Bangkok to Dubai - occasional live blog!

Pre pre-cruise

We arrived in Bangkok two days prior to our pre-cruise to Ankor Wat, a bit beat up due to 24 hours in transit. We had ranged a pick up at the airport through Oriental Express - somewhat more than a taxi but well worth it as we arrived well after midnight in a strange city!

We stayed at the Marriott Sukhumvit on free Marriott credit vouchers (thank you, Wes, for the tutorial) and were upgraded to Executive level and free breakfasts in their 57th Street restaurant. The breakfasts were amazing with something for every citizen of the world. The hotel is situated in a "real" part of Sukhumvit - as opposed to the lower numbers on Sukhumvit with numerous hotels and upscale malls. It was very close to the sky train which now ranks as my favorite mass transit line in the world....in large part because it is blissfully air conditioned. About the heat. We live in Atlanta so we are accustomed to heat and humidity but Bangkok will knock you to your knees!

We managed to do the usual tourist things and avoid the tuk tuk scams and unmetered taxis. Do your homework. I lurked on he Trip Advisor Bangkok forum for the last year and learned a lot. So what did We like the most?

Pink taxis....

Golden Buddhas ....

Chao Praya river traffic...

Thaijitos at the Madarin Oriental (pretending to be expats with a dark past....:cool:)

We leave for Siem Riep in a few hours for our official pre-cruise...all 140 of us!

One other thing - I thought I would be very tempted by Thai street food. I'm an adventurous eater but out travel MD and our CDC friends all said not to chance it. I have to say, between the heat, funky smells, diesel fumes, and questionable refrigeration, I was not tempted in the least!

Hi Jennifer & Georges, thanks so much for a terrific first pre cruise post & thanks for taking the time to post pix too. Happy to hear the Marriott worked out well. Look very forward to more pre cruise posts/pix. Have a wonderful Siem Reip visit!

The pictures are beautiful.. We have a friend living in BKK that we want to visit and he told me they have many wonderful resturants that are very safe to eat at. You do not need to stick to hotel food. You can always Google Trip Advisor or talk to your TA or AMEX conceirge to find the best places to dine at.

Sounds like you are off to a great start. I will enjoy following along.

Me too! I'm so envious because you're in my favourite part of the world on one of my favourite ships. Thank you for sharing your cruise with us!

I'm really looking forward to your blog. My husband and I will be boarding the Voyager in Dubai when you disembark, so I will look forward to any comments about the ship, the food, the crew, etc. We have not been on the Voyager in a few years, but are really looking forward to returning.

I'm also looking forward to hearing about your cruise. Bangkok is one of our favorite places to visit (but, as you noted, the heat can be unbearable). Great photos!

Pre-cruise: Cambodia

I think I will always associate Cambodia with lemongrass and sandlewood. We arrived after a very early flight (wake up call was 3:45 am - but our internal clocks still have no idea what time it really is!) to a country fractured by genocide and decades of war. Cambodia has only enjoyed peace for less than 13 years and trying hard to develop a foothold in the tourism industry. Currency is primarily the US dollar and English is the second language of young Cambodian people.

The scene at immigration was a bit chaotic as the Regent group was mixed in with other passengers and we all needed on-arrival visas. Most of us had completed our paperwork and had the necessary passport photo in hand - some of us didn't. An official collected paperwork and passports (no queues, just a teeming crowd of sleepy passengers) and took the pile of passports to another area where a team of other officials reviewed them, stamped our documents, and returned them to a now anxious group (weren't we told to always be within 3 feet of our passports?) in order to go through immigration where our passports were stamped again in three colors.

Regent had contracted with a regional agency to ferry us to the hotel and the temples for the next two days. A fleet of small busses were waiting outside the terminal, 17 passengers and a guide to a bus - our touring team for the next two days.

The Sofitel in Siem Reap is truly an oasis. Although only 8 years old, it is built in a SE Asian colonial style that is elegant and reminiscent of another era. All the buildings are connected with gardens, covered walkways and ponds filled with lotus.

After lunch and a rest, we regrouped on our busses and went off to our first temple, Banteay Srey. Banteay Srey is located about 45 minutes into the countryside - the temple farthest from the town. Cambodia has little infrastructure and we passed villages built in the traditional style with no sanitation or potable water. The World Health Organization and the UN are helping the Cambodian people but without a considerable infusion of time and resources, it will be long, arduous road into the 21st century.

Angkor Wat and the surrounding temple complex dates from the 8th to the 12th century and was re-discovered, excavated, and re-built in the 20th century. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This temple was invaded by termites and thought to be a termite mound until excavated by a French archeologist in the 30's. Interested in more info? This is the Wikipedia entry which describes the site perfectly:

Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey is a 10th-century Cambodian temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Located in the area of Angkor in Cambodia. It lies near the hill of Phnom Dei, 25 km (16 mi) north-east of the main group of temples that once belonged to the medieval capitals of Yasodharapura and Angkor Thom. Banteay Srei is built largely of red sandstone, a medium that lends itself to the elaborate decorative wall carvings which are still observable today. The buildings themselves are miniature in scale, unusually so when measured by the standards of Angkorian construction. These factors have made the temple extremely popular with tourists, and have led to its being widely praised as a "precious gem", or the "jewel of Khmer art."

