Photos on this board take too long to load on the ship so they are on my AOL travelogue at
http://journals.aol.com/jymbittle/hong-kong-to-sydney/

Bangkok, Thailand, October 22, 2007
We took the early bus from the port of Laem Chabang for the 2 hour transfer into Bangkok. Along the way we saw numerous farms growing pineapple, bananas, tapioca, sugar cane and water ponds for farming shrimp. The day was sunny, hot humid and full of smog. We were put up at the Shangri La hotel located on the Bangkok side of the Chao Praya River. The hotel is large, spacious and elegant. After checking in to our room with a river view, we wandered around the shops on the street around the hotel, I got a good haircut for $4.50 and then we went back to the hotel for an extensive buffet lunch. There were many selections of both Thai & Western food. After lunch we took a tour of the river & canals. The river is bustling with barges being towed, tour boats, restaurant boats, water taxis and local long boats with an automobile engine driving a propeller on a long shaft. The engine & shaft are one unit and steered like a manually controlled outboard motor. 18 of us boarded a boat which can hold 50 at the hotel pier for the 3 hour tour. We saw different types of housing along the klongs (canals) as well as restaurants, hotels and Buddhist temples. We made a stop by a small temple where we were handed loaves of bread to pull apart and toss into the river to feed fish. There was quite a feeding frenzy of mainly catfish going for the bits of bread. We got off for 40 minutes at Wat Arun Rajwararam (The Temple of Dawn), a gigantic royal temple dedicated to the 2nd reign of Chakkri Dynasty, considered the most elegant landmark of Bangkok. We got back on the boat and went to another dock where we got off and walked through the flower market. The flower arrangements were spectacular and vendors were creating unusual and intricate items for religious offerings using various flower buds. The next day is a celebration of the King’s birthday and is also a holiday so there were even more flower arrangements than normal. When we returned to the hotel we joined another couple from Naples for a cold local beer at the pool bar and then spent an hour exploring shops around the hotel area. For dinner we went to the hotel’s Thai restaurant which is housed in a traditional Thai teak house structure. There was classical Thai music & dance for our entertainment. The dining rooms were open on the sides, the band was located in a central area and the dancers went into each of the rooms to perform. The food items we shared (I can’t either spell or pronounce the names) were excellent and full of flavor. The items identified on the menu as spicy were definitely spicy. This was true food, not dumbed down for Westerners and we loved it.
Jim & Pat

Sorry, the subject should be "Bangkok to Singapore." Hard to correct an oops once it's posted.
Jim

Jim, click on this at the top of your posts and you can correct all your oops!

Jim we were at Shangri La too - we had a lovely room, took boat trip and shopped and shopped around hotel area - we ate at Italian restaurant in hotel excellent - we were Sydney to Singapore 2005 our all time favorite trip - enjoy and say hi to Pat - Joanna and Tony

Jim/Ardis:

Did they put up those boarding in Bangkok at the Shangri-la also? It doesn't make sense to me having Bangkok (instead of Singapore) as the embarkation/debarkation port given the logistical hassles. Just wondering how it worked out.

We were also at the Shangri La, Hong Kong to Singapore twice on the Voyager, and enjoyed the hotel. We also had dinner at the Thai restaurant at the hotel and loved it. Shopping around the hotel is fun...we would love to take that entire trip again some day.

Those boarding in Bangkok got a 2 night comp stay at the Shangri La plus a dinner with Mark Conroy (this is "The President's Cruise.) They boarded the ship on Monday when those of us in transit went into Bangkok. The full cruisers got a comp night and we segmenters had to pay for the stay - doesn't seem fair.
Jim

