Phuket, Thailand

From Singapore we sailed through the straits of Malacca, one of the busiest shipping channels in the world with 50,000 ships passing though these narrow straits annually. Everything from fishing and cargo ships to warships ships passed us in the night. We arrived this morning in Phuket, known as the “Pearl of the South”.  The brochure states that it was voted as one of the world’s top 5 retirement destinations. I am wondering where they took this poll. Areas of the island are pretty but it’s hot, humid and I am not sure that I see the draw. It has some nice resorts, golfing and water sports scattered along the beaches.  I didn’t see a heck of a lot to recommend it otherwise, as far as retiring and living day to day on this island.  The 12 by 30 mile island has tall jungles, an attractive coastline with coconut and rubber plantations in the interior. Probably if you know anything about Phuket it is that it was the place hit by a horrendous tsunami in 2004. You see a few remnants of the disaster, but it seems to have recovered for the most part. Our guide’s sister and brother- in- law were killed in the storm. She said they had no warning other than when some people on the coast saw the water being sucked out of the bay and they warned everyone to try to get to higher land. Six thousand people were killed on this little island that day. Their most frequent tourists are Russians – that’s different. They have four direct flights from Russia to Phuket daily. There is one old tribe that still resides here that kept their own language and customs. They are called the “sea gypsies” as they frequently move their village to different spots on the island. These fishermen, fish from brightly colored boats hanging their freshly caught fish on a stick, like wash on a clothesline. A sideline income seems to be selling shells to the tourists. They are sending school teachers into their village to try to integrate them into the general population– without much success so far.  We weren’t sure what to see here. A lot of people took the tour to “James Bond Island” where the final scene of “The Man with the Golden Gun” was filmed. I couldn’t see traveling half way around the world for that. The other tour was an elephant ride and show. We opted for just the general, generic tour of the island since neither of us had been here before. It began with a scenic drive to Cape Promthep. Mainly this was just a photo stop to view the forested hills, rugged shorelines and resort hotels surrounding the island.  Of course, we had our “Temple Stop”  - Wat Chalong Temple, the island’s largest.  You can’t help but be impressed by the color, gilding and unique architecture. Then off to a small Thai Village (culture center).  They were to demonstrate the local culture from boxing matches to a typical Thai wedding ceremony.   I am not too big on these staged performances of “cultural life” for the tourists. I feel like you could see the same thing in the states at a Disneyland Thai Village. I am not sure how this tour made the cut as about now the elephant ride was looking better and better. Then the Thai band stuck up. They were loudly beating on drums, cymbals, sticks and various percussion objects but if there was a melody there somewhere, I couldn’t hear it. It sounded amazingly similar to Hannah’s little rhythm class where each 3 year old selected some noise maker out of the “music” box and marched around happily beating on it with a vengeance. It went on it seemed, endlessly. Just when you thought surely the end was near, they started over again. When blissful quiet finally returned, there was a polite spattering of applause, except for Jim, who hollered “Bravo” – causing about three audience members to quickly turn around and threatened bodily harm if he shouted “encore”.  Some people videoed the whole thing to share with friends back home – hard to imagine you would do that to your friends. Some of the dances and costumes were striking and colorful and some of the later music sounded more like traditional Thai music.  From there we had a tasty Thai buffet complete with Satay and peanut sauce and an assortment of other typical Thai foods.   We did of course make the shopping stop – still no major purchases.  Phuket might be a lovely place to visit but I believe the odds of my being capture by pirates are better than the odds of my selecting Phuket as the place to live out my golden, retirement years.

