DAY 31 DATELINE PATTAYA, THAILAND – Soldiers came here for R&R during Vietnam. Time hasn’t treated it well. It’s like OOB with Thai massage.

Nice icy coconut juice from the guy in the tiger shirt, though. And the woman selling brushes and brooms definitely wins the award for most stuff on a motor scooter. Everything you see is on her bike, except the cars.

I figured the guy with the ‘do was as close as I was going to get to the roof line of a Siamese temple.

LATER, THAT SAME DAY, AT SEA EN ROUTE TO BANGKOK – The Brits disembarked in Singapore and the Chinese boarded. February 10 is Lunar New Year, a huge holiday for them – and for Diarmuid. He turned 85 today. HAPPY YEAR OF THE SNAKE, DIARMUID! What a wonderful guy he is. I’m lucky in uncles.

Diarmuid and I joined all the Chinese having their picture taken with the plump god of prosperity. Very auspicious.

It took me 8 minutes of ‘extortionate’ wireless time to download and read this New York Times article “Seven days on the Queen Mary 2.” Totally worth it. And accurate. Tho I haven’t experienced the ‘anything’ bit. Kiki

Day 28, DATELINE, LANGKAWI, MALAYSIA – A beautiful archipelago of mostly uninhabited islands. Kind of like that Leonardo di Caprio film. The ship is equally uninhabited. Everyone’s gone ashore.

Note from Stew:

This video link is from camera in your office, Kiki. So you can see the Maine Weather you are missing in real time!