Singapore

Betsy visited Singapore in the late 90s on business and didn’t recognize several parts of Singapore. The new building activity is amazing, the prosperity obvious and (trumpets sound….) we actually saw some litter on the sidewalk and in the river! We were careful not to spit or chew gum, but we did sweat—a lot!

The ship was docked at Harbor Front—a perfect location with easy access to Sentosa Island and the MRT for getting to other parts of Singapore. Picture 1 shows the view of Sentosa Island from our ship. In the late 90s the island had beaches, some nice walking and Underwater World. Today it is a combination of Disney World and Las Vegas. There are 2 Las Vegas-like hotels (including a Hard Rock) with casinos and many smaller hotels. There’s a Universal Studios and about every type of activity you can think of—water park, bird park, butterflies & insects, Combat Skirmish, an animatronic crane dance, cycles, Segways, zip lines, etc. We took the moving sidewalk over, walked around and left, but it was amazing to see what 16 years can do!

We then took the MRT to Clarke Quay to take a tourist cruise on the Singapore River. It’s an easy way to get a quick overview of Singapore and cooler than extensive walking! A short distance from Clarke Quay you get to Boat Quay, which is shown in Picture 2. The buildings in the forefront were built in the second half of the 19^th century. Boats would sail up the river to this point and unload their cargo. Each building represented a different merchant. You’ll notice that the buildings are different heights, which is how merchants showed their wealth. The taller your building, the wealthier you were.

Sailing along we noticed the scene in picture 3, which looked like a long, skinny cruise ship sailing in the sky. Upon reaching Marina Bay, we saw the Marina Bay Sands project, which is shown in Picture 4. This is on reclaimed land and was not there when Betsy visited in the late 90s. Her hotel was to the right of this new island and there was a clear view of the harbor, with boats waiting to have cargo unloaded. This complex contains hotel, apartments, restaurants, entertainment venues and, at the left side with the spacecraft-like shape, is the Arts and Science Museum. A very amazing sight!

Picture 5 shows the Merlion, the symbol of Singapore. It’s part lion and part mermaid. A copy is also located on Sentosa Island.

Finally, we had lunch on the river. We set out wanting chicken rice and chili crabs, but came upon a restaurant and suddenly got homesick. Hooters with Tiger Beer—great! We will be back here next winter and already have our time planned!

Bangkok

Ships dock 2.5 hours from Bangkok and we were there for 2 days, so we packed up and spent the night in Bangkok, mostly revisiting the sites from our last trip 15 years ago. Bangkok is big, bustling and crowded with tourists, especially from China and Japan.

Our first stop was Wat Traimit (Picture 1), which is home to the largest Golden Buddha image in the world. The Buddha, shown in Picture 2, weighs 5.5 tons and is worth 28.5 million British pounds, according to the brochure provided. It’s called a solid gold Buddha, but if you do the math with current gold prices, it’s worth closer to $250 million—not sure whether it’s solid gold or a lot of gold over stuff. What’s interesting is that it was originally covered in plaster, but in moving it, the plaster cracked and out came the golden Buddha in 9 well-fitted pieces, with a key that locks and unlocks the pieces hidden in the base. Many Buddhist came to worship while we were there and purchased offerings as they entered. Later, the offerings were scooped up (other than the donated golden cloth for monks garments) and resold.

Hopping a boat, we headed for the Royal Barge Museum. Boating on the Chao Phraya River is the fastest way to get around Bangkok—the vehicle traffic is horrendous. Picture 3 show what traffic on the river is like—water taxis, water “buses”, barges carrying rice and sight seeing boats. There’s a good-sized chop on the river with small waves because of all the boats coming and going.

The Royal Barges are brought out once a year for a festival celebrating the King’s anniversary on the throne. Between festivals they are lifted out of the water and you can see them at the museum. Pictures 4, 5 and 6 show a few of the barges. The King’s official barges are shown in 5 and 6 and require at least 50 rowers. There’s a pavilion in the center of the barge where the King sits. Picture 4 shows a barge for lesser royals, only requiring 38 rowers and about 15 meters shorter.

