Southeast Asia 2025
In March of 2025, we embarked on our favorite ship, MS Insignia, for a 22-day voyage from Singapore to Taiwan, stopping at two ports in Thailand, one in Cambodia, three in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and three ports in Japan before arriving in Taiwan. Many of the ports and several of the countries were new to us, so it was a great adventure. We spent 15 days in the various ports, which resulted in several thousand photographs being taken. That partially explains why it has take so long to post this blog. Please note, that if you click on any of the pictures below, they will take you to that photo, in the collection containing that photo. There are collections for: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and Kyushu. I refer to this cruise as a "Southeast Asia Cruise." Geographers will likely cringe because, while many of these ports are widely acknowledged or designated to be in that region, others are disputed, and some are definitively not. Whatever, they are all in Asia and are adjacent to the waters of "official" Southeast Asia. After a pair of very long flights, spanning more than 24 hours, we arrived just before dawn in Singapore. The gracious folks at The Weston Singapore, got us a room very quickly, and we went to bed. Jane and I spent almost all of the 30 hours, or so, before boarding, sleeping and eating. While we did take a couple of relatively short walks, I took only a few pictures, but not enough to post. We boarded our ship around noon on a dreary, hot, and very humid day, settled into our stateroom, and enjoyed a full day at sea before arriving at our first port, Ko Samui, Thailand.
Ko Samui is a small island off the coast of the Isthmus of Kra, the peninsula that connects the bulk of Thailand to Malaysia in the south. It is not as large and well known as it's more famous kin, Pattaya. It is much more original and therefore rustic. And while there are many grand development schemes that are in various degrees of completion, most have not come to fruition. As a result, it is mostly popular with the backpacking set who favor beaches, booz, music and marijuana (legal here). We visited a couple of local temples and visited one small resort. Interesting for a day, but it would likely be a long week without something else to do. The next day we docked in Bangkok, a huge and sprawling city. We took an all day tour, the highlight of which was seeing a 5.5 ton Golden Buddha that had been created in the 15th Century. Sometime, likely in the 18th Century, it was concealed by covering it with plaster and embedding decorative glass chips. It was moved several times, until, in 1955, it was accidentally dropped and some of the plaster fell off, revealing the gold interior. It is an amazing piece of engineering, as it is in nine parts, that fit together seamlessly. Included in this tour was a short river cruise where we were hoping to see one of the famous floating markets. It turned out that most of them in the Bangkok region have disappeared, supplanted by Seven-Elevens. As we were scheduled to take an extended boat tour to the same area the next day, we canceled the tour and relaxed on the ship, which, luckily, left a bit early. Fifteen hours later, a large earthquake destroyed a number of skyscrapers in Bangkok!
We would spend four days in Vietnam; two in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and one each in Cam Ranh and Hue. In Saigon, we opted to do a full day city tour and another full day touring the Mekong River and Delta. While some of the French architecture still remains, Saigon has become the business capital of the country, with a vibrant, youthful, population. While we did the prerequisite visits to the wartime sites, what impressed us was the energy and focus on the future of the people we met. In the Mekong, we saw the remains of an ancient rural culture that is quickly disappearing. Partly because of the modern economy, but also because of the threat to the river by the upstream hydroelectric dam projects being built in the countries upstream from Vietnam by the Chinese. Moving northward, we opted to take a tour of the rural countryside in the middle of the country. New businesses and factories are germinating along every highway, but once off the highway, we were treated to a visit to a traditional home, coffee shop, and local market. The people were very friendly and consequently photogenic. Our last stop included a visit to the ancient capital of Vietnam, Hue. In addition to its traditional significance, it was also the site of one of the most brutal battles of the war. Most of the modern city of Hue was rebuilt after being destroyed during the battle and the ancient castle and palace, known as The Citadel, has been restored to its original appearance. It is a monument to the apex of Vietnamese history and culture. Leaving Vietnam, we sailed Northeast, across the South China Sea on the second leg of our trip.
