We are considering a cruise from Beijing to Bangkok in the late fall. The cruise includes Beijing, Nagasaki, Shanghai, Okinawa, Taipei, Hong Kong, Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore and Bangkok. Any thoughts? For my fellow travelers, do you have any recommendations about tour guides which you used and/or thoughts about the avian flu?
Mari
Mari

Can I ask you the price and duration of this cruise? Sounds like a lot of fun.

I know nothing of that cruise but just wanted to add/remind that "Star Cruises" operate regular cruises out of Singapore. I rarely see anyone mention then yet they offer a great combination for South east Asia and a 1 week cruise from Singapore I would guess would appeal to many adding on to a S.E Asia trip/tour or beach week.

http://www.starcruises.com/Itinerari...ore/index.html

Princess Cruises has a great 16 day Beijing-Bangkok cruise. Haven't taken it yet, but have been looking at it for awhile.

Re: price and duration, it's a 16 day cruise and for the prices, contact Kim at KimsKruises. Re: star cruises, we are happy with this itinerary. So, any suggestions on private tour guides?

I don’t think a cruise is the best way to see SE Asia. In the first place, other than Singapore and Hong Kong and possibly Nagasaki and Okinawa, you are going to spend a lot of time, I’d say at least an hour each way and sometimes more, getting from the port on the coast to the actual city itself. In many places there is no public transport from the port to the city and you will have to take a taxi or join a shore excursions. My assumption is you only have about 10 hours in each city. Not nearly enough time to see anything, esp in a place like Bangkok or Beijing which has so many sights you could easily spend 5 days in each.

Secondly, you are only going to cities on this trip. You will not see the beautiful beaches or countryside.

Thirdly, a lot of this trip is on the open sea and in waters that are frankly not that pretty or scenic. It is nothing like the Amalfi coast with the amazing coastline, or Greece or Tahiti with azure waters and little deserted islands. The exception is the trip up the Gulf of Thailand to Bangkok which has some pretty island areas (where you most likely will encounter rain, see below), but I am not sure how close to the coastal islands you will get.

Fourth, the fall is not a great time weather-wise for this part of Asia. In the late fall Shanghai, Beijing and Nagasaki will be quite cool to cold, and the waters in that area will be a bit cold for cruising, I would think. Na Trang and Ho Chi Minh city get a lot of rain in the fall months, esp in Na Thrang. This is also the rainy season in Bangkok and the Gulf of Thailand, the smaller resort islands generally close in the fall.

Tapei is not at all worth a stop off, they have an excellent museum, but that is it. I don’t think Okinawa is much either.

I have to say I am not a fan of seeing many places via a cruise. Alaska, the Panama canal, Greece, Polynesia, parts of the Caribbean are good places for a cruise, but not SE Asia.

To Cicerone...Thank you for your thoughts however I didn't ask whether it's a good idea to cruise the region. I did ask for thoughts about the avian flu and private tour guide recommendations for our group of 10.

Hi,

We just did almost the same trip in Nov on the Royal Princess. You will love it, we did.

Beijing-assume you are starting there. Contact your hotel(hope you are planning at least a couple of nights pre cruise). Our Hotel put us in touch with Harrison Wang with the Sinohoptel group. We used his services and did some on our own. Saw every thing we had planned in a day and a half. It was great! Or you can wait and arrange things alittle more cheaply after you get there. There are lots of comments especially from bchen on this board about Beijing and most of these cities.

Nagasaki- you do not need a guide for this city. You dock righ down town a block fron the trolly . THe Tourist office sets up shop right off the ship with all the things you need to get around, even people to write directions for the taxi and trolly people. We did this city on our own for about $30 in taxi and trolly fares and the directions writen in Japanese by the tourist people. Or go to Goodwillguides on the internet. It is a great free service in Japan! We have used them too.

Shanghai and Hong Kong- you do not need a guide here either. Shanghai will have taxis to meet the ship and there will be taxi person directing the taxis to where you want to go. You can arrange with the drivers direct for the whole day if you want. Buy a map for both cities before you leave with the tourist sites in Chinses characture and English and just point. It works very well! The ship will give you the dock and ship name in Chinese. Thats all you need. Hong Kong is even easier. You dock right by the star ferry terminal. Taxis are easy to get. We spent about $40 and went to Aberdeen and Stanley(it was foggy so we didn't go to Victoria Peak. Then walked around Kowloon.

Nha Trang- again the taxis are there and there is more English. It is not a big town and easy to walk around.

Saigon(HCMC)- If the Ship offers a round trip bus ride into town to some poit like the Rex Hotel, take that. It is a two-three hour ride into town. I could not find a service that would meet the ship and so we did this and it worked really well.

We did not stop at the other places so can't say about them.

As far as I am concermed cruises are great and a great way to see alot of different places!

Bangkok- we uesd Outbound there. Have fun!

In Bangkok for a guide you can contact Kie on [email protected]. She is a college student we used to take us to Ayyuthya about 2 years ago and we really liked her. In case u do tie up with her u can separately book a car/driver with JUlie Taxis - www.julietaxi.com or Ratt who is mentioned on this board.

If I were you, Mari129, I'd be more concerned about food poisoning on your cruise ship than avian flu.

Thank you cwm and hobbes for the helpful info and kind words! We can't wait to visit this part of the world and the research is part of the fun. Any other suggestions?