Speaking of the King, his picture is everywhere. If you look at Picture 1 you can see it in front of the temple. The current King is 86 and no longer carrying out official duties. The Crown Prince is doing much of his Father’s work, although the Crown Princess is actually older. The King has been on the throne 60-some years, longer than any other monarch. Thais speak very reverently of the King—I don’t know whether that’s how they really feel, or whether they’re afraid of punishment if they’re heard saying something bad about the King. This is a land of “haves” and “have-nots” and the king has lots and lots and lots!

Regarding the recent violence in Bangkok, the protests are located in central Bangkok, which was a few miles from the historical section, which we visited. We did see the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior circled by razor wire! Our guide refused to discuss politics, but assured us we were in no danger.

Our next stop was the temple of dawn (Picture 7), which may be our favorite. If you look carefully, there are steep stairs that go almost to the top—we chose not to! What is most interesting is how it was decorated. If you look at Picture 8, you will see that the decorations are made of broken dishes. It’s actually Chinese Porcelain, which was shipped from China in containers. Some containers had broken dishes, so the Thais recycled these and used them to decorate temples.

That evening we re-visited Sala Rim Naam, the Thai cultural show and dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. Picture 9 shows one of the dances. This was a top recommendation when we were here before and didn’t disappoint this time, although I think they toned down the spiciness for tourists (which disappointed us). The food is great, however, prepared by their cooking school. There were 14 different dishes served and we had to be rolled home! Picture 10 finishes the evening—Bangkok after dark.

The next morning we went to the Royal Palace. On the way we passed the flower market, where bags of fresh flowers are used to create the gold and white offerings used at Buddhist temples. Picture 11 shows some of the flowers still in their bags.

The Royal Temple overwhelms; the amount of gold is amazing. Picture 12 shows a golden pagoda and a temple, which we were not allowed to enter. The golden pagoda is covered in 23-karat gold veneered mosaic tiles. To give you some idea of how much gold that is, an ounce covers 400 tiles, each one less than 1 square inch.  That picture also shows the crowds we dealt with. It’s the height of the tourist season and there were places we could hardly move.

Picture 13 shows the exterior decoration on the second building in Picture 12. Lots of gold, lots of sparkly glass, lots of monkeys and people dressed like monkeys. Picture 14 shows a view across the palace grounds—one building, one pagoda, one statue after another. The one thing we saw and were not allowed to photograph was the Emerald Buddha. It is so sacred that the King (currently the Crown Prince) dresses it seasonally with gold and jewels. It’s not solid emerald and it’s not solid jade as some resources say. Our guide told us that it’s a solid piece of jasper. The palace complex is beautiful and all owned by the King!

Our final stop was at Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It’s virtually impossible to get a good picture because the building housing it is not much larger than the Buddha statue, which is 150 feet long and 50 feet high. Picture 15 shows the length of the Buddha and Picture 16 shows the height at the shoulders, with Rick in the foreground for comparison.

It was a great couple of days. On to Singapore….

Saigon

Saigon is a big (10+ million people) city that feels new, successful and full of life. The official name is Ho Chi Minh City, but everyone still calls it Saigon. Picture 1 shows our arrival. We docked in front of the pink building to the left of the tall towers in the center of the picture, so we were in the middle of the action. Incomes are considerably higher here and the Japanese and Koreans are making huge investments. The problem is that it has grown too fast. Picture 2 shows a typical corner with spaghetti-like electrical wires—how unsafe and unreliable is that? We asked our guide why the government doesn’t fix this and he said “We don’t know how to do it and still maintain service”!

The public transportation is limited and tax on cars is 100%, so everyone drives motorbikes and motor scooters. Picture 3 shows what a typical corner looks like. We had someone tell us that 20 people die in Saigon per day in motorbike accidents. We saw 4 people on one motorbike and several others loaded with boxes and bags of rice and even propane cylinders.

