Saturday, February 16, 2013

Day 42 - South China Sea

We have been cruising since last night out of the Thailand gulf, around the south end of Vietnam, and north into the China Sea.  Tomorrow morning we will get to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).  Ray has been looking forward to this with both anticipation and trepidation.

Today was a peaceful day.  I did some laundry this morning.  Have I mentioned that Regent has a laundry room on every floor for guest use?  It's the first cruise line we have been on that provides this valuable benefit.  On other ships we have had to pay to have it done for us.

This afternoon Sandra Bowren gave another lecture, this time on Vietnam history.  I am continually amazed at how little I learned in high school about this area of the world.  We studied lots of American and European history, but other than hearing about Marco Polo and the silk road, I learned very little about the far east.  This area has a very complex history and I am learning more with each passing day.  Sandra's lectures are amazing.  I don't know how she has managed to amass so much knowledge about so many areas of the world.  We have listened to her lectures on New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam so far.  I don't know how long she was on the ship before we boarded and how many other lectures she has given.  She appears to have traveled to all these ports before and pronounces the names of people and places in each country impeccably. 

The captain announced that the weather is supposed to deteriorate tonight, so we're expecting a rocky night.  At least it didn't get rough before we finished diner and got back to our room.  We should get to the mouth of the river where we pick up the pilot about 4AM tomorrow, so it should calm down then.

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