We were originally scheduled to spend two full days in both Hong Kong and Shanghai. We were advised by the "port authorities" that due to "traffic," we would have to shorten both port calls. As a result, we arrived in Hong Kong after 8 AM and were back underway by 4 PM. Many tours were cancelled, and since we had both been to Hong Kong on a number of previous trips, we opted to just walk around a bit on that cold and rainy day. Similarly, we were supposed to arrive early one evening in Shanghai and have two full days in port, leaving dinnertime on the second day. Instead, we arrived late one evening, after most of the magnificent lighting was turned off. We had one full day and left before mid-day of the second day. Despite the miserable logistics, Shanghai proved to be the star port of this cruise. Despite having to stick with ships tours, led by politically reliable guides, we got a real taste of where China wants to go. We also got to spend an afternoon in an ancient "water town," to see how rivers were always the arteries of the Chinese economy. While it was a bit crowded, it was very photogenic. I definitely would have loved to have been able to spend a couple of days poking around and taking photos. Maybe things will change enough in the future that I could do that. While I didn't post a nightime photo of the brilliantly lit Shanghai skyline on this blog, I have some wonderful shots of both the Bund and Pudong skylines in the Hong Kong & Shanghai Gallery.
The last leg of our trip took us up to the southern islands of Japan. The country stretches almost 2,000 miles, surrounded by Russia on three sides of its northernmost island, Hokkaido, to the tiny islands of the Ryukyu islands that sit almost due South of Korea. First we stopped at two ports on the southernmost large island in the chain of islands that make up the country, Kyushu. Our first port was Nagasaki. Perhaps known in the West as the site of the second atomic bomb target, I was very surprised that they do not push that aspect, but rather that it is a calm and beautiful place. We chose a tour that drove through the countryside, up into the mountains of a national park. As we ascended the mountains it became progressively foggier and rainy. We stopped at a quaint village that was next to a geyser field. We walked several miles through the fog, rain, and geyser smoke. Perhaps not the most comfortable, but it was a wonderful chance to try and capture ethereal photos. After a typical Japanese lunch, we drove down to Shimabara Castle, one of the famous Edo era castles. The next day we stopped at another port on the other side of Kyushu, Kagoshima. This proved to be another interesting day. We drove through the city to get on a scheduled ferry to the volcano across the bay. The city was clean, modern, and appears to have little external tourism. All the signs were in Japanese and we saw relatively little tourist activity. In fact, our guides had been the guides for our tours in Nagasaki the day before and had to do the Kagoshima tours due to the lack of English-speaking guides in Kagoshima. The ferry keeps a precise schedule, boarding, departing, and arriving at exactly the scheduled time. We toured the area near the volcano, which is still active and is largely evacuated. We saw many partially and completely destroyed buildings. But we also saw occupied homes, sitting on small areas of rock, surrounded by lava! It was an opportunity to see, up close and personal, the destruction caused by volcanos. It was also a chance to see how the Japanese deal with living next door to a live volcano. We observed many volcano shelters, as well as huge, deep, rock-lined trenches dug into the ground to divert flowing lava from occupied areas. After returning to the ship, we were surprised to see, what looked like a spontaneous farewell for the ship. People showed up with American, Canadian, German, Filipino, Mexican, and Japanese flags. A local drum group entertained us and everyone seemed to be happy that we came to visit. We sailed out of port in beautiful weather, past the volcano, towards our last port of call, Ishigaki, located in the southernmost prefecture in Japan, Okinawa. After a day at sea, we arrived in Ishigaki during a storm, with cold winds and heavy rains. Since we had planned to casually explore the island, we chose to stay on the ship. Early the next morning, we left the ship in Taipei to begin our long journey home. Jane and I were pleased to see several of the landmarks of our stay in Taipei in 1977. I hope you will click on the pictures above to explore my photos of these wonderful adventures. |