Singapore

They say Singapore is a “fine” place – they “fine” you for everything.  I don’t know about for everything but for littering - $300 for first offense. The second offense it is $500 and they put you in an “offender’s jacket”. In your lovely new garb you must pick up litter in the gardens and parks. In case this isn’t embarrassing enough, your friends and family can watch you on TV as they televise the “offenders”  doing trash duty.  Jaywalking has a $500 fine. The city, as you might imagine, is almost pristine especially compared to the countries we have visited in the last few weeks. The trash along those streets and countryside has been unbelievable. You forget the old days where, even in the US, most people just threw their trash out their car windows. Singapore is a city state thus the whole country is Singapore. (I think the Vatican might be the only other one of those left  - maybe).  It has one Main Island with 63 other, mostly uninhabited, little islands. Again, the first impression of Singapore is skyscrapers with a bustling, modern cosmopolitan city. It is one degree north of the equator so you know the weather report – hot and humid.  A piece of trivia, Singapore has more tourists a year than its total population. More than six million tourists visit this island annually. It is one of the few places we have been that takes nothing but their own currency. I have been amazed how many places will take US dollars – at an often a poor exchange rate, but they did accept it.  As we had a rather short day in Singapore, we opted for a city tour in the morning and out on our own in the afternoon. We saw the Istana, the presidential palace and Raffles Hotel. (Home of the Singapore Sling first served in 1915 at the famous Long Bar there). Then on to the Shenton Way, the “Wall Street of Southeast Asia”.  Singapore was nothing like what I was expecting. We could have been in a big city in Florida. Lush green areas everywhere and the city is as modern, or more modern than US cities.  Everyone is required to put 16% of their income in a community retirement fund that they can start taking out at 62. There is no welfare unless the person had been certified as being unable to work. Unemployment is 2%. There is no graffiti.  There is a section of wall that has been designated for “personal art” and any place else - you get fined.  As for drug deals, anyone convicted of selling over 8 grams of hard drugs gets a death sentence.  Most of their police work is under cover, even for littering and jay walking. The police, working in plain clothes, take a picture of the infraction and impose the fine. There is an extremely low crime rate here, as you might imagine.  A $50,000 car, costs $100,000 due to the taxes you are required to pay.  You must pay the first 10 years of car taxes upfront at the time of purchase. Not surprising, traffic isn’t a huge problem here considering the size of the city.  Maybe it is just the locals we have come in contact with and it is not truly representative, but there is a real an emphasis on money and shopping in these Asian counties. That seems to be a major topic of conversation.  This guide was telling us that the  women here look for the  “5 C’s” in a husband  - we guessed compassionate, cute etc. no – condo, credit cards, car, cash and country club membership. The” poorer class” lives in condos that they must buy from the government. The average government condo for the “poor” must be purchased not rented. These are modern, attractive high rises. They go for about $400,000-$450,000  for a 900-1000 sq. ft. condo. Geez, with that guideline a lot of us are living in “poor housing”.  Our first stop on the tour was Mt Faber for a photo op. No smog, we could actually see sky here, a nice change.  Then on to the 129 acre Botanical Gardens and the National Orchid Garden, with the world’s largest collection of orchids with over 20,000 orchids was quite something to see and photograph. I took lots of pictures, I am not sure why, I guess for a scrapbook page. Then to Chinatown, it seems most countries have a China town, including our own. Here, even in China town the streets are wide and the market stalls clean. Most of Singapore is Chinese, but English is spoken almost everywhere. Much of China Town has been renovated and updated so we just passed through though the market on the way to the Temple. Needing our almost daily (lately) Temple fix we visited the 19^th century Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu Temple in the city. That was interesting and different from anything we had seen so far, as most of the temples have seen were Buddhist. They were having a ceremony, exotic music and rituals. We hot footed it place to place within the Temple as we had to remove our shoes to enter the temple. It didn’t take us long to check out some of the shrines as the sun on the outdoor tiled floors had them heated to just below frying temperature. After the tour, we decided to just stay in town and poke around a while. We wanted to try the infamous Singapore Sling at the Long Bar at Raffles. The drinks are $37 a piece – I think you are buying the story, not the booze!  It is reportedly the best Singapore Sling in the world but as I had never tasted one before I had nothing to compare it with – lots of booze but just tasted like sweet, alcoholic aftershave to me – but a pretty pink drink complete with pineapple chunks and cherries.  We ate lunch at Raffles along with getting our Sling as it is turn out to be quite a hotel. Since it was over a hundred years old I had pictured a slightly shabby, rundown old hotel.  I thought we would grab a quick Singapore Sling there, just to be able to say we had, and keep on moving. Actually, the hotel was charming. Built in the days with no air conditioning, I suppose it was designed to catch the breezes so it had oodles of lush flowered courtyards and wide columned verandas sprinkled around  everywhere.  After that we caught a cab back to the port. Once I got over the shock of feeling like I was back stateside, I was quite impressed with the city. It is a great place to visit but if you are looking for someplace with the look, feel and smell of the exotic, this isn’t it.

