Sunday 29/3/3015 Day 82 Catching up with old friends, remembering others we have lost.

In the restaurant this morning we met Dee,  whom we haven't seen since 2008, so breakfast was once again full of infectious laughter and reminiscing.  I have photos of Dee from Mukdahan in 2008 where after our Siam Care events we partied and sang Karaoke ("Stand by your man" of course), and tried on baseball caps with integral long hair in the Indo China market.  We also found Kathy (French) and her husband in the restaurant this morning, and it was lovely to remember all of our get-togethers.

Bitter sweet too, because thankfully we never know what the future has in store, we remembered  Kathy and Walter from 2008 too just before they were involved in that awful accident in the US and died together so young and so tragically, and Maggie who died last year back in the UK after her brave battle with cancer. Photos are from 2008

There are a few people who used to come but aren't well enough to make the long journey any more, there are some whose sponsorship has come to an end who don't feel the strong pull to meet up, and sadly there are children and sponsor families who have also died.  Those of us who have survived have now had many years of meeting like this, sharing these extreme ups and downs has really drawn us close with a very special bond. 

Khachik has been on his obligatory supermarket hunt today, having located the nearest “Tesco Lotus” and walked the 1.4km in the mad dog midday sun from the hotel to find it. My only alternative was to find Lilly’s again, just around the corner for another traditional Thai Yoga massage, which once again stimulated enough endorphin to last the day without conventional medical pain relief.

For lunch we have found another noodle bar a minute away from the hotel and eaten heartily again.  It’s 35C again so all the more reason for me not to walk too far ;)  Then came our second visit to the hotel pool, just after a thunder storm so a little cooler and of course otherwise deserted. Here I was able to test our the improved flexibility (as well as rest on the sunbeds) There are various kinds of sunbeds, three are in shallow water, so you can paddle at the same time as sunbedding.  The hotel is  22+ storeys, so very kindly shades the from direct sun in the afternoon.

We have now spotted Will, Carol and Laura and understand that Richard’s party has also arrived safely, but we haven’t seen them yet.  We have, however, spent a wonderful evening with Stuart Bailey, formerly from Glossop but now presenting and teaching here in Thailand, luckily for us just nearby in Bangkok this week-end, so we enjoyed drinks in the hotel followed by some local Thai food, including legendary mango sticky rice, and a good few hours catching up a little bit and sharing both local and international happenings.

Until tomorrow x

Saturday 28/3/3015 Day 81 A surprise Siam Care visit

After breakfast with the Walkers (is it really 3 years since we were white knuckling?), all we knew for sure was that we should stay in the hotel because a surprise was coming, so after breakfast we planned to be in the foyer, in the room or by the pool.  Then the phone call came and it was Natashja – come down she said, I have a surprise for you. And what an unforgettable surprise – June and Jame had made their way from Mukdahan to Bangkok on the overnight bus, that’s 9 hours travelling to see us.  Because we will be missing family camp, they made this special journey and at 9 p.m. will be getting back on the bus for Mukdahan again arriving home at 6 a.m.  What absolute troopers! We had an emotional reunion, lunch, pool, Sky train and Terminal 21 shopping and rehydration stop before it was time for them to return home. They are now no longer children as such, but lovely young adults, one already at university and the other in the last year at school. We are moving into new Siam Care territory now, child sponsorship reaching into higher education, something I feel even more delighted about, as the result of the project impacts on whole villages and changes the life trajectory and expectations of the young people we have known since their infancy.  The change is tangible now, not a vision, a reality.

Today’s profound feelings reminded me of those experienced 11 years ago on the day I met June and Jame in their primary schools, when they were allowed out of school to join the Siam Care team at the Ploy Palace in Mukdahan.   I reminded them of how they both disappeared into the bathroom for ages and when I looked for them they had been spraying the room with the bum-hose, and it was flooded.  Lots of water under the bathroom door since then.

It was a very happy meeting too with Siam Care’s Natashja and her boys, I am full of admiration for her and her husband as they quickly assume the awesome leading role developed by Adrienne over many years.  Time came round very quickly for our goodbyes again,  and this time we walked back to the hotel and enjoyed another delicious Thai supper. 

