Da Nang

 Monday 28th May, 2007

Da Nang

Lovely welcome performance on the dock as we tied up. Drummers - male and female, flag twirlers and 2 'dragons'.

Bus tour of Da Nang with guide Tsu. Pedal cab ride through some main streets, hairy moments in traffic! Would have given them a tip but they pulled up away from the main group and demanded we 'pay money', so we gave them nothing. Bit intimidating.

Quick walk through the market but no time to shop. Back on to coach after being harassed to buy from street vendor ladies. Bought x3 bracelets for $6 US. "you help me and my baby".

On to Cham Museum to see Hindu and Buddhist religious artifacts. Expensive gift shop.

Next, a visit to HCM Museum. Quick visit to Uncle Ho's house - very simple. Huge koi pond.

Went to Non Nuoc Carving Village - stone products - jewellery, checkers, home decor items - beautiful little figurines of musicians. Bought candle pillar box. Starting price was $30US, haggled down to $20US. Back to ship for lunch, relax and swim. Hurt R knee, had ice pack on it when we got back. "Touts" in Da Nang very pushy and aggressive, not keen to come back.

Ship's crew much more pushing the hand sanitising gel.

Looked stormy but didn't eventuate. Overcast and cooling down after lunch. Cool in the pool, didn't stay in long. 

Saw Lucy - up and about but tired.

At Sea

Sunday May 27th. At sea.

Bigger swell running today. Seems like a lot of people are sick and staying in their cabins. Could be bad food onshore, heat, virus - no one is sure. Hand cleaning gel in more prominent position.

Slept in and missed breakfast.

Chocolate buffet at 3.30pm. I had a lovely plate of goodies in hand and was lined up to get a hot chocolate when the man behind me sneezed and I felt the spray go all over my hand, and my plate of goodies. Yuk! I gave the plate to a crew member and told him to make sure it went in the bin because it had been sneezed on! Totally turned me off wanting to eat, so left and gave my hands, and forearms, a good scrubbing!

Escargot for entree at dinner, never had them before. Along with a bottle of Pillar Box red, 2004.

Saigon day 2

Saigon Saturday 26th May, 2007.

Extra early start for Ho Chi Minh City tour. Locals call it Saigon. 8am start. Coach ride to Chinatown and Binh Tay Market (wholesale market, very busy). Roads not too busy, being Saturday.
Next stop Giac Lam Pagoda built in 1744. Then to the Museum of National History - 2000 years of recorded history! Saw a traditional Vietnamese Water Puppet show - amazing and worth seeing. Drove around town, stopped at the Notre Dame Cathedral, saw traditional bride and 2 brides in Western style. Went to the Municipal Post Office to buy postcards and stamps. It was originally built to be the train station, but the rail line never came in that far.
Spent one hour at the Ben Thanh markets, bought some Vietnamese pictures, 3 t-shirts for $5US, Heineken beer, $1US. As well as a small timber box to use for incense but with chopsticks in it, $4US. Crossed the road from markets to a mobile phone shop to buy a charger for my phone $7US.
Saw lots of stalls selling meat and offal - quite sickening - little refrigeration and many flies.
Back to the Gemini for freshen up and lunch, nanna nap and washing. Lucy not feeling very well.
Sailed back down the Saigon River being followed by a storm. Almost dark by the time the pilot left. Must find out about the statues on the hill at mouth of river. And what the town is. 

Dinner with Paul and Marie. Crew put on a show after dinner - didn't see it all but what we saw was very funny.

Saigon

Saigon, Friday 25th May, 2007.

Sleep in day. At around midday we turned in to the Saigon River for the 3.5 hour cruise up to Saigon. It's a busy working river. Rained on and off during the afternoon. Many people on deck watching the changing view. Ship steering by listing to port then starboard. Or that's what we reckon. No dramas with visa - 'landing cards' given our from 3.30pm.
Went on tour to a Vietnamese Wedding Show. Sunset river cruise, saw amazing houses built in new area across the river. So many motor bikes and scooters! Went to Bin Quoi Village resort for dinner and wedding show. Very colourful but sad for the bride's family. The bride goes to live with the in-laws. Interesting coach drive back to the ship which remained docked overnight. Got back about 11pm. $68 Singapore each. Paul and Marie were on the tour too. Tour guide's name was Long, which means Dragon.

