (Monday, March 24th, Florida time).  Laem Chabang is a huge industrial port servicing southeast Asia.  There are several automobile assembly plants in the area so there are thousands of new cars and trucks in the surrounding parking lots ready for shipment to China, Australia and New Zealand.  Unfortunately, the port is over 2 hours away from Bangkok due to the heavy traffic and lack of public transportation in the area.  Because of the distance, many of our fellow passengers elected to spend the night in Bangkok.  We decided to do a long day tour (10 hours) into Bangkok and return to the ship for the night, then visit a beach town the next day.

On our tour of Bangkok, after a 2 hour drive into the City we first stopped at a tourist "must see" called The Grand Palace located in the Old Bangkok section of the City.  It is a fabulous complex of royal, religious and government buildings huddled together inside an ornate wall in the center of the busy City.  The buildings are a mix of Thai and Victorian architecture and were built by the King Rama V in 1867.  We spent over an hour there walking through the complex with our tour guide.  It was very hot and crowded and we were required to wear long pants and long sleeves, but the sites were stunning and worth enduring the hot conditions.  The opulent palace complex contains the royal family residences as well as government buildings, temples and shrines made from colorful shiny ceramics and glittering gold.

Next, we drove through the heavy traffic to the beautiful Mandarin Oriental Hotel property on the Chao Phrayra River that runs through Bangkok and had a wonderful buffet lunch of Thai cuisine and Singha Beer in the hotel restaurant.  After lunch we boarded a boat for a river cruise to enjoy the scenes of typical Thai life along the canals off the river.  The boat trip offered a stark contrast to the opulence of The Grand Palace.  The water villages along the canals were very rustic and much of the housing extremely rundown.  Many of the houses looked like they were about to fall into the river.  There was a terrible flood in the 2011 monsoon season and evidence of that devastating event is still around.  Our last stop on the river tour was at the Temple of Dawn, another amazing ancient temple made of colorful ceramic.  Visitors to the Temple can actually climb the steep stairs to the top.  With the hot temperature and the crowds, we declined that opportunity electing to climb only to the first lower levels.

We returned to the ship exhausted around 7:30 p.m. after a long day of touring.  Sadly, our time in Bangkok was short, but we had a very good tour guide and learned a lot about the area.

View of Bangkok from the river

Busy Bangkok Streets (population 12,000,000)

 

The Grand Palace:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cruising the Chao Phraya River

Waterfront property on the canals

Temple of the Dawn on the river

Temple of the Dawn

Details of the ceramics used for the Temple

Temple goddess????

 

On our second day, we took a shuttle bus for a 40 minute drive into Pattaya, a beach town south of the port.  Known as "Sin City", this area was made famous by the U.S. troops during the Vietnam War who took R&R there.  We enjoyed exploring the shops in town.  Brian got a 2 hour Thai massage and I got a much needed manicure/pedicure, all for less than $35.00.  We walked on the beach, but found it much too crowded with chairs, umbrellas and vendors to enjoy any real beach time and the water looked a little too murky to swim.  Instead, we had a late lunch of delicious Thai food and Thai beer at a beach hotel restaurant, then returned to the ship.

View of the Pattaya skyline from the beach

Cluttered Pattaya Beach

Where's the beach?

Streets of Pattaya Beach

Sin City - Full service laundry

 

 

We sailed off that evening through the Gulf of Thailand en route to Singapore.