After Nha Trang and a day at sea, we arrived at Ha Long Bay at 7:24am. The morning was very misty and one of the first things that we saw whilst on the tender boats going to shore were these floating beggars. They were very persistent and bordering on annoying as the kids were made to say “oi” repeatedly, all the while waving and sticking their hands into the tenders. No money for beggars I say – these kids need to go to school instead of being made to beg.

What we did come here for was to get on board one of these river boats and cruise around this UNESCO World Heritage Site that has over 3000 islands and islets. Here’s what ours look like.

Here’s another one cruising alongside ours for a while.

The cruise was going to be about for four hours with two stops on the itinerary. This is what the scenery looks like along the way.

Our first stop were a series of caves of one of the bigger islands. This is the view from the top of that island.

And the caves themselves? Wow.

At both of our stops, there were these floating food stalls.

The next stop was a 20 minute hike up the tallest peak amongst the islands where I had this obligatory tourist shot taken. Supposedly if you look from up high enough, the islands in the photo form the shape of a dragon.

Pretty soon, it was time to head back to land. Our only stop was going to be Ha Long Markets (yes, another market).

The islands provide a very nice backdrop to the place.

There were many stalls selling tropical fruit and seafood.

And there were yummo prawn fritter things on sale too.

Ha Long was our third and final Vietnamese stop, and I will end with a shot of this – just outside the market are more of those skinny Vietnamese buildings that are stuck together.

After the hecticness of Ho Chi Minh City, the seaside town of Nha Trang was a welcomed change of pace. Although you wouldn’t think it by looking at the next photo. Though this is only because the port is small and there are plenty of boats taking tourists out to snorkel and to the several small islands not far out from land.

Not all of us were game enough to snorkel so they stayed on the boat and cruised around some of the floating fish farms in the area. (This was taken after I’d snorkeled and had gotten back onto the boat)

About half an hour later, the boat came back to where the snorkelers were and we had a simple but very tasty lunch on board.

There was also on-board entertainment. The band who are actually the crew sang oldies from the 60s and 70s and the odd Vietnamese tune. It was kitschy but it was a lot of fun.

After lunch and the song and dance, we stopped by an island for a beach stop.

It was v. pretty.

We were there for about two hours having a dip, lazing around and eating durian. More and more boats arrived and by the time we were leaving, there were about 6 or 7. I’m glad we were the first one to have arrived and thus avoided the crowd.

After our ocean excursion, we got onto a bus and headed to the Cham Towers. It’s a small complex on a hill with about three of these tower-prayer hall things. It is very impressive up close.

You can see part of Nha Trang from the top of the hill.

And then, would we believe we got hungry again? Heheh. So we pestered our tour guide to take us to find some good pho. So he took us to the Cho Dam Market. The bus stopped as close to the market as the driver could (you will see why in the clip at the end of this post) and we walked the rest of the way.

I really like this building that we walked past. It’s so full of life and character.

Inside the market was this little pho stall.

And the pho? Sublime.

Not all of us got to enjoy it though because it was small and it was not long before they ran out, and because its surroundings weren’t exactly clean, some of us balked at the idea. Me? I thought I’d risk it.

Anyhow so the rest were taken to another place to find pho (which I later heard wasn’t very good) whilst those who have just been fed walked around the markets to kill some time. It was a good opportunity to shoot some more photos.

This stall by the road side was selling some sort of sticky rice dessert. It looks wonderful, doesn’t it?

And since we are still in Vietnam, the motorbikes are everywhere.

A family of five on a motorbike isn’t such a strange sight anymore. Hello!

And I mentioned above that our tour bus driver wasn’t gonna drop us closer to the market and it was for a good reason. The traffic is chaotic. This video will show you how chaotic.

To cap off the day, we headed to this cafe …

where we had awesome Vietnamese iced coffee.

Nha Trang – I loved it.

