A Day of Remembrance in Vietnam

Our next stop (on December 16th) was the Vietnamese port city of Phu My, located about two hours from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly called Saigon). For anyone my age, Vietnam conjures up a multitude of memories. One of my friends, a decorated tank Captain during the Vietnam War, recommended an excellent book called The Cat from Hue. Written by CBS Correspondent John Laurence, the 872-page tome takes you along on patrols with 18-year-olds fresh from Nebraska farms into the hellish environment of Vietnam’s jungles. It also documented the lives of the war correspondents like Laurence, who were greeted by the troops with the admonition “You mean you are here because you want to be? Shee-it.”  The book certainly set the tone for our tour of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City.

Over 40 buses await the hoards of passengers departing the Celebrity Millennium.

As usual, we had a two-hour drive into the city with a very talkative tour guide. He told us the average factory worker makes $8 a day, and his wife gets up at 5:00 am to take the kids 20 miles to a favored preschool, since without education you have no future in today’s Vietnam. Life is better now in Vietnam, but it’s still a daily struggle for most of the people.

As we crossed the bridge over the Saigon River we could see the gleaming office towers in the distance. The economy in Vietnam is very good, but most of the jobs are in the city, while most of the population lives in the rural areas meaning thousands of people commute each day on small motorcycles. The traffic, like Bangkok, is beyond description. Trying to cross a major city street on foot is suicidal, pedestrians have no right of way and the motorcycles are packed so tight they have little choice of direction.

This represents relatively light traffic on a side street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.

We pray these little girls have a brighter future in Vietnam than past generations.

Our first stop was the Ton Duc Thang Museum near the river. The museum is a tribute to President Thang, a patriotic hero and fighter who took over as President after President Ho Chi Minh in 1969. The small, intimate museum features over 600 historic items, from early coins and jewelry to historic maps and paintings. Our guide mentioned that human habitation of Vietnam dates back over 4,000 years and 1,100 of those years were under the domination of various armies, from the Chinese and Genghis Kahn to the Japanese, French, Americans and now North Vietnamese in more modern times. 

Spiked poles installed at low tide help thwart attack by the huge Chinese fleet. 

Always out numbered and outgunned, the Vietnamese became superb strategists on how to prolong the fighting to wear down their enemies. When Chinese armies attacked in the 13th century with hundreds of ships, the Vietnamese waited until low tide and lined the harbor with sharpened underwater poles that impaled the Chinese ships that entered at high tide. During the wars with the French and Americans, the Vietnamese built an elaborate underground tunnel system with huge storerooms, barracks, kitchens, and hospitals. Despite carpet bombing by the American B-52s, many of the tunnels held, allowing the Vietnamese to survive and escape the attacking armies.

Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City.

An old helicopter and fighter jet from the Vietnam War.

These maps are reputably superior to the maps field commanders used during the Vietnam War.

Underground Situation Room where Henry Kissenger and General Westmorland planned strategy.

The communication system is very rudimentary compared to todays high powered radios.

We next visited the Reunification Palace, famous during the Vietnam war for the scene of American helicopters on the roof top trying to evacuate US and Vietnamese personnel during the fall of Saigon. The palace was the home to President Diem, and following his death was occupied by General Thieu who was then the head of a military junta. The tour highlighted the President’s office, the Conference Room (where Henry Kissinger meet with top officials), the Minister’s Cabinet Room on the top floors, and the war time bunkers in the basement where the government hunkered down during mortar attacks. It reminded me of the War Room bunker in London inhabited by Winston Churchill during World War II, with rooms full of maps, communications equipment and sleeping areas. 

The famous scene on April 30, 1975 as American and Vietnamese personnel tried to escape the attacking North Vietnamese troops in downtown Saigon. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.)

It was disturbing to stand at the wrought iron front gates in front of the Palace thinking back to April 30, 1975 when throngs of Vietnamese who had been working for the Americas pleaded with guards to let them through so they could evacuate by the helicopters landing on the roof. He told one tear-wrenching story of a mother whose husband had already evacuated, but the mother and 5-year-old daughter were struggling to get through when the mother was trampled to death. Thankfully someone grabbed the traumatized young girl and she made it America to start a new life.

