20231113 AAAA Trip - Sea day crossing the equator

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 58/105 - South China Sea, passing the equator

I meant to check before breakfast but forgot.  So, after breakfast, at around 9 a.m. UTC+7, on Monday, November 13, we were 0°46'26.7"S and 106°43'51.4"E, meaning we were now south of the equator. That explains the fairly large bump we all felt a little earlier as the ship bounces a little crossing over the fairly thick equator line. (I'm lying about all that - just checking to see who is reading)

Overall, this marks our fourth equator crossing on a ship, all on Viking. We are disappointed that they are not doing any equator-crossing event like they did on the last two sailings.  They didn't do a special event on the second crossing on the world cruise, since we all had already crossed the equator on that sailing. Oh well, we'll just have to make do with Baggo and trivia.

It was another USA versus the world day at Baggo.  The USA held onto a slim margin unit in the second round where surprise cards came into play and one of our players picked the "reset your score to zero" card.  Cruise Director, Graham, ramped up the points in round three to give the US a fighting chance.  We took advantage and recovered from forfeiting all our points to regain the lead and the win.  As always, everything was good-natured and it got the guests all interacting with each other in the spirit of fun competition.

For trivia today, Assistant Cruise Director and Trivia Master, Harry, served up beer - beer trivia.  He showed us bottles of beer and we had to come up with the country of origin. He provided multiple choices for some and no choice for others.

From left to right, top to bottom:

• Guinness
• Ireland
• Corona
• Mexico
• Kingfisher (Sri Lanka, India, Maldives)
• We guessed Maldives - it is India ❌
• Tsing Tao
• China
• Castle Lager (Kenya, South Africa, Namibia)
• South Africa
• Beck's
• Germany
• Stella Artois
• Belgium
• Budweiser
• USA
• Peroni
• Italy
• Tsykie (Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic)
• Poland
• Aguila (Colombia, Venezuala, Chile)
• We guessed Venezuela - it is Colombia ❌
• Heineken
• Netherlands
• Foster's
• Australia
• Speight's (Canada, Gibraltar, New Zealand)
• New Zealand
• Red Horse (Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines)
• Philippines (Harry is so predictable)

One team got all 15 correct and ran away with the competition.

That inspired me, so at lunch, at the recommendation of bar waiter, Li, I tried a beer from Viet Nam - 333.

I think this is the first beer I've had on the ship during this voyage.  I've had a couple with lunch or dinner on excursions, but none on the ship.  It was light and went well with my burger at lunch.

Arlona went walking this afternoon as I continued to nurse my knee.  At the recommendation of other passengers, we did pick up a tube of Voltaren cream in Thailand. It seems to be getting slightly better, but overuse brings the ache.

Our next several days will be spent in Indonesia.  We had to fill out individual Customs declaration forms for Jakarta, Semarang, and Surabaya on Java, but not Benoa.  Immigration is a strange beast.  We have two days in Jakarta, one in Semarang, one in Surabaya, two in Bali (Benoa), one in Lombok, and one in Komodo before our next sea day.  The Bali days also mark the end of this leg and the beginning of the final leg of this cruise portion of our trip.

Phone update:

The port agent in Laem Chabang, Thailand retrieved Arlona's phone and will be forwarding it to the port agent in Darwin, Australia.  We should receive it on Thursday, November 23 - ironically, Thanksgiving.  In addition, our neighbor, Dave, activated the new phone for us today.  Our friends, Sue & Trish will pick it up this morning (US East Coast time) and pack it for their arrival onboard Orion in Bali.  The plan has come together. Over a period of five days, Arlona will get her new phone, and then her old phone to be able to transfer data.

We watched the Jakarta port talk and then enjoyed beverages in the Explorers' Bar as the sun set.

We headed off to the World Café for dinner for the third or fourth "Taste of Asia" night of this journey.  I needed to make a brief pit stop on the way.  When I came out, Arlona was chatting with a gentleman. He pointed out that The Restaurant was featuring lobster tail on tonight's menu. We amended our plans and headed to The Restaurant – only our second visit of this voyage.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner with a very large lobster tail.  I augmented it with braised short ribs for a modified version of surf and turf.  

Unfortunately, on my third-to-last bite, a drop of drawn butter dripped off a string of lobster and found its way to my shirt, creating a prominent stain.  Knowing that these things can ruin a shirt, our evening turned into laundry night with a quick load into the washer.  That’s an OK thing because it is extremely hot in this part of the world, and we are definitely sweating up our clothes daily.

Tonight, we departed the South China Sea and entered the Java Sea. Tomorrow, we start our two-day visit to Jakarta, Java, Indonesia.

