From Champagne & Caviar to Temples & Tuk Tuks - Thailand!

What an adventure Thailand has been!  And the highlight of our stay here was the day we didn’t go anywhere.

After a nice relaxing sea day after Ho Chi Minh City, we arrived at Ko Kood Beach on Monday the 24th for the Seabourn Signature Event - Caviar in the Surf.  This was absolutely amazing.  We tendered to the beach at around 11am, to find hundreds of chairs under umbrellas all along the beach waiting for us.  Suddenly a bell rang and we all went into the water to be met by all the bar and restaurant staff floating out from the ship with champagne and caviar!  We were in waist deep warm clear water, there were fully clothed waiters all around pouring champagne, and two floating caviar stations!  

Heading out to our party in the water.

Here it comes with the Captain at the helm

Floating caviar serving station

Alex was very popular.

Heaven!!

The staff were all having such a good time - it was just a joy.  While we were doing this, the chef and his incredible crew were a little further down the beach grilling steaks, lobsters, chicken, shrimp and putting out a fabulous array of salads and fruit.  There were tables set up under dozens of beach umbrellas, complete with white table cloths and all the same trimmings as we get in the dining room.  

Then it was play-time!  Our ship carries a “marina” of kayaks, banana boats, speed boats and rafts, so we took a two person kayak down a little river type waterway through the mangroves on the island.  It was a wonderful, magical day.

The next day we arrived in the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand.  We left early Tuesday morning for our excursion to Bangkok!  It was about a two hour drive through the cities and beautiful countryside of Thailand.  Once in Bangkok, we visited several Buddhist temples, had a lovely Thai lunch (spicy!) at a beautiful small hotel, and toured the city by Tuk Tuk!  And - add another country to the geocache list!

Bangkok is a busy, hot, crowded, noisy, colorful, friendly, mix of old and new.  It is a modern city, but with a lot of the old still remaining.

Bustling downtown

We visited several Buddhist temples while in Bangkok - they are all beautiful and very busy with both tourists and worshippers.

There was a mass going on at the first temple.

Reclining Buddha at the Wat Pho Temple

Beautiful ceilings at the Marble Temple

 We toured the city by Tuk-Tuk - the traditional taxi used in Thailand.  They have three wheels and are steered by motorcycle type handlebars.  They got their name from the putt-putt type of motor they used to have that sounded like tuk tuk tuk tuk.  We even had a police escort!

Tuesday night was another unexpected treat - we had dinner with the captain!  He invited those of us who have been on since Sydney and are leaving in Singapore to a cocktail party with the officers and then dinner in a private dining room and it was so enjoyable.  He is an extremely gregarious guy and a great storyteller.  There were just three tables of 8, each hosted by an officer, and our names were on the table hosted by the captain!  What a fun night.

Wednesday was quite an adventure!  Well, the bus ride there and back was, anyway.  Our driver took us to the wrong place initially, so we had to back-track quite a ways and then on the way home he took a “short cut” down a dirt road, which ended up being a dead end involving backing the bus back up this very narrow road to get on the correct one.  Once we finally got to the right place - it was great!  We went to the Pattaya Elephant Village and learned how elephants are trained, saw a show - in which Burr was a participant - and rode an elephant!  The ride was quite exciting, as there was no seat or anything to hold on to - we just sat on its head with our legs behind the ears!  We felt like we were falling off either to the side or right off the front the whole time - it’s not exactly a smooth ride.  It was so fun!

We were treated to a fabulous show that evening after dinner.  Turns out, several of our enormously talented cast of singers were trained in opera!  We had a guest entertainer on board - a remarkable tenor - and he joined our singers for a wonderful night of opera under the stars.  We’ve heard these kids sing everything from opera to rock now and they are just fantastic.

I just can’t believe this marvelous trip is about to come to an end!  This is the longest we’ve ever been away, but this has been such an incredible adventure and this ship is so comfortable we could stay longer.  In fact - there is a woman on board who has done just that…for 10 years!  The Grande Dame of Seabourn is onboard with us.  Mrs Witzke has been living on board the various Seabourn ships for nearly 10 years.  She is a tiny little woman, obviously elderly, but quite spry.  She is always dressed to the nines with not a hair out of place.  She eats lunch at the same table each day at the stroke of noon, is escorted to the cocktail lounge (to her reserved table) each evening at precisely 7:15 by two staff members or officers, where her champagne is immediately delivered.  They then escort her to her table in the dining room and have dinner with her before delivering her back to her cabin.  I’ve never seen her speaking to anyone other than staff members, and she rarely ever gets off the ship.  The only event we've ever seen her attend is the mandatory safety briefing at the beginning of each cruise segment, and then she is escorted in at the last minute and escorted back out at the first opportunity.  At the end of this cruise, she will transfer to another ship and so on.  She has her own cabin on each ship, and not a big fancy suite, just a regular room.  She seems happy and pleasant and the staff all seem to like her.  At first, it seemed so glamorous and elegant, but the more I think about it, it would be an incredibly sad and lonely life.

Two sea days to the end of our journey in Singapore, where we’ll spend a couple of days, before flying home.