Diane

Today we went to one of the top places on our list- the Terracotta Warriors found near Xi’an, China.

We left a little early from our hotel to get to The Terracotta Warriors. It’s a good thing we did as we were one of the first groups into the museum. When we left after our visit, there was a long line of folks waiting to enter. This museum sells 70,000 tickets every day of the year and today was a holiday so even more families were visiting. It was a mad crush. People were shoving each other, putting cameras/phones in front of others and we were all smashed together. Groups were going different directions and some groups would all stay together as one entity so when they moved, everyone else had to get out of their way or get run over. Needless to say, I did not get to enjoy it as much as I wanted. As a matter of fact I didn’t even get to see one of the highlights of the museum since I couldn’t stand the crush any longer and left the building.

The Terracotta warriors were still amazing. Each warrior had a different face & hair design and some did not even have Asian features. Originally there were colors on the faces and clothing of the statues but when the statues were exposed to air the color quickly muted into the color of the terracotta. They put plastic wrap on some of the warriors to protect & preserve the coloring but it was very distressing to see plastic wrap on the lifelike faces.

Our lunch spot had a short presentation/sales pitch for lacquered furniture and for silk embroidery. The silk embroidery was amazing.

After the Terracotta Warriors and lunch, we visited the Xi’an city wall. It is one of the only city walls still in existence. Most of the other older cities in China had walls to protect them but these old walls were demolished and/or the wall materials were reused to make something different.

In the evening we went to a dinner and show.

Today we start our overland excursion to see the Terracotta Warriors.

• Day 1 (April 4)
  • Fly from Hong Kong to Xian
  • Dinner on your own
  • Overnight Wyndham Grand Xian South Hotel
• Day 2 (April 5)
  • Visit Terracotta Warriors, Xi’an City Wall
  • Tang Dynasty Show & Dinner
  • Overnight Wyndham Grand Xian South Hotel
• Day 3 (April 6)
  • Fly to Beijing
  • Visit Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square
  • Dinner on your own
  • Overnight Sheraton Bejing Dongcheng Hotel
• Day 4 (April 7)
  • Visit Great Wall
  • Fly to Shanghai and rejoin ship

We arrived at Hue about 1pm so my excursion started early afternoon and ended in the evening.

I had a short 15 minute foot massage in the morning..

We had rain today, luckily it was during the bus rides and transit times and not when we were off the bus seeing the sights. The other interesting item of note was that we docked in a military installation and were informed- strictly no photography until we were off the base. They were doing training exercises so we also saw submarines in the bay.

It was my first time seeing the beautiful green rice fields and with the mountains and rain clouds in the background, it was wonderful.

We saw more temples, of course, as well as a local market and local home during today’s excursion.

Our excursion was titled “Mekong River Delta” but really it was a boat ride across the river to a village on an island, followed by a 10 minute ride in a sampan, lunch and a boat ride back across the river. Jennifer and I were expecting a leisurely cruise among the river and delta greenery to celebrate her birthday.

It wasn’t what we expected but still a fun experience. Before we got to the river we stopped at a couple of temples. One had a lady Buddha, a reclining Buddha and a laughing Buddha.

Jennifer and I got up early to go back to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. It was pretty fun and it wasn’t nearly as hot but we didn’t see the sunrise because the sun was covered by clouds. We did really like the TukTuk ride to the temple as there were hardly anyone on the roads, it was cool, the birds were calling and it was calm. It wasn’t part of the tour and we did it independently

On the way back on our TukTuk ride it was much busier and when we passed a group of bicyclists we’re pretty sure one of them dropped off the paved road onto the dirt. No one stopped.

Right after we returned from our sunrise trip to Angkor Wat, we left for the airport to fly to Siagon, Vietnam.

We were super excited when we returned to the ship and discovered we were in time for a Vietnamese Cultural Show.

Today was a long, hot yet amazing day. We got to visit Angkor Wat. The most amazing thing to me was that this temple is still being used for worship. It has been in continuous use for over 1000 years. People come from all over the country to worship. They were getting ready for the 2025 Cambodian New Year happening on April 14th and were setting up small buildings and stages to get ready. It’s another temple that has changed religions between Hindu and Buddhism.

We had our picture taken so that our ticket had a picture of the ticket holder- apparently they used to have folks that would trade tickets so they could get in without paying!

We visited Banteay Srei temple with it’s intricate carving. It’s known as the Women’s Citadel because they believe that the women did the carving as they had the best carving skills.

Then a visit to Angkor Wat, lunch and a visit to the Angkor Thom complex.

Our guide said we saw in one day what most folks take two or three days to see.

After we arrived at Sihanoukville, Cambodia we left for our Angkor Wat overland tour.

• Day 1(March 28)
  • Fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia
  • Dinner and Traditional dance show
  • Overnight FCC Angkor by Avani Hotel
• Day 2(March 29)
  • Visit Banteav Srei, Angkor Wat
  • Lunch
  • Visit Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm Temple
  • Overnight FCC Angkor by Avani
• Day 3(March 30)
  • Sunrise visit, on our own, to Angkor Wat
  • Fly to Siagon, Vietnam and board ship

Between all the travel and logistics, we didn’t check into our hotel until about 3:30pm and then at 7pm we had dinner and a show. I had time for a massage before dinner.

More temples today- Wat Phra Si Sanphet (royal temple of Ayutthaya), Wat Mahathat and the Imperial palace. We also had a delicious lunch at a Michelin star restaurant(Krungsrj river Hotel) during the excursion.