Cruising on the South China Sea

PHOTOS from this trip will be uploaded to the blog when we return to Brunei. Our internet connection while on the ship is by satellite, which is very expensive. Saturday - Monday, March 1-3, 2014 We spent a couple of days in Singapore before the cruise. We went to the Garden by the Bay. We had a great time looking at all the different plants. Thankfully, it was inside, as it gets very warm in the middle of the day. We had dinner with a friend that Jim used to work with in The Netherlands. It was fun to see her and get to know her husband. Tuesday, March 4, 2014 Our first day of the cruise, we spend at sea. There are many activities on the ship on "at sea" days. I went to Yoga and Jim went to Tai Chi. Later in the day we played bingo and lost. *sad* Wednesday, March 5, 2014 We docked in Koh Samui, Thailand early Wednesday morning. We had a quick breakfast and off we went on a small bus. We went to the huge seated Buddha on the North East Coast, which is quite a landmark. We also went on a short walk through a village to see the fish market. Smelly! At the end of the walk they served us green coconuts to drink the milk straight out of the coconut. The next stop was where we could see the monkeys bring down the brown coconuts from the top of the tree. We did make it back to the ship to eat lunch before they closed the restaurant. We watch a very good movie called "12 years a Slave", which is based on a true story. The story line is sad, but the movie was well done. I can see why it earned some awards. Thursday, March 6, 2014 We had great fun going to the Elephant Village. We rode on the elephants through the jungle and even through some water. We fed them bananas on the way. They love bananas! There were also some very cute bunnies in a caged area close to where we got off the elephants. We walked a ways through the jungle, over a small wooden foot bridge to a small hut where they process silk. They showed us the different processes that the cocoon goes through to become silk thread. There was also a loom to see how it is woven. We have seen this process before at a place in Turkey. The main difference is the color of the cocoon. The cocoon in Turkey was white, instead of the pale yellow. We walked a short ways and got on a covered wooden raft. We rode down a lake ??, not really sure what kind of body of water this was, but it was abundant in fish. We fed the fish with the feed that was provided. Bongo thought it was very interesting the way we were guided by a rope down the lake. See photos. We got in a 4-wheel drive vehicle and the drive drove us back to where we started riding the elephants. We enjoyed a very nice Thai buffet lunch. When Thai people tell you that the food is not spicy, it is still a bit spicy. They had everyone in our group sit in a stadium type place for the elephant show. We were offered to go into the water with the elephants, but no one took them up on that. After the elephants had a nice bath, they brought them back up to the area in front of us. They offered that we could ride the elephant bare-back, just behind the neck. I thought that would be fun, so I volunteered first, and many people followed. It was actually easier bare-back that in the seat like we were earlier today. Jim followed and also rode bare-back. They have one elephant that used to be a show elephant, so this elephant showed the different ways the trainer can get on top of the elephant. This tour also included a tour of a gems factory, which was very interesting, but we were not allowed to take photos. It was like a very large jewelry store.