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Can we fast-forward exactly twelve months please?

Well, thank God that’s over – and I don’t even believe in Him! You can call me Scrooge, or worse, if you like but I always find the second half of December going into the New Year as an ordeal and this one’s been no different to any other. It’s one of the most challenging periods of the [...]

January 2, 2017 // 0 Comments

Goodnight Vietnam

We are now leaving Vietnam for China. The country has made a strong and favourable impression on me. It is a fascinating fusion of state one-party capitalism and budding capitalism. Even in our short stay we encountered a young boy no more than 15 running between coach drop-offs trying to sell his [...]

January 1, 2017 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard / New Years Eve Gala Dinner

Nature can play cruel tricks. Ha Long Bay must qualify as one of the world’s most beautiful natural sites but its often totally shrouded in fog. This was the case yesterday. Bob and I ducked out of the Hanoi trip which would have involved 7 hours in a coach and no doubt shopping at a [...]

December 31, 2016 // 0 Comments

The purpose of it all

Please pardon the delay in me addressing this media story, but I was listening to Dotun Adebayo’s Up All Night programme on Radio Five Live in the early hours of this morning when I heard a segment on new research from the United States of America apparently demonstrating that sex just gets [...]

December 31, 2016 // 0 Comments

Cruising into paradise

There are certain occasions when cruising and boat travel comes into their own and yesterday was one. In planning my trip a friend advised that I should not miss Ha Long Bay, a world heritage site and he was right. My day started with my customary brush with authority. As I made my way to the [...]

December 31, 2016 // 0 Comments

The passing of Time

You might regard this as hypocritical or contradictory, but as someone who claims he lacks personal vanity, as I get older I find that my willingness to attend reunions – be they of school old boys, former work colleagues, or the usual round of funerals, wakes and thanksgiving services – [...]

December 30, 2016 // 0 Comments

If it’s Thursday it must be Vietnam

One of my late mother’s favourite films was If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Belgium an unfairly neglected comedy of those compacted European tours. I thought of this yesterday as we set off on another coach excursion comprising Buddhist or Chinese temples and a shopping or artisan works [...]

December 29, 2016 // 0 Comments

East is east and west is west or is it?

Although it is undoubtedly a convenience to disembark with minimal formalities the excursions on Vietnam have been unsatisfying. To be fair a shuttle bus is laid on and you can do your own thing – a phrase not generally applied to cruise life. I also suspect that never forgetting this is [...]

December 28, 2016 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard

It had to happen. But before I tell you what it was I will review the restaurants of the cruise. The cruise ship has 3 restaurants: a formal one on the 4th deck (above): La Terrazza on the that serves lighter fare on the 7th deck; and The Grill in the open air by the small pool. The cuisine and [...]

December 27, 2016 // 0 Comments

Good morning Vietnam

When I take my morning constitutional on deck 9 I always see a hulking man in his sixties, an American with a thick Brooklyn accent, with a slim girl who must be half his age. They were on the tour of Ho Samui and at a poolside disco when he, rather the worse for wear, danced in an uncoordinated [...]

December 26, 2016 // 0 Comments

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