London April 2025

After the SE Asia cruise, I headed to England solo for 9 days of fun and adventure with family and friends. Laura flew home to Austin.

Monday April 28 - Wednesday April 30 I stayed in London at the Charlotte Street Hotel, which is in a lovely area full of pubs, restaurants and shops, but a comfortable distance from the bustle of Tottenham Court Road.

On the Monday, I had colluded with my brothers Laurence and Paul to set up a what turned out to be an epic pub crawl around some of London's oldest pubs . It was Paul who compiled the list of 10 (!) pubs we should visit, and needless to say we only made it to 4 on the list, and a couple of others. Part of the problem was that in each place we went, we made new friends, who in turn had suggestions of "a pub you must not miss". So it was easy to get led astray.

Tuesday was mostly spent recovering from Monday evening. Wednesday was my birthday and I met my best friend Mike for cocktails at the Donovan Bar, followed by dinner at Mike's favorite restaurant Langans Brasserie. We had a great time, but sadly there is no photographic evidence.

Bangkok Thailand April 2025

The cruise finished at Laem Chabang, which is a huge industrial port 80 miles from Bangkok, and the traffic around and in Bangkok is horrendous. We had treated ourselves to a one night stay at the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok, with our flight to Amsterdam leaving at noon the next day. It took our car transfer over two hours to get to the hotel. So we saw a lot of Bangkok at walking pace, sweltering as the car's AC struggled to keep up with the temperature and humidity

We had intended to explore Bangkok in the afternoon after checking into the hotel but the traffic jams, heat and humidity deterred us. Instead we enjoyed a late lunch on the hotel veranda - with enough shade and fans to keep us reasonably cool. The food, drinks and service were exemplary.

As you can see the hotel is right on the bank of the Chao Phraya River, which meanders through downtown. The views from our room were captivating - a bit like watching a fountain or a fire - hard to look away

The next day, KLM whisked us back to Amsterdam, from where Laura flew home and I went on to visit family and friends in England. This was a very cool trip!

Nha Trang Vietnam, April 2025

The ship docked in Cam Ranh Bay, since the docks in Nha Trang were recently damaged in a storm. Cam Ranh Bay is part of a military base, and we had to take an excursion bus an hour and a half each way to Nha Trang, but it was well worth it.

Here is a video of our approach into beautiful Cam Ranh Bay:

On the bus ride from Cam Ranh to Nha Trang, once we were outside of the military zone, the coast was dotted with 5 star beach and golf resorts, which apparently are mostly marketed to Chinese and Korean tourists. It is a beautiful stretch of coastland.

Once in Nha Trang the tour took us to a local craft and music center, then to the Ponagar Temple and then a long climb up the hill to the Long Son Pagoda, a Buddhist temple with a very large white Buddha statue. 155 steps to the top, where the views were wonderful and the Buddha very impressive close up. Nha Trang is a wonderful city to visit. If only we had more time.

There is a story to the last photo above, which shows the ships officers out on the port wing of the bridge, watching the road from Nha Trang into the port at Cam Ranh. A couple were missing and had not returned from their private outing. We had an "all aboard" time of 5:30pm for a 6pm departure ... and when I took this shot it was 5:50pm and the gang plank was still out. This is our nightmare, to get back to port too late and miss the ship. This occasion had a happy ending, as a taxi came in sight at 5:55pm, the miscreants were on board by 5:58pm and we cast off bang on time. Everyone breathed a long sigh of relief. Only the ships officers seemed unaffected, but I guess they see it often.