Ankor Wat

Today was a full day for sure! We toured two temples an the morning and two in the afternoon.  We started out at Ankor Wat which to me was the biggest and prettiest of the temples.  The steps were uneven and we had to be very careful. It was easy to get lost too as there were so many corridors and steps. There is a big moat around it and the grounds are lovely.  There are also monkeys on the grounds and I especially enjoyed them.  Jim climbed to the very top of Ankor Wat but the heat had me by that time.   The heat here is unreal! And we were just drenched with sweat.  We walked across the bridge to the moat on our way in but they took us back to meet the bus in little open electric cars.  

Then we drove out from town to a temple and it was enjoyable to see the local people at work along the way.  That temple was spread out and less intact than Ankor Wat.  Again, after the heat, the drive back to Siem Reap was nice in the air conditioned bus.  

We went to a local hotel for a buffet lunch.  None of the meals have been good for me.  

After lunch we went to a silver and silk store which they said are their local industries.  Then it wa,s off to two more temples.  The venders here are almost as bad as the ones in Egypt that we have complained about.  They are so persistent and are in your face. No fun. And American dollars are the norm like they were in China the first time we went.  

Our flights were interesting experiences and we would have thought things would have been smoother with princess doing it.  The hotel room is really nice and free wifi. We enjoyed that except we were too exhausted to stay up to use it much.  

The meal last night was by the pool and there were dancers who did traditional dances.  

Goodbye Vietnam, hello Cambodia

Today we started outer 3 day trip to see Ankor Wat.  We were to meet early so it was an early morning.  The tour seemed disorganized and was an hour late leaving.  There are 3 bus loads on our your. They sent us our bus stickers the night before and we were on bus #3. We finally got on our bus and the guide passed around a sheet for us to verify our names for our flights.  Three guesses whose names were wrong. We knew there was another Burton couple on the cruise as we got their suitcase in addition to ours when the cruise started.  We told them the name was wrong and kept asking them to check to see that the passport they had was ours. Finally at lunchtime, they did and discovered they had mixed us up. We had to change buses and groups midstream and get our luggage and all. Groups 1 & 2 were flying out at 4:30 but group 3 was not going until 7:30.  We had to sit on the very back seat of the bus and there was a curtain that kept us from seeing anything.  But we were disappointed in Saigon anyway. Nha Trang was so lovely and we thought the drive would be scenic and Saigon lovely too but to us, it was not. It is just a big crowded dirty city.  The airport experience was just as disorganized. We stood in long lines while others broke in front of us and nothing went smoothly but we got here and the hotel is lovely with free wifi!

Tomorrow is Ankor Wat all day. Will try to post photos afterwards

Good Morning, Vietnam!

Today we tendered at Nha Trang, Vietnam.   It was a beautiful day and I was amazed at how beautiful the country and this city was.  It is modern and vibrant and has beautiful beaches with big waves.  We took a tour which was really excellent and we saw all the important places here.  We had an immigration card delivered to our rooms last night so have to keep up with that as well as our boarding card.  First we went to a temple up on a mountain.  There were 188 steps up and we made it.  We even got a Byron's cup photo for whenever we have wifi time to upload it!  There was a huge Buddha at the top.  Next we went to a place where there dancing for us to see, lots of souvenirs but our guide told us not to buy there but to wait. Naturally, the prettiest stuff we saw was there and no where else had anything much we wanted. Oh well.  They gave us coconut milk to drink out of the coconut-not our favorite.  On to the next stop which was the silk embroidery place. It was nice but not as nice as the china ones we had seen.  Next we went to a house where they had lovely music for us, a gorgeous sea view.  From there we went to a Hindu temple which was very interesting.  We had to walk across a big bridge to get there with traffic zooming around us.  I've never seen so many motorbikes.  

After the Hindu temple, we went to the big market which was crazy busy and had too much stuff to look at.  Then, it was back to the tenders to the ship.  There were stalls of souvenir stuff at the tender dock, and it seemed all the tours arrived back at the same time. The lines were enormous to wait for tenders but they moved it along as well as they could.  It was hot and humid and we were tired when we got back to the ship.  

Brunei

Today our port was the country of Brunei.  It is a very small country but very rich because of the oil found there.  We first just went off the ship into the terminal and looked at the few shops, used the free Internet and watched the dancers that were there.  

We went back on board and ate lunch. I am thankful to have found the pizza does not have garlic or onions so it is the one thing I can go get without going to a formal restaurant.  Everything is set up for formal dining and the buffet has almost nothing except snacks. 

