Sailing the South China Sea

Prolog: We had always wanted to see Hong Kong. A brochure arrived from Princess Cruises advertising a two week long cruise from Bangkok to Hong Kong, with intermediate stops that read like the itinerary of one of those "Sea Witch" class coastal freighters in the old radio adventure programs. It really looked attractive, and best of all it dropped us in Hong Kong three months before the British ceded the territory back to China.

We don't know what the return to China holds for Hong Kong, but we wanted to see the territory more or less as it has been for the last 150 years, freewheeling and open.

So we proceeded to put together a tour with extra time spent in Bangkok, before the cruise, and Hong Kong after the cruise.

Underway

Thus, Nancy and I found ourselves on the way to the LA airport at 0900 on Monday, March 10th, 1997. We weren't really ready for the trip as it turned out. Oh, we packed our bags and didn't forget much, but there is some psyching up that should go along with the packing that we weren't aware of. The flight to Bangkok was very grueling. We were to travel for about 22 hours, across 15 time zones. We knew this intellectually before we departed, but the wear and tear of that much travel took us by surprise.

We flew first to Tokyo, Japan. I had made this trip several times before on business. It seemed the trip should be over when we arrived at Narita airport, but it wasn't even close. I had always used Haneda airport in the old days (you can tell I had not been to Japan for quite some time). In my memory, Haneda is a small, cozy, user friendly airport. Narita is big, bureaucratic, and inflexible.

The most irksome thing about Narita was that when we got off the airplane, we had to exit the secure area and then return to the SAME secure area though all the usual interviews, inspections and searches, after a long walk and wait in line. We had undergone a security inspection at LAX, but that wasn't a Japanese search... Finally, after being allowed to proceed to our gate, we found that the only seats that were available (we had been unable to reserve seats for this leg) were a window and center seat. I suspect that the Japanese locals got the first selection of seats.

Worse yet, we were hemmed in by one of those travelers from Hell in the aisle seat. There were no empty overhead storage bins, so we had to stuff our carry-ons in our leg space. However, Mr. Aisle had already filled up our spaces with his stuff, and saw no reason why he should remove it. After some unpleasantness, he saw the light and we were allowed to shoehorn ourselves into our miserable little spaces for the six hour flight on to Bangkok.

On advice of our travel agent we had signed up for the Princess pre-cruise package in Bangkok. This included a stay at the Shangri-la Hotel and tours in Bangkok. Thus when we hit the Bangkok airport, the worst was over. The Princess folk relieved us of our bags and trundled us onto a bus for the hotel. By this time it was Midnight on the 11th, thanks to the date line, and we were worn out. Our bags didn't catch up to us until about 3 am.

The travel agent's advice was sound. Thailand is a very different place from anywhere I/we have ever visited before. The different culture and language, coupled with a very crowded city full of perhaps an unusually high percentage of hustlers, con men and entrepreneurs made being in Princess's hands, at least part of the time, reassuring.

At any rate, we were up early the next morning for breakfast and a tour. The tour was an extra that we signed up for - the tour of the King's palace.

Our hotel was on the main transport artery of Bangkok, the Cha Phraya River.

  We stepped onto a river transport at the hotel's pier, and away we went up the river, through the center of a metropolis, sweeping past exotic temples, tall business buildings and shopping plazas, long-tailed boats and river craft of every description.

The river is truly an essential artery of this bustling city. At times it seems to be the only practical transportation.
 

This is the palace where Anna supposedly civilized the King of Siam - the setting for the "King and I".
 

Our tour guide was pretty adamant that the tale of Anna and the King of Siam is not accurate. In fact, the movie is banned in Thailand because it shows disrespect for the King.

Our guide's second opinion was that Anna was not pretty and she didn't sing, (so I would guess she had seen this illicit film).

Thursday, we were off on a more extensive tour of the countryside. We didn't appreciate how well the water transport worked the day before, until we got a long look at the choked

traffic of Bangkok! It is a chaotic swirl of vehicles of all  descriptions, and a few almost indescribable ones. Tuk-tuks for example; basically a motorized tricycle, with a covered double seat behind the driver. Known to flip over when excited. Every variety of motor scooter and motorcycle boldly joined in the fray.