The problem with Viet Nam is there are too many people. Since the end of the war, the population has more than doubled to almost 100 million people. To put that in perspective, the United States has 3 times the people and 30 times the land area. The government currently has a campaign to curb population growth; encouraging couples to have 1-2 children, instead of the large families they currently have. Unlike China, there is no punishment for having more children, but televisions are encouraged so that people have something to do in the evening and seminars for men are held in police stations in the evening, so the men can learn “self control”.  Seems like the government providing birth control might be an answer! Enough said….

When traveling, one hopes that, by the time you leave the country, you have at least a better understanding of the culture and history—not so with Viet Nam. For one thing, our guide stated that they had one political party: the communist party. There’s only one candidate and everyone goes and votes for that one person. But the communist government does not provide health care or education. It’s like having the worst of 2 worlds: they don’t live in a democracy and their communist government provides them with nothing. I thought that was the “beauty” of communism—the government provides! Parents must pay to send their children to private schools and if you should have to go to the hospital, the first question asked is “Who will pay?”

The second outstanding question is “What really happened in the Viet Nam war?” On our first day in Saigon we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. This was a Viet Cong stronghold in the middle of South Vietnam. On the map in Picture 4, Saigon is in the lower right corner and Cu Chi is the large red area in the middle of the map. Over a hundred miles of tunnels were built by local farmers, at night, using a simple hoe and basket for hauling dirt. These tunnels allowed the Viet Cong to move quickly and covertly throughout the region. It also gave the Viet Cong space to build traps for Americans. Where’s the entrance to the tunnels in Picture 5? Picture 6 shows one way that entrances were hidden. Picture 7 shows one type of trap set for Americans. The top laid flat until someone stepped on it, causing the person to drop onto the spikes in the bottom.

We actually got to go into a short stretch of the tunnels. Picture 8 shows Betsy “walking” through the tunnels. What’s amazing is that, when the tunnels were rebuilt by the Vietnamese for tourists, they built them 8 inches wider and 8 inches higher than the original ones.  As you can see, the Viet Cong were short, skinny people!  Rick is emerging from the tunnel in Picture 9. He had to go through on hands and knees because his shoulders were too wide.

While we don’t like what happened to Americans here, the park was well done and we learned a lot.  What we don’t understand is why America didn’t get rid of the tunnels. Certainly we had the tools to find them and weapons to destroy them. But for some reason we didn’t (politics were involved, I’m sure)—and lost thousands of Americans. We’re pretty much doves when it comes to getting involved in foreign wars, but once in a war, you beat the crap out of the enemy! Enough said, off the soapbox, back to being a tourist….

On our second day, 6 of us took a van to the Mekong delta to experience life on that bustling waterway. The Mekong delta is a monster—lots of channels going to the South China Sea. The number of boats is huge—all different sizes and types. But it’s amazingly peaceful—cruising along in a smallish boat and watching the sights was delightful.

Picture 10 was taken as we turned into one of the channels—lots of boats, with the banks full of houses and businesses. Commerce occurs on the water, as Picture 11 shows. In this case, a boat full of watermelons docked at the edge of the channel or, in many cases, tied to other boats in the center of the channel forming a floating market (Picture 12). The channels form islands, isolating people from markets and each other. Picture 13, shows one of the ferries between islands.

Finally, we had a wonderful Vietnamese lunch of many courses. Picture 14 shows Elephant Ear fish, which is a freshwater fish found in the Mekong. Our server filleted it and wrapped the fish meat with cucumber, pineapple and greens in rice paper—very tasty.  Picture 15 shows a Dragon’s Egg—a fried sticky rice ball.  When you cut it open, it’s mostly hollow, with a little sticky rice in the bottom. Don’t know how it works….

