We always let people know about our upcoming cruises in case anyone wants to join us.  Typically, we provide this information after we complete all the blogs on each trip, we take but we have been so busy we have not been able to keep up with all our blogs.  Moving forward we have added our list of Future Cruises on our website and will always provide a link to our future cruises in every blog.  Here is our current list of our planned trips over the next 2 years.  All cruises are still available for other people to join us unless stated otherwise.  We will start limiting the size of each group to no more than 20 or 24 with regards to providing a total trip package including all transfers, tours, and other reservations.  After our group gets to 24 people, we will still book cruises, hotels, and airfare if they are available, but not the entire trip including transfers and shore excursions.  We will only book airfare if we can book it as a bundled package with hotels from Delta Vacations.  The 5 cruises highlighted in RED have recently been added.
 
·         Panama Canal Cruise on Silversea in May 2024

• From San Francisco to New York
• Opportunity for Napa Valley visit with pre-cruise extension

·         Kenya/Masai Mara Safari in July 2024

• No availability

·         Greek Island & Turkey Cruise on Celebrity in September 2024

• Round trip Athens with 3-night pre-cruise extension
• Overnight stay in Istanbul
• Only 3 staterooms available and booking quickly

·         Viking Christmas Market River Cruise in December 2024

• No availability

·         Amazon/Brazil Cruise on Oceania in January 2025

• From Miami to Rio de Janeiro
• Cruise down Amazon River to Manaus, Brazil

·         Transatlantic to Cape Town cruise on Oceania in February 2025

• From Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town
• Post cruise extension planned in Cape Town with possible short South African safari

·         Viking Northern Lights Cruise in March 2025

• From Bergen, Norway to London
• Possible post cruise extension in London

·         French Polynesia/Hawaiian Island cruise on Silversea in April 2025

• From Papeete, Tahiti to Los Angeles
• Distinctive Voyage Cruise with special excursion
• Possible pre-cruise extension in Tahiti

·         British Isles Cruise on Azamara in July 2025

• From Southampton to Edinburgh
• Perry Golf Package with trip to 2025 British Open
• Availability only for cruise, airfare, and hotel

·         Tahiti/Bora Bora Cruise on Paul Gauguin Cruise Line in September 2025

• Roundtrip Papeete, Tahiti
• 2-night overnight stay in Bora Bora
• Pre-cruise extension in Papeete to Swim with the Newborn Whales
• Limited availability

·         Australia Great Barrier Reef Cruise on Celebrity in February 2026

• From Sydney to Sydney
• Overnight stay in Great Barrier Reef port (Cairns)
• Pre-cruise extension planned in Sydney
• Back-to-back cruise in conjunction with cruise below

·         New Zealand Cruise on Celebrity in February 2026

• From Sydney to Auckland
• Back-to-back cruise in conjunction with cruises above and below

·         Fiji – Samoan Island Cruise on Celebrity in March 2026

• From Auckland to Auckland
• Back-to-back cruise in conjunction with cruise above
• Possible post cruise extension in Auckland

 
 
Let us know if you would like to join us on any of these cruises.
 
You can now find our updated cruise list on our website at:
 
http://www.hookedoncruisin.net/group-cruising.html

 
Regards,
Sharon and Greg

On January 18th we arrived in Laem Chabang which is a cruise port about 2 hours from Bangkok by car.  Our ship was staying overnight which gave us two full days to visit Bangkok and the surrounding area.  When we got off the ship our Tours By Locals guide, Teera Rojanaviboon, was waiting for us with a bus and driver to take all 31 of our group into Bangkok.  Our first stop was the Grand Palace.
 
The Grand Palace began construction in 1782 by the new king, Rama I, to relocate the capital to the left bank of the Chao Phraya River to provide a better defensive position against their enemies of that era.  The palace was built on 54 acres of land and is surrounded by 12 miles of walls.  Inside these walls are the Halls of Residence for the Royal Family, Throne Halls, administrative buildings, and temples including the royal temple (Chapel Royal).  Rama I was the first monarch of the Chakri Dynasty in Siam and died in 1809.  The country’s name was changed to Thailand in 1939.
 
Within the walls of the Grand Palace is a small city with many impressive looking buildings.  The architecture of these buildings is spectacular and unlike the older palaces of Thailand this palace is kept in immaculate condition.  It would take at least one full day to see everything within the walls, but we only had a few hours to view it.  One of the more famous items inside the Grand Palace is the Temple of the Golden Buddha which houses a 26” by 19” Buddha sculpture which is decorated in different gold attire during different seasons of the year.  Within the palace there is a handcrafted replica in concrete of Angkor Wat.  Angkor Wat is a 400-acre Hindu-Buddhist temple in Cambodia that is considered the largest religious structure in the world.  The artwork, sculptures, mosaics, tiles, and landscaping through the Grand Palace is truly amazing.
 
After spending a few hours at the Grand Palace, we headed out to Methavalai Sorndaeng which is a local restaurant with some great Thai food.  The menu was preplanned, and they kept bringing out different Thai foods that everyone seemed to enjoy.  Several of us enjoyed our lunch with a nice cold Singha beer, the most popular beer in Thailand and only seems to come in very large bottles.
 
