Our Cruise Ship Life came to an Abrupt Halt (and why we're going to Thailand)

Sihanoukville, Cambodia: we were rudely awakened from our dream life at 6am on October 27, with a message that all residents must disembark by 2pm because the ship did not have funds to continue operations. Specifically, they couldn't get fuel. Without fuel the generators stop, lights out. 

Our dream life came to an abrupt halt. We packed some clothes and all our technology -  just what we can carry in 1 large duffle, 2 small carry ons and a couple of  knapsacks. 

Talk about 'downsizing!'

Don't feel too sorry for us!

The view from our hotel bar while we wait for drinks and for several ship-friends who are also staying here.

 Staying in Thailand

We are now in a hotel here in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. We're fine. We were already planning to be off ship visiting a friend in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a couple weeks. Now it will be longer. Then we're looking at joining other ship people finding housing near Phuket - hey! I've always wanted to experience living in a foreign country 😊 And there's good diving around Phuket. We want to hang around here for a while in case the ship rises from the ashes and continues on in a few months. Hope springs eternal. 

Why Chiang Mai?

We have a friend, Christine, who was actually a student at our computer training center (Computer Savvy) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That was back in the late 80s. She's been living the expat life in Chiang Mai for about 10 years now and always raves about life there. When we first planned our travels on the Odyssey, we saw Thailand on the itinerary for October and told her we would come visit. As we got closer, she contacted the Payap University there and asked if they'd be interested in having us give a couple seminars at their Lifelong Learning Center. Cool! We would teach our normal 'Smartphone Photography' workshop. The other seminar they wanted was about Living on a Cruise Ship 😱 It's going to be an interesting class now!

What Next?

We don't know. But we're thinking of staying in Thailand for a few months. Some of our ship friends have already rented homes in Phuket - hey! There's good diving there. Our good friends, Kit and Randy are researching the nearby city of Krabi (see Randy's blog post "Abandon Ship") - a bit more laid back than Phuket, but still good diving. Maybe we could even find a duplex. 

Y'know - I"ve always wanted to experience living in a foreign country, not just traveling. We like Thailand. We understand it's pretty easy to get a retirement visa for a year at a time. We expect to continue traveling in some form. No plans (yet) to go back to Florida.

Ain't it funny how life works out?

Didn't we see this coming?

Well, yes, of course. We knew the company was in financial trouble, and we had many discussions about what we would do if it stopped sailing.  We haven't said anything because we didn't want to effect any ongoing negotiations. We held out hope for a turnaround till the last minute. 

When we actually walked off the ship it still felt shocking 🤷‍♀️ 

There was no way I was going to voluntarily leave the ship. Our last few months have been spectacular - have you seen my blog posts about Ha Long Bay, Ho Chih Minh City, and Bangkok?!?! Not to mention all the fun on board. That is what we will miss the most. I'm already feeling withdrawals from lack of line dancing! 

• Broadway at Sea: When in Doubt, Put on a Show
• Skyscrapers, Puddles, and Pot: Our Favorite Bangkok Walk
• Reflections on Peace Day: History, Healing, and Hope in Saigon
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: One of my Favorites
• Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
• Cheers on the High Seas: Where Everyone Knows Your Name
• Adding a New Country to Our Map: Vietnam (#28 on the Odyssey!)

There's no business like show business

There's no business like show business like no business I know

Everything about it is appealing,  ...

The last few weeks on our ship have seen a lot of sea days and a lot of uncertainty about our itinerary going forward.
It's been a recipe for anxiety, but that doesn't last very long before someone steps up and says, "I know! Let's put on a show." This has happened a few times in our time living here. The difference between having a party and putting on a show is the preparation, the rehearsals. Think "community theater", or high school play. There's a lot of work that goes in to putting it on, from a few days to a few months. This time the idea was for a Broadway review, several different numbers from different Broadway hits, requiring a couple weeks of rehearsal.

Jim was tapped to handle the tech - lights, music, backdrops, microphones. He's done this several times now and has really enjoyed learning the specialized software called Q-Labs. He sets up every scene, noting the cue (Q) that starts it. Then the software handles playing the music, projecting the backdrop and it's even connected to the lighting controls in the room and can bring up or dim down the stage and or the house lights and spotlights, right on cue. Oh man does it look complicated to set up, but once it's all set up, you just push a button on each cue and the software handles the rest: bringing up the lights, starting the music, and projecting the backdrop - pretty geeky. It can even control the levels of the different microphones if you hook it up to the sound mixer, but he left that task to a different computer and operator.

Somewhere toward the end of the live performance, that computer crashed 💥 Uh Oh. The audience took it in stride, the singer (Alicia) kept on singing and when her mic came back on, she had an oh-so-powerful finale.

Alicia notices that her mic is not working, but she goes on with the show. It did come back on - what a finish!

I was tapped for a solo number called "Adelaide's Lament" from *Guys and Dolls*. I'd never seen the play or heard the song. It has a lot of words with no chorus and no real melody, it was a difficult song to do, taking a lot of practice. In the final production it came out pretty good. My singing was a bit of a joke, but since it was a comic relief number - that worked out just fine!

