New Years 2017 1 – 3

We left Bloomington for Atlanta right on time and it was a good flight.

When we got to Atlanta, we had 7 hours to wait so we ate in the center of the terminal and sat in some great comfortable chairs to people watch.  With a couple of hours to go, we decided to go down to the gate to charge Ed’s phone and wait until the plane was ready to board. 

As we were approaching the gate we realized that they were boarding and then Ed realized that his phone had not reset to the Atlanta time and he was still one hour behind!  Well we made it on but wow, was that close to missing the plane.

The flight to Paris was an 8 hour flight; however, we sat at the gate for two hours because of de-icing problems.  As a result, we were an 1 ½ late getting into Paris which meant we had only an hour to get off the plane, go down the concourse, switch to another concourse and go thru security.  Again, we made it to the plane just as they were boarding – but at least we made the plane.

We were 30 minutes early in arriving in Dubai and by the time we got our luggage it was after midnight.  Our driver was waiting for us and we were in the room and going to sleep by 2:00am. 

We were upgraded and wow what a room.  We were on a high floor (21) with an ocean view and a balcony.  It is probably $200 more a night upgrade – thanks Marriott.

We woke up at 6:45am as we had to get up, have breakfast and meet out tour guide at 9:00am for a tour of the city.  The tour was by bus with a group of about 25 people and it gave us a good general idea of the size of the city and some background.  We arrived back to the hotel at 3:00pm and rested for awhile before going out.    One of the places we drove to was Palm Island, the largest man-made island in the world and they are building 2 more. Not only are there a lot of places to live on the island, there are over 3beach-front hotels just on this island.  The island is build like a palm tree with the trunk connecting the mainland and each branch holding places to live, work and play.   The shore line is 320 miles long on this island and it was only competed in 2014 all built on reclaimed land from the sea.  It is an amazing sight to see.

We also saw the world only 7 star hotel, the Burj Al Arab Hotel, built like a big sail on a ship.  The rooms start at $2,000 a night.

We walked a few blocks from the hotel after we got back to a 4 ½ mile river walk that is on both sides of the river had over 200 restaurants!

We did not walk all of the way, but about a third and then took an evening sightseeing boat along this beautiful man-made river.  We actually went out into the ocean for a little bit before re-entering the river.

After the cruise we ate in a very good Kabobs place and shared a wonderful meal.  Then we walked over a bridge and walked back on the other side of the river.

Some interesting things we have found out.

Right away, the people are very friendly and very helpful.  As we arrived at the airport and had to go through customs, they had people to lift yor suitcases up and off the conveyor belts even. 

80% of the people are from other countries and only 20% are from Dubai.  Of the 80%, ½ are from India.

The only people who can own property are the 20% of the population who are native born.  Everyone else must lease their property.  Even businesses cannot buy their property if their owner is not native born.  Everything is controlled by the King.

There is very little crime and the city is very, very clean and of course, it is very rich – extremely so as they discovered oil here in the early 60’s.  Before that, they supported by fishing and trading.  Today the revenue sources are #1 oil and #2 tourists.

Everything seems new and they talk about how this and that are the biggest in the world.  It seems like they have the biggest in the world in about everything.

Dubai is actually a state and one of seven states in the United Arab Emirates.  Each of the seven states is controlled by a family with King at the head.  So, this is a monarchy and it is very impressive. 

Gas is 43 cents a gallon.

Time to say good night from Dubai.

                          Our Room at the Habtoor Grand Resort Autograph Collection Marriott Dubai

                                                             The view from our balcony

Breakfast on the outdoor dining area of the Executive Lounge

The 7 star hotel

Time for a snack

We saw this yacht in Europe a couple of years ago - owned by a Russian

A snack delivered to our room

Snacks at night in the Executive Lounge - on the left, Smoked Salmon nd on the right Smoked Duck with Quail Egg

Dinner

The trunk of Palm Island

The entire island - this island has a shore line of 320 miles!

The river walk and sky line

New Years - 2017 - Our trip around the world!!

         Here are the ports of call for our 2017 New Years Cruise on the Celebrity Constellation.

We leave for Dubai on Friday, January 6, 2017 from Bloomington, IL on Delta Airlines at 11:42am and arrive in Atlanta at 2:27pm.  

Then we board an Air France plane at 8:50pm and arrive in Paris at 10:50am Paris time.  It will be an 8 hour flight.  Then at 1:25pm we will depart Paris on another Air France flight to Dubai, landing in Dubai at 11:20pm.  This flight will be a 6 hour 55 minute flight.   Dubai is 10 hours ahead of our time at home!!

We will be met at the airport by a transfer service and driven to the Marriott Habtoor Grand Resort, Autograph Collection Hotel in Dubai.