The infamous roof top bar at the Rex Hotel.

The gray building was formerly CIA headquarters.

As we left we passed the old Rex Hotel, whose top floor bar was the nightly habitat of foreign journalists, CIA operatives, black marketers, drug dealers, and every other sort of war time rabble. Nearby the guide pointed out an aging gray building that served as CIA headquarters during the war. If only the walls could talk.

The historic French Colonial Post Office.

Interior of the post office.

These phone booths were once crowded with journalists trying to file stories about the war with their editors back home.

Ornate cut paper flowers and greeting cards.

On a lighter note we visited the classic yellow painted Post Office, which was a tribute to the beautiful French inspired architecture that dominates certain areas of the city. Everywhere we stopped we were inundated by vendors selling cut paper flowers, creative cards, baseball hats, and counterfeit Polo shirts. After a short while in Vietnam you come to have a strong respect for the resiliency of people whose lives have been under constant turmoil from centuries of war. If nothing else, they are the consummate survivors.

The life of many Vietnamese hasn't changed much over the last 50 years.

It was a quiet ride back to the ship with Meryl and I contemplating everything we’d seen, with a realization of the incredible sacrifices made by many of our peers and classmates who served in the Armed Forces during the war. It was a highly unpopular war. Most didn’t want to be there, but they felt it was their duty and they did the best they could under the circumstances. They deserved much better than the reception they got when they returned home to the U.S. And rest in peace to the thousands that never made it home.

Cruising the South China Sea to Bangkok

On December 12 we arrived at the port of Laem Chabang in Thailand. The disadvantage of this Asian cruise was that the port cities were located about two hours from the major cities, meaning four hours total just to get into and out of the city. This severely limited the type of tours we could do, since the ship would sail without you if you got stuck in traffic on the way back (with the exception of ship-sponsored tours where they will wait a short time).

These enterprising women had set up shop on the dock and were offering Thai massage at bargain basement prices.

We had a half day so we decided to take a taxi into a local shopping mall to see if we could buy some miscellaneous computer supplies. The mall turned out to be very nice and the top floor was a warren of small tech-type companies with great prices on computers, mice, etc.  Next on our list was relaxation and we found a Thai massage place just outside the mall. We were led up three flights of stairs to a small Japanese screened room where two young Thai women gave us the most wonderful hour of pure bliss. Thai massage is unique in that they sit on your back,  (they are very light) and use their entire body weight to pull and stretch your various muscles. At US$ 7 an hour I could have stayed all day. They also tend to laugh and giggle a lot, especially when trying to bend one of my tree trunk legs.

The next day we grabbed an early breakfast for the 7:30 am departure from the port to downtown Bangkok and then joined the hoards of people boarding a fleet of tour buses heading to various destinations. Our tour guide talked the entire two hours to the city, but we did learn a lot about Thailand, it’s economy and culture. Thailand is a more popular tourist destination than London, and with over 8 million residents, it’s like a bustling beehive of activity.

Bangkok has always had some of the worse traffic in the world and we learned it hadn’t gotten any better since our first visit in the 1970s. How the bus drivers maneuver the huge tour buses through the myriad of cars and motorcycles is a mystery to me; you are waiting for pending disaster around every turn.

Elephant sculptures are frequent in Thai architecture.

Huge crowds of Thais queue to morn the death of the highly popular King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died at the age of 88 in October of 2016.

Memorial to the recently deceased King are everywhere in Bangkok.

Our tour group formed and unformed like a protoplasm under a microscope.

The golden Wat Phra Kaew or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

Our first destination was the Grand Palace, home to the Kings of Siam for centuries. Situated along the Chao Phraya River, the palace complex stretches for about one half mile in each direction and is surrounded by four walls.  The palace complex is made up of numerous buildings, temples, halls, gardens and courtyards, all dominated by the Grand Palace building. 

