We leave 12:50 am April 14 for a 16 hr flight to Taipei. We will arrive in Bangkok on April 15 which is the Thai New Year.

Will be in Bangkok for 3 days before boarding ship. Amazing tours booked in Bangkok.

We are in Taipei, Taiwan waiting flight to Bangkok. \24016.5 hours Houston to Taipei. EVA is only way to go.

Today we have a tour of Bangkok utilizing public transportation. Sally a little freaked out about it but we will get through it.

Our base for the next couple of days is The Prninsula Bangkok hotel. Thank you Layne Gentry. We can’t tell you how nice this was. I’ll have pictures to post later. We were extremely tired last night.

Omg so it was 95 degrees today and pouring shower this morning, making it like a sauna outside. \240Here is a hint to fashion here. Try your clothes on with them soaking wet to see how they will look. Within minutes you will be drenched from the humidity.

We visited the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Palace.

The monks can eat up to 1 pm then must fast for the rest of the day. The monks cannot touch any women even their wives.

Today is the tour I’ve been waiting for. We are going to Kanchanaburi and the Death Train. It is not called the death train because of it perilous structure but because many British, Dutch and Australian troops which were captured during WWII died building this railroad from Thailand to Burma. The railroad was constructed in just 13 months with the prisoners working 18 hours per day. There is an excellent movie with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman called The Railway Man. Colin Firth was a POW that was liberated.

We are also visiting the Bridge over the River Kwai. This is not the original bridge but a replacement structure. \240The current bridge was constructed of remnants of original bridge. If you see the movie I mentioned above, you will see the significance of the bridge. \240The railway is 400 miles long. Over 100,000 prisoners worked on its construction.

Today we have checked out of hotel in Bangkok and are heading to ship with a few stops on the way

So today we stayed on ship to rest up. I’ll be posting a tour of ship.

Today we are on Koh Samui, Thailand

Known for it’s beautiful beaches. Until the early 1970’s the island didn’t even have roads.

Today was what this trip was for. We went to the Elephant Sanctuary for abused and worked Asian elephants. The number of elephants has dropped from approximately 20,000 to now 5,000. At the Samui Elephant sanctuary, we were able to feed the elephants in their habitat.lephants

Today is an at sea day. I’ll try to find some interesting happenings on board. Stay tuned.

Today we are in Singapore. We are venturing out on our own this morning to see what we can find.

Singapore has very strict laws regarding vaping, tobacco and chewing gum of which the latter is against the law to possess.

Hopefully a lot more pictures than yesterday. Yesterday we enjoyed drinks, friends and booked our next cruises.

75% of the inhabitants are Chinese, 13% are Malaysian, 9% are Indian and 3% are others. Once a resident reaches 35 yoa, they can apply for government housing. There is no income requirement just age requirement.

The city is divided into three main sections Malaysian, Indian and Chinese.

Today we are in Kuala Lumpur.

We are in George Town, Malaysia

Buddha’s birthday is May 4. They are preparing for the big celebration.

Today begins our 3 straight days at sea. I’m getting a massage and spa treatment today. I should be wiped out after that but I’ll try to post some pics from onboard. \240

Today is another sea day. We are relaxing, reading, spacing and just enjoying down time.

Another day at sea wrapping up final plans for Taj Mahal visit.

Today we are visiting Colombo, Sri Lanka. \240Colombo is the capital of Sri Lanka. Their are 21 million people in Sri Lanka and 8,000 Asian elephants. It was established by the Dutch and Portuguese then was taken over by the British. \240Sri Lanka gained their independence in 1948. The first hotel was The Grand Hotel built in 1837. \24012% Muslim. 80% Buddhist. \240There are 3,000 male Buddhist monks and 5,000 female Buddhist monks.

I have never been so messed up on time. We have switched clocks back and forth the past 4 days. Add an hour, fall back 30 minutes, fall back another hour and lastly add an hour.

Tuk tuk have 100% import tax. Vehicles have 300% import tax. There are over 1 million tuk tuks in Sri Lanka. Gas is $4/gallon. \240The number 1 source of income is money sent back from foreign jobs.

Much of Sri Lanka was destroyed during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. More than 1 million residents were displaced. \24050,000 were killed.

Sri Lanka is an island shaped like a tear drop off coast of India. Sri Lanka has the same weather year round.

Education is cumpolsory up to age 14. The parents are punished if children don’t attend school. Graduation rate is 96.2%.