The next morning, we will have a tour beginning at 9:00am.  Hopefully by the end of day on Sunday, January 8, I will fill in the blog.

We will travel from Dubai by car to Abu Dhabi and board the Celebrity Constellation on Wednesday, January 11.  This is the same ship that we took the family on in 2015 and we were also on it in Turkey, Croatia and the Greek Islands.

From Abu Dhabi, we will sail to Mumbai, India, Goa, India, New Mangalore, India and then to Cochin, India.  The next stops will be Colombo, Sri Lanka and Phuket, Thailand before ending our 15 night cruise in Singapore.

In Singapore, we will stay for several days before flying home on Sunday, January 29 from Singapore to Tokyo, to Atlanta and finally to Bloomington arriving at 10:20pm, still on Sunday – now that’s a long day!

Enjoy our trip with us.

Asia - 2017 - Videos from the trip

Temple Street Night Market - Tokyo

                                   The Marriott Executive Lounge for breakfast in Hong Kong

                                                         Eating snake soup in Hong Kong

                                                          On the streets of Hanoi

                                                          At the water puppet show in Hanoi

                                             Waking up in Hanoi from our hotel window

                                                    At a local market in Bangkok

                                    Riding elephants 3 hours west of Bangkok - 10 miles from Burma

                                                    Taking a bath with the elephant

                                                             Our room in Bangkok

                                                   At a Hawker Food Center in Singapore

                                                   The Marriott Tang Plaza in Singapore

                                 The view from the largest public housing building in Singapore

                                                         The Royal Palace in Bangkok

                                                          The Royal Palace - part 2

                                                                Lunch in Singapore

                                               What we ordered for lunch in Singapore

                                                      At a Buddhist Temple in Singapore

                                                      The flight from Tokyo to Chicago

                                         Mai's Noodles in Hong Kong

                                     Water Puppets music show in Hanoi

                                             Pedal cab in Danang

                                                      At a Hanoi food market

                                          At The Cloud Forest exhibit in Singapore

                                   At The Cloud Forest exhibit in Singapore - part 2

                          At the salted egg lunch stand in Singapore for another lunch

                                              At the Flower Forest in Singapore

Some additional pictures

On the flight over

Riding bareback up the hill

Our Casino Host - Dee - One of the best!!

Food coming back

Ed's steak

Barb's

One sleepy lady!!

Asia - 2017 - Days 17 - 21

Asia – 2016 – Days 17 – 19

Two days in Singapore were next on our travel plans.

The ship docked at 8:30am and we had the ability to stay on the ship the first night and leave the second night, so we did just that.

We left the ship as early as we were able and went to an exhibit called the Battle Box.  This was a WWII underground bunker that took 5 years to build, starting just before the Japan started the war.  It was used as a hidden bunker to control the Allied forces in the defense of Malaysia and Singapore.  Because of the swiftness of the Japanese invasion, it was only used 5 days before the British surrendered.

It was very erie to see all of the pictures and displays as to how soldiers lived there during the last days of the war.

Singapore was under control of the British at the time of the war and had to surrender with 120,000 soldiers in Singapore and they said it was the start of the downfall of the British Empire.

After that tour, we went on a 4 ½ hour walking tour of downtown Singapore that was really good.

That night we were back on the ship for dinner and our last night’s sleep before leaving the ship for this trip.  

As the ship was in port, the casino was not open, so we left the next morning with all of our winnings.

Following are observations from the final two days that we had to visit Singapore.

First thing in our second morning, we took a cab to the Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza which had been recommended by a friend of our John Rettick, a FedEx pilot.

Once again we were staying in a beautiful Marriott.  As a matter of fact, all of the Marriott’s that we have stayed at overseas have been better than the Marriott’s in the US.

We then took the subway to the Gardens By The Bay, the #1 attraction in Singapore.  The Gardens are huge and there are two amazing domes, one for flowers called the Flower Dome and one for vegetation, called The Cloud.  We took a short tour in the Flower Dome and spent another ½ touring on our own.  Thousands of flowers were in this building and it was very beautiful.

Then we went into the Cloud Dome and what an amazing structure this was.  It was huge with a walking ramp that circled the living plants that are growing in the structure.    The pictures do not do either of these structures justice as they are just huge.

Singapore is famous for “Hawker Centers” which are areas in the city where local people have food stands.  The stands are 8 x10 usually run by a couple and they serve all kinds of food.  We ate several times at the two largest Hawker Centers in town and really enjoyed the food.  The food was very good and the prices were very inexpensive.  The largest Hawker Center was in Chinatown and it had 206 booths.  The most we ever spent on a main course was $3.17 US for a meal for both of us!!

We visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum; however, we were not allowed to take pictures in this Temple.  One amazing fact is that in the main room that displays a tooth of the Buddha, there are 1,600 8” x 8” floor tiles that are 3mm thick and are made of solid gold!!

On the second day, we went for another walking tour at 4:00pm; however, the tour guide did not show up.  While we were waiting, we talked with a young couple, he was from Italy and she from Spain and they had been living together for 6 years in England.  They were very nice and had travelled a lot.  We invited them to go with us that night to the zoo and they said yes and met us at our hotel.

We also visited the largest Hindu Temple as well as the largest Mosque in the city, the Sultan Mosque.

We visited the Chinatown Heritage Centre which traced the history of the Chinese people in Singapore.  They currently make up 74% of the population.  At the center, they had a full scale reproduction of a Chinese row house that was 3 stories high and would have held up to 100 people in the 1800’s.  Most of the families were from 8 – 10 children and lived in an 8’ x 8’ space!

People say it is a small world and we have certainly met people that we have met before in places we never expected and we had another crossing of paths on this trip.  Ed was in the salad line in the Marriott Executive Lounge and was on the wrong side of the line waiting for the person across from his to finish using the thongs to get some small tomatoes.  That person handed the thongs to Ed and said “Hi Ed” and to our surprise it was our friend John Rettick, the FedEx pilot from Bloomington!!  We had to leave shortly so we sat together for a little bit and then agreed to meet the next night for dinner and a river cruise that John had never been on.

That night, we went to the Zoo with our new friends to experience a nighttime safari and it was really fun.   It was a full moon and the lights were very dim; but, you could easily see and almost touch the animals as only a few were actually caged.  These were all nocturnal wild animals in a very real setting.  We were on a tram that took almost an hour to travel its course.  After the tram ride, we walked a number of walking paths throughout the zoo.

The last night in Singapore, we took an evening river cruise with John and witnessed a laser light and sound show that was very good.  After that we went back to the hotel and the lounge and sat with John for a while before going to our room and packing for the next day.

We also, on the boat ran into a neat couple who we had met on the cruise, Tony and Mary from Boston - it truly is a small world.

Our trip home was uneventful and very long.   We started with a 6 hour trip to Tokyo on a Japan Airlines airplane and it was amazing how trained and friendly the staff was.  The food was also very, very good.  Then we had access to the Admirals Club for American Airlines and we waited a couple of hours for our 11hr+ flight to Chicago.  We were lucky to cash in points and fly first class – wow what a difference that makes in flying comfort.  We each had a little cubical with an 18” television with dozens of movies, etc.  Our seat was made to lie flat and what a way to travel.  Of food service was fantastic with Barb having a traditional Japanese meal and Ed had a filet!!  All served on china with a table cloth and real silverware.

When we arrived in Chicago, we had a 6 hour wait so we waited in the Admirals Club and ate dinner and relaxed until the flight which was at 10:10pm arriving in Bloomington at 10:50pm. 

By the time we got home, we had been up for over 36 hours, but it was a perfect trip back.

That’s it for this trip.  All of the cities and countries that we visited were very interesting.  Would we go back to Vietnam, probably not.  Would we go back to Bangkok, Hong Kong or Singapore – Yes, Yes.  We will be in Singapore at the end of our next cruise and we are really looking forward to finishing our visit there.

(From Barb)

Hope you enjoyed following our trip  . . . it was fabulous, we saw and learned SO much.  Our only regret is that you all couldn’t join us!

Have happy holidays

Getting ready to leave for our first day in Singapore

A hotel, casino and then a pool in the roof top.  Cost 3.5 Billion to build

Lunch - Chicken and Rice

Ice Cream

Making us a sugar cane drink

Breakfast at the Marriott

Our lunch stand - we had the porl

Pork, Noodles and ??

Making our lunch of pork and noodles

John Rettick at the Marriott

Trees in the Flower Garden area

Sit or squat!!

With John Rettick on a boat ride

Our dinner 

This was KungPao chicken

Salted egg, rice and chicken

The Admirals Lounge in Chicago

Asia – 2016 – Day 15 - 16

Day 15 - 

The last of two sea days started out as a partly cloudy day so we did not do out on the deck after Ed had breakfast and was at the gym.

We went to a presentation about our final port, Singapore and heard about the early years of the city/country of Singapore and that used up the morning.

We also saw a very powerful quote as follows:
"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home."  James Michener

Then we went to the buffet and ate and ate, probably too much, but we had fun, just grazing through the food.  It was the first time that we had eaten lunch at the buffet and they selection was very good, with lines of Italian, Mexican and Asian foods and also American food – quite a good selection.  The buffet has changed over the last several years to offer a lot more different foods.