The traffic problem was repeated over and over on our trip. A lot of our touring time was spent staring at traffic. Thailand and many other countries in this area have adopted a 150% to 200% tax on new vehicles to slow the growth of the traffic problem. It doesn't seem to work. Instead, it just prolongs the life of older, slower, polluting and unsafe vehicles. Gasoline on the other hand is relatively cheap throughout the area, $0.35 to $0.40 per liter ($1.30/gal).

Our bus worked its way out of the densest traffic and we began to enjoy the countryside. The tour guide pointed out some of the sights. "Want to know what we call a motorcycle rider without a helmet?" she inquired as we passed a motorcycle accident. She answered her own question "Temporary Thai's."

The tour was really great. First, we visited a furniture factory where ornately and beautifully carved furniture is turned out routinely, some for general stock and some by special order. I watched a twenty -something wood carver finish tracing a design onto a massive slab of perfect rosewood, beginning a custom table top about four feet by eight feet, and two inches thick. He then casually squatted and began chiseling into this nearly priceless piece of wood. I gulped for air, and he turned out a couple of perfectly carved figures in the period of time I could hold my breath. I am sure, given such a precious piece of wood, I would still be studying it, working up nerve for that first cut.

Next stop was an orchid and flower farm adjacent to a road side store featuring local crafts, soft drinks and nick-nacks. The Thai's are big on decorating with flowers of the type grown here--we were greeted every morning at breakfast with fresh flowers. The entire orchid area was entirely enclosed in fabric screen, protecting the flowers from sun and pests.

Then it was on to a waterway for a trip in a long-tailed boat through the canals to a floating market. Actually, only part of the market is floating. The balance of the market is housed in "permanent" structures along the bank of the canal. The floating market deals in foodstuffs, while the shore merchants deal in hard goods.

Surprisingly, we found no really attractive deals in the market. There are no prices on the merchandise, and the asking price is, without exception, amazing. I automatically offered one third of this price, and never got taken up. I guess they were used to easier tourists.

We did go shopping the following day in Bangkok. There, my strategy seemed to work better. Nancy was taken by a very pretty purse made of Stingray skin. 1950 Baht I was told (about 80 bucks!). I looked appropriately shocked and switched to dollars--$25 US I offered. After a little dancing we settled at $36. Nancy is very happy with the purse.

We were on down the street looking at some neckties and other silk articles when the kid from the purse deal came running up. He made me understand that he was very unhappy with my money. A five dollar bill I had given him had a little rip in it. He was afraid the moneychanger would not accept it. I shrugged and traded him for another five. American money is accepted practically everywhere, but the vendors are very concerned over counterfeit money.

Earlier we had met a Canadian lady who said she was afraid she had some counterfeit American money from her home bank. A Thai moneychanger wouldn't accept it. "Keep your wretched Baht!" she had angrily shouted at him. I asked to see the money. She had a stack of crisp $100 bills of the new anti-counterfeit design. "Looks like stage money." she said. I could only agree, but I was really surprised that a Thai moneychanger would not be aware of this new bill. I told her to hang onto her hundreds until she boarded the ship, and the purser would turn it into a stack of conventional looking "yuppie food stamps" (twenties).

I cherish the memory of that moneychanger putdown-"Keep your wretched Baht!", delivered with a very cultured Canadian-English accent.

I picked up a few silk ties at $4 each, but the balance of our silk shopping was postponed until Hong Kong. The silk prices we saw in Thailand were generally higher than at home!

That morning (Friday) we had packed up and turned our bags over to Princess, and in the late morning, we boarded a bus to the ship. Because of the Bangkok traffic it was necessary to allow three and a half hours for this trip of perhaps 100 km. The trip to the port of Laem Chebang was almost a tour in itself. A Thai Princess rep traveled with us and pointed out and explained points of interest, such as the sea salt drying ponds that are converted to rice paddies in the winter.

Our route ran along the route of a monorail system under construction to relieve some of the traffic congestion. Little more than the piers existed at this point, and I understand the slowing Thai economy may delay such construction projects, but like much of the region, Thailand is building for the future, new buildings, new roads and a start at mass transit.

