Seabourn Sojourn February - March , 2015 Asia - Singapore to Singapore
February 15th We were back in Singapore for the day. About 125 of us stayed on for next segment of the cruise to Hong Kong via Thailand and Cambodia.
February 16th and 17th Sea days on our way to Laem Chabang.
February 18th Laem Chabang is an industrial port for Bangkok and Pattaya. We elected to take a tour of the Sanctuary of Truth in Pattaya. Truthfully, we chose this as a way to see the county side and it turned into something much more incredible than we could have imagined. The Sanctuary of Truth has been under construction since 1981 and they estimate it will be another 20 years before it is completed. It definitely seemed to us that the area between the port and Pattaya was much cleaner than last year. Pattaya was was also clean with lots of new shops, restaurants and malls.
Following is a link to photos I took in March 2014 as well as this year at the Sanctuary of Truth
February 19th The Sojourn anchored off the Island of Ko Kood for the day. As was the case last year, Seabourn arranged a day on the beach including a BBQ lunch and as we did last year we stayed on board and enjoyed the solitude of having the ship to ourselves.
February 20th We docked in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. In 2003 we were in Siam Reap and stayed at an Aman resort for our visit to Angkor Wat. We understand there has been an incredible growth in the number of hotels and tourists over the past dozen years. Sihanoukville was started in the 1950's as a deep water port and beach destination. While there are some nice hotel properties here, most of the Cambodians are living in very primitive conditions, but many do have new motor bikes.
February 21st Sea Day on our way to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
February 22nd to 27th We visited the same three Vietnamese ports that we did last year starting with Ho Chi Minh City, then Danang, and finally Halong Bay. It is hard to believe how rapidly Vietnam is progressing. We noticed distinct improvements and growth since last year. The only tour we took was a cruise through the limestone formations in Halong Bay.
March 1st This was another turnover day for roughly 300 passengers. We were here for several days last year and because it was a short day in port we just stayed on board.
March 3rd to 8thThis was our first visit to the Philippines. In addition to spending two days in Manila where we took extensive day trips, we also visited Hundred Islands national park and the islands of Boracay, Coron and Puerto Princesa. We found Manila to be a much more modern city than we expected with horrible traffic jams. On our first day we were in stop and go traffic for 5 hours. A tour that several years ago would have taken 3 to 4 hours now takes over 8 hours due to traffic congestion. The American Cemetery in Manila has over 17,000 graves and is pristine.
The Islands we visited ranged from pristine to incredibly poor. All had traffic congestion, but beautiful beaches.
March 10th We were in Kota Kinabalu in 2015 as part of an extended trip through Borneo. Once again we were impressed by the positive growth and development of Malaysia. We just took a ride to the middle of the city and back on the shuttle bus to get some idea of the change since our last visit,
March 11thBrunei is modern and one of the richer countries in the world as measured by GNP per capita driven by its reserves of oil and gas. Its recent conversion to Sharia Law upsets many tourists who do not believe it should be supported with tourism dollars. We limited our visit to a round trip to on the shuttle bus to the center of Muara,
March 13th Once again we were impressed by the development that has taken place in Malaysia. Kuching was no exception as shown it the following photos.