Hi,

I could write a book about our trip last Nov(Oct28-Nov21). We had been on 16 cruises to Erope, Africa and South America. Most have been 14-21 days, over 200 days onboard. We have never had food born illness or even a cold on any cruise! Our children have joined us many times when they were young and after they married and again no one was sick. Illness is risk you take anytime and any place. At least on the ships there is a doctor to treat you. I would have hated to find a doctor on my own in Beijing! Don't worry about illnes. Do go to your doctor and get your shot updated plus any others recommended. Get the Dr. to give you basic meds for comon things, I always do and have never needed them, but feel better have them with me.

Do do your research, You know what interest you! You are right that is half the fun! Truly there are so many different things to see, you couldn't see them all in a week's stay in each of the major cities. We wanted to see the important sites that sounded interesting to us(there were some that didn't), but our favorite thing is just exploring on our own, sampling the foods and meeting the locals in small out of the way shops(Ship's tours are not the best way for this). For example we arranged for a two tank scuba dive in Nha Trang over the internet. After the dive we walked around the town. Had a great day!
In Saigon we found the Lemon grass restuarant-not far from the Rex Hotel, enjoyed a great meal and people watched for a while.. We then wondered around the back streets and found some beautiful handwork on purses, table linens and clothes. These were not tourist shops. Well dressed locals were shopping there. The wood work is very nice also. Cheapest and probably the best all round shopping along with Stanley Market on Hong Kong of the whole trip. We were having so much fun we skipped our planned itinery and have no regrets.

Develop a good idea what you want to see. I found there was a great deal of helpfull info on most of the important sites to us on this board. Pick some sites that sound interesting to your group and do a search here. Then ask questions on what you find. I did and got great help from many board members down to bus # to take. We leave for a 19 day cruise Osaka to Seatle in April with a week in Japan before the cruise. We will do another SEAsia some time soon. On this last one we spent three days in Beijing and four days in Bangkok.

Hi,

Well, hit the wrong button. Sorry. Wanted to say something about our weather. The only rain we had was the first as we arrived in Beijing. The trip was sunny to partly cloudy and most pleasant on decks, in the pool and site seeing till we left Hong Kong(it was very foggy till late afternoon there). After that it got hotter and more humid as we headed to Bangkok with lots of sun. The pool was a welcome stop after the shore days and on the sea days. We had a balconey and I sent alot of time out there on the whole trip.

Back to Beijing- It was cool there -long sleeves and light jacket. The Wall-we went early to Badaling(got there at about 8:15). It was windly and coat weather, but that was the only cold weather we had. This section it not most people's favorite due to crowds, but we did not have the time for the other. We were the only ones there, even the vendors weren't there yet. Our pictures are outstanding, just us, the incredible wall and beatiful fall colors. It was a good experience for us! We had a car, driver and guide for this day and also saw the Summer Palace, Forbidden City and did some shopping in the old narrow streets at shops I had read about. No pearl factories and the like aka tourist traps. The next day we went to the Temple of Heaven park about 7:30 and "played" with the locals then went through the Temple of Heaven and over to the Pearl Market. This is an interesting place to visit, but I did not enjoy the hard bargining to get a reasonable price. I found as nice if not better things for less money in small streets we explored. You will also see the same things at Stanley Market on Hong Kong Island. Things were also cheaper than what I could get at the Pearl Market with far less dealing.

If you have a few days in Bangkok, get some clothes made! I bought silk in Shanghi for ~$7meter and had three evening outfits made at a little place down the street from our Hotel for $35 total. They did great in 24hours. We had a car and driver who met us at the ship(1 1/2 hours to town from the port) took us to the hotel then to a list of stops I had planned. The next day they took us to the River Kwai. We were on our own the rest or the time.

Sorry this is so long. As you can tell I loved the trip. Hope this helps, I know it is very general.

Thank you thank you. It sounds like you go with the flow which is how we travel! This weekend, your suggestions go into my travel books! We too adore cruising and so far, have not contacted any illness due to cruising. The media here in L.A. are making a big deal about the avian flu but I'm with you, there's a doctor on board.
Thanks again.

Hi,

Glad I was able to help- it is turely a great trip! My typing and spelling is terrible and no spell check. Forgive my mistakes!

The US media can make a mountain out of a mole hill! Take the Flu shots of last fall. I got one to travel as I have asthma, but my husband couldn't as we are only 60. I said there would probably be shots wasted and now it looks like that is the case. Plus they scared half the over 65 group to death!

The Bird Flu is serious, but as of yet is not seemingly passing human to human. The places you will be, you will not have contact with live chickens etc. Though I would skip the brid markets, at least we did. There are so many other things to see!

Happy planning, I always make a detailed list of places we think we want to see and this time I had even marked them on a map -Lomely Plant -I think- for the taxis and when we got lost walking around. Then when we get home we look over the list and are always so surprised at the wonderfull things we found to do and see that no one ever mentions. I know from this that we usually do get a really good feel for the people and places with only a day sometimes.

If you have a few days in Bangkok, do try to work in a day trip. Our guide took us up toward the Buma border, after the train ride etc, to a beautifull resort out in the middle of nowhere but over looking the river! We told her we didn't want to eat at the buffet style place that most on the train were going to- to touristy. She had planned to take us there because the food was more western style. Well any way, this day trip was on of the best parts of Bangkok.

Be sure when you first contact the guides, you give them your itinery and not the other way around. I found alot of the private guides especially in Asia have very canned ship like tours and go where they get the best deal(food and shopping). Shop around, but be sure you give then a list of what you want to do first. You will be able to tell by their response if it is a guide you can deal with or if it is going to be what they want you to do. If you want, I will give you the email for our guide service in Bangkok. A life long friend in the travel businness has used the group for years. They were very good.