Hong Kong

Growing up in Vernonia failed to properly prepare me for a city like Hong Kong. The city isn't that big, but has the highest human density in the world. There no typical homes in Hong Kong but only high rise skycrapers. Less than 15% of the residents own cars, so the streets were crowded with people instead of automobiles. They have a subway system that will take you anywhere you want, and a series of human walkways, etc., to get around. The problem I had was when I emerged from the subway I had completely lost my sense of direction. Fortunately, Hong Kong signs are in English and all the streets, parks, and attractions are clearly marked. To begin our two days in Hong Kong we ported right at a large mall. We literally walked from the ship into a giant mall. We got lost in the mall on our first day and took about an hour to find an exit. After exiting the mall we walked a promenade and found a playground for the kids. We rode the subway, went to a market, visited a space museum, and had dinner to round out the day. It was refreshing to be in 60 degree weather and get a break from our 2 1/2 month stint of tropical heat. On day 2 we took the subway underwater to Hong Kong island. At Hong Kong Island we got on a city bus and rode around the city and hopped on and off as we pleased. We hopped off at the peak tram and took the tram to the top of Victoria mountain. From the top of Victoria mountain you have an incredible view of all of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy on our day up, so the views were limited. We still had fun riding the tram up the steep hill. After the tram we got back on the bus and then hopped off to ride the world's longest escalator. The escalator is about a half mile long and moves people up the hill. The kids really enjoyed riding the escalator up and walking back down on the steps. We finished up our day with dinner at Subway and a ride back across to the ship on a ferry. The lights of the skycrapers in Hong Kong give a show every night which includes lasers and lights from each. I noticed that Hong Kong is a giant maze for the 8 million people who live there. Instead of crossing streets you go underground and use their elaborate walkway and subway system to get around. As you go through the underground walkways there are malls everywhere. Hong Kong literally has huge malls everywhere you turn. Observations of Hong Kong * There really are no buildings less than 5 stories tall in all the area we were. * There are masses of people walking in a very organized manner everywhere. * All the locals have a camera and love to take pictures. * There are signs everywhere concerned with coughing and spreading disease. Lots of locals wear the protective masks to filter out air pollution. * Most all the people we met spoke English well. * The chinese food in Hong Kong is not the same as in McMinnville.

Long Day

Just when you think you're used to the ship and ocean we had two days of rough weather come along between Vietnam and Hong Kong. I frequently check out the ocean wave map online and knew we were in trouble with 5-8 meter waves. The pounding started the day we left Vietnam and continued until we pulled into the calmer waters of the port in Hong Kong. During this time the ship was going up and slamming down on the water every 10-20 seconds. As you felt the ship raise up you could anticipate the sound and impact of the upcoming landing. This rough treatment made my job as AV coordinator a little more challenging. The Union, where all the presentations are, is at the front of the ship, so during a presentation when the ship would crash down there would be a large impact involving all the speakers, lights, etc. I spent much of day #2 replacing lights that had fallen down, and cleaning up broken AV equipment. In cabin life during this time Jen, Vivian, and William were sea sick. William threw up twice during this time and on the second day Jen, Vivian, and William stayed in the cabin all day. At about 5pm I went up and got them dinner from the pool bar which included a pizza, cheese sandwich, and veggie burger for Jen. Thankfully we made it to Hong Kong and hope for calmer seas ahead.