So I said in my last post that there are a lot of motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City. Here are my photos of some of those motorbikes. Below is one of the motorbike lanes that I mentioned – I like how the woman is sitting so casually sideways.

Here is another motorcycle lane – there’s hardly any room between the bikes.

Many riders wear funky face masks – like this little girl.

Navigating a sea of motorbikes can be a nerve-wracking affair.

Here’s a motorbike hero.

Here’s another two.

But these next three families got them beat.

Check out this kid’s face. And I like how the baby has to stand. Not to worry though – mommy’s got her back. For reals.

And we have a winner. Five(!) passengers. At least no one has to stand.

On the seventh morning of the cruise, we docked at the port of Phu My which is about 113 km from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, formerly known as Saigon). The first thing that struck me about HCMC were the motorbikes everywhere and the skinny buildings.

The photos of the motorbikes alone are enough to fill out a post on their own so I will do just that. But I will add just one more here. All the major roads including the highways have special lanes for the motorbikes. This is one of those lanes.

Our first stop was the Reunification Palace. It was the workplace and home of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Its interiors and appearance, including furniture and equipment are said to be preserved as how they were on the day that the Vietnam War ended, ostentatiously as a time capsule. Here’s a room in the basement where the telegraph machines are kept.

Here’s a tally of the South Vietnamese Army at the height of the war. That’s a lot of soldiers.

After this, we went on a driving tour around Ben Nghe Canal …

And Chinatown. It was extra colourful due to the fast approaching Lunar New Year.

Next up was Ben Thanh Market. Markets are to Asian city tours like castles and churches are to European city tours.

At the market, there are a few of these stalls selling all kinds of preserved fruits, nuts and meats that you can think of.

After a brief stop for lunch, we headed to the final two stops for the day. The Notre Dame Cathedral of HCMC (Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica).

And across from it is the equally ornate Central Post Office. Yup, that’s Uncle Ho looking down at us.

I like it how these colonial buildings have been preserved throughout the numerous wars that the country had endured and are now part of a beautiful kaleidoscope that makes up the city. This is another city on this cruise trip that I would like to return to and spend more time exploring.

At about 2:30pm we started the 1.5-hour drive back to the port. The next morning, we will be visiting Nha Trang.

When I saw what the city looked like from the ship, I thought that this might be an alright place. Something like Pattaya perhaps. However, it turns out that that was not to be. The one thing that stood out the most was that there doesn’t seem to be proper waste collection as rubbish and plastic bags were strewn everywhere.

I’m an open-minded traveller and I don’t expect the creature comforts that I get at home. I can deal with rudimentary sewerage systems (I can attest to that because I’ve been to the toilets in a train station in China’s country-side) and rubbish if the sights that a place offered were worth the trip. But alas, I can’t decide on that because we never got to see everything that the place had to offer.

That said, what I did see were quite pretty and charming. Like this Buddhist temple above and the cemetery beside it.

I saw a lot of poor people, especially around the tourist sites.

You’d feel sorry for some of the kid beggars but then you’d see them give whatever they collect to an adult and you wonder if you should be encouraging the kid’s situation in life.

Not all were beggars of course. Like this girl who was walking by us. She seemed contented just skipping and toting that pink bag of hers. Is it patronising to say “the best things in life are free” here? Whatever, it was how I felt.

One of the places that we were meant to stop at was the central market.

But upon seeing the crowd, our seasoned tour group (who has seen more than a few markets of this type) decided to forgo the adventure. How lazy and spoilt we were.

Is it bad to like only the beach resort of a town and nothing else that it has to offer? Because that’s how I felt when we walked into the Sokha Beach Resort for lunch. Besides the awesome buffet lunch, the best part of our time was having drinks underneath a cabana on their private beach.

I will end with two random shots. These are pictures of the Cambodian Royal Family that were inside the hotel.

And this is a sign inside the hotel. Yup, durians are as bad as weapons because durian burps and farts are très deadly.