  

Laem Chabang, Thailand (Bangkok)

        

Today we will be working in Baht instead of dong or dollars. I am never sure how much “walking around” money to change. You lose money changing it and even more changing it back, if you don’t spend it. My philosophy has been to just take a little; you can always blow that at the street market. The expensive places tend to take plastic. We set out to see Bangkok at about 7:30 am to make the most of the day. Bangkok brings to mind the land of opulent temples and exotic Buddhas. Like several other Asian cities we visited, there is a modern section complete with congested streets. There are street vendors and tuk-tuks (Pedi-cabs) everywhere. On the streets of Bangkok, they have all these candy-colored cabs.  I liked the hot pink ones. The country is 95% Buddhist but more interesting to me was how many businesses, from auto repair shops to major corporations, had shires on the property. In some ways parts of Thailand are like a living museum. People seem to work around this grandeur daily probably immune to the beauty and history around them. I remember living in Rome, the first year I slowed down to gawk at the coliseum about every time I drove past. A year later, I zipped by it without a backward glance, like the rest of the Romans. Thailand is arguably the most stable and best administered state in Southeast Asia. As for Bangkok, it was founded in 1782 by King Rama and is called home by eight million people. Again, it has been a long time since I was in Thailand so we decided, when in Thailand, take in the palace and temples. Of course, we threw in a harbor cruise because, god forbid, we are off water for a whole day. The temperature and the humidity both felt like about 99. Several years ago, Bangkok was named the hottest city in the world by the World Meteorological Organization.  I believe it, after each stop on the tour they gave you ice water and an icy cool wash rag. Both were welcomed and appreciated. I suppose this is but a prelude to the India trip. We started at the Grand Palace- the word opulent comes to mind. Home to former kings, you could almost picture the King of Siam holding forth on his golden throne. Probably one of the most distinctive things about it is the gild and multi-colored mosaics that top many of the buildings. Many of the walls were encrusted with semi precious jewels that sparkled in the sunlight. I took about 47 pictures but none of them really caught the beauty and magnificence of the buildings. Wat Timitr is the most famous temple in Bangkok as it is the one that houses the Golden Buddha. It is the world’s largest statue of the Buddha, craved from solid gold and weighs 5,500 Kilograms! (If I remember correctly what a kilo weighs I think that makes it almost 14,000 pounds of solid gold). And just think what one little Krugerand is worth now days! Wat Pa keo is known as the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha, Thailand’s most celebrated monastery.  This is the home of the “jade” Buddha that you often see pictured in brochures, sitting in the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha. However, the stone is neither Jade nor emerald. The Buddha is carved from a single piece of emerald green jasper.  It is really not very large – but exquisitely carved and sitting on an elaborate pedestal. I understood having to take off your shoes to enter the shires, but there was a sign to remove your shoes before entering the toilet area. Really? Yuk. That seemed weird to me, I have heard of people, after a rough night, worshipping at the ole porcelain thrown but requiring shoe removal to do it? It isn’t quite as gross as it sounds because there were rubber thongs available for you to use. I decided to take a pass on wearing a pair of thongs that 182 other people ahead of me had slopped through the potty area wearing. One guy on our tour had his shoes stolen. He finished the rest of the tour in his socks. Wouldn’t you think that might be bad karma or bad Juju or something to steal from a temple?  I was safe enough, large size, cheap shoes. Then, on to the canal cruise. From the luxuriant and grandiose to the to the impoverished and unfortunate. Statistics show that 70% of the Thais are poor, 28% middle class with 2% wealthy. We certainly saw the poor sections both driving into the city and with the dilapidated housing along the canals. There is a whole section of ramshackle housing lining the shores of the canal with people existing more than living. You might think viewing the abject poverty, would put us off our feed a bit, but next we sat down to a gluttonous buffet– heavy on the curry and rice.  Quite a thunder storm blew in, but we had finished everything but the requisite stop at a market. The potty report – you had the squat toilets, but a new wrinkle. Beside the potty was about a 15 gallon refillable brick tank of water with a bowl attached – your flushing equipment.  Back to the ship and on to Singapore.

Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon Vietnam – (no internet the last 3 days)

 

Goooooooood Morning Vietnam! We arrived in the port of Phu My (foo me) and drove 42 kilometers into Saigon. Surprisingly, everyone we talked to still calls it Saigon. Also, you notice that they don’t call it the Viet Nam War. They call it the American War. That kind of makes sense if you think about, especially since it was almost on the heels of the Vietnamese/ French War. For them, all their wars were Vietnam Wars.  Saigon is the largest City in Vietnam. The trip into Saigon was an experience. Unlike our previous ports, there is no conglomeration of high rise office buildings and condos giving you that almost universal skyscraper image that we have observed in most of the previous ports in the East. In the last few years they have built a few high rises. One hotel paid $2,500 a sq. meter for their land downtown. At that price you know it is probably going be a high rise.. But the vast majority of Saigon is still small little open air, closet size stalls, selling everything you can think of and a few things that would never come to mind. We asked about these outdoor “coffee houses” along the road that had nothing but a roof, a small coffee/food counter and maybe 15 hammocks strung between posts. He said the hammocks are used for prostitution and mainly frequented by truck drivers to relieve their tension on the road. Kind of strange, but after 2 ½ hours in Saigon traffic, I can see where they might get plenty of business. The country looks incredibly poor to me although the guide says most people are “thriving” now. He reported that from 1975-1985 the majority of the people here were on the brink of starvation. Things have gotten progressively better since then. I am not sure how he defines “thriving” as things still look pretty grim to me.(Although I have to say it appears that about everyone can afford a motor scooter.)  OMG, the motor scooters and the traffic!  You have to see it to believe it. I saw 5 people on one motor scooter and 4 to a scooter isn’t unusual. Three, with a child or baby squeezed in between zigzagging between busses and trucks, was the norm. Also, the loads people can pile on these scooters is incredible. There are 40 million scooters in Vietnam and it felt like at least half of them were buzzing around on the streets of Saigon today. I must have taken 153 pictures of people on scooters. Many of the women wore masks for the pollution, others were selling things off the back of the scooter. Some used their scooters like a pickup truck. I would tell myself that I would not take another picture of a scooter, no matter what. About then a scooter would pass with a 3 year old casually hanging on to mom  bouncing along on the back of the scooter. There was no special seat or strap as child just tried to hang on as mom barreled along side our bus, down dirt paths, veering on and off the paved road.  We arrived at our first stop in Saigon, undamaged and without running over anyone. It was the National History Museum. There was an assortment of Vietnamese artifacts some dating back centuries. Then they held a water puppets show. I know, I rolled my eyes too – but as it turned out it was very colorful and cleverly done. What made it the most fun were the little Vietnamese kids that were captivated. They squealed, pointed and clapped every time the dragon would attack the duck or the puppets would swim in formation. Then on to Thien Hau Temple in Chinatown. It was an ornate Buddhist temple, heavy on the incenses. Incense was burning everywhere including the entire ceiling was covered with burning incense coils. Very intricate carvings, ornate ceramics and remarkable architecture all made it worth the stop. Next, we visited the Minh Phuong Lacquer Factory. Interesting process. You could tell the difference between these and the $5 knock offs on the street. I broke down and finally bought something, for me or a Christmas present, I don’t know yet.  There was no shopping at street markets on this tour, which was unfortunate, as this is the cheapest I have seen things thus far. Jim ended up getting “Ralph Lauren Polo” shirts 3 for $10.   The Polo players are probably riding the wrong direction or swinging a golf club if you look too closely. At that price they are disposable and will put off doing laundry a few days. They had “Prada” sunglasses for two bucks. I can only imagine how much fun Courtney and I could have had haggling for knock offs at the open market. We saw Notre Dame Cathedral and  Ho Chi Minh Park.  I went into the French Colonial Post Office to mailed Hannah a postcard. The exchange rate is about 21,000 Dong to the dollar so I gave her a dollar for the card. She gave me change, I bought two stamps, she gave more bills – when all was said and done, from my dollar bill I still had 1,000 Dong left. I was tempted to change a $20 bill just to have some 100,000 bills in my wallet- for $50, I could have been a millionaire!  Next stop, Reunification City Hall, the old Presidential Palace. Down in the basement was the war room with all the old equipment still in place. We had a buffet lunch at the Hotel Majestic. Quite nice. We also went to the Rex Hotel, famous for it’s bar, where weekly military updates on the war were given, and the infamous “Friday Night Follies”. I actually thought the Majestic was more attractive.  I was just as fascinated with the country and people on the 2 ½ hour return trip to the ship. We watched people working the rice fields, store keepers hawking their wares and of course the dance of the deadly scooters.  Somehow, 40+ years ago watching the Vietnam War unfold nightly on TV it never occurred to me that one day I would be strolling the streets of Saigon taking snapshot of motor scooters and buying Polo knock offs. Life is strange.

