EASTERN MAGIC Bustling Bangkok to Hong Kong

Travel writer Chris Caldicott sets sail from Bangkok to Hong Kong and discovers a whole new pace of life A CULINARY CRUISE

This page: Wat Arun and Chao Praya River, Bangkok, Thailand

Iwas a cruise virgin when I boarded Viking Orion in the ai port of Laem Chabang for a 14-day cruise through the Gulf of ailand and South China Sea to Hong Kong. e main attraction for me was a tempting choice of culinary-themed shore excursions in exotic sounding ports along the way. Already a conrmed fan of Southeast Asian cuisine, the idea of travelling eortlessly between food capitals of the region lled me with eager anticipation. My only concern was about how well life on board a cruise ship would suit me.

As expedition photographer-in-residence to the Royal Geographical Society, a freelance travel writer and a photographer with 120 countries under my belt, I was more used to travelling alone to o-piste destinations with a exible timetable. I had never been on an ocean voyage, only own over the seas and oceans that cover over seventy percent of the planet.

is was going to be a whole new way of travel that put a new perspective on my rather smug sense of global conquest. e appeal of never having to pack, unpack, spend time in airports or on long overland journeys was a given, I was less sure about the idea of group travel on shore and limited personal space on board. e culinary adventures began with a bang in Bangkok on Viking Orion’s complimentary ‘Panoramic’ city tour. e group dynamic worked perfectly due to QuietVox – a device that cordlessly connected each of us via personal headphones to a guide with no struggle to hear, keep up or stick together as we explored bustling food and ower markets piled high with fresh blooms, lemongrass, galangal, fresh turmeric and chillies. We later enjoyed shared conversation while feasting on ai red, green and yellow curries and Som Tum green papaya salad in a local restaurant.

Clockwise from left: Viking Orion against the dramatic backdrop of Hong Kong Harbour; an al fresco dining option onboard; a local woman wearing a traditional hat; sunset over Sihanoukville, Cambodia

at evening, Viking Orion proved its onboard culinary credentials with a fabulous zingy lobster Pad ai, a delicate banana blossom curry and an aromatic Tom Yum Goong soup on its ‘La Route Des Indes’ destination-inspired Chef’s Table tasting menu. By the time we set sail for Cambodia, all my reservations had evaporated into the warm tropical air. My spacious Scandinavian-style stateroom with sliding glass doors onto a private veranda was ideal for room service breakfasts, and drifting o to sleep open to fresh air and the sound of the sea. With my body clock still in a distant time zone I woke early, so headed to the promenade deck which I had all to myself. As the ship powered its way across the mill pond calm sea, the pace of my quarter of a mile circumambulations quickened as I drank in the spectacle of a starboard silver moon setting into an inky sky and the port side pre-dawn colours emerging behind crimson crested uy clouds. I completed 20 circuits (ve miles and 10,000 steps) before breakfast, a brilliant start to any day!

In Sihanoukville I signed up for a cooking school excursion to a chef training institute, where eager smily young students taught me and a small group of fellow passengers to make the creamy coconut and kroeung curry paste infused Khmer favourite, sh amok. After visiting the monks at Wat Krom monastery the next morning on the included tour, I jumped ship and headed o with some new friends to an idyllic white sand beach where we stayed until sunset, watched with a cold Angkor beer and steaming bowls of wok stirfried Kampot pepper crab.

Far from being dull, sea days oered a welcome chance to re-group, read and soak up some sun. I relaxed into a routine of early morning promenade walks, dips in the innity pool (that felt like an extension of the sea), lazy alfresco lunches on the

Clockwise from top: The iconic scene of the limestone karsts rising out of Ha Long Bay, Vietnam; traditional Dim Sum on display; the giant reclining Buddha in Sihanoukville, Cambodia World Café terrace, some more calorie-busting exercise on the sports deck. I dropped in on informative lectures in e eatre and chilled out (literally) in the LivNordic Spa’s snow grotto. After dinner, Viking Orion’s main pool became a sort of sun lounger drive-in-style outdoor Bose headphone ‘silent’ cinema, with a retractable roof ready to slide into action if rain threatened to stop play. On the top deck a unique state of the art planetarium showed 3D lms explorations of the universe and had an astrological telescope for star gazing sessions with real time commentary from an onboard astronomer. So there was never a dull moment.

To reach Ho Chi Minh City we sailed far from the open sea up the Saigon River towards the city’s beating heart. I headed up to the viewing deck of the Explorers’ Lounge each time we sailed into a new port, and loved the anticipation of watching a new destination slowly reveal itself – with a promise of adventures to come. A street stall bowl of noodle soup made a tasty snack before a three-wheeler cycle tour of the colonial era sights of Old Saigon and Ho Chi Minh’s vast intoxicating Ben ành market. In the expert company of one of the ship’s chefs, the next morning I travelled to a smaller market in search of ingredients for my ‘from market fare to table’ hands on cooking class back at the Kitchen Table on board that evening From Chan May, I opted for a day trip to the laid back trac-free streets and narrow lanes and thriving food markets of the ancient trading port of Hoi An. Crispy Banh Xeo and shrimp pancakes and sweet and sour Banh Cuon fresh prawn rice pepper rolls made excellent snacks on the hoof on our leisurely stroll between atmospheric old merchant houses and antique Chaozhou Chinese Assembly Halls.

We sailed on north to the majestic limestone khast islands of Halong Bay that magically rise out of the water. Here, my shore leave was a drive to Vietnam’s bustling capital Hanoi. We stoped o on the way for a cup of Vietnam’s famous ‘drop coee’ in a small Red River Delta village surrounded by iridescent green rice paddies so synonymous with those images of Vietnamese countryside. After a walking tour exploring the elegant blend of French colonial and traditional oriental inuence on this quintessential Asian city, we shared a delicious home cooked meal of lau hotpot sitting on the oor with a local family in a city neighbourhood.

By the time we sailed into the dramatic skyline of Hong Kong there was no doubt that this style of travel suited me. On my last day I took Hong Kong’s Ngong Ping Skyrail to the summit of Lantau Island and joined pilgrims and other tourists for a vegetarian lunch of shiitake mushrooms and tofu cooked for the monks next to the world’s largest seated outdoor Buddha, at Po Lin Monastery overlooking one of the most spectacular ports in the world; a tting end to my epic Southeast Asian culinary cruise adventure.