Cochin India A Pleasant Surprise

Cochin India in the state of Kerala was a welcome surprise after seeing Chennai. The city didn't have great tourist sites but we readily could see that it was clean and the people wore nice clothes and all looked happy.

Our guide was so appreciative that Queen Victoria ship stopped for the day and he knew what it meant to the town financially.

We took this taxi to the Hotel Malabar for a great lunch on the main water way of the harbor. Our guide told us there is NO illiteracy and this was India's wealthiest state because every family had a least one member in a western city like Dubai, London or the US, working and sending support money back home.


Check out the guys mowing the church lawn with hand clippers!!!

Chennai/Madras India Eye Opener

Unfortunately our first exposure to India was on Easter Sunday at the port of Chennai in the southeastern part of India. We were warned to expect to see poor living and to encounter a lot of begging. We got all of that but it was the litter and dirt that really got to most of the people. In truth we have seen as bad in China and Mexico but it is not a stop Cunard ships will make again.

The one tourist redeeming site was the Tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle who had come to India to convert people to Christianity and lost his life in Chennai. The cathedral was built over the place of his tomb, similar to St. Peter's in the Vatican.

Singapore & Kuala Lumpur Visits

Visiting two great Asian Cities..Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

We were not disappointed by our visits last week for the first time to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Combine them with Hong Kong and Asia has a triple play for interesting cities. We definitely want to come back for longer visits. But we did mange to have lunch at the famous Raffles Hotel of Singapore and had their trademark Singapore Sling drink..real fruity and resembles a Shirley Temple we think since neither one of us has drunk a Shirley Temple in 50 years!!

American GIs
American GI's made the Long Bar at Raffles famous when they would have R&R in Singapore. It is a gracious 5 star hotel still.

The word or name "singh" means lion so that is why the Merlion statue at the mouth of the Singapore River is a must visit for tourists. But the background gives you an idea of the modern Singapore skyline.

The picture of Phyllis shows a skyline of Singapore hotels and the odd shaped building behind her is a multi stage theater for music and plays.

Here we are at one of the world's most identifiable landmarks..the Petronas Oil Company's twin towers in downtown Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Does everyone remember the 007 movie where he hung from the bridge connecting the 40th floors? Kuala Lumpur is an impressive city .. we had lunch at a nice restaurant on the 4th floor of the Mall that serves as the "basement" of the twin towers. It is a high end shopping mall that would make any city proud.

We visited the King of Malaysia's palace in Kuala Lumpur and it turned out to be the day that the newly elected government was coming to visit with the King (a 44 year old appointed for 5 years...youngest ever and they love him).

So there were all kinds of guards at the entrance. Check out the guards above and look at their eyes..left, right and straight ahead!!

Penang is a resort island off the coast of Malaysia near the Thailand border and the resort of Phuket which we visited a few years ago. We signed up to tour the old city by Trishaw and what an exerience that was. Even our committment to fitness didn't help getting our butts into the seat of the Trishaw.

Check out our driver..his one tooth doesn't show in the picture but it sure smiled when we gave him a $10 tip.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!

Barry fulfilled one of his desires and Phyllis fulfilled one of her's when we Visited two places in Vietnam last week. Barry got to see Vietnam and Phyllis succeeded when they both concluded, there is no reason to go back for more sightseeing at another time. We wanted most of all to see the famous US Embassy which was the site where US helicopters landed on the roof and evacuated Americans and as many Vietnamese as they could scramble aboard the choppers. It was the event that the stage play Miss Saigon was written from. Below is the embassy today with armed Vietnamese soldiers guarding it. Our guide told me privately that his father and uncles fought for the South with the US and paid for it with a year in jail..probably a lite sentence. Occasionally the guide might make a reference to the war but we could have easily spent our 2 days in Vietnam without ever talking about it...it is something to most of them that happened too long ago.

This Vietnamese toddler was being used by her mother to evoke sympathy for selling post cards and other stuff for "just a doll ah"... While Vietnam is doing well, there are still many uneducated and living in shacks.

