Phu My, Vietnam

Good Morning Vietnam!  Early in the morning of March 24^th we made our way out of the South China Sea and up the river to our berth at Phu My, the gateway to the largest city in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City formerly known as Saigon.  The drive from the port to Ho Chi Minh City is roughly 2 hours; the roads are narrow and very congested with traffic.  During the stop in Phu My a complimentary shuttle bus was available to the Ba Ria Market, a 40 minute drive away.  Vung Tau, the closet city to Phu My, is another 20 minutes from the market.  You can see we were in the middle of “nowhere”.

Most passengers took all day tours to Ho Chi Minh City, where they saw all the sights including markets and historical artifacts, or to the Cu Chi Tunnels, and also to the Mekong Delta.  This was also the starting point for the Overland tour to Cambodia’s Angor Wat.  We, unfortunately, had to cancel our spot on the trip to Angor Wat and again spent our day on board watching “life on the river”.

Our last trip to Vietnam was in 2008 and “life on the river” has not changed, it is still fascinating to watch how busy the daily activities keep the river and its tributaries.

Our departure was delayed due to late arriving tours.  Next port will be Laem Chabang the port for Bangkok, Thailand.  

Cindy's Foot

When we were in Shanghai, Cindy tripped and broke her foot. She is recovering onboard the ship and hopes to get a cast that will allow her to walk in the next few days.

Today we are in Hong Kong and will be heading out of here tomorrow (March 21st) at 5:00pm en route to Phu My, Vietnam.

We are behind on the blog by 5 ports, but should be able to catchup on the blog real soon since we has had to cancel many shore excursions.

Final Visa Arrived And More

This afternoon, FEDEX delivered our passports with the new 1-year, Multi-Entry Chinese Visas.  This was the last visa we needed for the upcoming world cruise with the exception of visas that the ship will obtain for everyone (Australia, Vietnam, Dubai, Jordan, Egypt).  There wasn't any requirement for us to obtain a visa from India, since ours is a 10-year and still in effect.

With the visa preparation out of the way, it's on to deciding what we really need and what can stay at home.  On the last world cruise we prepared a list near the end of the cruise of items that we really needed and the quantity for each.  This has come in handy for getting everything together in one room for sorting and packing.  When you are planning for a total of 119 days on board a ship at sea it is important to really do a little planning so something isn't left behind.  Of course if you aren't careful this can lead to taking too many items as well!!

We went online to the US Postal Service (USPS) yesterday and setup a Temporary Change Of Address to our Daughter's home.  All our mail will go to her during the time we are gone.  This is important since the USPS will only hold mail for 30 days.  One good thing about a temporary change of address is that the USPS won't forward "junk mail".

Several  administrative items were taken care of yesterday.  We made arrangements with our Cable TV and Internet Provider to put each of them on "Vacation Hold".  This allows us to keep these services in an inactive status and not have to pay the normal bill for services and not incur any reconnection fees.  In December we will do a similar thing with our automobiles and their insurance coverage.  Insurance companies allow a procedure called "Garaging".  In our state our insurance company allows you to remove most of the coverage with the exception of limited comprehensive coverage with substantial savings.

One administrative item that has not been accomplished is our Taxes.  The forms to file an extension of the filing date are already available from the Internal Revenue Service.  However, we won't have the exact figures to use for filing until sometime in January.