segments are $$$$ killers

Bangkok, Thailand, October 23, 2007
After a nice buffet breakfast of both Thai and Western selections, we wandered around the shops again; Pat got a pedicure & manicure for $18.00 and I got some very tasty pork sates from a street vendor. Many of the in transit guests made Bangkok a major shopping excursion, particularly having clothing tailor made. The bus back to the ship left the hotel at 1:15. The lifeboat drill was at 4:15 (so no trivia) and a sail away party was on the pool deck at 5:00. On the last segment all suites were occupied and a huge group left in Bangkok leaving about 120 in transit guests, 80 of which are full cruisers. There are only about 500 guests on this segment and the Compass Rose restaurant was quite empty at dinner. Panos (forgot the last name) played a classical piano recital before dinner and the PGT cast performed after dinner. We enjoyed Hal
Frazer’s piano and singing in the Observation Lounge until late. Hal leaves the Mariner in late December and transfers to the Paul Gauguin in late January.

Now that we're away from Viet Nam and have fewer laptops sucking up bandwidth, I was finally able to upload photos onto my AOL travelogue. You can see them at http://journals.aol.com/jymbittle/hong-kong-to-sydney/
and I'll still post text here because a lot of you like to comment on your experiences in the same places.
Jim

Thanks Jim for the updates!

Masaki

Thanks Jim, your pictures bring back wonderful memories...I wish we were there with you.

At Sea, October 24, 2007
The weather was somewhat overcast and warm and the seas were fairly smooth. Former Florida Governor & US Senator Bob Graham gave the morning lecture and as on previous cruises, he kept his remarks non partisan and very informative. The seas got rougher and it rained at lunch so we had to eat the Singapore Satay Lunch inside. The evening was formal and we haqd the Captain’s welcome cocktail party in the theater with a piano recital by Panos. We joined Mark Conroy’s table with 2 other couples and had a delightful time. Mark talked about the potential new ship which may be launched in 2011, but they haven’t picked a shipyard yet. The plan is to have a longer ship with more tonnage and carry between 700 & 750 guests. They also plan to have the standard suite about the size of the Penthouse suites, or around 400 sq ft. They are also trying to decide if a 5th restaurant would be added. With the Dollar to Euro ratio, the new ship would cost about 25% more than the Mariner or Voyager and I wonder if the pricing will be higher on that ship. After dinner Kenny Smiles gave his usual performance.

Thanks Jim for the update! 2011?? Good golly, I will be an old lady by then! :)

Karen: 2011? YOU???? OLD???? :D :D :D :D :app: :app:

There was a Town Hall meeting today which cleared up a bit more about the new ship. There are bids out in Italy, France & Finland. The standard suite will be 450 sq ft. They are trying to poll people about the theater because it's a big piece of real estate to hold all of the guests for use about 6 hours a day and not always full. The question is should they have a large theater or one for around 500 and another for around 150 and have separate venues. Flat screen televisions will be instaled soon with an interactive system and with about 500 on demand movies etc. It should launch late 2010 or early 2011. You'll still be young Karen.
Jim

Oooh, I like those plans. More options (two different theaters, videos on demand, 5th restaurant) are all good things.

