Traveling with the Jones

Janis · January 21, 2015

We recently returned from a 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise on Holland America Line’s ms Volendam. One of the highlights of the itinerary was a 3-day stay in Myanmar, with the ship docked at the Port of Thilawa about 20 miles outside of Yangon.

A view of the Myanmar countryside at sunset during the 1.5 hour bus ride from the Thilawa Port to Yangon.

On our first day in port we booked two shore excursions through Holland America: a 5-hour Introduction to Yangon for the morning/afternoon and a 5-hour Traditional Myanmar Dance and Dinner for the evening.

Too late we realized that this was really poor planning on our part as each tour included 3-plus hours of bouncing back and forth between the Port of Thilawa and Yangon on rough roads. It would have been more ideal to book the tours on separate days, or to have booked an overnight hotel in Yangon like some smart guests did.

Regardless of the long day of bus-riding, we were excited for this evening excursion that included dinner at the French Indochina La Planteur Restaurant, one of the top-rated places to eat in all of Yangon according to Trip Advisor.

The restaurant is set in one of the former embassies (before Myanmar moved its capital from Yangon).

The venue for the dinner and the dance performance is outside on a grass lawn overlooking the lake with only moonlight and candlelight.

The set four-course menu offered the main course option of grouper or ham.

White tuna Carpaccio was the first course of four served at La Planteur in Yangon, Myanmar.

While we dined, we were treated to a traditional Myanmar dance performance, and the wine flowed with each course. The food was fantastic,

Then, we got back on the bus – a very nice bus – and bounced our way back to the ship – except for the guests who were smart enough to book themselves into a nice hotel in downtown Myanmar for the next two nights.

Have you visited Yangon, Myanmar? Did you have a favorite restaurant? Please share in comments below.

To learn more about our Asian Cruise on Holland America’s Volendam, check out these other posts:

If you are interested in learning more about the various destinations we visited, check out these “Fun Facts” posts:

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Janis · January 20, 2015

Last month we sailed on a 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise from Singapore on Holland America Line’s ms Volendam.

One of the highlights of the cruise itinerary was a 3-day port call in Myanmar. The ship was docked in the Port of Thilawa, an industrial port with no traveler facilities or shops. Depending on traffic, the Thilawa port is about a 1.5 to 2 hour drive away from the heart of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and former capital.For our first day in Myanmar, we booked the 5-hour-long Introduction to Yangon shore excursion through the ship, to get an overview of Yangon and a feel for the country before venturing out on our own. This tour left from the cruise port terminal in Thilawa. For an alternative to a shore excursion through the ship, there is a free shuttle bus takes you to the road outside of the port gates, where you can meet a pre-arranged independent tour, or pick up a taxi. There were no free shuttles or other public transportation options to get from Thilawa to Yangon.

Due to shallow water and tides in the Yangon River, our ship arrived several hours late into to port, so it was a good day to have booked a tour through the ship. By 10:15, we were on our bus to Yangon, with a very friendly and informative young guide who said to call her “Mo – Mo.” The buses were very comfortable and had good air conditioning.

The biggest benefit of taking the ship’s shore excursions and/or transfers to Yangon was that they had police escorts. Two police on motorbikes cleared the traffic all the way into the heart of the city – making the ride about 90 minutes rather than two hours by taxi.

We headed Shwedagon Pagoda, the giant golden gleaming pagoda in Yangon with a 326 feet tall stupa (spire) that is topped with more than 6,500 diamonds, rubies and other precious stones. It is considered the most sacred of all Buddhist sites in all of Myanmar.

NOTE: as you can see in the photo above, the stupa was undergoing renovation, which is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2015.

To enter Shwedagon Pagoda, you must take off your shoes and socks and walk with bare feet (your shoes are stored in baskets with minders, who you tip when you pick up the shoes.) You also must have your shoulders and knees covered. I was wearing a below-the – knee dress and sweater, but the minders still insisted that I have a longyi, a wraparound skirt to cover my legs, which was provided. In Myanmar, both men and women wear the longyi — men tie theirs in the front and women fold the cloth over and secure it at the side.

Our group headed upstairs at the Pagoda, where the guide gave us a map and a meeting time. You could either explore on your own or stay with the guide. Most of us stayed with her. The marble stones were warm, but not burning hot on your bare feet as I had feared. (You do want to avoid the black-colored tiles or stones).

Before you visit Shwedagon Pagoda, you may want to use the calendar in your smartphone to figure out the day of the week that you were born on, such as Tuesday or Friday or Sunday. Each day of the week has a different blessing area such as “Sunday Corner” (pictured above) for those who were born on a Sunday.