Shanghai, China

Shanghai is China’s largest City – yes, even bigger than Beijing. It is considered the gateway to the Yangtze River. It is a huge port handling about a third of the country’s ocean going cargo. One of the first things we saw was these huge oyster farms out in the harbor - intriguing to watch them at work. Shanghai is a young city compared of many in China, but has had a very checkered past. There were opium wars; also during that era it was one of the leading trade centers in the East. Self governed, it drew everyone from fortune hunters to smugglers. During this period men were often kidnapped to work the ships heading to and from Shanghai – thus the origin of the term “shanghaied”. Shanghai has temples, museums and the Bund – a waterfront promenade lined with 19^th century architecture. A great area for bars, hotels and restaurants. We decided on the “Humble Administrator’s Garden” tour – (circa 1509,  Ming Dynasty era). It is supposed to be an outstanding example of a classical Chinese garden. The garden was located in Suzhou, one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze River basin. Quite a change from Shanghai. First, while I would recommend this stop, I would suggest maybe in April – things were just beginning to bloom. (pictures above) Next it was to the Suzhou Embroidry Research Institue. I thought this would be a wasted stop but it turned out to be surprisingly interesting. The master’s work looks like a photograph unless you look really closely. They had double sided works where one picture is embrordryed on the front with a totally different picture on the back, both flawless  – the larger ones take about 18 months to produce. Jim bought a couple of things for his daughters. I was tempted, but I wondered if it wouldn’t be something I loved in China but did not have a clue why I bought, or where to put it, once I unpacked it in Atascocita. Then off for a traditional Chinese lunch. I didn’t recognize anything except some chunks of tofu –yuk. I was on my chop stick diet anyway, where only about half the food made it from my plate to my mouth. Next, a cruise down the Grand Canal. This canal was dug, by hand, 2,500 years ago and is 1,000 miles long. What they would have given for just one working backhoe. Because of all these waterways, Shanghai is sometimes referred to as the “Venice of the East”. Parts of it do look a bit like Venice except you are seeing them from a sampan, instead of a gondola. Sadly, a lot of this older area is scheduled for demolition to make room for more high-rise condos. It is a strange time in China with their government on a major spending spree, buying up people’s slum housing and farms. Not sure what the farms are for but they are buying the inner city housing is to build more condos. They gave extremely generous settlements for those that owned property. Those who were renting were just displaced. Like many of the larger cities in Asia, Shanghai has smog, a lot of smog. Asked if it was always this smoggy, the guide said his daughter’s kindergarten class was asked to draw the park nearest their house. He said every kid in the class used a grey crayon to color the sky. Even so, Shanghai is greener than Beijing; there is a law that there must be a green area or park every 600 meters. He said 90% of the kids from Shanghais attend college.  Really? There is still the rule in China that the government just pays for one child. If you have a second one you must pay for their private schooling and all medical costs etc. Because boys are in such high demand, especially in rural areas, the boys outnumber the girls in China. When it’s time to wed, they often marry girls from other countries. He covered everything from the time when the Emperor required all wives and concubines to commit suicide or to be buried alive with him when he died – to the fact that currently they aren’t allowed to have Face book and many of the western websites are blocked from them.  I will say that nights in Shanghai are quite spectacular. They put on rather an impressive light show with entire sky scrapers lit up with pictures like mega TV screens or all kinds of lighted designs covering the entire sides of buildings.  Even many of the boats cruising the Yangtze River are lit up like Christmas trees.  I do have to do another potty report. The Chinese have these “squat toilets”. Quite a come down, so to speak, from the luxury Japanese potties. The only points I give them is - you flush them with your foot. Tomorrow, Hong Kong.