More sponsors, delegates and speakers have arrived today, so we are looking forward to more reunions in the morning.  Bye for now. x

Friday 27/3/3015 Day 80 Fun in the city

Well we’ve been out having some fun today.  It’s hot but very dry today after 2 days of rain we are told.  We have been out along Sukhumvit and taken it all in – the smell of the street food hit us first, and so much variety – I mean freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, corn on the cob, sticky rice, spatchcock chicken, pork, sausage, fish, stir fries, dim sum, pancakes and waffles all cooked to order and served hot, so pretty safe. 

       

Along with the smells and colours of the street goes a loud sound, a merged traffic noise, mainly motorbikes, and happy shouting from stall to stall, hustle and bustle, loud music and constant phone ringing and oblivious chatter.

Next, there are streets upon streets of people offering massage to aching old ladies like me.  I found Lillies today, a shop front with several chairs in the first room for foot massage, and then upstairs about 6 wide beds for Thai massage. Traditional Thai, nothing like it – the intense stretching, the deep pressure from thumbs, palms, elbows, knees and feet.  I love the intuitive way the lovely La found the places that bother me and didn’t leave them alone until they felt better. I am obliged to compare prices here.  200 Thai Baht, that’s about £4 for the most sensitive and skilled full body massage.  It might be all about the sen lines, but concurrently the beneficial effect on mood, lymphatic system, joints tendons and muscles is enormous, and I adore Thai massage. It seems we're very close to a college.

a traditional massage school, it's tempting!

Afterwards Khachik took me to a tiny street café he’d reckied while I was in La’s safe hands.  It was full of young Thai people eating, texting and skyping loudly.  We always judge the standard of a place by the number of local people in it enjoying the food. So we went in for Pad Thai (mine) and Seafood Noodle stir fry (Khachik).  We so love this side of Bangkok.  

We found a different venue for the evening meal, within walking distance from the hotel, which is great. Fried tofu and mixed veg for me, sautéed chicken and cashew with rice for Khachik.

Lunch

Evening meal

We also returned to the mall and bought sim cards for both phones giving us unlimited internet for 7 full days. 150 baht each, that’s £3.00 each for 7 days. We are laughing now! Skype happy, email happy, facebook and blog happy!

Bangkok surprises after all these years.  Different cultures, different lifestyles, different expectations all side by side.  I have been coming here since 2002 and it's astonishing that there is as much hi tech-ness,  wealth,  extravagant buildings, designer names, bigger and better skyscrapers with  high speed lifts as there is traditional living.

We seem to have arrived for a spectacular grand opening of the exclusive Emporium, lots of dancers, stunts and balloons around, including men painted gold.

Some messages coming through from people who are on their way to Siam Care’s seminar and family camp.  We are also getting really excited. Bye for now, probably be back in a few minutes!!!.xx

Thursday 26/3/3015 Day 79 Ship to Shore for 7 nights

We were up and watching the sail in to Port Kelang this morning, and taking it all very easy because our flights to Thailand were scheduled  late in the day, and potentially tiring.  Today we made our journey from Port Kelang Malaysia to Bangkok by air, for our 7 night stay, seminar and Siam Care update before re-embarking in Abu Dhabi on 3/4/2015.  The departure and transfer were uneventful and the flights good, for which we are both very, very grateful, and mindful that many others at the moment have had such unbearably horrible experiences in the Alps. Thinking about those passengers and their families now.  Being on two A320’s certainly focussed our minds.

The flight was KL-Singapore and then Singapore to Bangkok.  Fun with currency exchange in two airports and very grateful for plastic too!  Pounds, US dollars, Singapore Dollars, Malaysian Ringits and Thai Baht have all had some stick in the last 3 days.

We arrived just after midnight at the airport and around 01:30 in the hotel, the Hilton Doubletree, are settled in our room, thanks to a lovely young man who chatted to us all the way.  There was a bit of a rude awakening at 6 this morning when the alarm went off in the room – steep learning curve! We now have the alarm switched off but for about 45 mins it was on snooze.  We still managed an extra 3 hours sleep after that.  We are now enjoying the Sawadees, the Wai’s, the smiles, the vast space in the suite, the Thai breakfast, the tasty papaya and other unrecognisable local fruits.  J  For now we are just finding our way around, visiting the restaurant, the pool and the local shops, and sussing out the public transport around here. We also plan night market and the Khlongs before our Siam Care friends begin to arrive tomorrow and Sunday. 