We had almost 2 hours drive into Saigon from where we docked so our guide, who was a real hoot, made a "happy stop" so we could go to the bathroom in this Walmart type supercenter. Facilites were western style and clean. Just a few years ago this kind or market store didn't exist in Vietnam.

This is the old Vietnam Palace now called Reunification Palace (something close to that). It serves as their government headquarters.

Our guide was very careful to tell us about Ho Chi Minh as the savior and grandfather of modern day re-unified Vietnam. However he was also quick to say that when the people saw socialist communism fail, the leadership of Vietnam was smart enough to open the country to normal US relations and participation in the WTO. The economic change has been outrageously successful and they will never want to go back to the old way.

Our guide said they practice several religions in Vietnam and he in fact has a brother who will be ordained a Catholic priest in May. This Mary the Virgin Church built by the French is in the very middle of downtown Saigon. It is right across the street from Ho Chi Minh Post Office which is a beautiful 19th century European influence architecture.

Phyllis and Barry Storm China Beach Da Nang Vietnam

Well maybe we didn't storm the beach like the US Marines did but we did go to a first class resort on China Beach outside of Da Nang and not far from the US Base that served as one of our headquarters during the war.

Phyllis found these bamboo fishing baskets to show you. We saw many many fishermen paddling or pushing these buckets across the water tending to their nets.

Da Nang is certainly better off than what it had been but it has a long way to go. Nice to visit once..no need to return

Phyllis found this nice material for a shawl in this indoor downtown market in Da Nang and we barterred with this 9 months pregnant Vetnamese mother and settled on a price. It makes us feel "dirty" to haggle with these people and know we are returning to the QV luxury but it is really expected and the locals like it .. like a game they play with tourists. You have to admit the sales lady looks happy.

We couldn't help but think of Bird Flu when we spotted this woman (right) buying a live chicken from the lady in the middle. Those are live chickens in the wire basket at their feet!

We were taken to a village outside of Da Nang that specializes in carving marble from nearby mountains but we were struck mostly by the ordinary citizens like the folks fishing and the ladies selling ugly fish caught in the rice paddies.

Walking Tour of Hong Kong....

We were welcomed to the Hong Kong Container Port Sunday March 9 by a spirited dragon dance and drumbeats. Ports try to outdo each other with their welcomes.

Hong Kong we were told, is the second largest container port in the world with Rotterdam number One. It is a very impressive site to see the cranes loading and unloading 18 wheeler containers. This picture doesn't do it justice and soon we will visit the #3 container port..Kuala Lumpur.

Phyllis is ready to begin our 4 hour walking tour of Hong Kong.

One of the benefits of a walking tour of the world's great cities is to see and yes, even smell how the people really live. Hanging your clothes out to dry from your apartment window is standard procedure. We couldn't help but wonder how the clothes are affected by the fumes and automobile exhaust.

Our walking tour included a street that must have had 25 shops selling all sorts of Chinese delicacies like these dried scallops..all sizes. If we are eating any of this dried food we don't want to know it. They also have dried oysters and squid.

Hong Kong is much bigger than it was when we first visited 10 years ago and their plan to make the Harbor frontage bigger by filling it in would neve have passed the Orient Code enforcer..thank God.

Check out the Chinese woman pushing her cart down a main street of Hong Kong Sunday morning.

We were fascinated and impressed with the bamboo scaffolding on this and other buildings undergoing repair or construction..good as steel, we guess.

Our First Shore Excursion

What could be more contrasting in Mayaysia than this housing built by the Chinese when they occupied Kotakinabalu years ago and still used by the Malayan fishermen families today AND the gold leaf dome of this mosque? It's the same world over and the name of the faith makes little difference

Kotakinabalu Malaysia was the first stop outside of Australia and the first place we got off the ship. It is a study of contrasts just like so many places we will visit..signs of wealth and prosperity and depressing signs of poverty. They are very proud if their Glass Tower, only one of 5 in the world built from top down...you don't want the explanation of how they do that. Not a mile away we walked past these youngsters playing in their "backyard".