Masaki

At Sea and Singapore, October 25, 2007
It was a beautiful day at sea with sun and mild (82 degrees) weather which made walking on the 12th deck comfortable in the morning. There was a “Town Hall Meeting” at 11:00 am with Mark Conway, Barry, Capt Romeo Nd Hotel director Marcel. Naturally Mark did the most speaking and it was quite interesting. Mark explained that the company is exploring working with venture capital firms to fund the new ship so “ownership” of the Regent group may look different on paper, but nothing will change. Investors want a return on their money so the success of the Regent experience will continue. (I hope I got the gist of it correct.) He also remarked on Barry’s announcement of leaving the company and said “there are more discussions to be had” or something like that. Reading between the lines says that Barry doesn’t want to leave but would like to limit his time at sea to one grand cruise a year. It may happen so keep tuned to LCT. Someone will be around for the final announcement. Lunch was a German sausage, pork and related stuff cookout on the pool deck. The band played some German style tunes and then switched to a good jazz. We entered the Singapore Straits around 3:30 and docked at the Singapore Cruise Center across from Sentosa Island early at 4:30 pm. All guests were invited to a complimentary event at the Singapore Regent Hotel where a Singapore food stall event was staged. It was an incredible event with 4 extensive bars and several food stations set up. There was Arabian, Singapore, Western, curry, desert and some others. There were no sit down tables, just some stand up cocktail table and it was get a small plate to try food from a station, leave it (it was picked up immediately) and get another plate and try another. The plates were salad size and had a plastic attachment to hold your wine glass. The food was excellent and even with about 500 people attending, there was no waiting in lines. They also had henna painting on hands, batik painting, palm fortune reading, dragon dance and whatever. We were greeted on entering the hotel by people in costume, with some on stilts and it was a fantastic evening. The full cruisers all said that this was by far the best event so far. We returned to the ship around 9:00pm and went to the pool deck where the band was playing and desert & coffee was served. I don’t think many went for coffee, but the bar was quite busy. We went to the Observation Lounge to listen to Hal Frazer for a bit before going to bed.
I'll post this on the travelogue with photos tomorrow (it's 11:00 at night here so I'm done...)

Jim, you are our source for so much good info, thank you for reporting in! Your dinner experience sounds like something that I would really like.

Thanks for your posts Jim. Wish we were right there with you. Sounds like a great event.

Nice to hear talk of the new ship - it is quite exciting and as quickly as time passes these days it will be here before you know. We wont be older JUST wiser with more character in our faces.

Singapore, October 26, 2007
The ship was scheduled to depart at 2:00 so there wasn’t a lot of time to tour around. We took a taxi to Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road, the main shopping and hotel area of Singapore. There are literally dozens of large buildings filled with independent shops and others with name brand stores. It’s amazing that they can all compete and stay in business. Singapore is no longer the shopping Mecca it used to be and electronics & cameras are less expensive in the US. There is a lot of major high rise building construction going on – where Florida has continuous road construction, Singapore seems to have continuous building construction. The city certainly has changed drastically since I used to visit regularly in the late 1970’s. We wandered through the shops and then walked down the commercial area of Orchard Road for about 3 hours and then took a taxi back to the ship for lunch and the sail away ice cream social on the pool deck. The day was sunny, humid and hot and felt like home. Singapore is a gigantic container port and we passed anchored ships for 2 hours as we left. Panos Karan played classical piano before dinner and the PGT cast did their last Beatles tribute after dinner. When the new cast begins at the end of this segment there will be all new shows and music from the live 9 piece orchestra rather than recorded music. The singing & piano duo Marty & Holly returned so we now have good dance music again.

At Sea & Penang, Malaysia, October 27, 2007

The day began with smooth seas and sun in the sky. After breakfast we had a pleasant walk on deck 12 and then attended a lecture on the Impressionists. We approached Georgetown on the island of Penang around 11:30 and finally anchored at 1:00 under hot, humid & sunny skies. We were only scheduled for a 5 hour stay and the tours didn’t look overly exciting and taking the shuttle into town wasn’t appealing because most stores close at noon on Saturday, so we went on the Titanium, Platinum & Gold complimentary “Afternoon Tea party at the Traders Hotel.” For those of you not familiar with Regent, the Titanium etc are benefit levels for those who have sailed certain numbers of nights on Regent. The higher the tier the more benefits we get. The top 3 levels always have a complimentary event on each cruise segment. It took a 10 minute tender ride and 15 minute bus ride to arrive at the hotel. Unfortunately the event was underwhelming. The hotel is operated by Shangri La and was a good one, but not in an area of the city to wander from. We went to a ballroom on the mezzanine level where a trio was playing soft dance music and several tables were set out with fruit kebabs, petit fours, and bread pudding. They passed around “orange juice” that tasted like Tang and we could pour our own tea from a large urn. It was supposed to go from 3:00 to 5:00 and by 3:30 everyone was ready to leave. It took about 20 minutes for the staff to find the bus driver (who didn’t expect to leave until 5:00 and we returned to the pier. Fortunately the return trip went through some beautiful sections of Georgetown and we could see that 95% of the shops were closed so we all went back to the ship instead of using the shuttle bus into another hotel. We got back just in time to win trivia. We joined some friends from Naples for dinner and ended up being too late for the PGT production show so we went to the casino briefly before heading to the Horizon Lounge to dance to Marty & Holly and get good seats for Liar’s Club. Liar’s Club is an event on most segments where several dignitaries are seated in front of the stage, an obscure word is given and each dignitary gives a “definition” of the word and the audience, formed into teams, guesses which person gave the true definition. Last night’s dignitaries were Assistant Cruise Director Handre, Lecturer Sandra Bowern, pianist Panos Karan, Regent CEO Mark Conroy and comedian Kenny Smiles. The definitions given are hilarious, particularly from Kenny and the show is very entertaining.
Pictures are at:
http://journals.aol.com/jymbittle/hong-kong-to-sydney/
Jim