Next we went to the casino where Barb attempted to qualify for the end of the cruise slot tournament.  She was in the final 7 until yesterday and then was bumped out.  She still has a chance to get back in as the final qualifying round is tomorrow before the final.  Ed is so far in the final round and they have only one qualifying round left tomorrow.  The winner in the final round wins a 7 night Caribbean cruise – so wish us luck.

After the casino we had dinner in the specialty restaurant called Quisine with our Casino Host Dee.  She spent a couple of hours and had a lot of fun.

Then we went to the show which was a couple who were aerialist, the female was an Olympic Gymnast and they both are from Moscow.  We have seen them a couple of times before and they are a very successful act.  Towards the end of the act when he was holding her about 15’ above the ground, she fell, he was let right down and carried her off the floor.  The rest of the show was cancelled and we don’t know her status at this point.

The casino was busy tonight as there is only one night to go in the casino as the last night we are docked so the casino is not open.

Barb did very well and Ed lost.  Only one more day for the casino – so wish us luck.

Night

Day 16 -

In the morning, Ed went to the gym, had breakfast and then we went up on the deck for some great sun; however, it only lasted about an hour and then it really rained hard.

So, we went inside and went to a presentation about Singapore.  This is going to be a fun port to visit.

There is virtually no crime, the unemployment rate is 1.6% and they have system that gives health care for everyone at a fraction of the cost in the United States.  They also have a program that everyone belongs to that makes sure that everyone can buy a house and live with a comfortable retirement.

After the presentation, we ate lunch and then went to the casino for the final qualifying round in the slot tournament that was to award a free cruise to the lucky winner.

Ed qualified for the finals on the first sea day, Barb was in it and got knocked out so she tried again today and didn’t make it; however, they drew for the final seat and Barb was able to get into the finals.  That gave us 2 of the 8 seats to win a cruise and guess what –

                ED WON THE TOURNAMENT AND WON A FREE CRUISE!!!

What we won was a free 7 night Caribbean cruise with a balcony cabin.  We get to pick the cruise or we can have $1,200.  It is good for a year from today, so we will decide what to do when we get home.

We also played a session and Barb lost a little and Ed won.

Then we saw a great production show with the Celebrity singers and dancers and had a good dinner.

We had a really nice table and met some nice people.  One of our tablemates lives in Bombay, were we are going next so she gave us some pointers as to what to do.

After dinner, we played our last secession in the casino and Barb won and Ed lost.  All-in-all, it was one of the best casino wins we have every had – the 5^th best cruise in terms of winning – and in addition we won the free cruise.

Tomorrow morning we dock in Singapore; however, the official last day is the next day.  This means that we will spend the day and evening in Singapore, come back to the ship and the next day leave and check into the Singapore Marriott for a few days.

Night for now -

Just a little something extra for lunch

Ed with Dee, our wonderful Casino host

Going out for the evening

Asia – 2016 – Day 14

What an amazing day we had in Bangkok and coupled with the day before, this is one of our favorite ports and we would love to come back sometime.

We had a wonderful night’s sleep at the Bangkok Marriott and had a fast breakfast in order to meet out guide who was to be there at 8:00am.  To our surprise, the guide was actually a husband and wife team and they were very, very good.

Our morning started out by taking the subway to the riverfront where we boarded a boat for the trip up river to the Presidential Palace.  Then we spent the next couple of hours seeing the massive temple area and then the Palace.  The pictures and videos that we took do not even come close to showing how spectacular the place was.

After the tour, we walked a long ways to a market where we ate some great street food, trying out new foods.   Then they took us to a typical Thai restaurant.  Our guides ordered for us and we were served 6 different dishes for lunch.   Lunch plus dessert came to a total of $8.31 in US dollars!!  Amazing!

After lunch we took a cab back to the hotel so we could pack and meet the shuttle bus which was to leave at 2:00pm.  As it had started to rain, it took a few minutes to get a cab and then we hit massive traffic.  We finally arrived at the hotel at 1:15pm, literally threw our clothes in our bag and hurried to the bus which was several blocks away.  We couldn’t take a cab as the traffic was so bad so we had to walk and arrived at the bus with 10 minutes to spare.

By the time we got back to the ship, our country had witnessed the election of a new President – Donald Trump.  Coupled that with of course the Cubs winning and it has been an amazing few weeks.

The show was 3 performers from Australia singing song from Queen and dinner was very good.

Following dinner, Barb lost just a little and Ed had a good win.

A really fun couple of days it has been and now we have two sea days until we get to Singapore.

Check back after we get to Singapore as I will post some great videos.

Night for now.

Our tour guides

In the Temple

More of the Temple

Buying a skirt

Following is all of the food we ate for lunch

Coconut

Port on a stick

Pineapple

All of the courses for lunch

Trying some new fruit