20231110 AAAA Trip - Sea Day - South China Sea sailing - faith in humanity restored

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 55/105 - South China Sea sailing

As I start to write this entry, it is about 3 p.m. and we're reaching the south end of the Malaysia/Thailand/Myanmar peninsula. In the map above, you can see where we are, making our turn to the west to head into the Singapore Strait.  Looks fine, right?  That map is from Cruisemapper.com. It shows cruise ships, hence the name.  There is another website, Vesselfinder.com, that shows all marine vessels.  Check this out.

That is the current insane traffic going through the Singapore Strait right now.  Some of the data is older on this website, but still, there are ships everywhere.  Sitting on our port-side balcony that currently faces south-southeast, still a ways from the Strait, we could count at least 50 ships.  More than 1,000 vessels navigate the roughly 70-mile-long and 12-mile-wide Singapore Strait daily.  Today, we'll be one of them.

Let me digress from the usual blog fodder for a minute to provide an update on Arlona's phone.  We have one on order.  It will be at the house on Saturday.  A neighbor will activate it and friends will bring it with them when they join us in Bali.  But wait, there's more...

Yesterday at lunch, my phone rang at about the same time I received a Facebook message from a stranger.  Odd timing.  The number was a 210 area code number - San Antonio, Texas.  Also odd.  The Facebook message was from someone I've never met who told me Arlona's phone was in the hands of the Pattaya, Thailand police.  That's weird.  The called, a man named Michael Brewer (not the same person that messaged me), said he was a volunteer at the Pattaya police department and they had Arlona's phone.  This all sounded a bit scam-like to me.

Without boring you with all the details, it is all legit.  Whoever took the phone from the bathroom in the mall did so intending to turn it over to the Pattaya Police.  It turns out there is a large, American ex-pat community in Pattaya - mostly ex-military.  They have a large VFW post there with its own Facebook page.  Michael took a photo of Arlona's driver's license and posted it to the VFW group to see if anyone knew her.  The man who messaged me looked me up online and thought he'd let me know where it was.  Viking contacted the port agent in Laem Chabang, Thailand and they will pick it up from Michael and get it shipped to our next major port, most likely Bali.  Those details are still being worked out. Michael handles things like this all the time for tourists, working with Pattaya police, the US Embassy, and other organizations.

So, while it looked like Arlona's phone was being taken, it was being taken with good intentions and the right people saw the phone.  All the items were still in the phone case, including the cash, her driver's license, Village ID, insurance card, and the phone itself.  Wow. Out of all of this, Arlona is getting a very nice phone upgrade and a restored faith in the goodness of people.  I will still feel better once everything is back in our hands, but for now, we're breathing a sigh of relief as it looks like everything will find its way back to us.  Whew. Her penalty for all of this is having to go through the hassle of setting up a new phone and one night of restless sleep.

On to today.  Sea Day means Baggo and trivia.  The men avenged our humiliating defeat yesterday by defeating the women at least twice as badly as they did us. Insert grunting noises here. :-)

Our passports have been held on the ship until today to facilitate immigration procedures.  From here on, we will have our passports as immigration procedures are different.  It’s fun looking at all the new stamps and stickers that have been applied.

With all our travel recently, I’ve run out of pages in my passport.  I have four pages left.  International travel almost always requires at least six pages open and six months of life left before expiration.  My passport doesn’t expire until 2027, but I’ll be biting the bullet when we get home and doing an early renewal.  We have travel booked for 2024 and I’ll need a new passport with room for visas and stamps.  I will be asking for the larger book like Arlona did on her last renewal, so I’ll have enough room for a while.

At trivia, we once again finished a single point out of first with 12/15 correct in general knowledge.  The goofs:

• What artist is known for the 1981 song, Key Largo
• Bertie Higgins - absolutely nobody got this one
• What country created salsa dancing?
• We had this before but forgot - Cuba, but it was made popular by Puerto Rico
• What English singer's real name is Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner?
• Sting - we had no idea

Lunch was quite interesting.  For those who followed the blog from our world cruise, you may recall the story from our third day.  We dined next to a couple, and after comparing notes, found out that he and Arlona went to the same junior high school and high school, a few years apart. He knew several of Arlona’s friends’ older siblings. We live about three hours apart in Florida. Small world, right?  

Today at lunch, we met a lovely New Zealand couple.  We were all talking about future cruise plans and they mentioned they would be trying a Seabourn cruise.  I mentioned that we just booked our first Seabourn cruise – a 90-day cruise.  They said there was also 90-days, from Barcelona.  Next November?  Africa?  Yes!  So, we have met our first passengers on our Africa circumnavigation cruise next November.  How fun is that?

We popped up to the Explorers' Bar a little early to watch the entry into the Singapore Strait.  The traffic was amazing as were some of the views of Singapore as we sailed past.