Viet Nam is a beautiful country and relatively cheap to visit. We were left with some troubling thoughts, but would like to visit again.

Ha Long Bay and Hoi An Viet Nam

What’s the first thing you want to say in Viet Nam? “Good Morning, Viet Nam!” It brings back memories of the Viet Nam War (they call it the American War) and the isolation these people suffered for the 20 years after the war. Our guide simply said, “The Americans tried to help the south stay independent and it didn’t work.” The US Airfield in Danang is still there as a “historical marker”, although it’s decrepit and abandoned.  And what does China Beach look like? Picture 1 shows that beach (one of the 6 best beaches in the world according to Forbes) lined with luxury hotels.

After such a warm welcome by the Indonesian people, we found it very different here. The people don’t smile as much here; they don’t rush out to shake our hands; the people in markets don’t seem welcoming (although they work hard to sell their wares). I don’t know if that’s because we’re American or because their life since the war has been very difficult (the average Vietnamese earns $200/year). We have lots of questions, but we hesitate to ask. We read today of another dissident being arrested for actions against the state and we certainly don’t want to put our guides or ourselves in a difficult situation.

Our first stop was in Ha Long Bay in the old North VietNam. Natural erosion of water and wind has created an archipelago of approximately 3000 limestone islets. We had a gloomy, cold (low 60s) day and it may have been better than a bright sunny day. The shadows and fog lent a sense of mystery to the area. Two of the more famous islets are the Fighting Chickens (Picture 2) and the small islet in Picture 3, which is on one piece of the Vietnamese currency.

As we wandered among the islands on our local boat, called a Junk, we saw independent fishermen on small boats with nets, like the one shown in Picture 4. The fishermen and their families live on floating villages, like the one shown in Picture 5.

Pictures 6, 7 and 8 show a few of the scenic views of islands. It was very difficult limiting this to so few pictures!

After a day at sea, we docked in Danang, which is a large container port about half way down the coast. It’s in the northern part of the old South Viet Nam. Rather than stay in Danang, we headed south to the old port of Hoi An, which is a World Heritage Site. On the way, we stopped at the village of Hoa Chau to experience village life. We visited an old temple from the 15^th century (although extensively remodeled in the 18^th century), the local market (Picture 9) and a local kindergarten (Picture 10). The children enjoyed running up to us and touching us, then running away. As we left, our guide heard them say in Vietnamese, “Grandmas and Grandpas”!

Then it was off to Hoi An, which is a World Heritage Site over-loved! All groups seem to follow the same path and seem to get there at the same time. After seeing the basics, we turned around and walked the path backwards and it was a quiet, quaint little city (Picture 11). UNESCO has recorded 850 sites of historic significance in naming it a World Heritage site—wells, bridges, houses, shops, temples, pagodas and tombs. Probably the most interesting site in the city was the Japanese bridge (Picture 12). Hoi An was occupied by Chinese and Japanese over the centuries and this was built by the Japanese in 1593. It was also a major trading port throughout the centuries, until it silted up by the 18^th century.

As a remembrance of the Chinese occupation, Picture 13 shows the Chinese Assembly Hall. It was part temple and part assembly room, with meeting spaces along the side. In the foreground is a very interesting sculpture. In the background is the temple entrance and you’ll notice the round cones hanging from the ceiling. These are long ropes of incense that have been coiled into this shape (kinda like mosquito coils). These are donated by people, in the hopes that their wishes (written on the paper hanging down in the middle) will come true.

Finally, we visited a silk factory. There were demonstrations of the process. In Picture 14, the young woman is creating silk embroidery for a picture. In Picture 15, you can see the silk worms, placed on a tray of mulberry leaves. They spin silk for 7 days, when new “kids” are brought in. There was a room full of absolutely gorgeous silk fabric—some from as little as $12/yard. Betsy was so overwhelmed by the selection that she left without anything!

Our next stop will be 2 days in Ho Chi Minh City, or as many people still call it,

Saigon.