Busan, Korea

Not what I was expecting, except the weather, which was cold. Your first glimpse of Busan is of skyscrapers –office buildings and condos. Maybe most of the pictures I’ve seen of Korea came from the fifties during the Korean War or maybe because of Korea’s history of surviving four major wars in the last hundred years, I wasn’t expecting quite such a modern look. The worst residual feelings from the various wars, seems to be against the Japanese. The general feeling we got was that the people of Korea would like to see Korea reunited; they have friends and family on both sides of the border. It is the governments that don’t want to unite. The guide  showed us a picture of a very impressive looking building just across the border in North Korea. While imposing to view from South Korea, apparently it is for show and is only about 10 ft. deep- sort of like a Hollywood set. Almost everyone we talk with from the past ambassador to Laos to the local guides predict that unsteady times will be increasing in Asia. North Korea is in pretty bad shape. One reason might be that they expend over 50% of their annual budget on the military, funding over one million soldiers. South Korea spends 35% of their budget on military. On both sides, all men between the ages of 17-25 must serve.  As for their currency, it reminded me of the old Lira days in Italy. The man sitting next to us said he went to the ATM machine and as everything was in Korean characters so he just pushed the top button, which is usually $200 cash. He said it was like winning the lottery – it took two hands to carry it all. He was really worried about how much he got until he saw that even postcards had at least one comma in their price. The smallest bill the ATM gives is a 10,000 won bill. We started our tour in what is a very large and active harbor. According to our guide over 50% of all ship builders are represented here. The average workweek is 55 hours. The average retirement age had been 55, but with the current economy, it is edging toward 58. The average income is $30,000 a year. One of Korea’s biggest problems is that they must import about everything but rice. Only 22% of their land is usable, with the rest being too mountainous to use for building or farming. Our first stop was Haedong Yongungsa Temple. It was located on a beautiful seaside mountain – quite an impressive view. It seemed like hundreds of steps going up and down to various shires within the Temple area. These were Buddhist shrines with one 30 ft. “Golden” Buddha towards the top. I have to admit, American tourists can be pretty obnoxious. As the locals were knelling and praying inside their shires, many tourists were snapping their picture and talking loudly about their climb up or putting the “fat” Buddha on a diet, as the locals were trying to pray. I couldn’t help but wonder how they would feel if a busload of Korean tourists walked into the middle of their Mass talking loudly and snapping photos of them at prayer. Anyway, a beautiful place with cliffs and waterfalls, very lovely and I am sure quite tranquil when tourists aren’t in residence.  Next, the APEC House. I am not sure it was worth a stop, but a lovely setting for the conference where the 2005 APEC economic leaders met. On to downtown Busan. While similar to many other big cities, Busan has a famous Fish Market- and holy mackerel – what a market! This huge, indoor marketplace was started by women during the Korean War. It has everything from octopus to sea slugs (pic above) and various other sea creatures that I didn’t begin to recognize. There was what looks like a couple of dozen raw oysters strung on strings with sea weed in between – sort like an oyster necklace or an oyster kabob. Probably about 90% of the fish were fresh. How do I know? I know because they were all alive and swimming in tanks. It is like an enormous dinner aquarium that goes on for a block. There was also a huge variety of various colored sea weed - and many other things that didn’t look, or smell, like something you might want to put in your mouth. Under the bustling street was a huge underground market for as far as you could see. We then headed to the U.N. cemetery, where soldier from all the participating nations were buried.  After a potty stop the bus returned to the harbor. I know you guys think I am getting fixated on potties, but most their public toilets don’t furnish toilet paper or paper towels so you have to furnish your own or buy them from vending machines outside the restrooms. I think after this trip I may publish a potty guide for women. You know, like noting the Japanese 5 star potty, or develop some symbol for “crappy” potties you should avoid at all cost.(No, not that symbol, don’t go there) . Maybe - “A Women’s Worldly Guide to Perfect and Putrid Potties”. It was just a thought.