Bangkok - April 7, Morning

Wow! Wow! WOW! 

(I'll get to the WOW part eventually. First I have to lay the foundation.)

We got off the ship this morning in Laem Chabang, Thailand, to start our Overland Tour. There were 16 of us plus a young woman from the shore excursion office on the tour. Our coach awaited us. It was a full-size motorcoach, so there were lots of empty seats and we could spread out. The seats were up high, so we could see well. 

Our guide, Nira, introduced herself and our driver, Mr. Tep (?). While we drove toward Bangkok, Nira gave us a lot of information. We drove most of the time on an elevated toll highway. Most of the time we passed industrial areas, and occasionally small agricultural areas. We passed an area called Sriracha, like the sauce. The principal crops in this region are tapioca, pineapple, sugarcane, and rice. Fish farming provides tilapia, catfish, and snakehead fish (?). 

After about 2 hours we stopped at a rest stop to go to the "happy room." Nira told us what to expect and handed out toilet paper as we got off the bus. It was an Asian-style toilet, which means you have to squat. There is something on the floor that is kind of like a hole that flushes. It wouldn't be so bad if people had better aim. But there is pee everywhere and you have to hold up your pants, shorts, etc. to make sure they don't touch the floor, while also holding your toilet paper, and maintaining the correct squatting position. Maybe next time I'll think to take a photo, but I just couldn't wait to get out of there.

By this time we were on the outskirts of Bangkok, population 10 to 12 million. There is a lot of traffic, but not an impossible amount. It looked smoggy to me, but Nira said it wasn't smog. (Not sure about that.) There are many modern skyscrapers. Interspersed among the skyscrapers are:

1. Nice looking condo and apartment towers

2. Beautiful temples (which are actually monasteries)

3. Slums - corrugated metal shacks so close together all the roofs overlapped

After another 45 minutes we arrived at our destination, the Grand Palace. The bus dropped us off amidst dozens of other buses and swarms of people. I have never seen anything like it anywhere. Nira told us the tourists would be pushy, and they were. She told us to just keep walking and try to stay together. 

Here is where the "wow factor" comes in.

Nira led us through a gate and then we went through another gate and suddenly we saw the most dazzling sight. We were in the part of the Grand Palace compound known as the Temple section. This area contains dozens of stunningly beautiful structures. There are three large towers that command your attention. The first one is all gold and contains somebody's ashes. The second one is decorated with elaborate mosaic designs. The third one is carved in stone. (I am writing this three days later after a lot of touring and I can't remember all the facts. I will look them up later and edit this.)

From there we went to a large building containing the Emerald Buddha. No photos are allowed inside, but we took off our shoes and went inside to experience it. Incense, and a hushed atmosphere.

The Emerald Buddha, photographed from upside the temple. It's really made from jade.

Another section of the compound contained a series of palaces and monuments used by various kings over the centuries. It is no longer used by the royal family because one of the kings was assassinated there in 19__.

Everywhere you looked there was something amazing to see, and every time you went around a corner there would be a new and more overwhelming sight. I have never seen anything to compare with this - not in Beijing or Rome or anywhere. Nor have I seen anything to compare with the crowdedness.

One of 178 mural panels showing Thai history

While Thai history goes way back, we were primarily focused on the modern period. The main kings you need to know about are Rama IV and Rama V. Rama IV is the king from The King and I. As you would expect, Rama V was his soon. Rama V went to Europe and was impressed by the architecture there and had several French-style palaces built in another part of the complex.

It was oppressively hot and oppressively crowded. Otherwise, it would have been lovely to have spent the whole day there. I couldn't really take it all in. Our photos do not really do it justice. You can't get the whole expanse of a pagoda or tower into a photo and you can't get a photo without a lot of other people in it. 

Once we got back to the bus, Nira and the driver gave us cold washcloths and cold water bottles. Who knew cold washcloths were so wonderful?

We stopped at a hotel for a buffet lunch of Thai and Western food. I tried a lot of unfamiliar fruits. The only one I didn't like was dragonfruit. It has a red rind with white flesh and black polka dots. I'll try to find a picture when I get home.

After lunch we were taken to a store that sold silver and silk for some "shopping time." First we had to see their fake demonstration of silversmithing and weaving in an alcove off the parking lot. I wasn't too impressed with the place. Tours in many countries take you to shops like this. They pretend they are taking you to see local crafts being made, but it's really all about selling stuff to you. It was only a short stop, and they gave us cold juice and let us use their bathroom, so it wasn't a total waste.

Bangkok street scenes

"The Lego Building" - the tallest building in Bangkok

A tuk-tuk

Finally, we headed for the airport. Check-in was very easy. Everything had been organized by the tour provider. We went to the Bangkok Air Lounge and used the free wi-fi until it was time for our flight. Our plane was a little late, but they somehow managed to board us extremely quickly and they left on time. It was one of those turbo-props like the ones that go between Anchorage and Fairbanks. We had to take a bus from the terminal to the plane. The flight was about 55 minutes. During this time they served us dinner. 

