Mariner - Bangkok to Hong Kong, 2/19 -3/19/19

[liptastic]

Really enjoying your great photos and information. It’s been a full on itinerary with long excursions. Thanks for taking us all along with you. 

Jean.

[forgap]

Y6Mekong Delta

 

Our second day in Saigon found us on another all day bus trip to the Mekong Delta.  This is the epicenter of Vietnamese agriculture and we passed miles of fertile vegetable and fruit farms until we arrived at the Mekong River.  The river flows through many countries:  China, Burma, Thailand, Laos Cambodia and finally Vietnam, making it one of the world’s longest.

 

We took a brief junk junk ride across the river to an island that was tranquil and  lovely.  After visiting a coconut candy making operation, we could opt for a sampan ride through one of the canals.  

The canal was narrow and packed with tourist filled boats going in both directions.  

 

It was also low tide and the recently added Regent pounds caused many a boat to ground out in the mud.  The canal itself was mega muddy with a muddier shore exposing muddy tree roots.  

 

The real drama of the day was hauling ourselves out of the boat.  This involved balancing on the bow and hauling yourself up about three feet to a dock.  I believe some of our fellow cruisers underestimated their abilities and it was a real horror show watching slight Vietnamese men “helping” people who must have weighed twice what they did.  (I may be somewhat generous here....) 

 

We then went on to an open air restaurant for tropical fruit and tea and a musical performance.  From there, a short walk through the island village for some honey and royal jelly tea which was quite delicious.

 

They sold jars of royal jelly which is supposed to help with wrinkles.   We’ll see!  

 

Once back on the mainland, we visited the Vihn Trang Buddhist pagoda with its monumental smiling Buddha and its equally monumental reclining Buddha.  

 

I loved this picture of the cycle cycle of life.  I believe we are in the second row center!  

Our lunch was terrific with traditional vietnamese fare including a whole deep fried tilapia which was rolled into rice paper wrappers with lettuce and herbs.   The spring rolls, noodles, and seafood soup were also wonderful!  

 

We were back on board at 3:30 and able to rest up for dinner and a show - John Barron’s show.  More on that later!  

Edited March 7, 2019 by forgap

[Mr Rumor]

Jennifer, you and Georges sure made the most of your time in Saigon!  Ginny and I did the same excursions on our 2017 Voyager cruise and it was great reliving our experience via your terrific commentary and photos. 

 

Ginny just popped in to say hi!  (Our tour guide tried to rush us by this photo op, but Gin would not be denied.  It took several of us to lift her out!)

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by Mr Rumor

[greenolaker]

Loving all of your pictures and descriptions of your excursions. Looking forward to our December Southeast Asia cruise on Voyager. I am hesitant to go on the Mekong as I am deathly afraid of snakes and saw pictures of a python being shown to passengers on a previous Regent Mekong shore excursion. Did this happen on your excursion?  

 

Looking forward to to reading about the remainder of your cruise 

[forgap]

No snakes that I saw and no mention from the guide!

[greenolaker]

Good to know. 🙂

Edited March 7, 2019 by greenolaker
Double post

[RachelG]

We also did the same tours in Vietnam (with Mr Rumor and Ginny).  I did not like the propaganda at the tunnels at all, but the lunch in the Mekong River excursion was great as were the sights.  I would do that one again.

[WesW]

Terrific photos and narrative Jennifer and Georges, thanks for sharing.

[forgap]

Beautiful and foggy arrival in Da Nang.

 

[mrlevin]

Sorry to hear that they still have the propaganda at the Cu Chi tunnels.  We were on that tour in 2005 and walked out on the propaganda video and gave an earful to our guide.

 

Marc

[forgap]

6 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Sorry to hear that they still have the propaganda at the Cu Chi tunnels.  We were on that tour in 2005 and walked out on the propaganda video and gave an earful to our guide.

 

Marc

We did not see the film and someone on the tour later said that Regent told the guides to skip it.   I would have liked to make my own decision, although if that passenger had not said something, I never would have known the film existed.   Bottom line, though, the war was terrible for both sides.  

[mrlevin]

The film is an historical artifact and probably can be seen somewhere on youtube or elsewhere; showing it as part of that tour was inappropriate fifteen years ago and even more inappropriate today.

