THE CATES

Southeast Asian Cruise Continued.....

Day 2: Ko Samui, Thailand

In order to get to the Samui island we had to transfer onto smaller tinder boats. This was quite a process to do with a giant cruise boat full of people who all want to get off at the same time.

Waiting for them to call our number to board the tinder boat

We finally got on. Doesn't Connor look thrilled? lol!

Our ship looked extra big next to the tinder boat

We immediately found a driver with a large van who took us into the town

10 minutes into our trip.... a guy on a motorcycle suddenly started to swerve and lost control of his bike. He went flying into the air. His helmet was on the back of his bike and not on his head. He landed here on the side and everyone stopped to help....including our driver.

The guy was covered in blood but was lucky to be alive! An "ambulance" (a pick up truck with 2 young girls wearing shorts and t-shirts) came about 10 minutes later and took him to a hospital.

After all of that excitement we left and made it to this little oasis!

The guy running the elephant rides was ready for anyone who wanted to talk about animal cruelty. The stick says "for hit sensitive person".

The grandma and grandpa rocks, named after a folklore of older couple who died at sea

The water was so warm!!

My beautiful island Babe!

After swimming the boys were thrilled to find wifi at the lodge! And this cute island pup.

Our driver for the day.... Mr. Easy.

Rhonda and Emily shared the van with us and became our good friends for the entire cruise

Waiting to get back on the tinder boats

This guy was smart to sell these delicious fruits right next to the line of tourists.

We really loved Ko Samui!

Beautiful sunset that evening back on the ship

That same night Jeremy had booked a special dinner for us at the steak house on the ship to celebrate our 20th year wedding anniversary. He even had them put a rose on the table to make it extra special.

The BEST steak I've honestly ever had!

The staff brought us a cake and sang "Let me call you sweetheart" to us. One of them took my phone and started taking pictures of the moment. As much as I hate my profile, I really love this picture and the memory!

I was in shock and did not take pictures of this at the moment but... after dinner, Jeremy came over to my side of the table and got down on one knee, asked me to be his wife for another 20 years, and gave me this ring

He had the gemstones of our kids inserted on the side of the ring. Whitney's emerald, Aiden's saphire, and Connor's tanzanite.

Really gorgeous ring and he really surprised me.... I had no idea!

After dinner we enjoyed watching Mary-Jess with the kids at the theater

The kids got to meet her and get her autograph

Days 3&4: Bangkok, Thailand

Since we had 2 days in Thailand we got a hotel room to stay in the city for Christmas Eve instead of going back to the ship.

The next stop was Bangkok, which was almost a 2 hour drive from where the ship docked. Yes, we had to ride like this for almost 2 hours.....

Our hotel was decorated so beautifully for Xmas.

We were greeted with some kind of juice before checking in to our room

Riding around Bangkok in the little Tuk-Tuk's were so fun!

It constantly felt like we were being chased by a gang on scooters

They had a Burger King! lol!

The shops resembled something on an episode of Hoarders

It was hard to remember sometimes that it was still Christmas time

omg.... sticky rice with mango! I couldn't get enough! I literally ordered 2 servinges of it.

I never did figure out what they were drying in these bowls with those dirty fans

So many unique flavors of chips here! We saw a lot of the 'Salted Egg' flavor

Driving back to the hotel. We were at a traffic light and the driver jumped out to take this picture for us.

The hotel had a beautiful pool where we swam until it was dark

Stocking laid out just in case Santa happened to find us on Xmas Eve

Look at that! 3 stuffed stockings! It's a miracle!

The breakfast buffet was my Xmas miracle!! This was the largest and most unique breakfast buffet I have ever been to.

Christmas Day in Bangkok was bustling with activity!

I was amazed at these power lines!

Christmas mani/pedis and massages for everyone!

Back on the ship in time for the Christmas show that evening

The waves made it even look like snow for Christmas!

Day 5: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

We knew this stop would be interested when the overhead announcements told everyone to lower their expectations! lol! Plus we read some of the history of Cambodia with the kids. We were all genuinely interested at what this would be like.

From the boat the view was not so bad. Aiden looked out the window and said that his dream would be to come back here and build a little hut right on the tip of land at the end and live out his days catching fish.

The other side of the ship had a different view

We took a very short bus ride (about 2-3 minutes) to a parking lot full of these cars that had backs jimmy rigged on them.... I really don't know how else to explain it. All I know is that thousands of people got off that ship and this was the only form of transportation for everyone.

