We wimped out early after lunch on our first day of Temple exploring. The rest of the group is soldiering on, but we're in our nice air conditioned room. Andi is right, the humidity is oppressive. We're used to heat, but the humidity saps the life out of me. Even my hair got frizzy and my hair is straight as a stick! We"re slowly but surely getting over the jet lag and feeling human again. Last night was a Cambodian dinner show at another hotel with a buffet and beautiful dancers. Tonight we have an outdoor dinner at the hotel and more touring tomorrow with the highlight being Angkor Wat. Looking forward to getting on the ship and seeing everyone else.

Just wrote a post that has disappeared. Try again: Anyway, Gail and I landed here in Bangkok a little before midnight yesterday after about 24 hours enroute: Dulles to Seoul to Bangkok. The first leg was the smoothest longest flight I can remember, the second leg not so much. Bangkok traffic was impressive last night even at midnight.

This morning after about 5 hours of sleep, we went on a tour of the Grand Palace & Emerald Buddha Temple and other sights around town. The heat is really draining, and the traffic back to the hotel was incredible. We just had a nice light lunch at the hotel. (Breakfast was also quite a nice buffet.) We’re at the Le Meridien, which I think is considered in the business district—quite colorful area it seems. This afternoon we're "chilling." Maybe a swim and a massage for me. I think some naps are in order too.

Tonight we’re having dinner at a nearby French café that I read about. Tomorrow is an all-day excursion to the ancient city of Ayutthaya and the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the "crew" on Monday.

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Eugene

Andrea and I are just back from the Tiger Temple. Fantastic experience with what I hope will be great photos. Stopped at Bridge on the River Kwai, gave the temple's monks food for breakfast, feed the baby tigers, ate breakfast with the monks after their chants, walked with the baby tigers and the Big Cats and all topped off with photos with the tigers. Been up since 4 AM so need nap and dinner. Don't know if I have ever been so hot and dirty in my life. BUT it all felt so good, even the 106 temperature!

Eugene, we are also going to Ayutthaya tomorrow. so look out for Brad, Leslie, Doug and me aka...4 hot and sweaty people.

Some pics from our amazing visit to the Tiger Temple today.

Big Kitty


Little Kitty


I love them all. More tiger photos tomorrow.

Ohhhh that Bangkok heat...it's all coming back to me. Tom worked there for about 4 months so I made several trips to visit him. I don't think I have ever been so hot and sticky in my life!!

I loved seeing the pictures of the tigers at Tiger Temple. What a very special trip for Betty and Andrea.
I'm so excited to hear about Angor Wat hopefully with and lots of pictures. Thanks for posting guys!!

Loved the pix Betty and Andrea! What a wonderful time you are having!

Took the food tour that you all recommended today with Brad and Leslie, who did it on a few hours of sleep ( I think they got in some winks), I know they were up still at 4 am ...they were troopers on the tour and Leslie was taking what looked like great photos.

The food was fun and filling as you said it would be but it sure was hot out there trudging around. We had lots of fun riding the really nice sky train to and from the food tour-- air conditioned!

What I love about Bangkok even with the humidity is the wonderful smelll of spices and food in the air wherever you seem to go. A yummy smelling place!

Love those tiger pics Betty and Andrea!

I am insanely jealous.

Ohh the Tiger Temple! we went a few years ago and there were people picketing claiming the tigers are drugged/sedated. Seems simple enuf to me to prove it once and for all and that has not happened. I just think they are placid from living in hot and humid with fur coats and surrounded by monks. Would make anyone sleepy. Such great photos/memories!
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Helen

Thanks for all the mail and pics! I am so happy for all of you and can't wait to follow your adventures

Amazing photos everyone.

Andrea, you'd better not show those kitty photos to Jackson. I'm sure he would be very jealous.

Thanks for all the wonderful seamail, everyone.


..... and the cruise hasn't even begun yet!!

Wow, wow, wow. Those tiger pix are fabulous!!!

Yesterday we took a 3 hour Foodie Walking tour around Bangkok, stopping at multiple small restaurants, a bakery and some food stands on both sides of the river.

Our group was pretty big - 16 people - and quite international, with people from the US, Japan, Hong Kong, Bahrain and maybe elsewhere, but our guide kept everyone moving. Fortunately the last 2 stops had air conditioning. We ate a huge amount of yummy food including roasted duck, crispy catfish, Thai sausage, green mango salad, beef & chicken "curry lava", green curry, pork buns, green custard buns, ice cream, Thai ice tea, and more. Highly recommended.

Heading to breakfast before our full-day tour to Autthaya. Here's a photo from yesterday's tour. Dinner at the French bistro was okay. Right in the heart of the Patpong markets. Very colorful to say the least. All sorts of items and constantly shown cards to entice into some pretty interesting "clubs." But alas ...




--------------------------

Eugene

Andrea--remember those cats in a few months, when you see the bears. can't touch those

More tiger photos

Feeding the cubs

This will be all - I promise.

Walking the baby.


Walking the Big Cat


Tiger monks chanting. The big screen TV is the live streaming their web site does every morning during the feeding .