We had our first tuk tuk ride yesterday to take us to dinner in town. Great fun!

One final picture:

Love your pics. Thx

Visual feast, thanks Jennifer.

This has the makings of one terrific live blog. Will be avidly following along!

Rich

This has the makings of one terrific live blog. Will be avidly following along!

 

Rich

I agree and will be along 'for the ride' also :)

After a 45 minute flight from Cambodia, we transferred by bus for the two hour ride to the port. Embarkation was very efficient and we (and all of our luggage - a leap of faith as we trusted that it would get from the hotel in Bangkok to the ship) were in our cabin by 2pm.

Our first port, Ko Sumai, has been cancelled due to a pod problem which necessitates going slowly to Singapore where it will be repaired. This means two sea days and we miss our elephant ride. I think that most of us who were on the Cambodia trip are not at all disappointed with this development as we are exhausted and the prospect of immersing ourselves in another day of heat and humidity was not an attractive prospect. This also relieves our guilt about how elephants are treated in SE Asia. Three days touring Buddhist temples makes you think more seriously about karma. There was a bas relief at Angkor Wat that depicted a man in one of the levels of hell, trapped in a cage. This was karmic payback for keeping pet birds during his lifetime. I don't want to be a tourist attraction in my next life, nor do I want to carry corpulent Americans on my back!

We were on the Voyager in 2012. I may be in the minority but I liked the beige color scheme and the artwork better before dry dock. Art and food are personal, I know! On that note, dinner last night was fabulous. Our entrees were snapper with stuffed calamari for me and lamb chops for Georges. Both were prepared perfectly and service was paced well.

Since I have not had time to post, I wanted to tell you about our second day in Cambodia. We had a very early start to get a jump on the heat, visiting Angkor Thom, the Banyon temple complex, the Terrace of the Leper King, the Elephant Terrace and Ta Prohm Temple. After lunch and a well needed rest, we spent the late afternoon visiting the Angkor Wat Temple complex. Our guide, Arun, was excellent and seemed to know everything about his country - from ancient history to current political corruption. It is a tribute to a good guide that my interest was peaked and I want to read and explore more. He was a child during the Cambodian genocide and described in detail the impact on his family and on his country. We were moved by his gentle soul and deep resilience in the face of adversity.

No pictures today. Photobucket is not cooperating with the ship's internet and even the IPAD app does not want to work!

Glad you (and your luggage) made it to the ship safely. You write so well--love that line in your first post about how the Bangkok heat/humidity will knock you to your knees. My wife and I are so spoiled by the dry heat here in the Southwest that I don't think we would cope well in Atlanta, let alone the Cambodian jungle!

As for your difficulty in posting photos from the ship, if the issues persist you might want to try posting from a cruise terminal wi-fi hot spot (no pressure to do so, mind you, I'm content with the great words'-eye pictures). When I blogged our Montreal-Miami cruise I enjoyed sitting among the cluster of Regent crew and taking advantage of the fast internet speed to make a number of my posts.

Rich

Hooray! Got the IPAD app to work.....now to download picks from the camera!

This is the center high tower at Angkor Wat.

Sunset on the sea of Thailand

Hi Jennifer & Georges, thanks for the excellent Cambodia recap along with the beautiful pix above.

Thanks for taking the time and for being so descriptive. You bring back a lot of fond memories of Thailand. I still wear a baht chain I had bought in Venus Jewellers in BKK and remember that whenever I was homesick we would head out to Bourbon Street restaurant owned by an expat off of Sukhumvit Road and Soi 17 (?) for some authentic Cajun food. This restaurant was at the time a present day version of the bar scene in Star Wars full of characters from all walks of life. There was even a senior citizen who claimed to be a Spaniard but would get drunk and since in German.

We ate a lot of the local food from the street vendors (risky but great) and sure drank a lot of Mekhong whiskey.

The most striking images of this serene country are the countless numbers of temples found everywhere. They are graceful and always peaceful.

Your pic of the buddhist monk is beautiful and humbling. I spent three weeks in those jungles and was fed and sheltered several times by the generosity of the monks. Thank you for reminding me of those times.

Please don't stop posting and take us along on your trip. Sorry for rambling so much.

Z and TB

Really enjoying your blog! Thank you for taking the time to keep us posted......enjoy every minute!

No photos today...photobucket is not cooperating again. Maybe later.

