Today we are in Sanya, China, on an island in the Deep South of the country. This modern city is fringed with mountains and forest and has a crescent shaped mile long beach. It is a busy fishing port and a place where cargoes are carried by junks to smaller settlements around the coast. The …
It is our second day in Halong Bay so we took the opportunity to walk towards the town. To do this we followed a cone-lined walkway. En route we watched a local fishing boat, with the fisherman’s wife at the bow hauling in the nets. It did not appear to be a big catch. At …
We had arrived in Halong Bay, Vietnam, before we awoke and witnessed early morning activities and the front line of limestone pillars that we will explore this afternoon. At lunchtime we departed, on board a converted fishing junk, for a cruise around Halong Bay. This included lunch of local produce. Delicious! Halong Bay is, according …
A day at sea. At 8:30 a.m. this morning we saw fishing boats from a local fishing community hard at work as we approached, having left Da Nang last night. Currently we have a heading of 341° at approximately 110°E and 17°N. On land this is the DMZ or demilitarised zone established in 1954 in …
We arrived at Da Nang, Vietnam around 6:30 a.m. and will use this as a base from which to explore the Imperial City of Hue. The city was the capital of the Nguyên Empire during their reign from 1802 – 1945. To reach Hue we drove along the dramatic coastline and through a mountain range. …
Today we are at sea. At 10:00 a.m. we are at 110E and 13N in the South China Sea area of the Pacific Ocean as we head towards Hue. It is 25C with a force 5 wind from the northeast and the decks are wet from the humidity and spray from the ocean. …
Nha Trang, Vietnam. At 6:30 a.m. we slipped into the bay of Nha Trang. We were greeted with the sight of a ring of rainforest clad inactive volcanic peaks in front of which was a ring of smaller limestone peaks forming a ‘necklace’. This is because we are leaving the ‘ring of fire’ and entering …
Phu My ( Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam It was at the entrance to the Mekong River at 4:00 a.m. when the ship left the South China Sea to a deep-water port where the mangroves have been cleared. In the 1920s and 30s passenger liners were able to navigate the meandering river (known locally as …
Today is a day at sea, accompanied by our latest towel friend. We travelled overnight across the Gulf of Thailand and at 08:30 a.m. we were off the southwest tip of the enormous Mekong Delta. We were sailing through waters that had entered the gulf from a distributary which has its source near Tibet. This …
By 7:00 a.m. we had docked at Sihanoukville, Cambodia. This is not a pretty place but does give us access to the countryside, forest and coastline. We participated in a town and village exploration which enabled us to visit a pepper plantation. We saw how the young trees matured to produce green peppers for up …