So I will say bye for now and be back here again tomorrow, or maybe even later today, maybe from one of those beds. xx

Wednesday 25/3/3015 Day 78 The Singapore Flyer and other tourist delights

We were up in time to watch the very busy sail in to Singapore this morning, and once past the queues for face to faces in immigration we were quick to leave the ship and to take the shuttle bus into town.  Lovely to touch base with UK family (even though it was 6:30 a.m there!) and then to move on through the spotless shopping malls through subways, over bridges, through hotels and out into the streets as hot as saunas, well nearly, to the grand big wheel that is the Singapore Flyer for a bird’s eye

We managed to take some lovely pictures in the Flyer, and even had one taken of us by two fellow passengers, and then reciprocated.  This was spectacular and although we didn’t cover as much on ground level as we had on our to-do list, it was definitely enough, for this trip at least. 

Singapore lunch, it had to be done, from an open air stall, a medley of fish satay with rice with an ice cold drink.  I did wonder about ice, as we are often advised to avoid it if we aren’t sure of the health of the water, but then because the environment was spotless and all the systems appear so advanced, I just drank it any way. 

Then came another short walk, enjoying the views, a mini-rest, money exchanging and a ride back in the shuttle bus to the ship and our now very familiar post-walking hot tub and a good stretch stretch before dinner.  After dinner tonight we went straight up on top deck to watch the sail away towards Port Kelang in Malaysia and see the Singapore skyline at night, and beautiful it was too.

It’s back-in-the-cabin time again now, lots of excitement about the next 7 days with Siam Care in Bangkok, but I’m also a little anxious too that our transfers and the flights all slot together uneventfully tomorrow and again on 2/4/2015 to get us back on board in Abu Dhabi, ready for sector 5. 

In the morning we will stay on board, pack, and get all our bits and pieces together.  Mid-afternoon we will leave the ship and head to the airport probably by taxi, but we are also considering using KL’s rather special public transport.  The blog will be coming not from the ship/satellite wi-fi for the next 7 days, but the hotel’s high speed wi-fi.   All being well it should be accompanied by all the photographs I have been filing away on my laptop waiting for this opportunity, and maybe a little bit more often!  So bye for now, until Bangkok tomorrow! X

Tuesday 24/3/3015 Day 77 Sea Day southwards towards Singapore

The BBC world tv news headline is about the death of Lee Quan Yew the “father of Singapore” and the compulsory 7 day mourning period in Singapore.  We arrive in Singapore in the morning.  I have twice before been visiting countries at the time an important figurehead has died. I travelled to Washington DC in 2004 on the day of Ronald Reagan’s funeral, coming in to the airport at the same time as people who needed body guards, and queuing for hours in a very tense high security environment in immigration, but nothing else happened, and life went on with a large dose of satire and some ridicule.  He wasn’t such a figurehead though, and never really threw off his cowboy acting image when making his implausible transition into politics.   I was also in Thailand in 2008 when the Thai queen died.  I remember being advised that the most respectful thing for anyone to do was to wear black or white. All the streets were lined with people sitting at the roadside mourning and bowing down to ground. Everyday life was seriously affected. Neither a former actor nor a member of the Royal Family, but the founder of Singapore, I wonder how tomorrow will be, and if we will be advised of cultural expectations in Singapore, or if life just carries on as normal.

Our sea day has been otherwise a very calm one, with morning coffee and barbeque lunch in the sun, where we watched an expert ice carving of an eagle taking shape in 15 minutes in front of our eyes, then walked 9 times round the Promenade deck, had a chat with admin about our 7 days off the ship in Thailand, collected passports for Singapore and spent a lovely 2 hours in the retreat that is our art (“Zebra in water with reflection”) Can't find mine t the moment, here's the original and Khachik's for now.

Then we listened to Captain Hashmi’s farewell as he’s off in Singapore and a new Captain will be coming on until Southampton, Captain Trevor Lane.

