Asia - where to start

[sanger727]

A relative has asked me if I would considering doing an Asia cruise with her in a couple years (we already have our 2017 and 2018 trips planned). Problem is I have no idea where to start! It's a part of the world I don't know much about and between Sinapore, China, Japan, Malaysia, Tailand, India, UAE, Korea, Vietnam, etc, the list just keeps going on and on. I have no idea where to start which makes using trip advisor hard.

 

So reaching out for advice. Any thoughts on memorable experiences, ports, things better to do as a land tour, etc. We are less interested in touring modern cities and shopping; more interested in history, scenery, and cultural experiences. Enjoy wildlife experiences too that aren't zoo based (ie we just did a 10 day safari in Tanzania).

 

Any ports stand out as not to be missed? Would plan around 14 days for the trip So don't think we could do India all the way to Japan.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I suggest Japan as a land tour. It is very easy to get from place to place using the local trains but you can also do tours. It's a totally different culture too. I visited there some years ago. I spent some time in Tokyo while DH was attending a conference. We did a day trip to Nikko and would have liked to have spent more time there. Then we did a four day trip which covered Mt Fuji, Hakone, Takayama, the Shirakowa-go area, Kanazawa, and finished in Kyoto. We stayed in Kyoto for a few days using it as a base for tours to Osaka and Nara, and to explore Kyoto itself. Again, we would have liked more time in this region. Finally we did a very quick trip to Hiroshima with an overnight stop in Miyajima before catching the fast Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We really needed one more day in Hiroshima/Miyajima as well. It was a facinating trip but far too short.

[John Bull]

Most popular are probably the one-way cruises between Singapore & Hong Kong. A typical itinerary would include Bangkok (Thailand), Sihanoukville (Cambodia), possibly a Malaysian or Indonesian port, and Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City), Da Nang & Halong Bay (all Vietnam), mebbe Sanya on Chania (China). Lots of cruise lines do this itinerary.

 

A one-way gives you the chance for a few days in both start and finish ports (I'd certainly recommend a few days in HK.)

Air fares are no more expensive than simple out-and-back return fares if you book "open Jaw" (also called "multi-city") returns to the same home airport.

 

Do choose a ship which overnites in port in places like Bangkok and Saigon and Halong Bay (and HK if it's merely a port-of-call) because a single port-of-call day in those places is woefully inadequate and, depending on your ship, journey from port to destination also bites into that day.

 

Smaller ships, such as Azamara, can dock closer to the cities eg they sail up the Saigon River & port in the city.

 

Chania has visa dispensation for cruisers, as does Shanghai (but check the terms for both).

No HK visa required for most nationalities, and if you spend a few days there you can pre-book a shared day-trip into mainland China eg Guagzhou (formerly called Canton) with group-visa included.

Otherwise a Chinese visa is quite expensive & you have to arrange it yourself - same applies to India.

The ship arranges visas for Vietnam & Cambodia, cost is only a few dollars. Can't recall visas for Thailand, but we didn't have to organise & wouldn't have been expensive.

 

The winter weather as far north as HK goes from hot to warm-enough. Further north - Shanghai, Beijing, South Korea, etc is cold in winter.

 

History, scenery, culture, you'll get plenty.

The most modern city on that itinerary is HK, but there's still an eclectic mix of old & new.

But SE Asia is modernising fast, do go there before there's a McD or KFC on every street-corner. Except Cambodia, which I suspect will still be in the 18th century at the end of this millennium ;)

We don't like cities, we avoid them as much as possible in the western hemisphere. But in the east, most are very very different.

 

But wildlife?

And a large dose of nature?

That'd be better done on a land trip or river cruise, and even then I suspect you'll see little wildlife.

 

We're off to South Africa next month, majoring on the National Parks.

Like Tanganyka, plenty of wildlife.

But missing an awful lot of other things that a SE Asia cruise gives you.

Can't have it both ways ;)

 

JB :)

Edited November 29, 2016 by John Bull

[4774Papa]

We have done four tours or cruises that involved South and/or East Asia in the past four years. I did a trip many years before that included Bangkok, Hong Kong and Manila.

 

Those include:

 

1) 21 day land tour with Vantage that included several cities and a four day river cruise on the Yangzee. We visited the key cities and sights except Tibet. It was wonderful and for China, I highly recommend a land tour with a possible Yangzee River cruise. Here is the link to that trip with many details. China should be at the top of anyone's list of must do's for East Asia.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1718320

2) A 14 cruise from Singapore to Dubai with Celebrity. We had four ports in SW India and one at Muscat, Oman. Great trip, but not a tip priority for my recommendation. Still, here is my review.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=501167

3) A Celebrity cruise around the top end of Australia from Perth to Sydney, stopping for two days in Bali, Indonesia. We love Australia, but has some issues with Indonesia. Still, Bali is beautiful, but it would be at the bottom of my list. http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=216863

4) A Celebrity cruise mainly in Japan ending in Hong Kong called Japan and China. Fantastic cruise and loved Japan. It is hard to beat the wonderful sights in China like the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Terra-cotta warriors, Shanghai, Yangzee River cruise, Li River, Hong Kong, etc., but Japan is a wonderful country and we loved the people. Kyoto is a must see. Here is my review of that cruise. We did an 8 day land trip in Japan prior to the cruise.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=518503&et_cid=2531924&et_rid=17221689&et_referrer=Boards

 

Here is my rating from top to bottom for what is best to see in South and East Asia

 

1) China, land tour

2) close 2nd, Japan land tour or self guided tour with cruise to Hong Kong.

3) Singapore to Dubai, with stops in India and Oman.

4) Bangkok, Malaysia, Philippines or Indonesia.

 

I have not been to Vietnam or Cambodia, but would probably take a river cruise in preference to a ship's cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong. Many of the sights are far from the ports requiring very lengthy travel on busses over congested highways. I loved the food in these countries, also Bangkok is impressive, but the other countries not nearly as much as China, Japan and India.

[JoePDX]

For China I strongly recommend a land tour. We did a 21 day tour with Pacific Delight Tours that was excellent. China is vast with immense history - imagine only seeing the US from the coastline.

 

We have also sailed from Hong Kong to Bangkok (great trip and included Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei). And also from Shanghai to Seward (also good, with stops in Japan and Russia, but more sea days).

 

Joe

[sanger727]

Thanks so much, that info is helpful. Yeah, not really sure what to be looking for with these ports but would enjoy seeing temples and would like to learn a little more about eastern religions. Thanks for the links to the reviews, will check those out.

[4774Papa]

Thanks so much, that info is helpful. Yeah, not really sure what to be looking for with these ports but would enjoy seeing temples and would like to learn a little more about eastern religions. Thanks for the links to the reviews, will check those out.

 

When I first visited the Far East in 1981, after visiting a lot of Buddhist Temples, I wanted to learn more about the religion. I purchased a book to read on the flight home. After reading several pages, I had to go back and read them again. It was slow reading. I discovered that Buddhism is a complex faith. Buddha was Indian and didn't want to be considered a God and did not want statues of himself in temples. That is not what happened. Buddhism has many Gods, with the baseline ones being God's from the Hindu faith and others from local areas added.

 

Buddhism is about the afterlife. After visiting Japan, we came to learn that the Shinto faith is more about living than the afterlife. Most people in Japan worship both the Shinto and Buddhist faiths. These faiths are different from what some in the East refer to as the three religions of the desert (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), that require the exclusion of other faiths. Understanding religions, definitely help in understanding other peoples.

[OzKiwiJJ]

A popular saying in Japan is "Born Shinto, Married Christian, Buried Buddhist". ;)

[mking8288]

... not really sure what to be looking for with these ports but would enjoy seeing temples and would like to learn a little more about eastern religions ...

There are vast distance between north Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China) and southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Singarpore, etc.) and there's only so much you can see in a 10 to 20 days cruise itineraries, most of them with an overnight stop. Best to plan to be away for at least 3 weeks, to adjust to & post-travel, recovery from the effects of jetlag (the world/time zone would be upside down for those of us on the eastern daylight savings time) so that you can explore on land, the embarkation city and disembarkation city - as many of these are one-way and not looping back, i.e. SIN or HKG, PVG.

 

A generous budget (bankroll) would be helpful too, LOL as I was joking with extended family about planning for late 2017 or early 2018 - to plan to be away for easily 3+ weeks.

 

A good place to start is online - Youtube or similar, with variety of videos & intro's to get a feel of each city/port/country on the short list. Next, you can search for online travel sites in the digital media via Roku ... there are tons of resources about specific countries, cruises and packages (obviously put out by the travel industry/marketing partners & official tourism entities, etc.) Let that remote control do the cyber virtual walking a bit to help narrow it down.

 

As for learning religion & the eastern faith ... your exposure & opportunity to really get up close & personal are going to be limited as some of the stopovers or port visits are just 8 to 12 hours, or less - some are overnight but any ship tours organized for the day are likely to jammed pack with multiple stops. Sure, you might get a feel for things & see the "Giant Budda" on the hilltop (as in HK) or the temple with the thousand gods, etc. - and time to pickup a DVD or buy a few books or souvenirs, that's about it.

 

As said above, some of the places like Japan and China are best explored on an escorted land-based tour of 5 to 7 days ... or longer. We toured Taiwan last September for a week, around & thru the island, including coastal - no way to see all that from the comfort of a stateroom with all the luxury ... but, we surely slept in a few excellent 4 stars+ hotel, far exceeded our expectations. Ditto for South Korea & we're right up there at/next to the DMZ, just 90 minutes drive (with traffic leaving the city) north of Seoul & we also overnighted on the coast at a 5 star resort, with a "side" trip to a historic temple worshipped by the locals ... a 3 hour drive and definitely out of reach of shorex from the typical cruise ship.

 

If you cruise begins or ends at HKG, you can easily spend 3 to 6 days there just exploring the temples & countryside alone, with little time to checkout the modern high-rise jungle of concrete skyscrapers - with its recent British colonial past, English is used/spoken well enough that you can pretty much DIY without needing a guide. Ditto for SIN as being similar to HKG, has an excellent & modern public/mass transit system to get around, supplemented by taxi & other resources ... where, walking shoes are a must (once you get acclimated to the tropical weather/humidity).

 

Costal Vietnam, ship-based tours with overnights can be nice & on our radar - already done land-based. Road traffic is crazy mad with all those motorbikes so let someone else worry about driving (driver & guide in a MB Sprinter van for us, last time out of HCMC). Just a few random thoughts for what it's worth.

[wangeling gal]

Hi Sanger727

 

I was thinking that as you were unsure about where you wished to go in Asia, maybe a cruise on a small ship like Azamara, would be a great way to 'sample' what Asia has to offer and then if you like what you sample, maybe you could revisit for a more in depth look.

The cruise I was thinking of was the one that starts in Singapore, a melting pot of Chinese, Malay, Indian & British heritages, visits Thailand & Vietnam and finishes in Hong Kong. They have the advantage of being a smaller ship so when visiting cities like Bangkok & Ho Chi Min, they berth so much closer than a bigger cruise. You visit Halong Bay, which I believe is beautiful, and get a chance to go to Hanoi. Then a few days in Hong Kong will give you a great Chinese experience or you could possibly tack on a tour of China, visiting Bejing, X'ian (terracotta warriors) possibly Shanghai as a great finish. You get to visit SE Asia as well as north Asia.

That said - I have been privileged to have done the Azamara Spice Route tour which started in Singapore and finished in Mumbai, visiting Penang, Colombo, Kochi, Goa then Mumbai. We then toured the golden triangle, with the highlight being the incomparable Taj Mahal. It is a holiday that will live in my heart forever. :)

Whatever you decide I hope you have a fabulous time and enjoy your 2017/8 holidays in the mean time:D

[sanger727]

We are definitely going to be budget conscious on this trip so don't think one of the small ship lines will be doable. My stepmother mentioned wanting to try and go to Phuket to see the James bond islands. I like the idea of trying to start or end in Hong Kong and integrate a pre or post cruise land trip too.

[4774Papa]

We are definitely going to be budget conscious on this trip so don't think one of the small ship lines will be doable. My stepmother mentioned wanting to try and go to Phuket to see the James bond islands. I like the idea of trying to start or end in Hong Kong and integrate a pre or post cruise land trip too.

 

Azamara is great, but very expensive.

We did a great 21 day Vantage China land tour and four day river cruise in 2012 for $10K for both of us and that included airfare. I expect the price is a bit higher now, but the trip was one of our favorites.

 

If you are set on an ocean cruise, consider the Celebrity's Japan and China.

[Floridiana]

For land tours, I highly recommend China and Japan. We did two memorable trips. China was with China Focus and Japan with Unique Japan. Both are small companies with flexibility, great service, and much lower cost than larger and more well-known companies.

 

On both trips, the immersion was a bit more intensive than with the large tour companies where you always have your own bus and never meet anyone outside your group. We stayed in everything from 5 star luxury hotels to clean family run places.

 

Japan is the cleaner country with the more polite people. China is a bit rougher around the edges.

 

If you plan a cruise for convenience, I recommend Japan or any of the other island nations. Our next cruise is from Bali to Hong Kong.

[Karennella]

A great place for nature lovers is Sabah, Borneo. I think a few cruises go there. Overall I think Asia is more suited to land trips than cruising. But if you really want to cruise, Hong Kong is a good starting or finishing place. Amazingly efficient place!