The early start to the day proved necessary, as the temple we were visiting was the other side of Pattaya. Despite being billed as a day in the countryside the first 45 minutes of the trip stayed well within urban areas, only the final 5-10 minutes showing rural locations. Even those were heavily built up, […]

Another morning, another luxurious 8am lie-in. Dressed and on deck with coffee in time to watch us dock, the lazy dock workers using a car to pull the anchoring ropes from the ship to shore (using a line thrown to them, in case you’re wondering). It’s a big dock that looks how I imagine Immingham […]

Comically it appears I hit my day’s 300MB limit while posting last night’s update. I went to bed not knowing whether it went online or not. The next morning I went up for coffee. No breakfast, I’m not getting enough exercise to offset it. My first Cambodians were up there, and they were getting breakfast, […]

Sleep. Sweet blissful sleep. Of course, I woke up at 4.55am because my body is now used to its 5am alarm call. But with no steam pipe above me 5am passed and I drifted in that restless dream state for another hour or two, then fell asleep properly. I finally emerged from my cabin just […]

Another day, another 5am wake up call from.. well, whatever the hell it is. That’s not strictly true. I woke up ten minutes before that, last night’s late water demanding an exit. Instead of going back to bed I ended up lying across it, and that’s when things got interesting. The 5am sound was different […]

Dawn brought a very pretty sight once I’d emerged from my cabin. I woke in darkness, but that’s because I don’t have a window, the sun already visible by the time I reached the deck. Waking up at 5am is because of the constant noise that occurs then. Looks like it’s not another passenger working […]

When I say ‘by the sea’ I do mean ‘surrounded on all sides, no land in sight’. Awake before 5am, up before 6, drinking coffee in the Lido for an hour before it opens for breakfast. Reading the news printouts; they’re dated yesterday and cover Friday’s news. It’s Sunday and I already know what happened […]

Last night’s film was interesting. I’ll have to watch again and this time stay awake through it. My body seems to be on East coast of Australia time and not Vietnamese. Hopefully I wont shift body clock just as I shift location. Up at 5am, a 5.30 breakfast (scrambled egg, sausage, bacon) and a quick […]

In bed and asleep at 9pm, slept through to 4am, another hour snoozing until 5. Not good for acclimatising my body clock to local time (although it may work ok for Singapore) but lovely to get some proper sleep at last. Sadly the Lido didn’t open for breakfast until 7am (unlike the 6am earlier in […]

Returning to the ship was straightforward. Curiously while sat in the Wyndham my brain had insisted we were swaying, which may be why the deep swell on the small boat didn’t bother me as we crossed the bay back to the Westerdam. I guess I’m developing my sea legs – something that intrigued me as […]