Images of Hong Kong

Vietnam or Nam

I wasn't sure what to expect from Vietnam. We sailed 75 miles up the Saigon river and ported in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. The official name is Ho Chi Minh City, but it seems everyone refers to it as Saigon. I was initially amazed that our ship could make it up the river. The river is not very wide and the small fishing boats and debris are everywhere. Our ship was sounding the horn about every 10 seconds, and the locals were racing to get out of our way. We came around a corner once and a large vessel was on a collission course with us. Both boats turned as quickly as possible and I watched as we missed each other by about 20 feet. We did manage to safely arrive in port and were anxious to get off the ship. When we made landfall we took a shuttle bus to the town square. From there we walked to a huge marketplace called Benh Thanh. We spent about two hours shopping there. I managed to find a good deal on some Tiger Beer. I bought a six pack for 2 dollars. As we shopped around I realized that Vietnam is very inexpensive. We ended the first day by going to a travel agency and booking a two night stay in a beach hotel resort in the town of Mu Ne. On day two in Vietnam we walked around town some more, played in a local park, and watched a water puppet show. A water puppet show involves puppets in water, music, and lots of lights. After the puppet show we had a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant and the bill for all four of us was under 20 dollars. After dinner we walked back to the ship and started packing for our beach trip. Our two night beach trip started with a 5 hour bus ride. The speed limits in Vietnam on highways are about 30mph, so while we felt safe, it took a long time to go a short distance. Another thing about traffic in Vietnam is that 90% of all traffic is motorcycles. They are really good at avoiding each other and flowing as one along the streets. I did manage to see a new motorcycle passenger record of 5 in Vietnam. Upon arrival at our hotel we unpacked and found the resort to be very nice. There was a large pool right next to the South China Sea. We spent many hours over the next two days in the pool and swimming in the Sea. The resort had a good selection of food and beverages and of course everything was very inexpensive. A large Saigon beer was under 1 dollar. The family had a good time at the resort and we did little except swim and eat. One big bonus for William and I was TV in our room. We had about 50 channels to choose from and enjoyed watching soccer and cartoons. We left the resort and had a 6 hour bus ride back to the ship. Upon our return we unpacked and got ready for the next leg of our trip. Observations of Vietnam: * Vietnam is the cheapest country we've visited. * The Vietnam people are very friendly to Americans. * Tropical heat and humidity. A real sweat maker of a country. * Saigon has 7 million people and probably about 10 traffic lights. * The electrical wiring in Saigon is incredible. There are birdnests of wires on the poles like no other I've ever seen. (See picture) * The Russians love to vacation in Vietnam. At our hotel there was mostly Russians and Vodka.

Images of Vietnam

One Day in Singapore

Singapore is a city-state which has basically become the banking and financial capital of the world. As we pulled into port, the skyscrapers were visible in all directions, and new skyscraper construction is immense. The city is too huge to cover in one day, so we set out to do what we could.

Upon arrival we had tickets for a shuttle bus which would take us to what they call the "Orchards" region. The orchards region is centrally located and has shopping of all kinds. We hit an ATM in a huge mall there and then decided to go to a new building called the Marina Bay Sands. We figured out the subway system and rode quickly to the marina area. We walked around the Marina and admired the skyscrapers, marina, beautiful features, and entered a huge mall. We walked through the mall and had lunch- kids ate at Krazy Burger and Jen and I got some local food at the food court. We quickly realized that Singapore is expensive. I ordered a Tiger beer for lunch and was a little surprised at the $11 price of it. It tasted like a Coors Light, so I was happy for the refreshment.

After lunch we walked to the base of the towers of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. We decided to splurge a little and go to the top of the hotel. At the top is a boat shaped garden, pool, and restaurants. We rode the elevator 56 stories up to the top and emerged with a catbird seat overlooking the entire city. Singapore is the world's second busiest port, and the ships were lined up everywhere in the bay. We took some pictures and walked around on the top for about an hour. We had the privelidge of viewing the world's highest swimming pool. The pool is only for guests, so we couldn't enjoy it to the fullest, but it's an infinity pool which is just amazing.

After our tour of the Marina Bay, we took a taxi to Sentosa Island. Sentosa Island is a recreational paradise with rides, universal studios, exhibits, beaches, etc. We had a great time just exploring, having ice cream, and riding the free monorail around the island. William and Vivian had a great time in Chocalate World, and posed for pictures with the Hershey Bar. We spent the afternoon wandering around this fascinating island and were able to ride the monorail back to the port.

The weather was hot and humid, but Singapore has air conditoning everywhere. The kids had a great time and it was nice to be in a clean city.

Other Observations:

* Singapore is called "Disneyland with the Death Penalty" due to their strict laws.
* The kids were on their best behavior as a result of hearing about all the laws and the strictness of the city.
* In a city of millions there is little traffic due to the excellent subway and light rail transportation.
* The casino at Marina Bay is the number 1 money making casino in the world.
* I've never seen a city with as many skyscrapers.
* A small package of M&M's cost $2. Very expensive place.

Images of Singapore

Six Days in India

Well, we survived India I think. I had a feeling this was going to be a tough port for the family, with a population of 7 million and air pollution unmatched in the world. Before India was done we managed to get both kids sick, Jen pneumonia, and I picked up an Indian flu bug which cleaned me out for a day. We have all recovered from India, but it wasn't easy navigating a small area of the country.

