Langkawi - Malaysia. We arrived during sunrise over Langkawi, very pretty and similar, although not as spectacular, as Halong Bay. It was a scorching day- 34 degrees. We had thought we had booked a fantastic island hopping tour to go on- supposed paradise beaches, simple surrounds and plenty of snorkelling. However, we went into our little pile of excursion tickets to find we had not got around to actually booking it! Gutted, we wanted to see the fishes! Never mind, as we approached it looked a very pretty place and thought it would be nice to do our own thing. We [View Full Entry]

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Singapore We entered Singapore in the early hours of the morning and got the standard shuttle from the bus to its destination, usually the town centre, - this time it was further along the seafront to the passenger terminal (our ship was berthed in the container ship harbour. It is too big and needs a deep water harbour to dock in). We got out of the bus and were approached surreptitiously by one taxi driver after another offering to take us on a tour for “a good price”. We said no, and then a man approached us and (very helpfully) told [View Full Entry]

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Shianoukville We had breakfast delivered to our cabin at 7.30am and enjoyed it on the balcony, watching the islands pass as we made our way into the harbour. We got off and got shuttle bus into town. It only took 15 mins. We had been advised that the facilities were “basic” and that we shouldn’t expect too much from this place as it was relatively undeveloped for tourism. Most of the place had been bombed during the war and nearly all of the buildings were of new construction - not much left of the original place. Even the monasteries were new [View Full Entry]

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Phu My- Mekong Delta- Ho Chi Minh City-Vietnam 17th march Today we were very exited as we looked forward to our trip down into the Mekong Delta. To get there we had to take a 31/2 hr drive. Lots of us had chosen this trip, but to our delight they surprised us by dividing us into small groups of 6 and giving us a mini bus each complete with our own guide. It was great not being squashed up and Murdo was enjoying the large windows to himself to snap through!! The latest camera club assignments were to experiment with fast/slow [View Full Entry]

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Halong Bay What an amazing entry into Halong bay….. with its hundreds of islands, it was like something out of a fantasy movie, with the sun coming up and the sea mist, one island after another came out of the mist - all strange shapes and sizes. The Ship moored in the bay and we tendered in by the lifeboats. It was a lovely warm day and the place had not a lot to do, just viewing awesome scenery - we don’t ask for much, do we? We tried to get on a trip to the countryside but it was full [View Full Entry]

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The Hong Kong Experience (Friday 13th March) Day 1- It was a beautiful sail into the port and because we are in the photography club we had special invites onto deck 7 which is usually reserved the crew. It has the best al round views on approach- privileged or what?? Everyone had an air of excitement; we were all waiting for this stop- except those who were ending their journey here, as was our dinner companion Moira from Glasgow. We were to dock at 2.00pm, it took awhile to navigate Victoria Harbour which gave us much pleasure seeing the sights, and [View Full Entry]

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Shanghai and onwards. We crept into shanghai early in the morning. It was a foggy morning and the smell of the orient was all around. I will let you workout what that smells like. The dock was a container port as the ship we are on (Arcadia) is too big to fit in normal harbours, not the cleanest places - so we have to dock in deep water harbours like container ports. This sometimes involves a lengthy bus trip to get to the nearest town or city - but we are not complaining - though our backsides are after the 3 [View Full Entry]

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We steamed away for a year and a day to the land where the bam tree grows. … or China for short, and it was only a day at sea, not a year and a day. However, at this point in time I am becoming delirious as will be explained later. After a day at sea and spotting all sorts of floating things in the ocean we arrived in grey darkness in China. The port of Xingang to be precise. It was an eerie place, misty, dark and with lonesome horns from ships at sea. We had crossed the Yellow ocean, [View Full Entry]

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4th March Got up sharp had things to do and places to go…………………… After breakfast we attended the gym for a body constitution assessment and personal fitness plan. Told what to do to get fitter, even though we seemed to be not to bad for our ages - or so the machines said.. We have to go back towards the end of the cruise for a recheck-he he-we know what that will be like. Goals: to get fitter and maybe loose some weight. Started well with a 2 mile brisk walk around the deck- then, faltered at lunch time - had [View Full Entry]

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24th Feb While steaming away from Brisbane we thought that it was about time-as we had a couple of days at sea- to become domesticated and properly unpack and place all those empty cases under the bed. Judi enjoyed watching the sea whilst ironing- made it almost a pleasure. 25th Feb Early rise as we were to be sailing through the Whitsunday islands. We were quite excited at the imminent visual delights; however we sat next to a strange Australian man during breakfast who nattered constantly so we missed most of them. He was a poor soul! With a Foo-manchoo beard, [View Full Entry]

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