The Shwedagon Pagoda is filled with sparkling detail at every turn (see photo above.) Besides marveling at the detailed decor of the Pagoda, it was interesting to watch young boys and girls, about 8-12 years of age, dressed in fancy costumes and being paraded through the Pagoda with their families. Our guide explained it was the ceremony before the child is given to the Monk’s for 30 days – to have their head shaved, be dressed in monk’s robes, and be educated about the rituals of being a monk. All boys go through the process, and many girls do it as well although it is optional for them.

After our time at the Shwedagon Pagoda, our tour bus headed to the center of Yangon by the City Hall a brief photo stop.

Finally, we headed to the 70-year-old Bogyoke Aung San Market (better known as Scott Market) with more than 2,000 shopping stalls. We had about 40 minutes there but you could spend much longer.

Scott Market is filled with stalls selling jewelry, longyis, art, linens, silver, lacquer ware, everything – with haggling on price expected, unless the stall had a clear “fixed prices” sign.

In between the narrow aisles, streams of young monk-trainee girls visited each stall, chanting something until the people put some money in their “bowls” (that are traditionally used to gather food.)

Our favorite Tour Guide “Mo-Mo” (left) in Thilawa, Myanmar

Best of this tour was our guide Mo-Mo who made the 3 hours of bus time to and from the cruise pier informative and fun as she shared much detail about life in Myanmar, and how it has changed in the last five years.

Have you visited Myanmar via a cruise ship? What was your favorite excursion or destination? Please share in comments below.

You may want to check out these other posts on our 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise:

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Janis · January 19, 2015

Yangon River, Myanmar (Burma)

Myanmar (pronounced MEE’-an-mar) is a country in Southeast Asia that shares borders with China, India, Laos, Bangladesh and Thailand. It was formerly known as Burma, and Yangon was the country’s former capital. After three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century, the British conquered Burma and the country became a British colony until 1948.

Initially, Burma was as a democratic nation until a 1962 coup that resulted in a military dictatorship, which remained until 2011.

The country was generally closed to Western travel during the military rule.

The first episode of Season 1 of this show – Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Season 1 – Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown piqued our interest in visiting Myanmar.

Via a Holland America 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise on the Volendam, we had the opportunity to visit Myanmar for three days in late December, 2014.

This map shows the location of the Port of Thilawa on the Yangon River in relationship to the Andaman Sea and the city of Yangon, Myanmar. (Source: Google Maps.)

After sailing up the Yangon River from the Gulf of Martaban, an arm of the Andaman Sea, the Volendam docked at the Port of Thilawa on the Yangon River.

Thilawa Port is the largest and busiest port in Myanmar. Regardless of what the Google map above indicates, this port is about 1.5 to 2 hours drive to reach the heart of Yangon, depending on traffic.

One of the benefits of cruising to Myanmar is the view while the ship is sailing up the Yangon River.

We were out on deck to watch the sunrise as the ship sailed up the Yangon River. While we were scheduled to arrive in Thilawa at 7 am, the captain advised that we needed to sail in slower than planned due to strong tides and the shallowness of the river. At the time of our late December sailing, the river was about three meters deep in some spots with the Volendam requiring a minimum of two meters of water depth to sail.

For reference, Mr. Jones (right), is 6 feet, 6 inches or about 2 meters tall.

(For those who are metric challenged like I am, Jeff (Mr. Jones) is 6 feet 6 inches tall which is just about 2 meters. So I pictured the water in the Yangon River as 1.5 Jeff’s deep.)

We headed to the bow (which was open for viewing, a nice perk of Holland America ships on scenic cruising locations.)

Sailing up the Yangon River was similar to sailing on the Missouri River or the Mississippi River or Germany’s Kiel Canal in the fall; the view was of agricultural fields, brown after harvest.

Golden Pagoda along the bank of the Yangon River in Myanmar. Photo by Rick Fenton.

Upon a closer look, however, there was one major difference: golden pagodas dot the landscape at the edge of the fields.

Along the Yangon River, Myanmar. Photo by Rick Fenton.

Most temples and pagodas found throughout Myanmar were built during the 12th and 13th centuries under the Pagan Empire as Theravada Buddhism spread throughout the country.

While thousands of the pagodas are concentrated further north in Bagan, there were plenty to see as we sailed up the muddy, wide river with small fishing boats.

Have you visited Myanmar by cruise ship? What was your impression? Please share in comments below.

To follow other parts of our 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise on Holland America’s Volendam, check out these posts:

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Janis · January 16, 2015

We spent Christmas Day, 2014 in Phuket, Thailand via a 14-day Asian Holiday cruise on Holland America’s Volendam.

