We made it back to the ship about 3:00pm on November 1 (four hours late) after our 4 night "vacation from our vacation". One night in Bangkok and then 3 nights on the Eastern & Oriental Express Train. A great trip, if you don't mind not much sleep! The train is narrow gauge so rocks and rolls a lot and sleep was hard to come by. But it was definitely worth it.

Met Peggy & Jerry as well as Sheri and her folks last night in Horizon Lounge and hope to have dinner with them soon.

I've got to catch my journal up with the pictures from Bangkok and the train which I will do over the next several days.

The sea is very calm but the skies are overcast and the temperature is as "cool" as I have ever seen at the equator -- about 82F. Makes it pleasant around the pool but still have to be careful as the sun does come through the clouds more than you think.

Jan

Jan

Good to hear from you Jan and I'm glad you found the train trip worthwhile! I am enjoying following your adventures through your journal. Vietnam sounded very interesting. It is hard to believe another group has already boarded the Mariner!

Thanks for checking in Jan. Great that you met Peggy, Jerry and Sheri! It's good to know they made it there safely.

Jan, thanks for checking in with us and sharing your wonderful adventures!

Nancy

What a delightful group of folks to travel with. Have a marvelous time and keep up the posts. We really enjoy hearing from you.

Hi everyone--just checking in from the Mariner. The ship is in ship shape and as expected we're having a great time. We spent four days in Singapore precruise and pretty much scoured the city in between bouts of jet lag (wow, that upside down -14 hour time difference really get's to you!!). We also took a quick trip up to Johar Bahru in Malaysia just to say we've been there. We met Sheri and her parents at the Raffles Hotel and had a Singapore Sling and dinner with them the night before we got onboard. Now we're on the ship enjoying two wonderful sea days. We're now on the road to Bali and will be there tomorrow.

Hi, Peggy

Thanks for the seamail! Glad you had time to experience Singapore. How does the humidity compare to what you're used to in Texas? Despite having lived in Singapore in my younger years, the humidity is very hard to take each time I visit. Did you get to do the tram ride on Night Safari? Looking forward to reading more from you & Jan.

To answer the question about humidity, it's much more humid here than what we're used to, but not nearly as hot so we've kind of enjoyed the weather. Singapore had overcast skys the whole time we were there, so it wasn't too bad at all. I'm sure some would disagree that the weather was good, but we're really used to hot, hot, hot. We did take the tram at the Night Safari and loved it. We also took a bum boat ride up the Singapore River. We missed going to the Asian Civilization Museum because it was closed when we were there.
We had two great sea days and enjoyed having dinner with Jan and Fred. We arrived bright and early in Bali yesterday (yuck, I had to get up at 6:00 am). Bali is a beautiful island, but bigger than I had imagined --it seemed like we had to drive forever between stops on our tour. We took one of the ships tours and the highlight was a trip to a Hindu Temple. They were having a celebration there, so we got to watch the Balinese dancers in their fabulous costumes and hear the monks playing beautiful exotic music. We also went to a theater and watched a wonderful Balinese play about good and evil (of course the good guys won in the end). They also had great costumes and it was lots of fun. Of course we also got lots of time for shopping for wood carvings, silver, etc. Jerry caught a bad cold somewhere along the way, so we laid low last night and went to La Veranda for dinner. He's feeling much better today. It's a good thing, because today we're in Komodo --he wouldn't have wanted to miss that! We took a short hike with a guide at the national park and were lucky to see two Komodo dragons. That was a real treat. Tonight we're eating dinner at Latitudes.

I really enjoyed Komodo Island last year, it had long been on my wish list. Cant wait to see you two when we arrive in Sydney been too long since we have been together. Got us set up to see penguins in Dunedin. From giant dragons to tiny penguins - isnt life grand.

Life certainly is grand--especially if you're on a Regent ship!! We're enjoying another sea day and just hanging out after a great Indochine dinner in Latitudes last night. We've met a lot of nice people on board--haven't run into any chronic complainers yet thank goodness. There's a lot of Australians on the cruise --they tend to keep things pretty lively. I've hooked up with a few of the Aussies and we've won trivia three times so far. For some reason, the trivia questions have been really easy--could that be because I just happened to know a lot of the answers? Anyway, hope the easy questions continue when you get on Ngaire--we'll clean up in the token department.
We're on to Darwin tomorrow--it will be doubly exciting because it's our first step onto Australia and tomorrow is the Melbourne Cup horse race in Australia. It sounds like the Australian equivalent to our Super Bowl--the whole country shuts down to watch the race. All the Aussies are telling us to bet on the American horse, Tanque (or something like that) so we will. I'll let you know if we're winners.

Yes, Peggy, life is grand when I can read your post from my boring town!!!! Thank you, please send more seamail!!! Joanna

Peggy, yes life IS grand on a Regent ship! Only time I have met any Aussies was on our Shadow cruise, and they were some of my favorite cruisemates. . . LOTS of fun!

Seas still remaining extremely smooth.

For you journal readers, I've finally got caught up with pictures and such from our time off the ship. Not all the days have pictures yet, as the internet is sometimes helpful and sometimes slow!

I'll keep uploading the back days as it cooperates.

Jan

Jan and Peggy, thanks so much for the fascinating seamails. Jan, thanks for update your journal and I feel like I'm right there with you!!!

Nancy

Jan,
Just caught up on your journal postings and so enjoyed! Especially loved the Bangkok photos as I remember the architecture so vividly!

Thanks so much for your diligence and hope you continue to enjoy!