Day 12 - Mekong Cruise Day 1

Disappointing breakfast this morning, but I guess 1 day out of 12 isn't too bad, today is the start of our Mekong River Cruise, 7 days travelling the Mekong River, the first 3 days in Vietnam and I believe the last 4 days in Cambodia.

We made our way to a hotel they had selected as our meeting point, it was just a 5-10 minute walk from our hotel, however as we had a lot of bags, it was decided Mum, Dad and myself would go with a vehicle with all the bags and offload them at the other end while Mike, Gill and James walked their way to the hotel. We had a briefing to discuss what the plans were today, which was basically a two hour bus ride to our ship Serenity. While we were getting our briefing it became clear that James and I were two of the youngest there, with only one other looking younger than both of us, a guy from Australia called Justin who was there with his mum.

Driving on the bus to our boat we passed a bunch of rice patty fields, Vietnam is one of the largest producers of rice, in the area we drove through, we passed a number of rice patty fields where they bury their family members, as family members want to be buried on their land, apparently they are buried 2 meters underground, which I guess is essential seeing they are in the middle of the rice patty fields. Arriving at our vessel we had a quick briefing by our Hotel Manager Jason about the plans for today on Serenity, a quick run down on where things were and being told at 4pm there would be a compulsory emergency drill for practising use with the life jackets. We made our way to our rooms where I got changed and made my way to the gym on board to check it out and have a workout. A few others came in and checked it out, but none joined for a workout. It's nice being able to look out the window while on the treadmill and there is plenty of room as well.

It was almost time for the emergency drill so it was a quick trip back to my room to have a shower and get changed into some clean clothes before the drill took place. We headed up to the pool deck and all gathered putting on out life jackets, there was some message that came over the speakers, but couldn't really hear it, after that the drill was over, I didn't really feel like I needed to attend, I mean it's not hard putting on a life jacket, but I guess they have to cover there butts.

We gathered later in the afternoon to be welcomed onto the boat with Captain Tân and Yee our cruise coordinator. This involved a few drinks, and eheni say a few, I don't really know how many. Fro there it was down 2 level to where we had dinner and more drinks, Wine, Whisky and Bailey's were consumed. First time being on a cruise ship and the meals are pretty good, also you get to order whatever is on the list of other menu options (in case you don't like what options they have on offer). Dad enjoyed the mushroom soup so much he asked for anothed dish.

We stayed around for a little watching a show performed by summer local people preforming some music show, I wasn't overly impressed with it, but simply, just not thing.