Thanks so much for your descriptive reports and photos; am really enjoying them!

Thanks Jim again for the continuing reports! Too bad about the Titanium event - it did indeed sound underwhelming. Liars Club is always fun!

Masaki

Off the Coast of Thailand Heading for Myanmar, October 28, 2007
When we turned on the TV early Sunday morning we first had a live feed of the North American baseball championship followed by the Ohio State & Penn State football game. The temperature was in the 80’s and the seas were slightly choppy. We’re currently 11 hours ahead of Florida on the clock. The tour description channel has a note that anything purchased in Myanmar, even postcards & souvenirs, will be confiscated by U.S. Customs. Bummer. Bob Graham gave an hour discussion of “Challenges for the next President” followed by ½ hour of Q & A. He discussed the qualities of all the candidates from personally having worked or interacted with all of them. The pool deck lunch was a chicken carnival with BBQ chicken, chicken satay, quail, goose, turkey and several varieties of cold cuts and was quite tasty. In the afternoon Sandra Bowern gave an interesting history of Myanmar in a storytelling format. There was the usual array of games throughout the day and the Seven Seas Society party began at 6:30. We stayed late in the restaurant and missed the theater show but we did go to Barry Hopkins singing Frank Sinatra songs in the Horizon Lounge and the dance floor was packed.

At Sea and Arrival in Myanmar, October 29, 2007

While we were walking the upper deck after breakfast the ship passed through muddy brown water which must have been from a large river. There were scores of fishing boats all over the place. The seas were smooth and it was hot, humid & sunny (again.) We passed on the pool deck fish & chips & curry lunch and went to the Compass Rose for a lighter meal. The afternoon was filled with events including an “extreme sports” deck bunch of games for tokens. We got a couple of tokens for the golf chipping into the hot tub and watched others doing the ring toss, balloon stuffing and tossing balls into a ring in the pool. Then we went to the Observation Lounge to watch our entry into the Yangon River. It looked so much like the Amazon with the brown silt color and flat land on shore, but there were no pink dolphins. We won at trivia again and then watched as we passed an interesting fishing village before docking. We went early to dinner in order to catch the local performers on the pool deck starting at 8:00. The performance began at 8:00 with singing and at 8:45 with the dancers. Some dances included puppets but it was all too fast to get clear photos. It was quite a show. After the deck show Hal Fraser did another Elton John show, but this time he had a better wig. The show was a big hit as before.

Was Mark Conroy at the titanium event? I wonder if he felt this was up to Regent standards. We have been to several, mostly breakfasts and they seem to be slipping a little at each one. I personally would prefer a special tour or meeting some local people. Food is great but all food on the Regent is good so this is not much of an extra treat.

Pammy,
I don't remember seeing Mark at the Titanium event, but the Captain was there as well as the F&B Manager who said they wouldn't use that place again.