We hit the traffic lucky and made it to the ship in two hours.

We headed for our stateroom to dump our excess gear, and then up to the fantail where lunch was being served all afternoon. After that we split up to explore the ship. Later we met back at the cabin and had a good laugh. "We have seen this ship before." Nancy said.

"Oh?"

"Yes, it used to be the Fair Sky, operated by Sitmar."

"You mean the Russian ship?"

"Yes."

We had indeed seen the Fair Sky tied up on the Embarkadaro in San Francisco when it was brand new, circa 1985. For some reason Sitmar wrote the name as one word, FAIRSKY. It is also written that way in the ship's history. In San Francisco we were viewing the ship bow on, and the I in FAIRSKY didn't show up very well, so Nancy had thought it was a Russian name of some sort.

Well, it doesn't take much to amuse some folks.

The ship was more recently purchased by Princess and renamed the Sky Princess. It is a moderate sized cruise ship by today's standards. Displacing some 40,000 tons, it carries 1350 passengers and 550 crew. Princess is owned by P & O (Peninsular and Orient Shipping), and thus the sea officers are just about 100% British. The purser's staff officers are also mostly British, the major exception (fortunately) being the food service. Like all Princess ships we have ever been on, the food service is Italian run, down through the head waiter level.

The ship's data said there were 330 Filipinos in the crew. Our table waiter, Roberto, and our cabin steward, Ferdinando were from the Philippines. Our table's bus boy, Nicholas, was from Mazatlan, Mexico.

We shared a table with two delightful couples, one from Detroit, and the other from Seattle. The wives were sisters from an Italian-American family, so we got lots of attention from Luigi, our head waiter. The Detroit husband was a retired minister, while the Seattle husband was a retired Boeing engineer. Rosie, the younger and more rambunctious sister, still works at Boeing.

John, Nancy, Rosie,Jerry, Wayne and Toni.

The ship ran flawlessly, sailed relatively smoothly (our most active sea was about sea state 3), and made all ports in a timely manner. We had a great time at meals with our cordial table mates, good food and efficient service.

About 1900 hours we set sail down the Maylay Peninsula for two weeks of cruising.

I just knew I would feel uncomfortable in Singapore, because they seem to have a rule for everything, and vigorously and enthusiastically enforce them with stiff fines, summary canings, and imprisonment. However, after seeing Bangkok, and later Malaysia and Manila, I guess Singapore's approach might be what

it takes to maintain sanity in that part of the world. The city is pretty, very orderly, and with lots of mass transit, the traffic isn't all that bad.

 We devoted a great deal of our visit to the Botanical gardens, featuring masses of spectacular orchids.

I inquired  about the ubiquitous cell phones, and was told that cell phone service costs about $30/mo. plus 14 cents per minute peak time, and 7 cents per minute off peak. I wonder when the US providers will stop ripping us off?

This is a slow paced backwater sort of place. We took a tour of the area. One of the major attractions was a fish drying operation. This is sort of like watching paint dry, except it smells a lot worse.

Note the shark fins, drying. These are very valuable. We saw a lot of the dried fish in the markets downtown.

We also toured a lovely tourist oriented resort and were treated to entertainment consisting of trained, coconut picking monkeys, kite flying, and a folk song and native dance show.

Well, at least it was a dry heat. This was about the only place we visited that would not accept American money. Residents probably get a hand lopped off if they do. The tour was lousy. We drew a guide with a peculiar British accent. The PA system in the bus did not work. So her solution was to stand sort of mid way in the bus and shout. We missed most of her narration.

The public buildings and Mosques are beautiful. The King  uses a big chunk of the oil income to build a new Mosque every so often.

We wished he had spent more on the roads. I guess he is hard pressed, financially, since he has two wives and, a rumored girl friend. Muslim law requires that he treat the two wives equally. If she exists, I imagine the girl friend has to cut her own deal.

Bruneian officials are very sensitive about tourists taking pictures in the public buildings, museums and Mosques. Basically it is just  not done. My attitude evolved into one of "Keep your wretched photons!" and I put my camera away.

