Cruising as an Introduction to Southeast Asia – Part 1

The time had come! After putting off visiting Southeast Asia for two winters, the first year because it was farther away than Latin America and the second year because we wanted to revisit Medellin, in 2019 we finally grabbed the bait.

In April 2019, we booked our airfare using Alaska frequent flyer points.  We were able to score business-class flights to Singapore for 50,000 points each on Cathay Pacific leaving December 7. The downside is that we would be in transit for 30 hours. Phoenix to Seattle at 6:00 am (which meant we needed to be up at 3:30), then Seattle to Vancouver, 12 hours in the airport in Vancouver, then to Hong Kong with a 3-hour layover, and finally into Singapore. That’s the trade-off with frequent flyer tickets, and worth it to us to travel business class for such a distance. Singapore also worked for us because it’s a Southeast Asia on training wheels.

When using Alaska miles on Cathay Pacific, there is an option to take a layover in Hong Kong, which is their hub. After ending the phone call, Ian was kicking himself for forgetting to do that. Then the protests began in Hong Kong, and it turned out to be a fortuitous slip-up.

Where to Go in Southeast Asia

We had our airfare, Southeast Asia covers a lot of territory, where should we go? We then spent the next seven months going back and forth on our itinerary, making no definitive progress. When we were planning Latin America and Europe in 2017-18, we had both been to various countries in these parts of the world, so the planning was a bit easier. But Southeast Asia would be a whole new experience.

We knew we didn’t want to spend much time in Singapore because it’s expensive. It was also important to be in settled in a single location over the Christmas /New Year’s holidays because it’s both challenging and expensive to travel during that period. The problem was there were just too many places we wanted to visit.

A Solution Presents Itself

Fast forward to early November 2019, no decision had been made and we were getting close to departure. We’d somewhat reluctantly decided on spending a month in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and had started looking for an Airbnb. This was one of our original plans, but we just weren’t getting excited about it.

Then Ian just happened to be browsing on the Vacations To Go website when he discovered a cruise that was priced too good to pass up. A 15-day cruise around Southeast Asia on NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line). Plus, this line has a liberal dress code, so we wouldn’t have to dress up for dinner, which is a good thing when traveling light. The itinerary included two ports in Vietnam (Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh City), one in Cambodia (Sihanoukville), three in Thailand (Koh Samui, Bangkok, Phuket), and two in Malaysia (Penang, Kuala Lumpur). Plus, spending New Year’s Eve back in Singapore. The price: $689 per person for an outside cabin.

We decided to book it because it would give us a sample of a few different countries, plus solve the problem of not traveling (okay, we were traveling, but that was the captain’s problem) over the holidays. The cruise also got us to experience some of the larger cities that we would not have included in our itinerary.

But the Dates Didn’t Exactly Line Up

Sail date was December 21, we were arriving in Singapore on December 9. Twelve days was too long to spend in Singapore, so we stayed overnight at the airport (a destination unto itself!) in Singapore, trying to get over jet lag (good luck on that – it took us three days!). We then flew to southern Thailand for eight days at the beach in Ao Nang, near Krabi. Returning to Singapore for three days before the cruise, giving us time to explore this unique city.

Singapore

Oh my gosh, Singapore is amazing, we had no idea! That first overnight in Singapore, we stayed at the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, using a free certificate from our Marriott credit card. Once we’d checked in, to avoid falling asleep, we dragged our jet lagged bodies to Jewel, a shopping center and attraction, attached to the airport by an enclosed walkway from Terminals 1, 2 and 3. We discovered the world’s largest indoor waterfall and ate dinner at a Michelin Star ramen noodle shop, Tsuta Japanese Soba Noodle, total cost about $30 (US). A whole other world compared to Top Ramen.

Singapore’s Exceptional MRT    

When we returned to Singapore for three days, we stayed at Village Hotel Bugis in the neighborhood of the same name. To get from the airport to our hotel, we used Singapore’s MRT. After three days of riding the rails, we think it’s the best city system we’ve experienced. For three reasons: 1) At each glass door to the subway car, painted on the ground: one green arrow (for passengers disembarking) and two red arrows to both sides (for people embarking). Passengers waiting to board stand in the red areas and wait patiently for exiting passengers. 2) Rather than the model employed by every other metro system (at least in our experiences) for transfer stations, where passengers need to go up or down to change platforms, Singapore has ingeniously put the two lines most commonly used for transfer on the same platform. It really works; in three days we hardly ever left the single platform! 3) The capacity is sized right; even at rush hour, the cars were full but not overcrowded.

How We Spent Our Time in Singapore

During our three days, we visited the vast Gardens by the Bay complex, at first simply wandering around the groomed and extensive outdoor space. It is extra special at night when the trees and other installations are lit up.

We also visited the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, a must see if you’ve never been to a cloud forest. The Flower Dome has extensive displays of plants and trees from around the world.

Inside the Cloud Forest dome, we stumbled upon a virtual reality setup where we got to experience what it was like to go from being a seed to growing to the tallest tree in the Amazon. Despite warnings about fear of heights (Ian) and motion sickness (Ann), we both thoroughly enjoyed this awesome experience! If you’re ever in Singapore and don’t have enough time for both domes, we recommend the Cloud Forest.