The journey continues in another post . . .

Entertained - April 6

Hi there, boys and girls. I'm an elephant! My name is Terry.

You would not believe how much grown-ups love me. They are pushing each other just to get a chance to take my picture. Don't be like that when you grow up, boys and girls.

Hey, would you like to meet some of my friends?

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Other than making Terry's acquaintance, it was an ordinary day. Nattered with the Knitters and Natters, practiced Bon Odori dancing, played trivia, and had a meeting with the chief engineer and the chief ventilation officer. Yeah, the A/C problem has become part of our daily routine. 

It isn't worth the tsuris any longer. If they say the ocean is too warm for the A/C to work, who am I to argue? Could they just explain why some areas on the ship are chilly? I am ready to give up. We will be off the ship for a few days. I'll worry about it - or not - when we get back.

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The evening show was a Rumanian pianist named Count Dimas. I'm pretty sure he is not a real count. He might not even be a real Rumanian. He was terrible, although he could play the piano with his nose.

Equated - April 5

Noon, on the Equator, and we are out in the bright, hot sun on the top deck of the ship watching King Neptune conduct the Crossing the Equator Ceremony. If you have never crossed the Equator by ship before, you are a polliwog. Once you have crossed, you become a shellback. 

The ceremony could have been invented by immature fraternity boys. It involves kissing a dead fish on the lips, dressing in drag, and throwing food at the polliwogs. Still, people go to watch it.

I went to an origami class to learn to make a flower. The flower was extremely lame. It's not even real origami. The best part of the class was watching one of the ladies at my table trying to follow the instructions. She had come to the class directly from Happy Hour. Her flower turned out looking even worse than mine. 

We went to the Captain's Top 40 Cocktail Party this evening. That was kind of lame, too.

Afterwards we went to a Dolly Parton tribute show. The performer wasn't too bad, but we didn't stay to the end. A group arrived 15 minutes late, and sat down next to us. The woman right next to me was annoying and was starting to drive me crazy. 

After the stress of the continuing A/C problem, I do not have a lot of patience left for people who are annoying. It's really starting to wear me down. I haven't written much about it in my blog, but I have written a lot about it in my head. Today a technician showed up at our door unannounced at 8 am to check on the A/C. He plugged his computer into the thermostat and told us everything was operating correctly. We asked why, if that was the case, was our room so hot? He smiled and forgot how to speak English.

Ken went down to have another conversation with customer service. I just couldn't. I am so frustrated with them I don't want anything more to do with them. I will stop at this point, or I will have to write for 45 more minutes about this.

Oyasumi! (I am practicing my Japanese)

Elevated - April 3

This morning we arrived in Bali. It is an island with a population of 4.2 million.  Bali is one of the 17,000 islands that comprise the Republic of Indonesia.

We tendered ashore in the port of Benoa at 8:00 and it was already starting to get hot. Not to mention humid.

At the dock

Our guide, Naranaya, met us and escorted us to our motorcoach. He was wearing traditional Balinese dress - a calf-length sarong and a headwrap or turban. 

The streets were narrow and congested. The motorbikes and motorcycles outnumbered cars by about 3 to 1. They were all daredevil drivers.

I had to keep reminding myself I was not in Mexico. It was similar in many ways. The heat, the construction (though not the architectural style), the disrepair, the numerous tiny shops and food vendors, the labor-intensive jobs being performed everywhere, the dogs wandering in the road oblivious to traffic, the hubbub.

Indonesia is 80% Muslim, but Bali is 80% Hindu. Every house has a temple within. In addition, there are larger and smaller temples everywhere. I would say at least one large one on each block, and and several small ones, that could be a nook in a wall or a post at the side of the road. The people bring DAILY offerings to their temples. Each offering has 25 flowers. I have no idea where they get this many flowers from. 4,200,000 x .8 x 25 = 84,000,000!!! Can this be possible? Let's say it's just one offering per family and there are 10 people in a family. That gets us down to 8.4 million flowers. It didn't look to me as though there were 25 flowers in an offering. Let's say there are only 5. So, 1.68 million. Round it down to 1.5 million flowers per day. I think something got lost in translation between Naranaya and me.

A typical offering

On the other hand . . . we have the stone carvings. As we left Benoa we passed hundreds of small roadside shops. Each one was selling a variety of stone carvings, from the size of a garden gnome on up. Animals, temples, flowers, geometric shapes, etc. Each shop had dozens. The shops were lined up one next to another for miles. We drove for an hour before we came to the end of the urban area and the end of these shops. There are really a lot of these little stone carvings here. Maybe they need so many because they have so many offerings to place before them. Can there possibly be a demand for this many stone carvings?

Two shops. Imagine this going on for miles.

Two temples, or at least, places where an offering would be left

Eventually the urbanization ended and we passed rice paddies and other fields. Then we began to climb and the occasional house was surrounded by jungle. After 90 minutes on the bus we reached the Elephant Safari Park.

