Saigon Day 2.  Noel decided to stay aboard ship to try and get over the cold/flu before venturing out again on tour.  Tom took a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  The tunnels were interesting but very much a political statement by the North Vietnam led government.  Poverty in the countryside is obvious. The roads really get poor just a few miles outside of Saigon.  Besides the tunnels the tour included a visit to a farm and a restaurant lunch.

Huge hogs at the farm

Map display of the Cu Chi Tunnels

Entrance to one of the tunnels

Display of US bombs

Pavilions where lunch was served

Saigon Day 1.  One nice thing about Cambodia and now Vietnam is that cars drive on the right side of the road.  Our first time for that since we left Los Angeles on December 18!  Most of the local people in the southern part of this country still call the city Saigon while those from the north use the official " Ho Chi Minh City".   There were red and gold banners everywhere with the hammer and sickle or a large star to commemorate 70 years of communism on Feb 3.  Traffic is ridiculous with thousands of motor scooters jamming every part of the streets.  How our driver maneuvered our huge bus around was amazing.
We had a tour guide whose father had been an interpreter for the US Army during the war and after the war was imprisoned for two years in a re-education camp. Our tour guide gave us some interesting insight to what living in Saigon is really like.  We visited a Buddhist temple, a large market, a post office designed by Gustav Eiffel, a nice museum, "Reunification Hall" (former Presidential Palace).  We also saw a "Water Puppet" show and made a visit to a lacquer ware factory.
There are signs of improvement with some new buildings going up but there are still many half finished abandoned projects.  The only manufacturing of any consequence is textiles.  None of the thousands of motor scooters are made in Vietnam, but some are assembled locally.

Reunification Hall

Cute uniformed school kids eager to practice their excellent English skills on the tourists!

Water Puppets Show

Post Office designed by Eiffel

Deliveries are made by scooters.  We even saw one with panes of glass and another with palm trees!

Thousands of motor scooters parked in front of wholesale market. Wonder how they find their own??

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.  We were not able to add to the blog recently due to very poor internet service on board for the last 36 hours.  We hope you did not give up on us!! We toured Kota Kinabalu on 1/27.  This was our second stop on the island of Borneo following Brunei.  Even though this part of Malaysia is 100's of miles across the South China Sea from the Malay Peninsula it is still relatively clean with good infrastructure.  We saw several buildings, mosques and the University.  There were wide streets with beautiful landscaping and even a great looking bike/walking path along the waterfront.

Water park at resort

Beautiful infinity pool

Lobby at resort

Unusual "suspended" building that was built from the top down

It was a nice over view done by just driving around in our bus.  Our last stop was at a beautiful Shangri La beach front resort.  It was a beautiful spot and seemed to be mostly Asian tourists.  Tom thought the beer was great!

At sea 1/28.  We are on our way to Viet Nam for a week with stops in Saigan, Da Nang, and Hanoi.  We are really looking forward to the visit and to getting over our colds.  The crossing last night was a bit "rocky" but makes for good sleeping.  Tom is now back to a martini in the evening.  Life is good.

Maura, Brunei.  After two days at sea we arrived in Brunei.  Much of our time at sea was spent trying to beat the colds/flu/? we had acquired.  Tom took the short highlights tour and Noel stayed on board.  The tour included a look at "watertown".  Nearly 10% of Brunei's population live in homes built on stilts on the Brunei river.  There is a complex system of river taxi's and riverboats.  The river villages have their own schools, police and fire departments.  We drove by several mosques and had a peek at the Sultan's palace that has 1178 rooms, over 100 bathrooms and is run by Hyatt.  The Sultan has several hundred polo ponies and over 1000 cars.  He has several other residences including one in Singapore.  The royal family all have grand homes and even their own hospital.  One of the brothers owned a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course with a huge home.  It is now a hotel.
Our tour guide was Filipino, our driver was Indonesian.  Brunei citizens will not do this type of work.  There are 400,000 citizens and over one million non-resident workers.  It is a very clean, safe place, but also very controlled.  Some web sites are blocked, "R" rated movies mostly not allowed, No Isreali passport holders allowed, no alcohol allowed.  Different religions are tolerated, Sharia law was put in place two years ago but pertains to Muslims only.  There were some US based fast food restaurants.
Our last stop was the Royal Brunei Polo Club where they have two polo fields with large grandstands, 27 holes of golf and an amusement park.

Small portion of "watertown"

Floating Mosque in watertown

Glimpse of Sultan's palace

Where we had refreshments in polo club

Bar in polo club with no alcohol!!

Sihanoukville, Cambodia.  Our tour was titled "highlights" but it would be more like "lowlights".  Our first stop was the "Snake Farm" resort.  It was really bad, an assortment of snakes, lizards, crocodiles, birds and one poor monkey.  The conditions were not good, small cages with concrete floors and the plexiglas snake cases were so cloudy it was hard to see inside.  Our next stop was a Temple that was in very poor condition and it was overrun with children trying to sell us trinkets and adults begging.  We also visited the large local market that was very dark inside and had narrow isles.  The real highlight was a stop for one hour at a beach resort where we were able to sit and watch the ocean and have some snacks and drinks.
While the country seems to be trying it is clearly a daunting task.  The infrastructure is very poor, there is trash everywhere, high unemployment.  Everything is dirty and unattractive.
A history of French colonization, Viet Nam War, Khymer Rouge and all the murders during a long civil war have left this country well behind.
We now have two sea days which is a good thing as Noel now has a cold also.

