It was great to be back in Shasnghai again. The skyline cvontinues to change with new buildings popping up. We even saw the beginning construction of the new tallest building in Shanghai which will be 120 stories. We returned to many of our old haunts and had a wonderful time.

Bund at night

dragon hole

Capitalism is alive and well in China.

Bund bull

Just for the experience we took a ride on the new maglev (magnetic levitation) train which goes from downtown to the new international airport. We travelled 18 Miles in 7 minutes at a top Speed of 430 kilometers per hour (267 mph). This is the fastest train in the world.

Maglev train

top speed

Tomorrow night we have been invited to dine with the captain and his wife. They are very nice, and we are reaslly looking forward to it

Tsingtao time

Our dinner with the Captain was delightful, lots of fun.

Giulia opening defective Tsingtao

on ferry

Looking down on Hong Kong

Peak cable car

There was a special event of the Rising Dragon for world travelers at the Four Seasons Hotel which included cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and dinner with a Chinese acrobatic and dance show. The color theme was black and red. We are both dragons in the Chinese astrolgical calendar. The dragon stands for power, energy and wealth.

Notice red and black theme

special performer

We continue to learn from the enrichment lectures on board. On at sea days there are at least two. For example, today we attended one on the history of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from the 19th century until now. Also, the one-time CBS news reporter, Morton Dean, shared his experiences on the ground during the Vietnam war, including news clips of him reporting from Viet Nam at the time.

written by  rcodel on March 29, 2011 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: World Cruise - 2011
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The Halong Bay area is the port city for Hanoi. Hanoi is about a 4 hour drive. Since we had spent several days there in the past, we decided to stay in the Halong Bay area. We rented a junk to take us to a fishing villlage.

fresh fish

smaller boat

We also went into caves that are inside the lime stone mountains which are called karsts. It is believed that these caves with stalagtites and stalagmites were formed 700,000 to 1 million years ago.

We invited our favorite singers onboard to join us on our own private junk.

Kasha and Boogie from Poland

Dad's female friends

shopping onboard our junk

written by  rcodel on April 1, 2011 from Haiphong, Vietnam
from the travel blog: World Cruise - 2011
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The pagoda here is a very famous symbol of the city and the biggest one in Vietnam.

Acrobatic friends onboard

The Perfume River flows through Hue. We went on a dragon boat for a short river cruise.

Dragon boat

Perfume river

Unlike China which has a one child policy, the Vietnamese tend to have large families with 7 or 8 children. The reason for this is that, by tradition, the children help to support their families. We got the impression that, even in south Vietnam, they Revere Ho Chi Minh and what he tried to do for their country and tend to wonder what the Americans had in mind dessimating their country. They still talk about the lingering effects of agent orange since vegetation still cannot grow due to the deforestation. A lot of people of that generation live with deformities caused by it.

written by  rcodel on April 3, 2011 from Da Nang, Vietnam
from the travel blog: World Cruise - 2011
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In comparison to Vietnam which is just beginning to grow economically, Cambodia would still be classified as an underdeveloped country. We were told that the average monthly wage is about $40. People basically live off the land and the sea to survive. We went to the beach in a tuk tuk with our bartender friend Giulia and treated her to a one-hour full body massage on a beach lounge chair for $5.

Tuk-tuk ride to beach

Was I left behind?

We had a complimentary overnight at the Shangri-la hotel in Bangkok. The port is about two hours drive from downtown on a new expressway that did not exist when Dad used to do business here.

We went on a short cruise on the Chao Praya river into the little canals called klongs to observe how people live in little wooden shacks on the water.

Famous Buddhist Temple

Shacks on stilts

selling fruit to us on boat

Floating kitchen

Longtail boat

It was great to be back in Singapore. Lots of fond memories.

written by  rcodel on April 13, 2011 from Singapore, Singapore
from the travel blog: World Cruise - 2011
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