I want to say upfront that this was a fantastic place and I loved it. Goodbye kangaroos and koalas, hello elephants, you are my new favorite animal.

The Elephant Safari Park takes pains to point out all the things they do that are green and contribute to the welfare of elephants. They said that the elephants are not forced to do anything, that they do what they do because they want to. The land where the park is located was not previously a forest and they did not cut down trees for the park. It was a rice paddy. They planted trees to create the park. The grounds are very beautiful. There is even a luxury lodge on the property. Apparently some members of the Saudi Royal Family were staying there.

There were about 6 buses from the ship, plus other tourists not from the ship. They had it pretty well organized so that everybody wasn't trying to do the same thing at the same time. Our first activity was feeding the elephants. They gave us pieces of bamboo to feed them. This was basically like eating wood, but the elephants seemed to like it. They are rather bristly to the touch.

When it was our turn to ride an elephant we climbed onto a wooden seat. The mahout nudged the elephant behind the ears, and off we went. Our elephant was named Bari or Beri or Bewi or something like that. He was 32 years old.

(Insert link to Elephant Walk song)

The chair moved with the elephant's shoulders in a slow rolling motion. It was not jerky or bumpy. We followed a path through the trees for almost 30 minutes. At the end we handed down our cameras to some of workers and they took photos while the elephant posed in a pond.

After our exciting ride we were directed to a nearby pavilion for a delicious buffet lunch. Then it was time for the elephant show. It was intended to show us how smart they were and was not meant to be a circus show. The elephants did all sorts of cute things while the difference between Asian and African elephants was explained. Our elephants are from the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They are not native to Bali. One of the interesting differences is Asian elephants have one "finger" in the tip of the trunk, while African elephants have two.

Playing the harmonica

Spraying the audience

We took a quick look at a very small elephant museum. The museum included a complete woolly mammoth skeleton from Alaska. Just as it started to rain hard we reboarded our bus, while other people were forced to wear plastic ponchos and hold umbrellas during their elephant rides.

:) :?

Me smiling while riding on an elephant - Just made that up

We continued our journey to Ubud. It is a town known for fine arts, music, dance, and arts and crafts and for its "famous market." We only had 70 minutes there and didn't come across any fine arts or performing arts. The famous market is way overrated, unless you want really cheap crap made in China or wooden penis-shaped bottle openers and keychains. The market alleys would have been very crowded without all the motorbikes zipping up and down. But some people just can't resist a challenge.

We took some time out from our busy Ubud shopping adventure to look around the King's Palace. I didn't ever find out the story behind it. I asked the guide and he thought I said "King's power" and spent a lot of time talking about the king's power and the end of the monarchy and so on, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that that wasn't what I meant.

At the King's Palace

We took a different route for part of the way back and passed shops selling carved wood instead of carved stone. Many shops displayed shelves of wine bottles with a yellow liquid inside. Apparently this is how they sell petrol. Yikes.

By the time we got back to the tender pier we were completely wilted from the heat.

Orange is the New Distress Signal - April 2

Here we are having our third consecutive da at sea. Lots of "free time." So why have I gotten so far behind in my blog? Blogcrastination! Unabashed indolence!

About 11:30 this morning the captain got on the PA system and announced that we would be turning around. Someone had reported seeing "an orange piece of paper" and it would be best to go back and "have a look." We are in the Indian Ocean, between Australia and Indonesia. This area was searched when the Malaysian jet disappeared.

As the Ship Turns

Of course everybody rushed out to their balconies or to the upper decks to help the officers spot the orange piece of paper. I saw one guy excitedly point at a white piece of something about the size of a Kleenex. I hope the officers saw what he was pointing at. It could have been important. I myself saw a large number of flying fish.

It takes the ship 20 to 30 minutes to turn around and get back to the point of the sighting. Remember that if you ever fall off.

Eventually the captain announced that they had found the orange object and it was just some flotsam, probably off a fishing boat, and it was indeed orange. Volunteer spotters, stand down. (The captain didn't say that last part - I did.)

Now I haven't written anything over the last few days, so the following may not make much sense until I fill in some of the missing postings. 

I went to the Knitters and Natters group and met an Australian woman who quilts. We are going to trade e-mails, favorite websites, and so on.

I went to the Bon Odori class and learned a new dance and reviewed the old ones.

Ken and I went to the pool to cool off. It was so nice.

We spent quite a bit of time talking about how hot it was outside and how hot it was in our cabin. (It got up to 81 F in our cabin with the AC on the lowest setting and the curtains drawn and most of the lights off. We spent time talking to our cabin steward about the temperature. We spent time talking to the customer service people and the Housekeeping supervisor. We tried to get them to give us a fan for tonight. Keeping the balcony door open is not an option. It is hotter outside than inside, and very humid. I think tomorrow will be our lucky day and it will be fixed while we are on shore.