We arrived in Singapore this morning. I expected a modern city - I didn't expect a vibrant, clean, progressive city-state that seems to value it's citizens and it's environment more than any country I have ever visited. We took a tour around the city to see the top sites and our guide, Tom-Tom, was funny and enthusiastic and full of interesting tidbits. The per capita income is very high in Singapore and unemployment is only 1.5%. Singapore is a melange of religions and cultures and everyone respects those differences. I asked Tom-Tom if there were sanctions for hate speech and prejudicial behavior. She looked at me quizzically and said that children learn these values very early. Schools require uniforms to minimize class differences and school children visit religious sites and learn about other cultures as part of the curriculum.

Our tour took us all over the city and ended at the Raffles Hotel Long Bar for a Singapore Sling. We opted to take the tour bus back to the cruise terminal where there is a mall and restaurants. I was on a quest for black pepper crab after Tom-Tom was waxing rhapsodic about how "finger licking good" it was. She was absolutely correct. We asked at several restaurants before we found it at Tunglok Signatures restaurant. It was phenomenal! We were up to our elbows in sauce, made a mess of the table, looked like pigs at the trough, but happy, happy, happy!

The ship remains wonderful...still hate the artwork. Captains reception was last night. Somehow I did not get the memo that there were two formal optional nights. Ninety percent of the men wore tux or at least jackets. Women were all dolled up, too. We skulked around for a flash and decamped to the lounge have a drink before dinner.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia tomorrow.

"Somehow I did not get the memo that there were two formal optional nights. Ninety percent of the men wore tux or at least jackets. Women were all dolled up, too. We skulked around for a flash and decamped to the lounge have a drink before dinner."

What percentage do you think wore tux, and what percentage wore just coat and tie. We are trying to decide how much to pack.

We will not see you unless we happen to pass on the gangway.Love getting your updates.

Vivian

Hmmm...hard to say..perhaps 10% in tux or quilts the rest in coat and tie......perhaps 10% without coat and tie. We're back to normal tonight's father a great meal in setti mare.

We are enjoying your posts. We were on the Beijing to Bangkok portion of the journey and left the Voyager at 2:00 am on April 8th. We are still in the process of getting our sleep back! We really enjoyed our part of the voyage. Take good care of the Voyager and have a blast. Keep up writing those great posts.

I'm having such difficulty uploading from photobucket! I think it's just too much for this internet system. I'll try from shore today if I'm able. We just haven't had much time in one place!

We were in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Port Klang is about an hour from the city. We docked at noon and our excursion left at one, returning after 7pm. We visited the Batu caves, the royal Selangor pewter factory, and a quick stop at the Petronius tower. The Batu caves are worth the visit despite the long drive to get there. 245 stairs up, monkeys and mangey dogs everywhere. This is a Hindu temple so it has colorful, strange, and evocative statues everywhere. (Photobucket where are you?). There were many Indians there in their finest saris and adornments which I found almost more fascinating than the caves themselves - already impressive as a natural wonder! Many men had shaved heads and a sandalwood paste covering their skulls. I asked our guide about the significance of this. He said the paste soothed the scalp and the aroma was evocative of religious ceremonies from their past so that it intensified the spiritual connection in the present. I think I'll have to look that one up!

The pewter factory was a real surprise. Very modern and air conditioned (although I'm becoming accustomed to being a sticky mess when I return to the ship!). We attended the "school of hard Knocks" where we made our own pewter bowls. This was great fun! The excursions have been very good so far. The busses are modern with good AC and good guides. We are usually about 32 to a bus. Since English is my husband's second language, he has difficulty understanding the guides whose english is sometimes very heavily accented. Even I sometimes only get about 85%!

We are in day 6 of our 21 days and getting into a nice routine. Our cabin is on deck 7 forward which is a very convenient location. I took some yoga and Pilates classes but the classes were too crowded and I'm a bit of a purist and found the guidance lacking. There were some first timers in these classes and they could easily get hurt without proper positioning and instruction.

Breakfasts are in the Veranda unless it's an early excursion day. Lunches there as well, as the pool area is too hot - although we have some true sun worshiping shipmates. There have been themed grills each day (Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese) which are great fun.

Dinner is usually in Compass Rose with one dinner at Sette Mari. Sette Mari was just too heavy in this heat so I think we'll stick to Compass Rose. The menu is varied and very good. I don't think my husband has ordered anything but lamb chops since we boarded! They come out perfectly "Rose" as requested which is quite the accomplishment for the kitchen.

We haven't managed to make it to any entertainment except an afternoon movie I walked out on (Anchorman 2). I blame it on lingering jet lag but I know that I'm at my best in the early morning and just run out of gas by 10pm!

Finally, can you believe it, we haven't had enough shopping opportunities on our excursions! Although we did buy mouthwash at the Petronius Tower mall Listerine Green Tea flavor for the Asian market!

Batu caves

Monkeys

Petronus Tower

Sunrise