Yangon, Myanmar, October 30, 2007

We went on the full day tour of Yangon that began at 8:00 with a 1 hour bus ride into the city. There were 6 busses and we had a police escort that blocked cross traffic and kept us moving. Under British occupation the city was Rangoon and the country Burma. Myanmar is one of the largest Asian countries in size and has a population of around 51 million consisting mostly of Buddhists and 135 different ethnic groups. The people are happy and “no problem” is a constant term they use. The country has been in the news because of the military rulers cracking down on “democracy” protests. Actually, the monks want to gain control and run the country as a Buddhist state. We saw no large groupings of military or police and everything looked normal for a third world South East Asian country. Many of the women and girls spread a paste made from ground up root and water on their cheeks. It serves as a cosmetic and protects the skin from the sun and they also believe it keeps their skin soft & youthful.
Our first stop was at the Shwedagon Paya pagoda, the country’s best known and most revered pagoda with thousands of Buddha images. Even Disney doesn’t have as much saturation of its characters. The pagoda originated over 2,500 years ago with a height of 27 meters. It now tops 100 meters and is said to house 8 sacred hairs of the Buddha. The various roofs, towers, Buddha figures etc are covered with over 70 tons of gold leaf. The gilded hti (crown) on the top of the main dome is encrusted with diamonds including one of 76 carats. The place is huge and would take an entire day to see everything. We were fortunate to have clear blue skies to really bring out the beauty of the gold domes, towers and decorative carving. All buildings were adorned with intricate carved teak panels, some gilded and others varnished. We were glad we took our small roll of camper’s toilet tissue with us. The toilets were western but were missing the paper.
Our next stop was at the Chaukhtatgyi Pagoda where a gigantic reclining Buddha whose head is 2 ½ stories tall is housed. On our way to the lunch we made an unscheduled stop at a jewelry factory where we saw the rubies, star rubies & sapphires and peridot stones from mines in Myanmar. They were beautiful, but expensive and I wasn’t familiar enough with the costs compared to the US to risk a purchase. We then proceeded to the Strand Hotel, a national landmark built in 1901, for a set menu lunch. The hotel was elegant and the meal consisting of local foods was excellent. We had a lentil soup followed by samples of 5 types of salads and both a prawn & a beef curry with rice. Australian wine was served.
Following lunch we made a brief stop at the National Museum primarily to see displays relating to the royal families of the past. We then had a 1 hour stop at the Scott Market, a large place with over 2000 stalls selling everything from jewelry to fabrics. We were amazed at the quantities of flip flop sandals being sold. There were numerous booths selling oil paintings and watercolors and monks were the predominant subject. We next went to visit the Karaweik Royal Barge situated on Royal Kandawgyi Lake for orange pop and photo taking. The barge, which was built in the 1970’s, is a gigantic catamaran style gilded teak structure with banquet halls on both sides. It is a restaurant when not being used for events. We then took the 1 hour bus ride back to the ship. The whole day was very hot & muggy but well worth the excursion. There was an evening dinner excursion and I think a lot of guests were tired from the heat of the day and ordered room service so the Compass Rose was quite empty. The only show was the PGT singers singing romantic songs to Hal Fraser’s piano and we were too tired to attend.
Jim

76 carat diamond on a building! Interesting how calm things sounded considering how much in the news Myanmar was just very recently.

Masaki

Masaki,
The diamond was so high up we couldn't see it and my picture of the diamond was a picture of a picture. We were amazed at how normal everything was and there were crowds of people everywhere so the news bits of the government forbidding more than 5 people together wasn't in effect. It was actually more comfortable in Myanmar than in Viet Nam and we'd go back anytime.