While in India we did a city bus tour of some local sights as well as a service project to two schools and an orphanage. There is no shortage of people in India, and the poverty is off the charts for he parts we visited. The school children work hard and are incredibly disciplined. I did notice the elementary teachers each had a stick they used to herd or discipline students. We went into a math class at one school and asked some questions of the students. There were about 40 students crammed into a small dirt floor room, but every student had 100% attention on their teacher when she talked.

On one of our days in Chennai, India (population 7 million), we took a rickshaw ride around town. The rickshaw is a three wheeled vehicle with a motorcycle engine, which can hold as many people as you can cram into it. The transportation in India is an incredible experience. The roads have few if any stoplights, and you'll find ox driven carts, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars and buses sharing the roads. Essentially what happens is there are no lanes, and everyone manuevers at will using their horn to tell how close others are to them. The result of all this is a massive, loud, chaotic scene where generally the laws of physics are followed. The motorcycles yield to rickshaws, which yield to cars, which yield to buses. The driving ends up being this herky, jerky, experience which will cause motion sickness. We enjoyed our short rides in the rickshaw and took one to a shopping center and a mall for lunch.

After three days in Chennai we decided to take a trip down south a few hours to a smaller town called Pondicherry (Population 800,000). I took some time and rented a car and driver for the trip down. With temps in the 100's with high humidity I forked a little extra money for an AC ride. The car was great but a half hour into our trip William got sick and threw up from the erratic motion of the car. Fortunately we had a garbage bag and happily he didn't make a mess. After he was done I asked the driver to pull over at a garbage can. He pulled over and told me to throw it in the ditch. There happened to be about 5 people sleeping in the ditch, but he insisted that I just chuck it over them. I obliged and looking at all the other trash didn't feel so bad about littering. The erratic driving continued until William lost his lunch for the second time, and once again fortunately had a bag to throw up into. I pitched it into the ditch and we continued on our way. We finally arrived at our hotel and checked in and enjoyed the great pool that it offered. The drive took us about 4 hours and we all felt great to feel the cool pool for the afternoon.

We spent two days in Pondicherry and walked around the city, went to a park, ate at pizza hut, and walked around an India cult grounds. India was the home of the Bagwan Shre Rajneesh who caused problems in Oregon, and is littered with different guru's and followers living and worhsiping various things.

Speaking of religion the vast majority of Indians are Hindu. As I can figure Hindu's worship cows, elephants, and a variety of combinations of these and humans. They are vegetarians, but since cows are so worshiped they are found roaming all around the city with goats and chickens. You'll be walking around and all the sudden 5 brahma bulls will stroll by you with elaborately painted horns and ornaments. They graze on garbage mostly and would make great rodeo bulls.

As we finished our two days in Pondicherry and headed back to board the ship, we got to ride in the 1950's ambassador car upon return. The ride back was much smoother and we returned to the ship in plenty of time for departure. While at the hotel I unfortunately caught something from the food, air, etc., which turned me inside out. Fortunately the bug lasted about 24 hours and I was able to recover fairly quickly. I got a good ab workout in the meantime from the Indian flu.

To summarize our time in India is tough, but imagine the mostly densely populated country in the world, with people from third world conditions to first class conditions all living together. The mass of humanity in India is overwhelming at times, and the pure stimulus thrown at your senses wears you out in a hurry. When I returned to the ship I kicked up my feet, opened a cold one and read a few chapters of Lonesome Dove. India was quite an experience, but I'm glad I don't live their.

Other Indian Observations/Goings On
* The people are very nice and helpful and loved to touch the kids. As we would walk down the street people would gently grab William or Vivian's hands, shoulders, head, and smile at them.

* We ran out of gas on a rickshaw ride and the driver pushed us to the side of the busy street walked to the back, pulled out an empty pop bottle and said "I'll be back in 5 minutes." As he started to run his blanket wrapped around his waist came loose and fell to the ground. He hastily retrieved and retied it and continued on. He came back, poured 16 ounces of gas in the rickshaw and cranked it back up.

* The Hindu people have temples throughout the country. These temples can be found everywhere and usually involve burning candles, cows, elephants, and lots of gold.

** Hope all is going well at home, we will soon be in Singapore for 1 day and then onto Vietnam. Best Wishes..

Images of India