Mom and I decided we wanted to do something different for the holidays this year, therefore we started thinking about where we could go which was unusual. When I first began researching, I had it in mind that we would go somewhere that had snow and have a real white Christmas like we hadn’t experienced in ages, being ‘California Girls’ for years now. Since we travel a bit, we get a lot of literature from airlines, travel agencies, cruise lines, and tour groups. Suddenly we received a brochure from Renaissance Cruises, the line we used on our Mediterranean Cruise a couple of years back. It was advertising a Millennium Package, I called to ask questions; before I knew it, we were booked for this Far East Cruise!! It sounded great and the sailing date was December 28^th, so we would be home for Christmas and sailing on New Year’s.

Or so we thought! After making all the arrangements we discovered we would be sailing from Singapore so we would be flying out of Los Angeles on December 24^th, staying in Hong Kong for two days, then flying to Singapore to board the ship. No problem except we would not be home for Christmas, in fact, we lost Christmas altogether. We left Los Angeles at 11:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve and after flying for 15 hours we arrived in Hong Kong at 6:30 a.m. the day after Christmas. The International Date Line stole Christmas from us. When we returned, we got our day back it was just a different day. So, we can truthfully say we missed the last Christmas of the millennium. Oh well, we all must make sacrifices from time to time.

My sons were worried about us taking this trip at this time because as you might remember there was the big Y2K hoopla. They didn’t buy into the hysteria that was going around, they were just concerned about the behavior of other people. I just poohpoohed it and Mom hadn’t really paid much attention to it anyway.

The 15-hour plane ride on Cathay Pacific Airlines wasn’t too bad, we slept a lot and they fed us a couple of times. We didn’t bother to watch the movie because it was hard to see the screen from our seats. Arriving in Hong Kong early in the morning was good because it gave us all day to rest and explore. We learned some things we didn’t know about Hong Kong. Of course, it no longer belongs to Great Britain, it is back in the hands of China, but the English influence still exists because it was there for so long. We were in a lovely hotel, with great service.

The city was all decorated for the holidays. They decorate differently than our cities do. All the buildings, tall and short, had lights all over them. Many were outlined in colored lights, and many had designs such as Santa or dragons, and many outlined Christmas and New Year greetings in lights. The decorations on all the commercial buildings were like the decorations we do on homes. The effect was glorious. I took photos, unfortunately, the photos of the lights on the buildings at night did not come out. Hong Kong seemed to be a clean city and not as crazy as I expected it to be. Crowded of course and lots of traffic even though we were there during their holidays. Prices were extremely high. Food in the Hotel was exorbitant!

We took tours and explored some on our own. We took a ferry to Kowloon, which is a part of Hong Kong Island. We ate lunch one day in a Chinese restaurant where no one spoke English, fortunately, menus had pictures of each offering, so we just pointed at pictures to order our food. The tour group went to dinner one evening at a very nice Chinese restaurant where we had an 8-course meal that included Peking Duck. We also watched an unbelievable demonstration of noodle-making while we ate. I was so impressed I stopped eating to stare at the fantastic demonstration of pulling, twisting, and throwing the thick dough in the air only to have it come down in thin noodle strings. Noodle making is truly an art. When it was completed, the noodles were passed around to be examined. I would never eat another pasta dish without the memory of the noodle-making demonstration popping into my head.

We flew from Hong Kong to Singapore and boarded the ship there. The Renaissance VII was the name of our ship which was different than any other cruise ship we had taken. It was smaller, only 114 passengers, just a bit smaller than the ship we had cruised the Mediterranean in. The stateroom was a suite and was very roomy. We even had a TV. We bought the least expensive room but when we looked at some of the expensive ones, we felt we got the very best deal. The service on the ship was fantastic. We met almost all of the crew including the Captain. I have never seen the Captain on any other Cruise more than once, we saw our Captain almost daily.

Since it was a smaller ship there was only one dining room and a tiny swimming pool and no fitness center. But there was plenty of food. One could eat almost all day if one desired because when the dining room and the deck buffet were closed you could just call room service. When we were sailing, we had a library at our disposal and I read about 7 books, we could also borrow videos, so Mom and I watched a couple of movies. These are things we could do at home but never seemed to find the time. There was also music and dancing in the Lounge and the Club every night. We tried to go on every optional tour at every port of call; we didn’t quite accomplish this goal but came pretty close.

The original itinerary was Singapore to Kuantan, Malaysia to Ko Samui, Thailand to Bangkok, Thailand to Ko Chang, Thailand, and cruising in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, but this was changed before we set sail because of monsoons in the South China Sea. This is on the east side of the Malaysian Peninsula. The Captain decided it would be safer and more pleasant to cruise on the west side of the peninsula in the Straits of Malacca and the Indian Ocean, so we did. Thus our itinerary became Port Klang, Malaysia (where we toured inland to Kuala Lumpur); Penang, Malaysia, Phuket, Thailand (where we stayed 2 days); Langkawi, Malaysia; Malacca, Malaysia, and back to Singapore. We went to more ports and spent less time just cruising on this itinerary. Some people were disappointed because they were looking forward to Bangkok, but Mom and I didn’t mind because we had never been to any of these places anyway, so it was all new to us.