Two Special Meals

Another day, our destination was Chinatown, where we wandered around and had lunch in the Chinatown Complex, a market hall with the usual meat, produce, and goods, plus over 260 hawker (food) stalls. We had lunch at a Michelin Star hawker stand, Hawker Chan. We enjoyed our soya chicken rice, for which the Star was earned, and soya chicken noodle, for about $6 each.

Finally, on our last day, we ventured over to Little India for lunch at Komala Vilas, recommended by one of the bloggers we follow, a vegetarian Indian restaurant. A busy place (since 1947) with outstanding food! Upstairs, you can only order full meals off the lunch menu with more leisurely dining, but downstairs is more of fast meals and a la carte and often shared tables. Although there was no wait for upstairs, we opted to wait for the more authentic experience downstairs. We ended up sharing a table with two lovely ladies from Singapore. We had never eaten southern Indian food before, and these friendly ladies instructed us on what to order. Totally, outrageously delicious! We couldn’t believe how long we stayed full on a vegetarian meal; we didn’t have dinner that night.

Singapore Tourist Pass and EZ Link Card

If you are spending a day or more in Singapore, it’s worth buying either the Singapore Tourist Pass or an EZ link rechargeable card. The Tourist Pass allows unlimited rides on the trains and public busses, for either 1, 2, or 3 days, at a cost of S$10, S$16, or S$20 respectively. The EZ Link rechargeable card, cost S$12, is a card with S$7 credit on it and a discount on every ride. With both types of cards, you avoid having to deal with the ticket machines (often with lines) for every ride.

Note: At the time we visited, $S1 (one Singapore dollar) was equal to $ .74 US.

How We Got Around in Singapore

We opted for an EZ Link card each (no sharing) because we didn’t think we would be riding the rails enough to justify the extra cost of the Singapore Tourist Pass. In addition, since it was limited to 1, 2, or 3 days, we wouldn’t have been able to use it to get back to the airport at the end of the cruise, but we could with the EZ-Link card. The rides are so reasonably priced that in 3 days plus the trip back to the airport, we never needed to recharge the cards. 

Grab Car (like Uber) is also available in Singapore and is quite inexpensive. We used Grab to take us from our hotel to the cruise dock for a very reasonable cost.

Our Introduction to Southeast Asia Cruise

Our usual modus operandi when cruising is to navigate the ports on our own, and we did this for several ports of call on this cruise. However, for three major cities on the itinerary, the cruise ports were an hour to two and a half hours away from the cities. Since we didn’t want to take a chance not getting back to ship on time for sailaway, we broke from our norm and booked organized (hmm…a loose use of that term in one case) tours in three cities.

Cruise Ports of Call

We discuss these ports in the order in which we visited.

Koh Samui, Thailand

This popular island in the Gulf of Thailand, probably second only to Phuket for number of tourists, was our first stop. We shared a tuk tuk with our new friends, Angela and Raul, and spent our time on Chaweng Beach, reportedly one of the best on the island. Unfortunately for us, it is on the other side of the island from the cruise port, but on the same side as the airport if you happen to be flying in. On the plus side, we got to see more of the island.

The water at the beach was warm and clear with a few waves, the sand was soft, and the beach had several areas of shade. Also, lots of beach bars and restaurants. We had a pleasant day on Koh Samui, and we’d consider coming back. However, all the islands in this part of the Gulf of Thailand are affected by the Northeast Monsoon season which is December through February (another source says November through January for Koh Samui), our most likely time to be in Thailand. The day we visited Koh Samui was sunny all day even though we were in the middle of the Northeast Monsoon season.

Bangkok, Thailand

The port for Bangkok, Laem Chabang (gotta love that name!), is two and a half hours from Bangkok and 30-45 minutes from Pattaya, Bangkok’s closest beach. Bangkok is one of those cities we probably wouldn’t have chosen to visit, but since we were there (well, close), we decided to visit. The only practical way was to book a tour. Unfortunately, the cruise ship’s general highlights tour was $259 per person. We booked a shore excursion though a second party that visited the same sights, but didn’t include admission prices, for $130 per person. So began our adventure…just about anything that could go wrong did.

The Organized Tour Becomes Disorganized

1. The tour meeting point on the confirmation was wrong. It said to meet at the entrance to the port, we walked there and then had to walk back to the dock.

2. The meeting time was supposed to be 8 am. By the time we left the pier and headed into Bangkok, it was 9:30 am, so we didn’t arrive in Bangkok until 12 noon.

3. Most of the people hadn’t read the fine print so didn’t realize that the entrance fees to any of the attractions mentioned in the tour were not included. The already somewhat disgruntled vibe of the tour group turned even more negative.

4. Because of the entrance fees situation, some people decided not to visit the Grand Palace, which caused a 15-minute discussion by the tour guide of how to handle that situation. Finally, with our late arrival and having the tour group split between those wanting to visit vs. those that didn’t, it was decided we’d all meet back at the drop-off point at 1:30 pm. Somewhere around an hour to an hour and a half visit. (We were led to believe that perhaps this tour was supposed to have two guides.)