In a way Sihanoukville, much like Koh Samui would be a nice place to chill and relax by the beach if that’s your kind of holiday. The people are friendly and food is very cheap. Once they improve their infrastructure and waste collection I think it can be just as successful as the Thai island.

After the day tour of Bangkok, and after dropping off those who didn’t want to go, on the same night we attended Tiffany’s Show in Pattaya which is about 30 minutes from Laem Chabang Port.

They do 2 shows a night and we arrived after the end of the first one.

The lady boys are out in their costumes letting the tourists take photos with them. They “recommended” a tip of 40 baht for a photo.

The show itself was fantastic. The lady boys were pretty. I mean REALLY pretty. And they moved like girls. OMG. I was sexually confused at the end. Hahah! And as this is Thailand, the King’s image is not far away.

And one thing I found out and which our tour guide told us later – the Russians are the biggest group of tourists in Pattaya. Which was even more evident in the next morning.

And at this very nice shopping mall, there were Russian property agents stationed throughout selling apartments and condos. I find it fascinating that the Russians have chosen Pattaya as their favourite place in South East Asia.

Pattaya has a sleazy reputation that is not so obvious during the day, even though you can see quite a few obese/old white men holding onto Thai women. The closest thing to sleaze in the daylight were these toilet signs at the Pattaya Floating Market.

I will finish up with these two photos. Mango with sticky rice is the bomb.

In Thailand they count the years not by how long it’s been since Jesus was born, but how long since Buddha was born.

And one last thing, all of us had a Thai massage session before we visited the floating market. It was good and all but I don’t see why people crave it. Maybe it’s because I can crack my own bones already.

After Koh Samui, the ship docked at the port of Laem Chabang at approx. 7:36am on January 11th. In case you are wondering how I’m remembering the exact docking times and dates, we were all given a cruise log showing exactly those details.

Here’s another view of the ship at port. At 9 floors, it’s huge. One walk around the circumference of the third deck (where the lifeboats are stationed) was about 1km.

For the ship to be able to dock at a port means that we don’t even have to wait and take the tenders to shore. We can come and go as we wish. However, Bangkok proper was about a 2-hour drive away from the port. Actually, according to the little brochure that we are given for each port – it’s a 2-hour drive without traffic. And that’s what we saw as soon as we hit the outskirts of Bangkok.

Our first stop of the day was lunch at an awesome restaurant that serves Royal Thai Cuisine. My photos won’t do it justice so I’ll just leave you with a link to their website: Bussaracum. It’s expensive compared to local food (~ 900 baht, or about A$30 per head) but the buffet is sublime.

After lunch, we went on a drive through Chinatown just for a look-see. And we got more traffic.

Chinatowns the world over look the same, and I dare say smell the same. And yes, those are shark fins that you see in the photo below.

Check out those crazy wires. How would they ever fix a problem if something needs fixing?

After the drive, we went on a walking tour through the Bangkok Flower Market – where florists would buy flowers wholesale.

The flowers were CHEAP. These garlands were selling for 10 baht.

And these roses? 130 baht for 50!!! Kinda shows ya what a rip-off buying roses during Valentine’s is. Oh and monks buy flowers too apparently.

Next up, The Grand Palace.

And it was grand.

Very grand.

It’s not as big as The Forbidden Palace in Beijing but it is magnificent nonetheless.

We finished up at the palace by about 4:30pm and we headed to Siam Paragon for an early dinner and a bit of shopping. I didn’t take many pictures because I was hot, thirsty and hungry by then.

It is meant to be big and awesome but we only had one hour at the place so we just headed straight to the food court to stuff our faces. Why did we only have one hour at the place? We hit traffic on the way in. On our way out to go back to the port we got stuck in more traffic for a good half an hour. I mentioned traffic a lot, haven’t I? Next time I visit Bangkok, I’m gonna stay in an inner-city hotel and use the mass-transit train.

That night, after some of us got dropped off back at the ship, the rest of us continued onto Pattaya to watch a really good lady boy show. I’ll write about it in the next post.