Ayutthaya: Longboat tour on the Chao Phraya, Pa Sak and Lop Buri Rivers

Ayutthaya: Wat Maha That

Ayutthaya: Wat Loayasutha

that elephant

Very nice, Leslie. Can't believe what you do with an iPhone .

I thought Angkor Wat was the most oppressively hot place i had ever been, but it is such a must see, that we did it all. that shower does indeed feel great at the end of an excursion. Enjoy! it is fabulous

Leslie can take better pics with an iphone than I could with a 10,000$ camera. I love those pictures. I think I will print them and claim them as mine. :):)
Have a great time, can't wait for more seamail!!!!! I'm soooo jealous!

Thanks! Some were taken by Brad. I bought a Canon SX50 with a big built in optical zoom, 50x, which translates to 1200 mm I think, so we will be able to zoom in on the polar bears this summer. So Brad is using that while I play around with my iPhone apps. It's a nice camera, with lots of ability to adjust, although not a huge aperture range, something like f3.4 to f8. It doesn't weigh very much and the price is very reasonable at $389. Can't compete with the lens lads & ladies with it, but the zoom ability is amazing.

GREAT pictures from everyone. I love looking at the pictures. Tigers, temples, food - great sights.

We are now in Bangkok and cannot wait to get to the ship! Had a wonderful time and some great experiences.

Ken is going to post a few shots from the Chiang Mai Hillside Village tribes that we visited with Jim and Pam. We really enjoyed that experience not what we expected. It was really individual families who set up stalls in front of their houses to sell hand made crafts to tourists with a $15 per person entrance fee. Up the hill was their other home on stilts that they move to when the lower area floods. I was surprised to learn it is mostly Chinese tourists who come here not many western tourists. We were there about 11.00 am and only two other tourists were there. As we left a bus full of Chinese arrived.

Several different tribes were represented here, the most interesting were the " Padaung Long Necks" part of the Karen tribes. These are the women with the brass rings around their necks. We were told this was done originally as the women were left home defenseless when the men went hunting and at times the women were attacked by tigers who of course go for the neck. The girls start wearing the rings at age four and they are then added as she ages. Plus one lovely elderly lady with a big smile from the Akha tribe with her black teeth from drinking a tea. The blacker the teeth the more beautiful in the Akha tribe eyes.

I think this would be hit with westerners if they developed this a little more and that would help these people as now they do rely on tourism. They are not Thai but refugees from Myanmar and this is how they now survive. I loved it just as it was, even though my first thought was darn just selling more "stuff". However it was REALLY their home now and the little children were there running around. Many of the women were really beautiful. If the tourists do not come then how would they survive. Then again if the tourists did not come then they may stop the practice of the rings. The rings actually do not elongate the neck the push the shoulders and rib cages down. Logic tells you it must do damage to the body.

Pam and I both bought a few trinkets and the most interesting being the hats they wear. These were definitely hand made you can see all the stitching on the inside. We are both so mad at ourselves for not buying three each with different patterns. They were only about $10 per hat and are really quite stunning. A grouping of three would look great on a wall. I think it was not until we left and really studied the hats that we realized how neat they really were. Just another of those missed opportunities that are hard to recreate! I am sure many of the other items were massed produced but the hats were really neat.

We are both quite excited about seeing everyone this afternoon it has been a long time since Hee Haw the last time we saw many of you. Informal gathering of course before dinner this evening in the observation lounge. Hopefully the bag we shipped will be in our cabin with all the pins and paper work!

Photos From Chiang Mei, Northern Thailand Akha hill tribes:

Great photos everyone. We are leaving for the ship in about 30 minutes. Sad to leave Bangkok but looking forward to seeing everyone and our next adventure.

Dear Kim and Alice
Have finally arrived on the Voyager. Had 2 pina coladas, one in honor of each of you. A third will most likely arrive for moi later today. Wish you all were with us.

Thanks everyone for sharing such a great trip with us. Between the tigers and the pandas I just want to jump into my computer and pet the animals!!

We arrive in Singapore and then on to Bali April 23 to May 6. Are we going to be ships passing in the night with of you???

Oh my gosh that one lady with the neck rings looks like a Modigliani painting. Unreal! Assume they cannot be removed?[shudder].
------------------------
Helen

Those neck rings can NOT be healthy!

The rings can't be removed. They wouldn't be able to hold their heads up - at least that is what they told us in Burma. There is a "tribe" in the northern part of Burma that also wear them. They came on board one evening to demonstrate their craft. These are the women that do the beautiful Burmese weaving. The government is trying to get them to stop with the copper, but it's not working. It was sad to see the young girls in Ken's photos already wearing them.
Today is Cambodia and it is HOT - even for this Houston girl. I walked down the gangway just to put my feet on Cambodia concrete and justify this $89 visa. Did look at the wares of some local vendors on the dock but didn't purchase. But lovely, friendly people.
This is a wonderful group of LCT people. Nice to finally meet several I have only known from the board. And Andrea and I have already met a few other couples from the UK, Australia and Dallas in Prime 7 last night. The food was as fantastic as I remembered.
Tomorrow is a sea day - then Singapore.
And yes, it was another 2 pina colada lunch for Betty. NAP TIME? I think yes!