The finale was a combination of "There's no Business like Show Business" and "He's my Friend." Being up on stage with so many friends singing these tunes was incredibly heartwarming. I felt warm and fuzzy - wanting to hug everyone. I also felt accomplished! I can see the attraction to 'show business.' Thanks to Steven Saris for having the idea and putting it together!

Clint, John F, and John P. performing in "Summer Nights" from Grease. Look closely and you'll see a pack of cigarettes rolled up in John F's sleeve 😎

And, here are the girls from Summer Nights! Beverly, Sherine, Ruthanne, & Donna.

Tina B singing "Coming up Roses" from Gypsy

Our director, Steven, during rehearsals trying to explain his vision for the "Wash that man right out of my hair" number. 🤣

There's no business like show business
Like no business I know
Everything about it is appealing
Everything the traffic will allow
Nowhere could you get that happy feeling
When you are stealing that extra bow
There's no people like show people
They smile when they are low
Yesterday they told you, you would not go far
That night you open and there you are
Next day on your dressing room they've hung a star
Let's go on with the show

Watch the whole show, about an hour, on the video below. My solo starts at 20:52.

Walking in Bangkok

This was our second time coming to the Bangkok area on our ship. We stayed at the same hotel and had follow up appointments with the same doctors. We did one of our live YouTube shows, making good use of the excellent WiFi 😀. 

 We felt so at home. We knew the way to walk to the hospital from our hotel, it was just 5 minutes along the canal most of the way. When we felt the need to get out of our room for a while we just took a longer walk along the same canal. The speedy canal boats fascinated us just as much this time as last. 

Our friends, kit and Randy were staying at another hotel, about a mile away, and we decided to walk there and join them for dinner one night. 

The restaurant in our hotel was delightful ... especially the view overlooking the canal.

Visiting at Kit and Randy's hotel in Bangkok, walking distance from our hotel

On our third day there we decided to go back to the Roadhouse BBQ for an early dinner. We took a Grab there but decided to walk back. Google maps told us it would take about an hour and the route went thru a park - sounded like a great way to end the day! 

We were in for a treat! It wasn't just any beautiful park, it seemed to be the city's back yard. Lumphini park. Everyone was there! They were exercising. They were gathered for BKCAW (Bangkok climate action week) They were out with their families just enjoying the night air. They were petting the many cats - not sure if they were strays, or they lived there, but the cats looked healthy. It was the kind of walk that makes you want to skip along and whistle a tune. We looked up and saw the skyscrapers and flashing billboards of Bangkok. We looked down and saw a little boy riding a little bicycle and making sure to hit every puddle of water he could find - much to his father's dismay😂. We looked back and saw a crowd of synchronized movement with the exercisers. And we felt joy. We're in Bangkok. The name of a city that means exotic and fun. And we felt right at home. 🏡😊

After the park we followed Google maps walking directions and ended up on an elevated walkway above the fray. It made the walk so delightful, and got us magically to the other side of a major highway.

For the final stretch our route took us thru one of the famed partying districts - Sukhumvit 3.

 Music, laughter everywhere. Getting a contact high walking past the dispensaries and grinning when we see vendors with trays of Cialis for sale.

Finally, we get to a corner we recognize. We're almost back to our hotel in the Sukhumvit 11 area. We drop in to a market and pick up a bottle of wine. 

We're in Bangkok and we feel at home. 

I love my life!

Another Google Photos Art Deco creations 🤗

 

Promoting Peace by Studying War

On the second day of our stay in Saigon, one of our residents, Barbara, arranged for several events to honor International Day of Peace - September 21. The first part was to gather at the War Remnants Museum and hear a talk by Madam Ton Nu Thi Ninh - a high ranking diplomat with a long history - she spoke of conversations with Henry Kissinger where he warned the world, " Don't stand between Vietnam and their sense of direction" She also told us about Vietnam's Bamboo Diplomacy (bend but don't break) and the 4 No's foreign policy:

1. No military alliances
2. No siding with one country against another
3. No foreign military bases
4. No use or threat of force

Watch video of Ms. Ton Nut Thi Ninh's talk

I felt so privileged to hear about Vietnamese policy from such an experience insider. She also told us about how resilient the Vietnamese were after the Vietnam/American war. Once peace was restored they worked hard to establish relations with former adversaries. They now see themselves as agents of peace. They send grain to Cuba, they set up field hospitals in Sudan.
See this article in a Vietnamese newspaper: The Bell of Peace Rings Out from the War Remnants Museum

Our group gathered in front of the museum

After the talk we had a musical performance by Orange Happiness - a group of musicians with physical disabilities resulting from agent orange. Then we had a tour of the museum. It was a very depressing tour. All wars are horrible, but this one was closer to home. It brought me to tears to see the images and hear the stories. One thing that I didn't know is that so many of the correspondents that took those photos and wrote the stories, died in the process.

 

60 PhotoJournalists who died while covering the Vietnam/American war.

A Food Tour on One Table

After the museum, we had a group reservation at a Michelin rated restaurant called Man Moi. They served the food family style, 8 dishes: 3 appetizers and 5 entrees. Every one was delicious.