Apparently, the city has been bought by the Chinese who is giving it a complete and total overhaul. Construction everywhere! Our mouths and hair was full of dirt by the end of the day.

Every once in a while you would see a really nice looking place like this right on the coast but the other 3 sides of it was a total mess. It was quite the contrast!

The pictures all around the coast line shows the various buidling projects that the Chinese are doing. It looks like it will be amazing!

I've honestly never seen anything like this place. dirt streets, crazy power lines, disarray everywhere, and then a nice high rise building in the middle of it all.

The locals are very proud of this lion and lionness monument that represents their past and their future

The driver dropped us off in this area that had a few interested buildings and statues but I never really knew what the area was called

Walking into what looked like a church but also someone's closet

Also someones kitchen

And someone's bed

That's when we noticed the man sitting near the ceiling scultpting and painting the beautiful artwork above. The entire church was surrounded by these works of art and he was about 1/4th done, the rest were just pen scratchings.

Then we saw this kid, I imagine the painters son, sitting outside looking at a cell phone. I got a little choked up as I watched my kids taking pictures of this kids home and realizing there is nothing different between my boys and this boy other than where they happened to be born. They seem to be around the same age and care about the same things. It made me feel so gratful and also a little guilty.

Looks like the essentials will be coming here: Starbucks, KFC, and Pizza. Now they just need a McDonald's.

Power line nightmare!

Back on the boat and enjoyed an empty gym! I was so gratful for this gym during the cruise. It allowed me to eat more at the buffets!

It felt good to get cleaned up from all the dirt from Cambodia!

Day 6: At Sea

I talked Aiden into going to the Art Auction with me.

We watched one woman buy at $28,000 painting!

The Miss Noreweigan Jade contest...... was hilarious!

It was windy and a little cold so not a lot of people were in the pool which was perfect for Whitney! That's how she likes it!

Love this girl!

Did I mention it was windy?

SO MANY different places to eat on the ship! This was our first time trying the Japanese restaurant.

We ended our sea day with another great show

Day 7: Nha Trang, Vietnam

Since we had 2 days in Vietnam, we decided not to get off the ship this day and wait for Saigon the next day since you had to buy a visa for each person just to get off the ship AND a paid excurstion for each person as well. It was actually a really nice though because half of the ship got off here and we felt like we had the ship to ourselves!

Apparently, this city is known for the longest cable car in the world. You can see it connecting one island to another.

Enjoying the view from my treadmill!

Whitney made a "stain glass window"

Whitney and I took an origami class

Enjoyed an empty pool with friends

The boys had fun on the sports deck with the other teens

We enjoyed a beautiful sun set that evening

Day 8: Long Thành, Vietnam

This is where we port to get to Ho Chi Minh (AKA Saigon)

For the hour or so bus ride we enjoyed this guys comedy show

The scooters!! omg...

Our first stop was this Chinese market. But we couldn't buy anything because they only sold in bulk. We weren't really sure why they would bring us here.

It was very crowded but hidden in little pockets you would see groups have a meal or just hanging out

The pagoda. Sort of like an indoor cemetery.

This guy was outside the pagoda burning fake money to bring good fortune for the new year

These are the "graves". Here people bring fruit to the site in addition to flowers and incense.

Ho Chi Minh

Locals were buying birds to set them free

A quik stop at this temple

kids waiting in line outside of the school

Apparently Vietnam in know for their Lacquer. We stopped at this shop to learn how it's made and to purchase Lacquerware.

Mother of Pearl Lacquer - the most valuable of the lacquers

A quick stop to the old post office.... not really sure why we stopped here either other than the fact that this is one of the oldest buildings in the city

Lemongrass restaurant - our bus driver took reservations for this restaurant before we got there. We had no idea if there would be other restuarants in the area or why he was pushing this one so hard but we joined everyone else on the bus and made our reservation too.

The view of the city from the restaurant

With the entire bus going to this restaurant we waited an hour to get food and we only got a few things that we ordered. We only had 30 minutes left in the city and wanted to do so much more! So, we cancelled the rest of our order and left.

The street food looked so much more interesting anyway!

Jeremy had watched a documentary about these sandwiches and was so excited to buy one for about $1 USD. We should have just done this instead of that restuarant that wasted all of our time here.

Reunification Palace which was the President of Vietnam's home as Vietnam was being split into North and South and it is also in the famous photo when the helicopter came down to pick up the last of the Amerian troops and the communist North took over the South marking the end of the war.