Arlona was looking out the front of the ship and kept hearing her name - a friend was up on deck #8

Ships

More ships

It was amazing just how many ships were in the Strait

Near the eastern entry to the Singapore Strait, we passed this freestanding pair of lighthouses and a pier - not near land at all

I'm fairly certain this is a Panamax ship that is capable of going through the new locks in the Panama Canal carrying over 20,000 containers - it is massive

Our glimpse of Singapore as we sailed by - we'll be back in two days

Marina Bay Sands

Tonight, Viking hosted a reception for multi-segment cruises - folks on this journey that booked more than just one leg, sailing from Vancouver, Tokyo, or Hong Kong to Sydney or Aukland. 

Travel Consultant, Hâmed, presented this poem - think Sound of Music...

Searching for grizzlies and fishing for salmon,

Such natural beauty in Mineral Creek Canyon,

Bald-headed eagles with 2-metre wings,

These are a few of my favorite things,

 

Watching for humpbacks, oh there goes its tail,

Post it on Facebook, now I’ve seen a whale,

Only the joy that the glaciers brings,

These are a few of my favorite things,

 

Alaska to Asia and crossing the line,

From glaciers to geishas and plenty of shrines,

Towering Mount Fuji and Beppu’s hot springs,

These are a few of my favorite things,

 

When I’m back home, and I’m waiting,

When I'm feeling sad,

I simply remember cruising with Viking,

And then I don't feel so bad,

 

From Hong Kong to Ha Long, a cruise through the bay,

Ho Chi Minh City, by night then by day,

Go to the temple, receive a blessing,

These are a few of my favorite things,

 

Bangkok and Bali, let's venture beyond,

The sites of Malaysia of which I’m so fond,

Equator crossings and Singapore slings,

These are a few of my favorite things,

 

Going down under, let’s stay here a while,

Koalas and “roos” and of course crocodiles,

The sail into Sydney is captivating,

These are a few of my favorite things,

 

When I’m back home, and I’m waiting,

When I'm feeling sad,

I simply remember cruising with Viking,

And then I don't feel so bad.

It is nice that they do this, but for us, we are disappointed that this is really five cruises.  I've mentioned it before, but for each cruise, the entertainment restarts, the dining menus restart, and so on.  They really need to consider these long voyages and the folks that book them and reconsider how they treat the voyage.  That is our not-so-humble opinion.

Diner tonight in the World Café featured a taste of America for I believe the third time. That works out OK as the last two times, we were eating at either Manfredi's or Chef's Table. Options included Wisconsin cheddar beer soup, shrimp and grits, California swordfish tacos, Tennessee honey hot chicken, and Oklahoma chicken fried steak – you get the idea.  It was a very nice dinner, and again, at the World Café, we can take a little of this and a little of that and we like that.

The plan is to reach Port Klang tomorrow morning before 8 a.m. as a gateway to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Unfortunately, like many places in this part of the world, Port Klang is 1.5 hours away from Kuala Lumpur, meaning that our 5.5-hour excursion tomorrow includes three hours of bus riding to and from the actually interesting stuff.

20231030 AAAA Trip - Sea Day snipping and snoozing

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 44/105 - Sea Day snipping and snoozing

This will be a short post as today was a day at sea.  We're making our way south along the Vietnam coast, through the South China Sea to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  It was a slow day with lots of active weather, making for a lazy day at sea.

After breakfast, we hung out in the room for a bit but needed to clear out so our outstanding cabin stewards, Jomar and Aiko, could service the room.   We wandered a bit, chatted with friends, and then made our way to deck 2 aft and watched the ship's wake for a while. It is very relaxing.

As we sat there, the rain started up.

It kept raining harder, eventually soaking the back of deck 2.

The rains slowed and stopped and we made our way back to our cleaned and tidied room.  We headed up to trivia where half our team abandoned us today. The three of us made a great effort on the picture trivia but came up well short.  Gilberto showed a series of images and we had to identify the place, the flag, the person from just forehead and eyes, the type of food from a close-up - that kind of thing.  It was difficult, at least for us as we scored 9/15, but two teams tied at 14/15 and had a tiebreaker.  It was an interesting take on trivia and something a little different.

At lunch, we noticed this stowaway, hitching a ride outside the World Café.

It appeared to be a striated sparrow catching a ride south

This afternoon, we cruised through thunderstorms for a couple of hours.  Arlona gave me a haircut and then we climbed into bed and watched the storm through the balcony window.  We aren't really "nap" people, but today was a perfect nap day and we took advantage of it, falling asleep to the flashes and booms of the storm.

After drinks in the Explorers' Bar, we met our friends from home, Jon & Margo, for dinner at Manfredi's.  As usual, dinner was terrific and we had a nice evening with friends.