Yangon, Myanmar, October 31, 2007

There were complimentary shuttle busses to the city at 8:00 and 10:00 and tickets were necessary. 2 hours were allowed in the city so it was a 4 hour trip including driving time and we took the 10:00 bus to the Traders Hotel operated by the Shangri La Group and 2 blocks from the Scott Market. Rather than go to the market, we had a specific mission. Pat needed a haircut but not at the ship’s exorbitant prices and we figured there would be a salon in the hotel. There was a great salon on the 5th level and they could fit her in. She was talked into the shampoo before the haircut and it turned out to be a shampoo and massage of the head, face, neck shoulders, arms & hands lasting over ½ hour. Pat was enjoying the “shampoo” so much I got one as well (didn’t need a haircut yet.) Even the shampoo part was a massage and what a treat it was. Pat’s haircut was done just as she wanted it and the total cost for the 2 of us was $14.00 and certainly a great bargain. We bought a couple of items at the gift shop and took a short stroll along the street by the hotel. Kids were begging and we handed out some pillow mints from the ship and were suddenly besieged by a dozen kids. We only had a couple of pieces left and as we tried to hand them out they were grabbed and crushed by several hands. I saw a street vendor with some fried objects, 3 small round balls on a stick that were breaded & deep fried. I asked what they were but the vendor didn’t speak English. 2 locals came over and helped me out explaining that they were eggs (size of quail but who knows from what bird.) I asked how many sticks $1.00 would buy and was told 5 sticks. I gave the helpful guy the dollar, got the sticks and I imagine the vendor got probably about 25 cents, but I was happy. The eggs were delicious. We got back on the bus for the 1 hour return to the ship.
As the ship was about ready to leave the dock Barry Hopkins announced that there was an unusual ceremony on the dock side. The local agent had tied several colored streamers (ribbons) to the rail on deck 6 and the other ends were held by the tour guides on the dock. The guides had round woven items with a letter on each that spelled out “See You Again.” The people of Myanmar throughout the visit were extremely friendly and happy to see us visiting their country and we were constantly asked to tell our friends and family back home about Myanmar and encourage them to visit. They genuinely enjoy tourists, most speak good English and the food was great. Trivia was delayed a few minutes so we could watch the departure and our team tied for the win.
This was Halloween and some folks wore costumes but most of us didn’t pack any. There were some very outrageous costumes, but the majority of us dressed as “country club casual cruise guests”. The Horizon Lounge was decorated ghoulishly for the evening, opened at 9:00 and was packed. Marty & Holly played dance music, the dance floor was crowded and all were had by a good time. The staff does a fantastic job of decorating for these holiday events and they make it a fun evening.

Jim - the haircut/massage sounded wonderful. Another thing that sounds up my alley. I'm going to have to do this segment at some point ... :)

Masaki

Was anything said about the tgour to Bagan? I'm wondering if it came off.

McKeever,
There were 2 tours to Bagan, one was a 14 hour tough tiring tour and the good one was an overnight. The overnighters said the hotel they stayed at was magnificant, they had a great dinner with a show put on with 80 people and they just raved about it. The overnight to Mandalay was alos well received. If I can get a blog & photos from someone I'll post it.
Jim

Jim, thanks so much for taking the time to post about your exotic ports; I'm really enjoying!

How will you "smuggle" your small gifts? Oops! Guess I shouldn't ask! I remember DH buying a copy of "Chairman Mao's" Red Book in 1970 in Kowloon and worrying about it; of course, no one ever looked! Wonder where it is now? Probably on the bookshelf and I'm sure neither one of us looked at it!

Kathy,
If I'm checked those items will be "bought in Thailand." If they're confiscated I'll only lose about $35.00.
Lots of folks bought stuff including Senator Bab Graham.
Jim

Jim, I too am most appreciative of your comprehensive posts from parts of the world that I am eager to visit. It takes a lot of time to do it, and I hope you know that you are reaching a far greater audience than responds to your emails! Thank you, thank you!

Thanks, Jim, and I echo Olivia in that I realize you spend a lot of time keeping us informed! Good luck with customs.

One of my contemporaries as a child growing up was named "Burma Jean" as her Dad had served there during the war.

Thanks, Jim. We are so excited about the overnight to Bagan. We felt the 14 hour day trip was a killer for us. The excitement is building for us.

Ardis