Everywhere we went we took tours that would show us some of the local color, culture, and people. We tasted local foods, went to Chinese Temples, Buddhist Temples (both Chinese and Indian) and Muslim Mosques, and museums. We rode on Trishaws (if you know what a rickshaw is, this is the modern version where the ‘driver’ rides a bicycle) and junks and bumboats. Something that has stuck with me for years is the fishing village we visited. There were poverty conditions such as we had never experienced up close. It is difficult to describe the way these people were living. People who live on Chinese junks appear to be quite poor but seemed to have it better than this fishing village did. They lived in run-down huts one could see through, they cooked over small fires in front and washed and bathed from bowls or pots of water as they had no running water. It is very difficult to describe the living conditions and I am certain such conditions exist in other parts of the world but it is so painful to actually see it up close like this. I think perhaps the village received some remuneration from the cruise line for allowing the tours, but I don’t know this for a fact.

We went to a couple of cultural centers saw local dances, some local instruments. and learned how Batik is made. We went to a rubber plantation where there were demonstrations on how rubber is harvested and made. We also saw some marvelous scenery in each of the places, including jungles and rainforests. At one location they had elephants dancing and doing tricks. I took Mom’s photo while she sat on a kneeling elephant’s leg. It seemed innocent enough as the trainer appeared to be in control. However, much later when I was at home, I saw news coverage about that particular location and how an elephant had gone rogue injuring tourists. There was mention that this was an elephant used for photoshoots. Looking back, I believe the animals were most likely treated badly, but sadly people like us wanted to see them performing so never gave it a thought.

Every place we went there was a lot of traffic and I saw parking meters in even the smallest town, I never saw anyone writing tickets though. The flu bug hit our ship and lots of people came down with it. I came down with a cold and it lasted a couple of days, it could have been a lighter version of the flu as I rarely ever get sick. Most people kept on going anyhow, some went to the ship’s doctor, and some stayed in their rooms for a day, but it didn’t keep anyone down for long. When you pay this much and go halfway around the world on vacation you don’t want to miss it. This was a Millennium Cruise and we did have a New Year’s Eve party on the ship. No fireworks, but champagne, music, dancing, hats, and noisemakers. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

When we returned to Singapore, we stayed there for two days where we did a lot of sightseeing. Singapore is lovely, green, and small. It is an island and a city and an independent state. The cost of living is higher there than in Malaysia so many people commute from Malaysia to work in Singapore. It is an exceptionally clean city, it’s very crowded with lots of traffic. They claim to have the drug problem under control, as the Tour Guide said, “If you are caught with even a small amount of any drug it is a hanging offense.” Someone else told us it is a “fine city” meaning if you do anything wrong, like jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk, etc., and get caught there is a large fine. We behaved ourselves, we didn’t want to tempt fate. It was raining most of the time that we were in Singapore. The entire trip the weather was warm/hot and humid. It was cool in Hong Kong though. Several times on some of our tours we got caught in the rain, but it didn’t last long.

The two most memorable things we did in Singapore were to attend a Tea Appreciation Ceremony and visit the Singapore Zoo. At the Tea Appreciation Ceremony, we learned a lot about tea that we didn’t know but thought we did, as well as how to conduct a tea ceremony. The Singapore Zoo is definitely one of the best zoos we have ever been to. It was exceptionally clean, the animals roam free, no cages just fences. It reminded me of the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We had breakfast at the zoo, it was advertised as eating breakfast with an orangutan. Anyone who wished could sit by the animal for a photo op. Mom had her photo taken with an Orangutan. Of course, being Mom who loved all animals, she sat and spoke with the orangutan. Mom felt certain they were communicating. The primate on the other hand just sat and picked up her food and ate it, looking around in a disinterested fashion. Orangutans are smart creatures, and I am sure this one was bored and thinking, “I wish this was over so I could go take a nap.” Or something very much like it.

From Singapore, we flew home. This time we were on Northwest Airlines. We arrived in Tokyo (6 ½ hours) where we had a short layover then changed planes and flew to LA (9 ½ hours). It was a bit easier because we had a break in the 15 hours. We also had a couple of meals on each flight, so we got more food. This was also where we got the day back we had lost at the beginning of our trip. It wasn’t, however, Christmas day. That was lost forever. We arrived in LA early in the morning but after Immigration, Customs, shuttle, etc. we got home at almost noon. The next phase was to struggle with jet lag for the next couple of days. Good news, I only gained five pounds after all that eating. Mom only gained two.

Even though we expected it to be a while before we would take another trip, we began looking at brochures right away. As it turned out this was our last trip. Not long after that Mom had a stroke and I spent six years as her caregiver before she passed away. It is wonderful having these special memories.