 

I love the Mariner and love the itinerary you are on (we were back in Vietnam in 2017 on Voyager) but that film is bad.  On the other hand, we loved our time in Hanoi.

 

Have a great cruise; really enjoying your reports.

 

Marc

[Ladys Mom]

We did the Beijing to Bangkok cruise on Mariner in 2017, and your pictures brought back wonderful memories.  We had one of the best meals ever on our tour of Hanoi.  Thank you for sharing.  Have a wonderful rest of the cruise and thanks for sharing.

[DavidTheWonderer]

3 hours ago, mrlevin said:

The film is an historical artifact and probably can be seen somewhere on youtube or elsewhere; showing it as part of that tour was inappropriate fifteen years ago and even more inappropriate today. ...

I'm wondering what you mean be "inappropriate". It is a fact that the film describes that aspect of the war from the Vietnamese perspective.  Since it is in Vietnam, did you expect to see a film about the war from an American perspective?  I also wonder about the appropriateness of being a guest in Vietnam and giving "an earful to the [Vietnamese] guide."

Hopefully others seeing that sad piece of history from the Vietnamese as well as the American perspective will make them more determined to prevent future wars of any kind.
And yes, the film and others based on it are widely available on youtube

[mrlevin]

4 hours ago, DavidTheWonderer said:

I'm wondering what you mean be "inappropriate". It is a fact that the film describes that aspect of the war from the Vietnamese perspective.  Since it is in Vietnam, did you expect to see a film about the war from an American perspective?  I also wonder about the appropriateness of being a guest in Vietnam and giving "an earful to the [Vietnamese] guide."

Hopefully others seeing that sad piece of history from the Vietnamese as well as the American perspective will make them more determined to prevent future wars of any kind.
And yes, the film and others based on it are widely available on youtube

 

David, it is not propaganda about the war.  It was English language propaganda from the 1960s aimed at American (and Aussie and Kiwi) GIs that were serving in Vietnam.  I have found Vietnam to be both a beautiful country with beautiful people; both in 2005 and 2017.   The only purpose of the film was to demoralize our troops; none other (it was in English and thus not for the local populace).  

 

 

 

Marc

 

Edited March 8, 2019 by mrlevin
Remove unneeded comment

[DavidTheWonderer]

4 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

...

Personally, I don't know if a Canadian should be preaching to an American saying that my opinions are inappropriate. ...

Since I was born in Connecticut and have a U.S. passport, I don't think calling me a Canadian is quite accurate.  But even if I were a pure Canadian, does that mean that I should not have an opinion on the Vietnam debacle?

 

That said, I think it is marvelous that despite the awful war, the Vietnamese and Americans have decided to get along with each other.  I would love to visit Vietnam, but so far it hasn't happened. Perhaps in a future cruise. We are booked on the 2021 Mariner world cruise and I was sort of disappointed that Vietnam isn't part of the itinerary.

[mrlevin]

David, it has been almost 15 years since we have sailed together (PG in 2004).  Since then, I have lived in Asia and travelled extensively both on land trips and cruises.  I strongly recommend Asia, and especially Southeast Asia.

 

Marc

[travelwell]

I second a visit to South East Asia. Vietnam was interesting and hauntingly beautiful. The people we met were kind and quite proud of their country. My husband turned 18 with a low draft number when the war ended. It was real thought provoking that we were playing tourist in Vietnam 5 years ago.

[DavidTheWonderer]

1 hour ago, mrlevin said:

David, it has been almost 15 years since we have sailed together (PG in 2004).  Since then, I have lived in Asia and travelled extensively both on land trips and cruises.  I strongly recommend Asia, and especially Southeast Asia.

 

Marc

Agreed. We've done a land trip involving Thailand, both Bangkok and Chiang Rai, Laos, and Singapore (where I was doing some work). Absolutely spectacular. And our coming world cruise will include Bali, Phuket, Sri Lanka, and more. The only other contender of "trip I'm so glad I didn't miss" miss a Uniworld river cruise on the Nile. But we keep going back to the Paul Gauguin, 6 times now, which you and I shared in another lifetime. 