With a good lunch in us we went out exploring again and were taken to the Wat Pho – The Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  The main building within the temple housed a 150-foot reclining gold plated Buddha that was 50 foot tall.  It was hard to get a good view of the Buddha because the building was just large enough to encompass it.  This temple is the oldest temple in Bangkok built in the 17 century and has 394 gilded Buddha images which is the most of any temple.  Wat Pho is also a center for the preservation of traditional Thai medicine and for $7 you can get a great foot massage from the students!
 
We ended the first day of touring with a walk through some of the street shops and flower/vegetable markets on our way to a longtail boat that took us on a tour of the Chao Phraya River.  The longtail boat is the traditional Thai boat that is named from the long (6-10 foot) shaft that extends behind the boat to the propeller which looks like a tail on the boat.  The boat driver steers the boat by moving the propeller shaft from side to side.  The boat engines used are large old car or truck engines that are mounted on the back of the boat and are quite loud.  These boats can travel at high speeds.  The trip down the river was interesting and you were able to get a good view of the Grand Palace on the boat tour.  The river on the other hand was very dirty although you could see fish in the waters.
 
At this point in the tour 8 of our group went to a hotel to spend the night and see Bangkok in the evening while the rest of the group headed back to the ship. 
 
The next morning the same guide and bus driver picked up the smaller group of 23 people to tour Pattaya which is a resort beach area about 100 miles southeast of Bangkok in the opposite direction of the cruise port.  We were taken to an overview area on top of a mountain where we had a great view of the city and beach area.  Near by there we went to Big Buddha Hill which has a large 60-foot sitting Buddha on top of a hill with a long staircase bordered by two long Chinese dragons.  At the bottom of the hill, you will see Nagas (7 headed snakes) coming out of the dragons’ mouths.   At the top of the hill is another temple (Wat Phra Yai) built in 1940 for the fishing village there at the time.  This is one of the most popular tourists stops in Pattaya.
 
Our next stop was Nong Nuch Garden, which was not what most of us expected.  Yes, it had beautiful gardens and many bonsai trees to marvel at, but it had so much more.  It was almost like an amusement park.  There were exhibits with dinosaurs everywhere you looked.  They had many elephants available for rides and pictures.  This is where we had a buffet Thai lunch.  The food was great but there was a very large Chinese group that got there right before we arrived, and it was hard to get your food.  It didn’t matter if you stood in line, the people from this group just cut in front of you to get what they wanted.  About the time we were finishing our lunch the crowd died down and you could get anything you wanted to eat.  The food was good, and we enjoyed ourselves.
 
After lunch we went to the Pattaya Floating Market.  This is a huge shopping area along several canals that had many shops along the shores selling various things.  It primarily seemed to be selling items for tourists and it was not a traditional floating market which Thailand is famous.  Greg had been to Bangkok 50 years ago and had witnessed Bangkok’s huge floating market just off the main river downtown where thousands of Thai people came daily on their boats to purchase food, medicines, equipment, and whatever they needed.  Back then there were almost no tourists visiting the floating markets on all the items being sold were daily essential items that people needed.  The Pattaya Floating Market was still very nice and offered a glimpse of how people in Thailand once shopped.
 
Our last stop of the day was spectacular.  We went to see the Sanctuary of Truth.  Some people called in a temple and others a museum.   It is said to be the largest wooden castle in the world.  All the wooden sculptures in the Sanctuary have been hand carved to discover the 7 truths of life.

• 1st Truth: “Who are we?  Where are we from?”
• 2nd Truth: “How do we live our lives?”
• 3rd Truth: “The End of Life”
• 4th Truth: “Samples of Civilization”
• 5th Truth: “What is a life goal?”
• 6th Truth: “Society is like a two-sided coin”
• 7th Truth: “The beginning of society”

The woodworking techniques used to build the sanctuary are ancient in some cases and traditional in other ways.  Minimal steel nails are used in construction and artisan craftsman are required to build this structure.  Mr Lek Viriyaphan is the originator of the project and began dreaming about it when he was in high school.  As he became a successful businessman, he spent 10 years looking for the ideal site before beginning construction.  Construction began in 1981 and it is not yet complete but is a work in progress with the hope that it will be completed by 2050.  There are 200 people that work on the structure daily and you must wear hard hats to tour it.  Tours are provided throughout the day in 6 different languages.  It is really a must-see attraction in Thailand!
 
We ended our tour there and headed back to the ship.  We said our goodbyes to Terra and 4 of us told him we would see him again in a few weeks on our return cruise. 
 
We will not add any dialogue in this blog about the second visit to Bangkok, but the pictures and Facebook dialog is included here.
 
You can now find our updated cruise list on our website at:
 
http://www.hookedoncruisin.net/group-cruising.html


Regards,
Sharon and Greg

Cruise 2 Bangkok Day 1 Facebook Entry: Spent a day in Ayutthaya Province, ancient ruin city with many historical temples/palaces left behind by the rich Siamese Kingdom. Thanks @Terra Rojanaviboon (our tour guide) for an awesome day!

Cruise 2 Bangkok Day 2 Facebook Entry: Our 2nd great day in Bangkok - went to visit the Train Track that goes through the Market (very similar to Hanoi). Visited Salt Farm and the Floating Market (very different from Pattaya) as we saw many purchasing for their needs and others who are tourists buying what they find by boat!