Today we leave port at noon. Very hot outside. I got up early and beat almost everyone to the laundry. Last time on board before heading home. We have a sea day tomorrow then we will arrive in Goa, India. When we arrive in Goa, we and 2 others on the cruise that I met online before leaving home are flying to the Taj Mahal.

Today is our last day on board. Weather has cleared and sun is out.

We are leaving the ship tomorrow to visit the Taj Mahal on our own.

Today we disembark for our flight to Delhi, India. We then have a 3 hour drive to Agra, India where the Taj Mahal is. We will fly back to Mumbai, India tomorrow to catch our flight home.

Delhi has 32 million people. It is a 3 1/2 hour drive to Agra. Our driver said to drive in Delhi you need “good brakes, good horn and good luck”.

Today we are at Taj Mahal. \240Last night driving to the hotel we passed 4 Indian weddings in process. They are elaborate celebrations sometimes lasting as long as 4 days.

We were up at 4:30 am to be there by 5:30 am. Sunrise is the best time to visit. It starts getting crowded and hot by 6:30 am.

The height is 73 meters and the foundation is 73 meters deep. \240It is a pier type foundation as the building is constructed on the banks of the Agra river. You can’t describe the beauty of the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal was built approximately 350 years ago. It was a monument from the Moghal emperor to his favorite wife when she died. It took 22 years to complete. The emperor was jailed before it was completed by his youngest son and died a prisoner. Mantaj’s fake coffin rests in the rotunda and next to it is the emperor’s coffin. Their actual remains are 2 chambers below the rotunda. It is constructed of white marble and semi precious jewels are inlaid above the entrances. The entrances are surrounded by script of the 14 chapters of the Koran.

Cows are sacred in India. When they become to old to work, they are set free by the owners to roam the streets. Organizations and individuals take care of them. Wild monkeys are prevalent.

We rounded out our day at 8:30 by visiting a family owned artisan that does the inlay of semi precious jewels into marble. This family is descendants of those that did the work on the Taj Mahal they are on the last generation that will continue this skill. The children and grandchildren say the work is too hard and do not want to continue.

Now we are on our way back to Delhi for flight to Mumbai. Dale and Cindi are heading back to ship and we will stay in hotel for tour tomorrow morning. \240We landed in Mumbai for a tour tomorrow before we head home.

Today begins our last day before boarding plans and hotels for next 50+ hours. We have a 7.5 hr flight tonight to Singapore then a 16 hour layover in Singapore then a 25.5 hour flight home.

In school the students learn 3 languages- English, Hindi and each state has their own language. There are 28 states in India.

Bollywood studios is in Mumbai. In 1947, India gained its Independence and changed all the British names to Indian names. \240Bombay became Mumbai.

Mumbai has approximately 21 million population. \240Approximately 1/2 live in slums. There 3,000 different industries in slums. First, is plastic recycling. Then leather goods then garment industries. Slums by definition means houses built illegally on government land. Those built before 1995 have been legalized. Those after 1995 can be demolished at any time by government.

The Crawford market (outdoor spice market) was the first building to have electricity. \240Fashion street is 1.5 kilometers long and is lined with vendor stalls selling clothing.

Flora Fountain is a Unesco World Heritage site. It is carved out of one block of stone.

With Julie’s and Sally’s excellent adventures there is never a dull moment. We got lost in Mumbai. Our Uber driver dropped us off at wrong location. We stood there looking lost and a nice young gentleman that is an architect in Mumbai gave us a ride to the correct location then gave us his number in case we had further problems.

I just can’t get over the trash and filth in Indian. Even our guide who was born here described the filth as unnecessary.

We are now back at hotel and a wedding is going on outside. We are leaving for airport at 8 pm to head home.

Today we are back in Singapore. We have a flight home at 12:30 tonight. We arrived at 7:30 am. In order to try to get our bodies adjusted, I got a hotel gate side in Singapore so we could rest and don’t have to go through security. If you haven’t done this on long international layovers, this is the only way to go. We had 16.5 hour layover in Singapore.

We flew Singapore Air from Mumbai to Singapore. Love the airline. We had lobster thermador and it was delicious even though it was airplane food.

Tonight we fly from Singapore 25.5 hours to Manchester, England. We get off plane for 30 minutes (I’m guessing refueling) then back on plane for flight to Houston.

It has been an amazing trip.

On last leg of flight from Manchester,England to Houston. It was an amazing trip but a long trip.

Finally in Houston.