Yes dinner in P7 was very, very good. Mini slider amuse bouche, oysters Rockefeller & a 10 oz filet cooked to perfection.

Sihanoukville,Cambodia: Amazing Ream National Park


Well, it's been 9 days of Cambodia and Thailand and today was our last day before heading off to other countries. Thailand is definitely a place we will return to again and may even consider an extended retirement stay as it is a place full of good food, people, modern amenities at affordable prices. Cambodia is another story. Once joined with Thailand, it had been left far behind it's neighbor. Perhaps about 100 years. The people are earnest and hard working, but have been dealt a hard lot in life.

We began our morning with a walk around town. The tuk tuk drivers swarmed on the bus offering us rides to the beach or tours around town. We decided to do it on foot. What there was to see was not a souvenir strewn market for tourists but normal daily life. Fish and meat (I think goat) were covered with flies and all sorts of strange fruits and vegetables lined the street stalls. There was plenty of food but none looked terribly well preserved. After a 15 minute walk, we were sticky with sweat and the odors from the market were a bit ripe. We made a quick dart back to the bus and the ship.

We were the only ones of the group who hadn't bailed out on the afternoon tour. How bad could it be? Ha! Stupid is as stupid does. It was a 5 hour tour described as... Take a boat ride and cruise the river for 1 hour. Walk the village and forest for 2 hours and walk the beach and relax 1 hour. The rest was driving time. Difficulty was 2 little people.

Little did we realize that we were trying out for a new reality show called Amazing Idiots-A show all about 3 bus loads of tourists who decide to ruin a perfectly good afternoon and risk their lives on an all inclusive tour in sweltering heat instead of sitting on a luxury cruise ship drinking their all inclusive drinks and calling for room service in air conditioned comfort.

It all began with an animal sighting...one of a chained monkey who grinned at us knowing that we were soon going to be making monkeys of ourselves. There were large wooden boats and people were shoved 4 across on the little wooden slats. A little boat pulled up and we noted that it was only for 4 and Doug was grateful we'd only have 2 across and be rather a small intimate group. However, they added two more.

We took off...not much to see... A crane here and there...time went on, all the boats passed us leaving us in their wake and then we looked down. Our boat was filling with water. One of the crew was quickly ....or as quickly as possible...bailing water out of the boat and we noticed we were surrounded by massive numbers of huge jellyfish. Additionally, there were 6 of us and only 4 life jackets. We started to draw straws as to who would go down with the ship. Our one hour boat ride kept dragging on with no end in site and nothing to do but watch the guy bail out the boat. Then, we came to a crashing halt and the engine died. I guess they felt we needed some excitement. Thankfully, they got our boat started and we chugged on, noticing other boats were now broken down as well and people were being rescued.

Land at last. We felt kind of like Swiss Family Robinson. Getting off the boat, things didn't improve. The village was Little House On The Prairie Cambodia filled with chickens and pigs and people taking baths outside, we trudged in the heat over uneven surfaces UPHILL on rickety and rotten stairs holding onto one another not sure if we were going to die of heat stroke or a coronary. Where there weren't broken stairs, there were potholes large enough to hide a car or ravines we had to cross on single tree limbs. Some folks had to do this with canes! We lost a few on the way. They just gave up. This went on for two bloody hours. All we wanted was a cold drink, a cold shower and air conditioning. Finally, the beach was in sight.There was a place to sit, but you had to BUY drinks and few had money. There were no toilets. We were told we had to stay there one hour and relax.

Then, there was the request. Please take us back. Why.? Said the guide...this is beautiful ...you must stay here. Bring us our busses! Demanded the mutinous crowd. Let's take a show of hands for anyone who wants to stay. Not one hand went up. Someone muttered...see that guy over there? He's a psychiatrist. Anyone who wants to stay...go talk to him.

Finally, after much convincing, we were led to our bus. Our alliance won! As our lone bus pulled away, the beach remained empty, no people could be seen, and the other two busses remained empty. Perhaps they had been turned back on a detour to begin again?

This will likely be my final memory of Cambodia. I will also learn to read tour descriptions more carefully in the future.

oh my gosh Andi...what a story. Your writing brings it to life. I shutter to imagine I may have been right there with you on that miserable excursion. I know that wonderful feeling of getting back on the ship with AC and a nice cold drink !!

I'm loving reading the TAJ seamail and pix...thanks guys!
Remind me again why we cancelled this trip ?? .grrrrr.

Andi, we felt the same about Thailand vs Cambodia. Loved Thailand, but I will return to Cambodia ONLY if someone pays me a great deal of $ to do so. Nothing as dramatic as your trip but just a forlorn, poor country full of very desperate people. Glad you survived your ordeal with nothing more than an enhanced appreciation of good A/C!
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Helen

Oh Andi what an ordeal!! Bet you were grateful to get back onboard! I'm loving all the pix and reports. Please keep them coming!