Tonight we were beautifully entertained by the truly gifted and talented Kateryna a Ukrainian violinist, and Jacinta an Irish singer, before sneaking into the launderette to get a week’s worth of summer clothes ready for Thailand,  then an early night ready for our brand new day in Singapore tomorrow.

So that’s us for the day. Bye for now x

Monday 23/3/3015 Day 76 Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Overnight the ship had been going flat out at 20 nautical miles an hour!  From around 7 a.m. we were passing tiny green islands in the Gulf some with a handful of inhabitants, houses and small fishing boats, others looking completely deserted except for their palm trees.  Here the sea is truly calm and smooth too, no swell no waves.  It’s a good place for daydreaming.

A little bit later I was watching Chicago from bed until breakfast, island view to my right, and afterwards we watched the sail in.  I am not sure why we were late arriving but it put back the excursions almost an hour. So we were sitting in the theatre   passing our time doing crosswords after breakfast.

Then we were off, the excursion was called Contrasts, and so it was.  Very very poor, very Buddhist, and very much a new tourist industry, making some people very very rich.  

Our first stop was to a local primary school – first we were invited into a class, then the library, then a walk around the grounds. The children were gorgeous, all wear exactly the same (white shirt and black skirt or trousers), and primary education is free and state provided.  The children looked as though they were having fun learning, they sang beautifully to us all, and showed off their Q and A skills with their teacher. We got the chance to see the library and hear a bit more about the education system and the Khmer alphabet!   I noticed the sparsely furnished classroom first, just benches, desks, exercise books and pencils.  I have since thought how fantastic it would be for a class in a UK school to pair up with, and possibly send donations, books, paints, paper etc.  A really happy visit anyway, the children appear to love their teachers and lessons, lots of facial expression, hopefully you will see in the photos and video of their song.

                  

The second part of the trip was to a family home of a very poor traditional family who grow their own coconuts, mangos, tamarinds, lemongrass and ginger in the garden, and have a hand to mouth existence.  Their house was wooden, built on stilts, with home-made bamboo shades looked flimsy, but wasn’t.  We were invited in to see the cooking and living quarters, quite an honour I thought, as there were a lot of us, and the family stayed happy through it all.

 
 
 

 
 

Next we moved into China Town and visited a huge temple with hundreds of statues and pagodas, and the largest reclining Buddha in the country. Shoes off and shoulders wrapped up here, we were able to receive a Sanskrit blessing from a Buddhist monk.  I was near the front in this queue receiving splashes of water and fresh petals along with the blessing

  

Next we moved into China Town and visited a huge temple with hundreds of statues and pagodas, and the largest reclining Buddha in the country. Shoes off and shoulders wrapped up here, we were able to receive a Sanskrit blessing from a Buddhist monk.  I was near the front in this queue receiving splashes of water and fresh petals along with the blessing

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After this we visited a beach resort for an hour of rest, cold drinks and swimming in the sea or pool if we chose.  We were here for an hour and the time flew by.  We didn’t eat here although there was an outdoor barbeque for anyone who was hungry. It had a wholesome smell, but I deferred gratification until I could get my hands on a crunchy salad!

Driving around it was obvious that rebuilding Cambodia after Pol Pot’s regime has not progressed quickly.  There were ruins all over and signs promoting land for sale for development everywhere. In places that had successfully rebuilt the hotels look good, the land is clear, the resorts stunning, well maintained and clean, but very close by there  was so much dereliction and garbage too.  I have read about the unexploded mines too, which won’t help the tourist trade/economy.  Our guide was emphatic that without cruise ships he and many others wouldn’t have a job, so I do hope some serious building investment comes soon. Anyway,  I could recommend this seaside resort, if a resort holiday is what you like.  Two seasons: hot and wet, and hot and dry, just like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.  Sun, sea, sand, a spa.

So here we are back on board, ready for a spot of afternoon tea and a tea time sail away.  We have a sea day tomorrow, 24^th, Singapore on 25^th and then Malaysia on 26^th.  So three more sleeps to our week in Bangkok and Siam Care events.

So I will sign off for today, and be back again at the end of tomorrow’s sea day towards Singapore.