March 2, 2013

On a Not Very Slow Boat to (Indo) China

By Clarice Feldman
Given our ages (my husband and I are both in our seventies) and the heat, humidity and generally difficult travel conditions involved, in order to visit Southeast Asia, we opted for a cruise which began at Hong Kong, traveled through the Hainan or Qiongzhou Strait, the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea, the Bay of Thailand and down to our final destination, Singapore. Along the way we stopped at Halong Bay, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Viet Nam, Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Ka Kood  Island, and Bangkok, Thailand, Traveling this way -- instead of our more usual independent travels, has its advantages. Among these are the freedom from airport lines, customs and immigration delays (visas are provided onboard and immigration and customs officials processed us dockside), and obviating the odious task of packing and unpacking at each location. On the downside, we were rather limited to port areas, though that's not much of a handicap in a part of the world where so...(Read Full Article)