Cruising the South China Sea

We finally got the chance for an “off-island” break recently. We had a lovely holiday starting with 2 days in Auckland - it didn't rain (! ! !) and they were two lovely days! Cheryl reacquainted herself with where she used to live and bought some classy Italian sandals (with heels!) on sale and we shopped madly for some new clothes for both of us.

After Auckland we flew off to Singapore for another 2 days of shopping and city life. We love Singapore - it is so orderly and well organised! (not at all like anything in the developing world). However there is poverty and people work hard to earn a living and there is a real current of deprivation under all the glitz and glamour. We noted it all and then just had a nice time in a lovely hotel and took in all the sights just as any tourist would.

And now onto the ship - the Superstar Gemini. We arrived to board and we were sure that everyone getting on the ship was in their dotage and thought 'Oh God - what have we done!' It was all gold and granite and very 'Asian deco' - and in the centre of the ship.... a Casino! We did notice there were hardly any children and thought this had to be good!

As it happened there were, of course, people our age and with similar interests and we met some lovely travellers from Canada and New Zealand and a heap of Aussies mostly from Western Australia. We settled into a lazy life of cocktails by the pool, being waited on for every whim and filling our time with nothing but sheer indulgence. The restaurants were sublime and the service and food fantastic.

There were only about 460 cruisers on board and I don't know where they were for most of the trip because we never felt crowded and rarely had to wait for anything. In fact there were more crew on board than passengers and we felt the benefit of that throughout the trip. If we had wanted to there were activities arranged for every moment of the day - movies, craft activities, dancing lessons, mahjong, cards, bingo, silly fun things like coconut bowling and sarong tying, line dancing, shuffleboard and deck quoits etc. and the cruise staff were enthusiastic and fun and so easy to get along with, nothing was too much for them to do to ensure we enjoyed ourselves. We did however choose not to do too many of the activities but took advantage of the gym, the spa and massage, the hairdresser and mostly the pool and pool bar! The cabaret and musical performances were very good and there was a troupe of Chinese acrobats, jugglers and contortionists who were sensational performers.

We had booked the cruise with some trepidation in light of the recent publicity of cruises as floating poker machine palaces with an accompaniment of Aussie yobo boozy louts who didn't know how to behave! There was no evidence of any bad behaviour or boozy indulgence (other than our own) and the whole trip was thoroughly pleasant, comfortable and luxurious!

Koh Samui in Thailand was the next stop after a day out of Singapore at sea. It is an island off the coast of Thailand. We did a day trip to the small town where the ship anchored. The resorts must keep the economy of the island afloat - the town had one cheap clothing shop after another, with a few furniture and souvenir places dotted throughout. The other cruisers booked rides on elephants and monkey shows, but we decided to just do a short visit to town and return to the ship. Ron went off to have a massage and Cheryl returned to the ship for more laying about around the pool and winding down – too easy.

After another day on the 'high seas' we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon - in fact everyone still called it Saigon when we were there. We chose to do a tour as the city has millions of people and we had no idea where we might go and what to do. As it turned out the tour was great - we visited the Regional Museum, had a ride in a pedalshaw (bike style rickshaw) - along with another 100 people from the cruise which presented a really funny sight! - visited the reunification palace where the north and south of Vietnam were reunited after the war and heard lots of history about the war and it's impact on Vietnam and development there. We also went to a factory where they produce some beautiful pieces of art. We bought a picture of some women planting rice in a field. The interesting thing about it is the picture is a mosaic of crushed duck shells in different colours and it is quite intricate and beautiful, and all handmade and finished by people who probably work for a week for less than the painting cost.

Another day at sea and then we visited Tioman Island, just off Malaysia. It was really just a resort island and would be a lovely place to go for a honeymoon or for that 'get away from everything' type holiday. We visited the island for a couple of hours and returned to the ship.

Then it was back to Singapore for another couple of days. We returned shopping to Chinatown and the ‘Little India” as well as Arab Street. A visit to the night Zoo was a must we were told and it was great. Lots of nocturnal animals all wandering about doing their things in the semi-light. In this artificial twilight you can’t see any of the fences and barriers so it was like we were walking / riding right next to them –lions, tigers, elephants, tapirs, etc etc. All capped by an amusing live show with some of the animal handlers.

Back on the plane, and home via an overnight stop in Auckland. The only down-side of the holiday was all the time you spend in airport lounges and queues waiting. But all was well worth it.