The Disorganization Continues

5. On the way to the palace with all the other tourists in the city that day, the tour guide didn’t have a flag or any way to keep the group together. Which slowed us down to a painfully slow pace on the way to buying the tickets. By the time everyone bought their tickets, we had less than an hour to visit and we went off on our own to save time. This shortened time prevented our visiting the museum which was included in the entrance fee.

6. At 1:30 pm, we returned to the meeting place, found most of the other participants but there was no guide or bus. The guide and bus returned at 2:30 pm. Apparently someone fell down some stairs and the guide had to take her to the doctor to get checked out. Not sure why the bus couldn’t pick us up rather than letting everybody stand around for an hour in the excessive heat and smog not knowing what to do.

Wait, There’s More

7. The people who wanted to pay for the boat ride were taken to the dock where we bought tickets and we had a great ride down the river. The guide said she was going to go with the bus to take everyone else to Chinatown so they could have lunch and would pick us up at the pier where the boat ride ended. The boat ride, which we very much enjoyed (including the challenge of getting on the boat), took about 30 minutes. And we got to see a bit more of the city. We got off the boat and waited around until about another 30 minutes. Finally, one of the tour participants called the tour company office, they contacted the guide (who hadn’t given us any contact info), and the guide showed up a few minutes later with three tuk tuks (another highlight for us) which took us to where the bus was parked, arriving there at 4 pm.

8. The guide told us to get lunch and be back by 5 pm so that we could visit the Golden Buddha.

9. We arrived back at 5 pm to discover that the Golden Buddha closed at 5 pm. How did the tour guide not know this?

10. We got back on the road at about 5:30 pm and arrived back at the ship at 8 pm. The 8-hour tour ended up taking 12 hours. Good thing that the ship stayed overnight at the port.

The Bottom Line

After following up, the second party refunded the full amount for the tour!   

The tour confirmed what we suspected, that Bangkok is a huge, smoggy city, to which we have no desire to return. But are glad that we took the opportunity to visit. The city has a huge variety of amazing-looking high-rise buildings, including one that looks like an in-progress Lego structure.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Our only port in Cambodia and unfortunately, an immersion into what can go wrong when easy money (from China) is dumped on an impoverished country. We decided to head to Serenity Beach with our friends, Angela and Raul, to what was supposed to be one of the best beaches without taking a ferry to the close-in islands.

After leaving the ship and walking out of the secure area, each of us was surrounded by 10-20 taxi drivers all grabbing us, yelling in our ears, each trying to get our business. Memory flashed back to arrival in Guatemala City, but this was much worse. After selecting a tuk-tuk driver (not sure how we did that, everything is a blur), we headed off towards the beach, which meant we had to traverse the town.

The Worst Part Was Yet to Come

As soon as we left the port, we knew that we were no longer in Kansas. Every road was dirt, and it appeared that every building was partially torn down and under construction. As we made our way through the town, sucking in all the dust that was kicked up by the traffic, all of us just couldn’t believe what we were seeing. It looked like the day after the apocalypse.

Arriving at the beach, the water wasn’t as clear as it was supposed to be (we suspect from the construction runoff), so we decided that we weren’t going to go in the water. We found a beach bar, ordered coconuts and beers, and relaxed for the two hours until our tuk-tuk driver returned. Then we got to repeat the drive through town, holding our towels over our mouths and noses.

We were only here for a day, our hearts went out to the people who live here, and the unsuspecting tourists who were visiting for longer than a day. What we heard was that the city got money to upgrade the infrastructure for all the hotels and casinos being built. So, city officials decided to tear up all the roads and sewer system at one time (what could go wrong?), estimating it to be finished in eight months. Not a chance that will happen. We sure wouldn’t want to be around this town when the monsoons hit in June. It appears that China is trying to create another Macao. Sihanoukville might be a very nice place in about five years.

Aftermath and Reflection

The next day we were all coughing as our lungs tried to clear the muck that they had inhaled.  We washed out the shirts we were wearing and the water was quite brown. Our pictures fail to capture the level of destruction that we saw. Since Ann wanted to visit Cambodia more than Ian, this experience didn’t increase our chances of returning to Cambodia during our three-month exploration of Southeast Asia.

We’ve heard that the people of Cambodia can be very friendly. Unfortunately, our primary interactions with the people in Sihanoukville were tinged by the fact that a cruise ship (ours) was in port, and most of the local people we encountered were after the tourist dollar. Except maybe the young man at the beach bar who helped us find our way to the toilets, as we had to climb through a construction site to get there. And the men’s, by the way, were outdoors on the side of a small building.

Looking Forward to More Ports on our Introduction to Southeast Asia

At this point, we had completed six days of our 15-day cruise. Things started looking up after leaving Sihanoukville.

As this post is rather long, we have decided to split it into two parts.

Next up: Cruising as an Introduction to Southeast Asia – Part 2, including the following ports of call: Nha Trang, Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Singapore; Phuket, Thailand; Penang, Malaysia; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Ian and Ann