The Sultan's palace style reminded me of one of the white knuckle rides at Knott's Berry Farm with it's sweeping, bare structure.
Our visit to the new mosque was interesting. The building and grounds are very beautiful. The escalator to the upper rooms did seem a little anachronistic. Apparently, Muslim worship is segregated, there were separate worship rooms for men and women. The speaker of the day spoke in the Men's section, and the women had to settle for piped in sermons via a PA system.

In spite of all this opulence, and the fact that Brunei has the second per capita income in the world, the bulk of the people don't appear to live any better than the rest of the residents of Malaysia. So much for being the descendents of imfamous, blood-thirsty, slave trading pirates.

We took a great tour here, up into the mountains and took a two hour hike through a chunk of rain forest under the tutelage of a park ranger and a very knowledgeable guide. The big attraction was orchids, over 1200 varieties, growing wild in the forest. It is possible to identify 50 to 100 different types of orchids growing on a single tree. The eye opener is that most orchids are tiny, very mundane plants.

Our guide was an enthusiastic young man whose hobby was "Jungle Trekking" - going into the jungle armed with a knife and a little rice, and subsisting off the jungle flora for days at a time. Needless to say, his narration was peppered not only with identification of the jungle plants, but also commentary on their edibility. His favorite jungle  foods seemed to be plants of the ginger family. He was also into running and showed us part of the route of an annual race run up the mountain and back down. Over 2000 meters of elevation that takes them a couple of hours to run.

The outdoor market we visited was a combination swap meet, department store, social event, garage sale and mall, with vendors coming and going even during the short time we browsed the market area.

Manila

Not only was this an interesting stop for us, it was a big day for those 330 Filipinos in the crew. Surprisingly, the ship made provision for crew members to bring their families on board to tour the ship. I say surprising because this posed a security problem for the ship, and normally, this is just not tolerated. I don't know how many took advantage of this openness, but we did see several families on tour. Our waiter and cabin steward both took advantage of the day to visit with their families.

Our tour was very interesting. You haven't seen traffic until you have been in Manila at rush hour. Things come to near gridlock and it is slow going. We opted to travel out to Mt. Tagatay, where we saw the Taal volcano, a huge volcano caldera containing a lake. In the center of the lake is another, small caldera with yet another lake in it. Not too surprisingly, this is know as "The Lake Within a Lake".

We had been noticing a unique form of transport in Manila, the Jeepney. This is a ten or so passenger bus built on an old WW II Jeep chassis. The vehicles are privately owned, but run specified government assigned routes, thus providing a form of mass transit. Our next stop was a Jeepney factory. Manila has, of course, long since run out of  original WW II Jeeps. This factory takes in the old Jeepneys, strips them to the chassis and starts over. New sheet metal and interiors are installed, and currently the engine of choice is the Isuzu diesel engine. I quizzed our guide on this. I had been noticing that diesel fuel is quite cheap in the entire region. He confirmed that it was about 80 US cents per gallon in Manila. I told him how demand for diesel had increased in the US until diesel fuel is now more expensive than gasoline.

As you can see, the Jeepney is not only unique transportation, but they are works of art. Most are family enterprises and they are a matter of great pride. Our ship's table waiter told me that his family was in the Jeepney business, and made an OK income from it.

Our final stop was the Los Pinas church. It is a Roman Catholic Church whose claim to fame is a pipe organ. A wedding was in progress and the organ was being played as we visited. Some of the organ's banks of pipes are made from bamboo, and some are partially filled with water, to give them a chirping sound.

Oh, oh, I just can't resist -- it sounded reedy!

In the church courtyard, preparations were being made for Palm Sunday, and palm fronds were being woven together for decoration.

I was surprised to learn from our guide that Spanish is no longer a required language in the schools. Now English and "Filipino" are required and Spanish is an optional language. I confirmed with Roberto, the waiter, that the official Filipino language is in fact Tagalog.

From Manila, we doubled back across the China Sea to Vietnam. The scenery was a pleasant change from the jungles we had been visiting. The coastal Vietnam area we visited is pretty, open, flat farmland, dedicated to rice, bananas and squash. The most startling sight loomed up early in the tour. I caught a glimpse of unmistakable US military barracks through some trees. I pointed and our guide said "Oh, yes. That is where the Americans lived and hid their helicopters in their houses." I took it that by 'houses' she meant hangars for the helicopters.