The main isle of the market

Different types of dried fish

Colorful displays of fruits and veggies

Huge bags of tiny hot chilies

Unusual delivery vehicle, small engine on front steered with long handles. Nice carved bed frame!

Beach resort was a highlight

Bangkok, Thailand.  We had a very long tour that was supposed to be 10 hours and ended up being 12.  The port was quite far from the city so it was about 2.5 hours driving time each way and just getting around  the city in a huge bus was a challenge as the traffic is very heavy and we ended up just sitting in one place quite often.
Our tour started with a very nice buffet lunch in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel that is right on the bank of the Chai Praya river.  After lunch we boarded a boat and had an extensive tour along the river and some of the canals.  We saw the "Temple of Dawn", The Grand Royal Palace complex (home of the "Emerald Buddah") and numerous local temples.
Tom was last in Thailand 20 years ago.  Clearly there has been some progress on road construction with elevated toll roads that are a foreign investment but the traffic is still horrible.  Infrastructure has not even kept pace with the population growth.  Pollution is worse.  The last prime Minister was ousted in a military coup last May.  Unfortunately this is common practice in Thailand.  The 87 year old King and his cronies do not want the country to progress in anything including education. It is against the law to criticize the King and our tour guide was very reluctant to discuss the political situation and stated that she would answer questions on the bus but not out in public.  In fact the movie "The King and I" is banned in the country as well as two current best selling books about the King and the political situation.
It is sad to see the lack of progress in Thailand compared to other Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia.  The Thai people like Americans and they are very friendly and welcoming.  It is a shame the way the country is governed.
Lack of infrastructure, heavy pollution, intolerable traffic, and ineffective corrupt government reminds Tom of Southern California!

Huge display of carved fruits and vegetables at the buffet lunch

There were still many wooden houses on stilts along the river bank

We saw several of the huge Monitor Lizards along the river, some were swimming

Tom rubbing the "Happy Buddah" at the Temple of Dawn

Three different style temples at the Grand Palace

Most of the buildings and statues were decorated    with tiny pieces of broken Chinese porcelain.

Inside the temple of the "Emerald Buddah"

The Emerald Buddah is actually made of jade and wears a robe of gold mesh.  It is 19 inches tall

Ko Samui, Thailand.  We were very late getting off the ship due to a medical emergency and we were using tenders that took forever to load as the sea was rolling a bit.  It was not a good island to visit.  We did what was supposed to be about a four hour tour but it ended up being about 6 hours.  We saw monkey and elephant shows, a "Big Buddah" (in need of repair and paint) and a temple with a mummified monk!  The trip back on the tenders was quite exciting.  A squall blew through and the tender platform had to be moved to the opposite of the ship.  We had already left shore and had to float around along with another loaded tender in very rough water for about one hour while they moved the platform. A lot of people were very upset acting like it was Regent's fault that the weather caused a problem!

The Big Buddah

Elephant show

Monkeys trained to pick coconuts

Monk mummy

We celebrated MLK Day at sea.  It started off with moderate seas but smoothed out as the day progressed.  Tom has managed to catch the cough/cold that has been going around the ship since we left Cape Town.  On the bright side, the ship was reprovisioned in Singapore and Backhouse Pinot Noir is back on the menu and the Food and Beverage manager sent a bottle to our room.  This has raised Tom's spirits.  We were hopeful that most all of the obnoxious passengers would depart in Singapore, but unfortunately they have been replaced with new ones.

Singapore is the end of segment one and the beginning of our next segment.  About 550 passengers left the ship along with about 60 crew members.  This big changeover makes for a very hectic ship from very early in the morning.  Another reason it is so busy is that everyone has to clear immigration, even if you do not go ashore.  Regent provided two different tours for those of us continuing on.  Our selection was a six hour "Round Island Tour" that included a Chinese lunch.
We started our tour with a walk around the "wet market".  This market included a huge food court, fruits and vegetables, meats, fish, eggs, and many stalls selling everything from cosmetics to clothing.  It was all very clean and everything was beautifully displayed.
We visited the Kranji War Memorial located where Japan invaded Singapore in 1942.  It was a very somber place with many headstones as well as huge marble walls with the names of the dead whose bodies had never been recovered.
We also visited the Bright Hill Buddhist Temple complex and the Changi Prison Museum located near the original prison where the allied POW's had been kept.
In our drive around the island we saw hundreds of huge apartment blocks that were government subsidized housing as well as huge areas of new construction.  It certainly appears to be a very prosperous country. It was a most enjoyable tour with probably the best tour guide we have ever had.

Singapore has to import about 90 percent of its food.  Produce mostly comes from Malaysia.

Seafood was beautifully displayed

A small part of the Temple complex. Colorful dragons were on all the roofs

Some of the headstones at the Kranji War Memorial

There were spectacular buildings everywhere

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The port area is called Klang and it is really huge with many container ships and tankers.  The surrounding area is really dumpy with abandoned buildings and trash.  It was about a one hour drive into the city of Kuala Lumpur on a busy six lane highway with toll booths about every ten miles.  We visited the Kings Palace for a photo stop, the National Monument which is a war memorial, Independence Square, a Hindu Temple, a Chinese Temple and a photo stop for the Twin Petronas Towers.  On our way back to the ship we made a photo stop at a large Mosque.

The Kings Palace

The National Monument

Petronas Towers

Chinese Temple

Hindu Temple

Blue Mosque