Since Meryl and I have traveled independently most of our lives, it took us awhile to get used to the regimented “tour guide” style of site seeing. With all the different nationalities represented in our group it was a little like herding wet cats most of the time, and a little like Roller Derby bouncing your way off hot sweaty bodies in the confines of the Palace complex. We enjoyed the tour, but yearned for the more laid back independent style of touring we were used to.

Wat Arun, the Temple of the Morning Light.

The temple is covered by thousands of small ceramic tiles.

This is the place to buy your buddha statues.

We were next bused to a nearby hotel for a nice buffet lunch (and a chance to grab some quick Internet) and then on to Wat Arun, the "Temple of the Morning Light." It consists of hundreds of thousands of small ceramic tiles, all set in precise order to portray a luminosity when struck by the morning light.

Our last stop was the Royal Barge Museum where the huge (wait for it) Royal Barges are kept in a large floating moorage building. Every year the barges are brought out and sailed down the river amid nationalistic pageantry. As much as I like anything that floats and is similar to a boat, I have to say we were pretty wiped out by the crowds and heat and looked forward to the bus ride back to Phu My and our air conditioned cabin.

Ocean Cruising at 26 Knots

On December 9th we boarded the Celebrity Millennium along with 2,000 other passengers at the ultra modern cruise ship terminal in Singapore. The boarding process was very efficient given the sheer number of people and soon we were enjoying our beautiful ocean view cabin and meeting Augusto, our Filipino cabin attendant. When he said he would do everything in his power to make our stay enjoyable, he wasn’t kidding.

This was a great way to cross oceans compared to our 44 ft. sailboat. Loved watching the big waves come by the porthole.

The Millennium, a 965 ft. long ship, was recently refit and was in excellent condition with  indoor and outdoor swimming pools, hot tubs, art galleries, gym, and a large dinning room. We had planned to go back into town that day but ended up spending the rest of the day just relaxing and exploring the ship. 

The hot tubs were a great place to meet people. I had a nice chat with an older gentleman from Siberia. 

The onboard gym had all the latest equipment and great trainers.

With my upcoming knee surgery in Seattle, the smartest thing we did was getting connected with two excellent trainers in the state-of-the-art gym at the front of the ship run by Canyon Ranch Spa. I had scheduled a one-on-one training session so I could get my left knee in better shape to withstand the surgery and my trainer, Njemia, who formerly played with the Croatian National Basketball team, soon had me doing a combination of stretching exercises and machine workouts to get my knee toned up. We were fairly religious about attending the daily 7:30 yoga/Pilates stretching class and doing an aerobic workout afterwards. It helped to keep the pounds gained in the dining room at bay.

The forward lounge with a view of downtown Singapore.

At around 5:00 pm everyone gathered in the aft of the ship as they cast off the lines for our 12-day voyage to Bangkok, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. We dressed up a little and went up to the huge grand dining room and enjoyed our first sumptuous meal on board. The selection of food was excellent and the service was very attentive. It was immediately obvious to us that we’d have to exert some serious diet control if we were going to get off the ship alive in Hong Kong.

Meryl really enjoyed the opportunity to get dressed up for dinner, compared to our normal shorts and flip flops on our sailboat.

Our goal was to relax, but we soon found there were so many activities scheduled each hour that it was difficult not to participate. We typically did our breakfasts and lunches at the 10th floor buffet that featured at least five different ethnic foods, tons of fruits and veggies, and a wonderful ice cream shop.  For dinner we split between the buffet (which was quick and easy) and the four-star service in the formal dining room.  Most nights you could dress business casual but some nights were deemed “chic” with guys in tuxes and women in evening gowns.

After dinner we would rush off to catch the 7:00 pm show in the theatre, several of which featured the in-house singing/dance troupe (all from Australia) doing a Broadway tribute, pop hits, or a dance review. Other acts included a very funny American comedian (think of Carrot Top on steroids), a former Russian gymnastics Olympic team member and her husband (think of Circe de Soleil), and a singing trio who did pop hits. Not Las Vegas quality, but still pretty good for ship board entertainment. 

We didn’t have enough energy to go to the late night disco, but we did attend a Beatle’s Trivia Night and were throughly trounced by a table of 30'ish Brits who could answer such esoteric questions such as: 1) Name the order the Beatles walked across the zebra stripe crossing on the album cover for Abbey Road, 2) who was wearing jeans, 3) who was barefoot, 4) what car was in the background, and 5) what was the license plate of the car.  We were way out of our league.

One goal of mine for the cruise was to do a tour of the ship, but I found they charged $175 for a two-hour tour, which I thought was a little pricy. One day I saw the captain and first officer sitting having lunch and brazenly went up and introduced myself, telling him a little of our ocean crossing experiences. I'm sure he wasn’t very impressed, but we did score a tour to the bridge of the ship. 

Their AIS system, which shows vessels in front of the ship, was very similar to the one we have on Flying Cloud.

It was reassuring to see port and starboard lookouts with binoculars looking for small fishing boats ahead of the ship.

For security purposes they were very vague about the whole thing, the “we’ll contact you.” About five days later we just happened to see a note on our door to meet at a certain location in 40 minutes for a tour. When we got there we saw about 10 other people (we found the bridge tours are only offered to the “high roller” cruising couples staying in the expensive suites). We were given a full security pat down and wanding, then led through a labyrinth of high security doors and passages to the bridge. The tour was lead by the second officer, a young woman from Malta. She showed us the navigation equipment (just a bigger version of the same technology we use) and explained how they kept a lookout for small boats such as ours. She was interested in doing a voyage in a small boat such as ours so she had as many questions to ask as we did. 

By the end of the cruise we had a great routine going and were feeling pretty relaxed. We had mixed feelings about the cruise coming to an end but with Christmas just around the corner we were ready to say hello to all our family now in Hong Kong for the holidays.

Singapore's Little India

While many people think we lay under palm trees all day, sailing a bluewater yacht across three oceans can be very tiring and stressful. Our 30-year-old cruising friends describe the voyage as a huge challenge; my response is to try it when you are in your late 60s.  We have been traveling everyday for five years and with all the research, planning, and execution, that much travel can slowly wear you down over time. So we were ready to do some stress-free traveling...if it exists.

Staying in Hong Kong for a month straight was asking a lot of our daughter, so we had to find someplace to “park ourselves” for a couple weeks from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Our rationale was someplace where we could totally relax and let someone else do the driving, cooking, cleaning, and planning. At roughly $77 a day we couldn’t find anything else that fit the bill like a nice, big cruise ship, so we booked a 12-day ocean cruise (a busman’s holiday?) from Singapore to Hong Kong on the Celebrity Millennium.

We departed Hong Kong on December 7th and flew to Singapore, arriving at 1:30 am. We had a couple of days to kill before the cruise began so we booked a interesting hotel in the Little India section of Singapore and spent our days exploring the fascinating environs of the neighborhood. It was like being in downtown Bangalore with hundreds of small shops selling the highly popular gold jewelry, saris, and other Indian goods, along with excellent Indian restaurants.  

Serangoon Road is the main street of Little India. It really comes alive at night when the temperature drops from boiling down to hot.

The Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple is a fascinating place to visit.

Mutha's Curry is one of the more popular restaurants in Little India. To make nan, they flatten circles of dough into a small disc and then throw them on the inside of these Tandoori ovens to cook.

Have no idea of the origin of this "umbrella tree" park, put it was interesting to visit.

One of our favorite areas was the Bugis market, a two-square block covered mall with hundreds of small shops selling everything under the sun. I’d been looking for a “man bag” to aleve Meryl of having to carry all my junk, but had never found anything remotely close to what I wanted. I turned around and there was a stall with over 30 types of the specific style bag I was looking for, all at bargain basement prices. We also bought a number of electronic do-dads and stuff we could never find in French Polynesia. The only difficulty was clothing sizes. I was trying to find some workout shorts for the cruise ship but soon learned that an Asian XL size was much different that a US XL.

The Bugis Market is a huge covered market with hundreds of stalls selling mainly clothing.