The menu for our luncheon

 

Ringing the Ship's Bell for Peace

Once back on the ship and getting ready for sail away, we had another event. The captain rang the bell 5 times as prescribed in Barbara's talk, each ringing represented something:

• First Bell – World Peace: Dedicated to peace across the globe, particularly for those living through war, violence, and conflict, and for those working toward reconciliation.
• Second Bell – Community Peace: Dedicated to peace within the host communities, cities, and countries that welcome the ship throughout its global travels.
• Third Bell – Peace Within the Odyssey Community: Dedicated to harmony, respect, understanding, and kindness among the residents and crew living aboard the ship.
• Fourth Bell – Inner Peace: Dedicated to personal peace within oneself, acknowledging that lasting peace begins as an individual daily choice.
• Fifth Bell – The Future of the Odyssey: Dedicated to the future of the ship and its community, seeking wisdom, patience, and stability for management, crew, and residents through upcoming changes and challenges.

Finally, we sailed away with a happy hour and some singing in the observatory.
Good Bye Vietnam!

Ho Chi Minh City

Is Ho Chi Minh City on your travel bucket list? It certainly was never on mine. I didn't even know where it was. I didn't even know that Ho Chi Minh City is actually the new name for Saigon. Saigon evokes those years in my past where we heard about death counts every day. Not something I care to revisit.
So, imagine my surprise that the Odyssey's visit to Ho Chi Minh City earned a place on my list of top experiences on this journey!

A hotel stay for line dancing

It started with the fact that we got off the ship and stayed in a local hotel. Some people do this at most every port. We do not. This port was different because our line dancing group was getting together with a local line dancing group early in the morning (the dancing will be outside and it's hot!) It's nearly an hour from the ship to downtown, so we went in the night before and stayed 2 nights for $65 😮

I think I've already written in here about how special the line dancing had become for me, and when we meet with local dancing groups, it ups the ante even higher, and the Saigon (yes, they call it that) group was the best yet. The leader of the group, a man named Tam Van, met us at a brewery the night before. Using Google translate, we got to chat with him a bit. We learned that his name, Tam, is Vietnamese for 8, and he is the 8th child in his family. I didn't ask if his siblings were named 1-7 😂

Line Dancing in Ho Chi Minh City  

On the morning of dancing, we walked from our hotel to the Nguyen Hue Walking street. This is not a street that gets blocked off from traffic occasionally, it is a permanent park-like median. The view in the background included a fountain, a statue of Ho Chi Minh, and the People's Committee building (City Hall.) 

The weather was great, although still quite hot even at 7am. The Vietnamese dancers wore those wonderful side-slit dresses with pants underneath, the ship dancers wore our street clothes but added a multicolored flowered lei to identify us. We danced for a bit over an hour - and they were all dances we knew! As opposed to the 4 hours of dancing and list of 50 dances in our last place - Singapore. Jim went live on YouTube during the dancing.

It was wonderful fun and we took breaks for lots of photos and lots of hugs. We gave them gifts of earrings in the Vietnamese colors of orange and yellow, they gave us the very practical gifts of fans! You can learn more about the Vietnamese group on their facebook page.

Learning about Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh city

In the afternoon, Jim and I took the Hop On Hop Off bus for an overview of the city. I loved learning that:

If China is the factory of the world and India is the office of the world, then Vietnam is the kitchen of the world.

We also learned that HCMC has the highest concentration of motorbikes in the world with a count of 8.5 million. We experienced this first hand whenever we had to cross a street! Very few intersections have traffic lights, the instructions for crossing streets is to just walk - but walk 'confidently' and the scooters and cars will drive around you. Juuusst a bit scary, but it does work. I almost got confident with it until we wanted to cross a 6 lane road that was jam-packed with cars and scooters. We watched for a while, then looked at each other and said, "nah" and turned around.

Electric Motor Scooter charging stations. 😊

 

Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens

Left: Bitexco Financial Tower, Right: Trần Hưng Đạo (1228–1300) was a revered Vietnamese military commander and prince who led the armies that defeated major Mongol invasions in the 13th century.

With their thriving capitalistic economy, it's hard to remember that this is a communist country. Billboard translation: Commemorating the 96th Anniversary of the Traditional Day of the Party's Propaganda Department (August 1, 1930 – August 1, 2026)

Rotary Clubs around the World

Another opportunity for cultural exchange was with our Rotary Club on board. As club secretary, Jim had contacted the Saigon Rotary Club and arranged to meet up. The only member of their club that was available was Grace who is the secretary.

Jim is secretary of our Odyssey Rotary Club. Here he's chatting with Grace who is secretary of the Saigon Rotary Club. Don't let her youthful appearance fool you, Grace is a Corporate Attorney here.

The traditional exchange of flags between clubs. Our Rotary president, Paul Montoya. 

Using Google Maps

I don't know how people traveled before Google Maps! I took the opportunity of a real-life use of walking directions to make #1008 of our Tutorial Videos - GeeksOnTour.com/1008: