Monday 27 October – Laem Chabang, the port for Bangkok:

We’re confused by the time here in the Gulf of Thailand. The ship said to set our clocks back by 1 hour, when we thought it should be forward. I’m certain now that the ship is back one hour. Although my watch and phone are showing 18:20 Perth time, local time is 17:20. Sunset is still to come. Strange, though, that although we’re east of Singapore (therefore ahead in time) we set the clocks back to one hour before Perth time. Why? Maybe we’re actually west of Singapore? I’m confused.

Bad night last night. I don’t snore due to my CPAP machine, but I might have to sleep out on the balcony from now on! It would be possible, there are recliner lounges there and the temperature is beautiful. Soft breezes from the ship’s movement. We’ll see.

We’re tied up at the wharf at Laem Chabang, about 80Km south east of Bangkok and a 2hr bus trip each way. I can’t face that, and since I need to keep my feet up, and being so tired, I stayed “home”. I’ve been to Bangkok and I didn’t want to pay US$169 for four hours on a bus and only three hours in the city. It was a very good decision staying on the ship as I found later with other tours. I got another 3hrs sleep and feel better.

It’s interesting being here. There’s lots of crane and container truck action. At about 4pm it was time for the daily thunderstorm, and what a beauty it was. Dark clouds, thunder and lightning and steady, drenching rain for about half an hour. Nice.

Jan went in to Bangkok today and isn’t back yet at 18:30. The ship leaves at 19:00 local time, so there’s another 90 mins yet. Confusing time.

They say it’s a small world. Well I can tell you it’s getting smaller all the time. We’ve just held the Northam Senior High School 50^th Reunion, right? Who should I run into this afternoon on Deck 5 but Lindsay DelaHaunty, one of the former NSHS students who was at the reunion. He’s one of our former classmates. On this ship! I was amazed. We’ll meet up later.

Leaving Laem Chabang.