What shocked me was that the Da Nang airbase looked abandoned. Some of the best buildings in Vietnam, and they didn't appear to be used or kept up. Perhaps they were used for storage, or perhaps I just didn't get a good enough look. There was certainly no fuzz on their attitude towards the war. "We won, America lost." Can't say as I disagree. We passed a memorial to the Peoples Heroes of the war-twice. Our guide pointed it out both times.

Traffic is not a problem in the Vietnam countryside. This was by far the most impoverished area we visited. Local transportation in the villages consisted of lots of bicycles and a few motor bikes.

We visited two villages, Bui Son, and Mau Chau. Bui Son didn't have much to offer. The main attraction was a blacksmith. His shop consisted of a thatched roof shelter. The only modern touch was an electric blower for the forge. (It was my job to crank the forge fan when I assisted my uncle, fifty years ago.) The forge was a fire pit in the ground. The anvil was the size and shape of the business end of a 155 mm artillery round, with the fuse removed. It too was ground mounted and every thing was done from a sitting or squatting position. Half the village turned out to study us while the Smithy demonstrated his skills.

Mau Chau was a much larger village, pretty much dedicated to the production of silk. The most mechanized operation was the initial spooling of the silk. Cocoons were boiled in water and then the silk strand picked free and tied onto a large, machine driven spool. Then the silk was stripped from the cocoon. When full, the large spool was moved to another machine where the silk was wound into large hanks. The dying of the silk hanks, spinning it into finished silk, and weaving cloth were cottage operations performed in a lot of the homes in the village. As we strolled through the dusty streets of the village, visiting temples and homes, the clatter of electrically powered looms was the only sound disturbing the tranquillity. Cottage yards full of drying hanks of dyed silk added color to the scene.

The tour operators had made prior arrangements with the villages for our visit. At several homes we were greeted with hot tea and small green bananas, served in outdoor courtyards under cool arbors. The people were very friendly, and curious about their visitors. Evidently tours are not a regular occurrence. The children were delightful. Many wanted to try out the English they were learning in school. I am sure many of them had never seen a Caucasian before.

One of the homes we visited was reputed to be over 200 years old. This was surprising, because most houses were built with woven palm fronds for walls and a thatched roof. This 200 year old house had acquired concrete walls somewhere along the way, and then managed to survive all the violence the country has seen. It was a classic layout, according to the guide. As you walk into the center room, you are greeted with a big table where only "old men" are allowed to sit. Behind the table is a family shrine. The rooms on each side are used for food preparation and sleeping, and as a sitting place for the women and children.

Several temples were on our route, and the monks were expecting us, dressed in colorful robes.

The economic condition of this area of Vietnam can only be described as grinding poverty. However, the people are industrious, and take pride in what they have. Many houses and buildings were very colorful. This contrasted with the scenes we had seen in Malaysia and the Philippines, where the most frequently occurring exterior color is "mildew".

From Da Nang, we headed north, to the Chinese mainland, and then up the Pearl River, to Shekoyu, the port for Canton and Shenzhen. 

Shenzhen is a newly created city, about 15 years old. It enjoys the status of "Special Economic Zone". Free trade and capitalism are encouraged and rewarded in this special area. It is intended to be a show place of progress in China, to demonstrate the new, enlightened China. Shenzhen is about 45 minutes from Hong Kong by high speed train. I would not be surprised if some sort of territorial merger takes place between the two areas sometime after 1 July 1997.

Citizens of Shenzhen may travel freely in China, but other Chinese must get a visa to visit Shenzhen. I suppose this is done to prevent an exodus from "ordinary China" to the new enlightened China. Hong Kong will be put in the same category after the return to China (and will be known as a "Special Administrative Region").

We were amazed to see Shenzhen traffic driving on the right hand side of the road. I am always depressed by the mess the Brits have left all over the world with their backward driving habits. I suspect that one of the first reforms carried out in Hong Kong will be a change to the correct side of the road. The other interesting fact was that there was traffic. Very orderly and quite light compared to that we had been experiencing, but traffic none the less. There were no delays due to the traffic, Shenzhen features beautiful, straight eight and ten lane thoroughfares.

Shenzhen also sports a stock exchange, and a row of young millionaire's homes, built with profits from that market. I am sure this makes the old guard in China grit their teeth and grin and bear it, while trying to look progressive and tolerant. 

The city is too new and raw to have many attractions to visit. There are two parks filled with reproductions of other areas. "Splendid China" features miniature replicas of Chinese sights, such as the Great Wall, and Tienamin Square, along with full scale houses and courtyards from many ethnic areas of China. The other park features attractions from the rest of the world.

That evening we sailed back down the Pearl River Estuary and arrived in Hong Kong about 11 PM. I cannot imagine a better introduction to Hong Kong than the night sky line. It is not Las Vegas, and it is not New York City, but it is the most awesome sight within a radius of a thousand miles, and it is impressive, particularly when viewed from the harbor at night. The dramatic night time introduction to Hong Kong set the tone for the whole visit. Hong Kong is (was?) a very dynamic and bustling place.

Unfortunately, by this time we were both feeling pretty lousy. Nancy had picked up a cold by the time we arrived in Bangkok, and it proceeded to wear her down. Sometime after we boarded the ship, I caught the same ailment, and we noticed about a third of the ship had the same cough. Not wanting to miss any of this trip of a lifetime, we continually over did things, and now it was catching up with us.

One of the first orders of business was to get to our hotel on Kowloon and hole up for some rest. What a waste, when in one of the most vibrant and exotic cities in the world! But first, a visit to Mecca (the ATM), and then, via subway, out to the Golden Computer Center, for some shopping. Later, after a good Chinese dinner, we could rest.

As an aside, let me mention that using the ATMs in Hong Kong is very convenient, and even if you pay a foreign ATM fee to your bank, you'll still get a better exchange rate than at the local money changer.

Even after a day's rest on Saturday, we still lacked energy. However, we did manage to see all the major sights, and it didn't seem to me that our shopping suffered unduly. Easter Sunday dawned clear and warm, and we seized the chance to take a guided tour of Hong Kong Island. The view from Victoria Peak was great.

The tour of Aberdeen Harbor was  fascinating, and the lady  running the tour boat had the best bargains of the trip on T-shirts and small items.

Our final stops on the tour were the Stanley Market (great deals on kimonos) and a jewelry factory (boring). We probably overdid, but had to go out again for Chinese food, before getting more rest.

Monday morning we moved out of our hotel room and spent the day riding the buses, the Star Ferry, and sight seeing on our own on Hong Kong Island. We were absolutely fascinated with the oriental style of scaffolding that we saw, not just in Hong Kong, but throughout the trip.

The scaffolding consists of large, sturdy looking 3 inch in diameter bamboo poles, perhaps 20 feet long, laced together with strong black plastic ties. The scaffolding can cover the side of a many-storied building. The scaffolding was, in turn, enclosed in a strong green netting. The netting appeared to protect passers-by from dropped tools, and perhaps to catch a careless climber. Of course, there was more scaffolding in Hong Kong than we had seen anywhere else, because of the ongoing booming construction activity. In some sections of the city, riffles of discarded black plastic ties literally drifted in the streets.

Unfortunately, the flu was still with us and we really had to take it easy. So our trip ended more on a whimper than on a bang, with us poking around a few shops and parks before going to the airport.

The trip home was a non-stop flight to LA on Cathay Pacific. We didn't even have to fight for our seats. It seemed like a snap compared to the flight out to Bangkok. We slept most of the way to LA.

Epilog: I had been threatening Nancy with a visit to the doctor throughout the trip. Typically, we kept putting it off. When we arrived home, I was beginning to feel better but Nancy wasn't. I put my foot down, and we went doctoring our first day back. I got a few sulfa pills to speed my recovery. Nancy was much worse. She was found to have pneumonia, and underwent a couple of courses of antibiotics, x-rays, lots of bed rest, and a cat scan of her lungs over a period of about two months before she was pronounced cured.

Would we do it again? Sure, but I would like for us to wear masks to avoid breathing flu germs on the airplane, and to carry a Louisville Slugger to discipline that traveler from Hell.

Best wishes!John & Nancy