Laem Chabang

Laem Chabang, Wednesday 23rd May 2007

This is the port for Bangkok and Pattaya. Colin, the Cruise Director left the ship here.
Late start this morning. Our ship docked at Star Cruises own terminal. Markets set up in the arrival hall. Watches for $6 AU or 2 for $10, so I joined forces with another passenger to buy one each (2 for $10) The seller wasn't very happy about that, she wanted us to pay $6 each.
We booked on the transfer coach to Pattaya that departed at around 11am for a 45 minute drive. The tour guide, Bai was very informative and kept us amused during the drive. The Marriott (very fancy and upmarket) was where we got dropped off and we were free to use the facilities here or wander the town until the coach returned to collect us at 4.15pm.
So, of course, we shopped a bit, buying a shirt with wooden buttons for Trevor, 220 baht, a pewter shot 'glass', 200 baht, postcards for 5 baht, another DVD, 100 baht, a stingray leather wallet, 400 baht, and a small leather wallet for me, 300 baht.
Lunch was at Sawasadee in a side street - mini spring rolls, chicken and prawn panang curry and Singha beers, 310 baht. Stumbled across the post office in a side street.
When we first arrived, we haggled a baht bus to take us up the hill to the Big Buddha. He wanted 500 baht, we talked him down to 300.
Seeing many Western men with local girls on their arms got a bit much after a while. Did a bit of shopping at a 7/11 and thought we got ripped off but when we figured it out later, we think she ripped herself off.

Thursday 24th May.
About 5.15am there was a medical emergency. Apparently we turned back to Bangkok but the situation must have improved because we returned to course. Found out later the patient had suffered a cardiac arrest and had died. 

Koh Samui

11 July, 2019

I found a hand written blog that I wrote on our Superstar Gemini Asian cruise back in 2007, so I thought I'd add it to my online blogs.

We flew in to Singapore and had an included night in a city hotel with transfers to the passenger terminal. I can't remember the name of the hotel off the top of my head, but there were many others picked up from the same place in the morning.

Koh Samui Tuesday 22nd May, 2007.

We were late dropping anchor today, so didn't get ashore until about 11am for our 'Free and Easy' day. The ship's tender took us ashore at Nathon. Met up with some other couples, Beth and John from Port Macquarie and Bernadette and Ainsley from Melbourne. Had no trouble finding a mini bus (air con) and driver waiting on the pier and he took us on a tour around the island for 2000 THB. I'd had a few sites earmarked to go to, just as well, the others had very little idea of where to go.
Firstly we went to a waterfall. It was nice but not a huge amount of water, although it was cool and shady. There was a mountain goat track down to the bottom of the falls and an elephant trek available, along with a market selling the usual things.
Next was the Mummified Monk, then on to the Grandmother and Grandfather Rocks. The GF rock is quite obvious but for the GM rock you need to walk across the rock platform directly toward the sea, then turn and look back towards the 'mainland' to see her. We bought a timber mask at a stall here for 250THB.
After that we went to Chaweng Beach for lunch and shopping. We spent most of this time in the Will Wait Bar, across the road and north from McDonalds, across the road from Captain Kirk, Chaweng Beach, eating 8 chicken satay skewers (80THB) and a plate of chicken pad thai (90THB) washed down with 2 Singha beers (60 THB each). 410 THB all up for lunch. Bought a DVD, Spiderman 3.
The Big Buddha was the last stop - a big, gold coloured Buddha! All the usual market stalls - bought a lightweight shirt for Trevor and some postcards.
Back to the pier by 3.30pm, tendered back to the Gemini by 4pm in time for a swim in the pool.
All up, the day cost us $67.00 AUD. Mini bus 670, lunch 410, mask 250, shirt 200, DVD 100, postcards 20 and water 20 THB. 

Breakfast before we left the ship was meant to be scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, but when it arrived, there was no smoked salmon. I commented that there was meant to be smoked salmon, so that plate was whisked away and replaced by a plate of smoked salmon!! What to do? I couldn't send it back twice. So I ate it all!! Yum!!