 

I have to admit that all this means I am a lucky little hot dog.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

As David said we had a wonderful trip to SE Asia a few years back.  David's been to Singapore twice, both times working there for a couple of weeks.  I had the pleasure of being there with him the second time, when we did Bangkok, Luang Prabang, the upper Mekong River, and Chiang Rai in northern Thailand.  And I got to bop around Singapore while he worked! I would go back in a minute, but for the long flights, which at this point in our lives are a substantial hardship.  Glad we're going to get to see Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, etc., plus Singapore again on our upcoming WC.

 

BTW, Luang Prabang and the upper Mekong was fantastic.  Spent two days on the river in a long-tail boat, what an experience that was!

 

Marc, it was 2005!  Imagine that!

[forgap]

 

 

 

 

The ride took about an hour and a half into a verdant mountain area.  

 

The Chams were practicing Hindus and ruled the area around Da Nang for 3000 years until the Vietnamese invasion in the 17th century.  Currently the Chams are one of 54 ethnicities in Vietnam, although the Viets make up 70% of the population.  The Chams are now practicing Muslims with many Hindu customs thus creating a hybrid religion.  

The area was heavily bombed during the war as American intelligence believed this to be a Viet Cong stronghold.  The remaining ruins look much like Angkor Wat.  All of the monuments are made from brick and they are heavily ornamented with Hindu deities.  

It was a long, very hot slog to the ruins and, fortunately, we were able to sit in a large open hall for a traditional Champa dance performance.  

 

 

From the ruins, we returned to Da Nang for an excellent lunch at a high end hotel right on China Beach.

 

Those stationed in Da Nang during the war would not recognize the transformation in the 21st century.  High end resorts and spas have been built or are currently being built.  Da Nang is positioning itself as a vacation destination.  The beach is idyllic - a beautiful, long, half moon of sand.

 

And finally, we had the obligatory photo op and shopping stop at Marble Mountain.  

 

They said they could ship anything to us.....anyone for a marble Buddha in the garden?  

[forgap]

I’m not sure what happened to the top of my post!   To recap, we visited the Champs Worls Heritage site outside of Da Nang.  It is very much like Angkor Wat.

[Gilly]

Fascinating.  Thanks for sharing those fantastic photos @forgap !  I believe that's the tour we should have been on during our stop in Da Nang but for some reason we ended up at a different ruin.  Though it was interesting (and we got to see other places too) now I can see what we missed, I'm jealous 😉  We've travelled along that coastline both independently and on our cruise tour and still haven't made it to the World Heritage Site except with you!

[Hambagahle]

On 3/7/2019 at 11:48 PM, forgap said:

No snakes that I saw and no mention from the guide!

I was in Hanoi frequently during the 90's on business.  At that time (and it probably hasn't changed since) snake was considered a delicacy must like we would consider foie gras.   I was dining at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi and asked for my table to be changed because right in front of me, on a shelf, was a large bottle of pickled snakes.  Another time, stuck in traffic a fellow on a bike passed us with a wire cage on the back full of the writhing variety.   After 10 years of life in central Africa I am terrified of snakes.  And will do just about anything to avoid the creatures but in Vietnam (and to some extent in Chine) this was hard to do...

[forgap]

Halong Bay

Dawn greeted us with mist and fog and a 40 degree dip in temperature.  The sail in to Halong Bay was dramatic with haunting rock formations emerging from the fog.  I’m sure some were disappointed not to have a sunny day, but I found the conditions to be the stuff of which myths are made.  

 

We had had signed up for an overnight excursion on a junk in Halong Bay, which sounded so romantic in the US and less so in cold, misty fog!  There were 14 of us on this excursion.  

 

The junk was lovely, with tiny cabins each with a king sized bed and wood and marble tiled bathroom.   Food was plentiful and beautifully presented.  The only negative was a disconnect between what our itinerary promised and what our guide and boat personnel understood to be included.  It was sorted out fairly quickly. 

 

 

We took the junk tender to a water village village and transferred to a row boat for a tour of the bay.  It was quiet and spectacular. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then returned to the junk for a capacious dinner and conversation then off to bed!  Wake up was very early in order to participate in Tai Chi on the upper deck, then breakfast, then transfer to a bus for the 3 hour drive to Hanoi.