Los Angeles
Sunday, 20 March 2016

I'm spending the night at the LAX Airport Holiday Inn before my morning flight to Hong Kong.  The flight from Tucson to LAX was short and smooth, arriving ten minutes early.  I used the free shuttle to the hotel, where my room wasn't quite ready.  So I left my bags and trotted across the street to the classier Westin Hotel, where I had a very nice lunch--of course I am already stretching the limits of the low-carb diet Will and I began in January, but it is a vacation.
I enjoyed a long afternoon nap and dinner at the Holiday Inn.

My next entry will be from Hong Kong, but here is a little more preliminary information about the cruise.   

18 Days on ms Nautica

My 18-day cruise on Oceania's ms Nautica will take me from Hong Kong to Mumbai.  After sailing from Hong Kong at the perfect 
time of 5 pm, I will enjoy a day at sea to relax before visiting two ports in Vietnam over the next three three days.  I visited both of these ports--Nha Trang and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)--in January 2015, and I am excited about seeing more of both of them. If you link back to January 2015 (on the bottom of the blog page) you will be able to read about and see photos of both these places.

Since I experienced a half-day tour of the highlights of Nha Trang last year, I have signed up for a half-day tour of the rural surroundings of the city.  The ship will dock overnight in Saigon. I will spend the first afternoon and evening on a trip on the Mekong River, one of the world's great rivers, that stretches from the 
mountains of Mongolia to the Mekong Delta and the South China Sea, and the following morning on a tri-shaw ride through the central parts of Saigon. Since the Nautica will dock much closer to the heart of Saigon than Holland America's Volendam, I hope to spend some time on my own in the city in addition to enjoying the shore excursions.

After another day at sea, we will dock in Singapore from 8am to 8pm.  I spent three days on my own in Singapore at the end of last year's cruise, and have seen most of the major attractions of the city.  But like Hong Kong, there is always more to see and do in Singapore.  With an excellent mass transit system--including several metro lines--getting around is very easy.  There is a metro stop right at the port--as well as the largest shopping mall in the city.  I plan to explore some of the less-populated areas of the city state, although I may be tempted to have lunch at the wonderful French restaurant I found last year.

After another saw day, we dock in Phuket, On the western coast of Thailand, supposedly one of the most beautiful areas in SE Asia.  I spent three days in Bangkok in 1986 (ancient history), and last year my cruise stopped for two days in Laem Chabang, about 30 miles south of Bangkok, from where I enjoyed excursions into more rural areas, and the Thai island of Ko Samui, a tropical paradise studded with a plethora of temples.

Another sea day brings us to Yangon (formerly Rangoon) in Myanmar (formerly Burma) for three days in port.  The second and third days will take me and a group of passengers for an overnight trip to Bangan, in the northern interior, "land of 10,000 temples."  I am sure I will be ready for three days sailing from Yangon to Cochin, a city in the Indian State of Kerala,close the southern tip of the sub-continent.  One more sea day to enjoy before disembarking in Mumbai, the start of the second part of this trip.

But more about that later. First I want to survive tomorrow's flight and enjoy the cruise.