Street stalls like this are remarkably well stocked with goods at bargain prices.

We loved all the shops selling saris and other Indian clothing.

Indians have an addiction to gold and jewelry stores such as this line the streets.

We tried an audio walking tour ($1.99) using the VoiceMap app on my iPhone for the first time . These tours are produced by locals, in this case an interesting Indian gentleman whose family grew up in the Little India area. The tour is triggered by your GPS location, so as we walked by a place the iPhone would begin the narration. Great fun and we learned a ton about the history of Little India.

We were amazed by the wide variety of Asian medicines available in the stores.

Singapore is an extremely clean, well run (don’t even try to spit your gum out on the street) city with hundreds of shiny new high rises, but also lots of ethnic areas (such as Little India, Chinatown, British Colonial, etc.) Since we only had two days we focused on Little India, but you could spend weeks exploring all the various areas in the city.

Thanksgiving in Hong Kong

Our visits to Hong Kong are always enjoyable since our daughter pulls out all the stops to make sure everyone has a great time. We see her family only about once every six months so there’s always a lot of catching up to do when we get together. On the first day (Nov 23rd) we got to visit grandson Conner’s class at Hong Kong Academy, a private school located in Sai Kung, about 10 miles from Christa’s house in Lobster Bay.  Christa got to read a story to all his classmates and we made “trace your hand and turn it into a turkey” artwork. Meryl and I helped out which was great fun. 

The schools in Hong Kong are very multi cultural which makes for a great learning environment.

Here we're helping the kids trace their hands on construction paper to make Thanksgiving turkeys.

The classes are highly multi-cultural, with Chinese, Indian, British, Australian and other nationalities represented and it’s interesting to see how the kids approach problem solving and other issues from their varying cultural perspectives.  One thing we noticed immediately was there were very few discipline problems, indicative of the Chinese approach to education where disruptions are highly discouraged. The Chinese take eduction very seriously which I think provides an better learning environment. While many of the teachers are American and Australian, the days are split between communicating in English and having classes taught in Mandarin by Chinese teachers.

After school we did some shopping and explored the waterfront walk along Sai Kung village, with lots sampans selling fresh seafood and a row of Chinese seafood restaurants with large aquarium tanks full of every type of seafood you could imagine. Talk about fresh food.

That night Christa and Nash took us out to a very posh hotel where they specialize in Peking Duck. The kids had a fun time watching the cooks prepared the various dishes in the kitchen area which is part of the restaurant. Our grandkids are very fortunate to have such adventuresome parents who can provide them with such a culturally rich upbringing, a world of difference from how I grew up in blue collar Tacoma, Washington.

On the 25th we went into the Central District to the Preforming Arts Center to see a production of Roald Dahl’s “The Twits.”  Great fun in the last act watching all the kids take off their shoes and wave them over their heads (the reason for doing so escapes me, but it was part of the play).

On Thanksgiving Day the Nash-Webber’s hosted a traditional Thanksgiving Day celebration, complete with a touch football game down at the Clearwater Golf and Country Club soccer fields and a huge Thanksgiving Day feast complete with three turkeys. With about 40 people attending, it was quite the event. A tradition of Christa and Nash's is going around the room and having each person say what they are most thankful for. One Brit commented he was so glad that America had elected Donald Trump as that would take the pressure off of England for doing idiotic things such as Brexxit.

Living so far away from the grandkids I so miss being able to read them a bed time story.

The rest of our stay was spent exploring the local parks, taking the grandkids to playgrounds, and Christmas shopping at the myriad of high rise malls that are seemingly everywhere in Hong Kong. We even got to go shopping for a Christmas tree in Hong Kong, but found that only a few nurseries sold the trees and they only get one shipment right after Thanksgiving, so our choice was very limited. Luckily Christa picked out a tree, that after a little trimming and lots of decorating, turned out great.

We had a great time at the Clearwater Bay Country Club playing soccer out on the lawn.

Conner has some great moves on the rock climbing wall at the Velodrome Park at Po Lam.

The Nash-Webbers decorating their Christmas tree. Nash is providing artistic direction.