Our tour was good and lasted right up until time for the ship to leave. First we visited the village up on stilts in the water. It was very interesting and we docked and walked on the plank boardwalks to a house which was set up to serve some traditional Brunei snacks. I think the main chatter about this when we left was about the toilet which a few desperate ladies tried. For the men it was not such an issue but the word quickly spread to wait for the museum.  We went by mosques and the royal palace and ended up at the Regalia museum which was filled with all the ornate things from the coronations of the Sultan. I did manage to spot two monkeys on a bank of a creek and I assume they were the probiscus monkeys that are only found here. 

Observations about this cruise.  The passengers are about 80% Australian with some Asians, Canadians, and a fewAmericans.  There seem to be a lot of small charges here and there.  Today at breakfast I was told there was a charge for hot chocolate, which I had had yesterday with no charge. I asked why it was printed in the menu if there was an extra charge. Turns out there is no charge in the formal dining rooms but there is at the buffet.....go figure. Anyway, I got my hot chocolate after all.  

The ship is beautiful and I like the room better than NCL but prefer the earring arrangements on NCL.  

There are almost no kids or teens on this tour.  It is mostly folks our age or ten years younger. 

First day at sea

Today has been a very lazy day since we were at sea all day.  We have attempted to learn where things are on the ship and have learned some of the differences in NCL cruises like we have usually taken and the princess cruises.  There are things we like better about each one. This morning we decided to use the self service laundry onboard which was really nice and convenient.  NCL doesn't have those. So a plus for Princess.  On the buffet side up on the lido deck, NCL wins hands down.  I would describe the buffet here on the Diamond Princess as more of a snack bar with fruits and cookies and desserts and a rather plain green salad bar.  I checked yesterday and the only place onboard that I can get a hamburger is to go to one of the main dining rooms and order it the day before as all the meat is seasoned. We did that at lunch after ordering it last night and it took us about an hour and a half to have lunch, which was not what we would have preferred to do.  So eating is turning out to be a greater problem than on NCL with my garlic and onion problem.  But things looked up tonight when I talked to the guy ay the pizza bar and found out none of their tomato sauce has either in it.  So looks like I will be eating a lot of pizza for lunch. Ha.  Tonight is the first of two formal nights which we just do not enjoy so instead, we are sitting on the deck, listening to the sounds of the sea and enjoying ourselves.  The other formal night comes when we are gone on our excursion to Ankor Wat so that is nice. 

Tomorrow we get to Brenai where we are taking an excursion. We usually don't take shore excursions on a cruise but this time, with Jim's mobility problems and the areas we are going to, it seems the best way.  

Thinking of our friends back home with much illness and all. 

Singapore

Our trip to Singapore went really well.  We had bulkhead seats in economy plus and we had plenty of legroom which makes all the difference. Of course, it was not as great as when we got bumped up to business class with the McDaniels, but hey, we can't be that lucky often!  We flew from Atlanta to Tokyo non stop which was 14 hours.  We had a three hour layover where we enjoyed the crown room.  Then we boarded the 7 hour flight from Tokyo to Singapore.  We arrived at 1:30 in the morning so we were thankful that we were staying in the crown plaza hotel that was in the airport!  

The airport in Singapore is beautiful and well marked but it is big.  Jim's legs did right well until we got there but they have bothered him a good bit since arriving.  We were glad we had a day to relax and rest before boarding the ship.  We asked around and took a bus that went from the airport to Malaysia.  It was a nice bus but no one spoke English.  We had to get off and walk through customs and immigration and then we boarded the bus again and drove a mile or so and repeated the process in Malaysia.  The only problem was, we asked where to go get back on our bus to go to the shopping center and everyone told us and the bus never came.  We feel sure we missed the bus...... So we just decided that was far enough and we turned around and went back through immigration and customs and found the bus back to Singapore.  We got the stamp in our passport to prove we did indeed adventure into Malaysia!  

So today we were packed and had paid for a transfer from the airport to the pier.  We went where we were told to meet the Princess rep, and saw no one so we went to the information desk and asked where we should look.  They called Princess who said they had no record of our transfer s o for us to take a cab,which we did.  It actually turned out better as we had a great cab driver, we got to the pier early and they took our luggage right away.  Then they sent us right up to check in and immediately we got on the ship! Our room was ready and it was the smoothest embarkation we have ever had.  Later at the safety briefing, they were apologizing for all the delays and so forth so we know if we had taken a transfer that we would have been caught in that.  So it all worked out to the good. 

The ship is beautiful and Singapore is a gorgeous city! It is clean and green with flowers everywhere.  Jim's leg is bothering him a lot and we realize this indeed may be our last trip.  We are going to do what we can and enjoy what we can and be thankful for all we have been able to do and see.