We will be sailing until about 1 p.m. tomorrow when we make port in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.  We will be in Ho Chi Minh City for three days so tune in tomorrow for more Southeast Asia adventures.

20231026 AAAA Trip - Sea Day - making our way to Vietnam

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 40/105 - South China Sea Sailing

You never know what kind of hitchhikers you will find on a cruise ship

We sailed from Hong Kong just after 11 p.m. last night and changed times overnight to UTC+7, or 11 hours ahead of the US East Coast.  This means a relaxing sea day before a really long 12-hour excursion tomorrow to Hanoi.

Our internet service frankly sucked in China.  Viking said that it might and said it had something to do with "Chinese frequencies" - mumbo jumbo used to convince non-technical people.  While not stellar, the internet was much better on this ship than we have seen on any other Viking cruise.  No more.  We're right back to sucky internet.  In this day and age, people expect to be able to be connected.  Royal Caribbean has figured it out, but Viking continues to refuse to.  It is a shame.  As I write this, updates fail, then succeed.  Viking, are you listening?

Sea days mean Baggo.  It was men versus women today, and the estrogen crew handed out a resounding loss to us testosterone producers.  As always, it was good fun and a nice bonding experience for the guests.

You can tell Arlona got serious as she put her hair up

Before I get more into today, I want to share some fun news, especially if you sailed with us on the world cruise.  Our travel consultant and friend, Hâmed Reza Esfahanian, had guests visit while we were in Hong Kong - his fiancée, Liza, and their daughter, Ezrah.  It was a pleasure meeting them both.  Did I say, "fiancée"?  I did because Hâmed proposed on the ship and Liza said, "Yes!"  We are thrilled for the family.  It was great to see him get some special time with the family in Hong Kong and get a little break from his hectic schedule.  They plan to wed in February in the Philippines.

Liza, Hâmed, and Ezrah and Hong Kong Disney

Hâmed and Ezrah

Ezrah

Back to sea day happenings...

Arlona took a walk on deck 2 while I rested my knee.  She saw this little dude, catching a ride.

Viking provides a no-cost ride from Hong Kong to Ha Long Bay

Sea days also mean trivia.  We joined up with two other couples for trivia today. Assistant Cruise Director, Harry left us in Hong Kong, so trivia is now being hosted by the new Assistant Cruise Director, Gil.  

Our misses:

• How many languages are written right-to-left?
• We knew it was more than you’d think, and thought 12, but upped it to 14 – it is 12
• How many countries still use the shilling as currency?
• We thought three, but it is four – Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya
• Cynophobia is the fear of what?
• We guessed poison – it is the fear of dogs

We netted 12/15 correct along with one other team, necessitating a tiebreaker question.  We were the first to answer, Oslo for the capital of Norway.  That gave us the win, mimosas, and bragging rights until the next sea day.

The Know-It-Alls - Terry, Bill, Garry, Isabell, Arlona, June

We enjoyed a nice chat with a couple from the Atlanta area over lunch before relaxing on the balcony.  We thought we were out in the ocean, but then Arlona saw what appeared to be a small channel marker buoy.

We could also make out land behind it through the haze (it was harder to see in person)

We checked the map and saw that we were sailing through the Qiongzhou Strait.

We are headed to Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, just east of Hanoi and northeast of Haiphong

After passing through the Qiongzhou Strait, we entered the Beibu Gulf en route to Ha Long Bay. As we sailed, we passed multiple ships and a bunch of these - we assumed they were fishing buoys that held nets or traps.

Occasional small boats were in the area too

We also passed what appeared to be a radar dome, but based on how far it is listing, I'm not sure how long it will be there.

I'm no naval engineer, but I don't think this looks correct

We turned on the port talk about Ha Long Bay to get an idea of what our next two days will hold. Interesting takeaways about our time in this part of the world...

• We tend to dock in container ports, so the ports themselves won't be much to look at
• Guides are not native English speakers (duh), but Viking does its best to get good guides
• Cleanliness standards may not be what you're used to
• Carry toilet tissue as it may not be available in restrooms
• Food included on tours will be local food with little accommodation for dietary restrictions

We did our usual routine of pre-dinner cocktails and dinner in the World Café.  Tonight, we opted for crab legs with warmed butter - an always-available option in the World Café.  It was a nice meal.

After dinner, we hooked up with friends we met on our world cruise and then again on our Antarctica cruise.  That led to an hour-long chat about all sorts of things.  It was a nice way to spend the evening. After that, we returned to the room.  Tonight's entertainment is the "welcome show".  Since this is the third cruise of our five-cruise combined trip, we've been there, and done that.  Plus, we have to be ready to go tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. for our 11.5-hour excursion to Hanoi.  We'll turn in a little early and I hope to get up early as the sail-in to Ha Long Bay is supposed to be stunning.