Phuket has a dock, but as a busy cruise ship port a visit often means a tendering into Putong Bay from anchor, as our ship did on Christmas day. The port call was a short one – from 8 am until 3:30 pm – but since large local tenders were used, the crowd waiting for tenders had cleared by 10 am and we grabbed spots on an open tender with our friends James and Rick.

Once on shore, we found a nearby ATM to withdraw some Thai Bhat. U.S. dollars were also widely accepted. There were many drivers around the pier, and we finally decided to hire one with an open-sided vehicle that comfortably seated the 4 of us. He agreed to drive us around the West side of the island for $50 for two hours, and to take us to the Tiger Kingdom, which is about a 10 minute ride from the tender port dock.

The open-sided taxi was perfect for viewing the countryside.

Our visit was one day ahead of the 10th anniversary of the deadly tsunami that resulted from the December 26th, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Phuket suffered extensive damage, as did much of Southeast Asia, but little of that damage can be seen on the island of Phuket today.

While Phuket is known for its beautiful beaches, 7o percent of the island is covered by mountains that stretch from north to south. Our driver took us up to some of the high points for terrific views.

Next, we headed to Tiger Kingdom, a somewhat controversial attraction in Phuket where tigers are raised by their trainers since young, bonding with it throughout the development process.

According to the website, “the trainers employ a combination of repetition, trust and encouragement to train their big cats and over time the Big Cat are used to human and often see us as one of the family.
In Tiger Kingdom, our well-trained and experience staffs will ensure your duty, but these Big Cats are still wild animal that you need to treat with respect.

Most visitors came and spend a relatively short time in Tiger Kingdom, more than often they would encounter that these tigers are always sleeping. But cats are cats and they sleep up to 18 hours a day, just like kitty at home. Please do not assume our cats are drugged. To make the most of your visit, our staffs will play with the tigers during the day. And our cats are also trained to sleep and rest at night.

James and Rick agreed to go into the tiger cages with me, while Mr. Jones preferred to stay in the cafe and enjoy a Tiger beer.

One of the baby tiger cubs at Tiger Kingdom in Phuket, Thailand.

Tiger Kingdom offers 4 different sizes of tigers that you can interact with:

Spend 10 minutes up close with the baby tiger cubs (2-4 months)
Spend 10 minutes up close with the small tigers (5-10 months)
Spend 10 minutes up close with the medium tigers (11-15 months)
Spend 10 minutes up close with the big tigers (16-36 months)

We choose the 2-tiger experience which included the small (8 month old tigers) and the medium tigers that were about 13 months old.

After purchasing our tickets and signing an in-depth release, we viewed Tiger visiting instructions and rules. Basically, you are instructed to approach the Tigers from behind, and to stroke their backs with firm petting, including pulling their tail. (You are to stay away from their faces, as to not confuse them that you want to play.)

Then, we entered the compound with a number of enclosures. When it is your group’s turn, a guide escorts you to each group of tigers where you can get up close; pet them, pull their tails, and take pictures with them.

The guide is always close by with a tiny stick that he uses to distract the tiger if it turns its head back toward the person rubbing its back.

It is truly a unique experience, and if you are a cat lover, you can’t help but love the chance to get near these magnificent animals.

By the way, the tigers in all of these photos were in the ‘small’ group, and about eight months old.

Our take-away advice — if you are hurried for time, just purchase time with one size of Tiger — the experience is not that different between the small and the medium tigers.

After Tiger Kingdom, our driver took us back to the beach. We enjoyed a long beach walk, stopping a couple of times to enjoy a cold Tiger beer, and to acquire a nice Starbuck’s mug to add to our collection.

3:30 came too soon, and we joined many other passengers in the tender line at Patong Bay who also waited until the last minute to leave this beautiful paradise.

It was a Christmas to remember.

Have you visited Tiger Kingdom in Phuket? What was your reaction? Would you recommend it to others? Please share your thoughts in comments below.

Learn more about Phuket and our previous visit in these posts:

To read more about our 14-Day Asian Holiday cruise on Holland America’s Volendam, check out these posts:

Follow us on Twitter or interact with us on Facebook

Or, check out our boards on Pinterest and/or our photos on Instagram.

Traveling with the Jones

Traditional Myanmar Dance and Dinner at La Planteur from the Port of Thilawa, Myanmar

Getting an Introduction to Yangon via a Shore Excursion from Thilawa, Myanmar (Burma)

Sailing into Thilawa, Myanmar (Burma); Port City for Yangon

Christmas Day in Phuket, Thailand with a Visit to Tiger Kingdom