Finally, an update!

First of all, a very merry but belated Christmas to one and all! Apologies for the lack of blog posts, but my clever plan hasn't been working exactly as I'd hoped.

Tonight I'm in Ho Chi Minh City. We arrived a few hours ago and will be leaving again in the morning. The schedule has been very hectic and I haven't had the time to update the blog and catch up on email.

This update will be brief, but I will try to provide some additional updates when we reach Hong Kong next week.

I boarded the ship on the 19th in Singapore. We sailed on the morning of the 21st to Laem Chabang in Thailand. While we were there I had the chance to make a trip to Bangkok with the three other passengers - another American and two Germans.

We departed Thailand on the 24th bound for Ho Chi Minh. Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with the officers and crew. It was a lot of fun; the cook outdid himself and laid on an impressive buffet. Everyone had a great deal to eat and there was plenty of beer and karaoke afterwards.

Overall the trip has been great so far. The pace of travel is a bit different than what I'm used to, but I find it very relaxing. The food has been excellent and the peace and quiet lends itself to lots of reading.

The schedule has been changing almost daily; there are a number of reasons for that, but suffice to say that my original itinerary is no longer valid.

Our next stop is going to be Hong Kong. We should arrive on the 30th and sail again on the 1st. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends, but I'm worried it will be too short a visit. I've also been told that we'll be offshore in the anchorage and not tied to the dock, so it might be a bit more difficult to get to town.

For future updates, I recommend using the Rickmers website, www.rickmers.com

If you follow the links to the vessels you can then scroll down the page until you find the Rickmers Jakarta; clicking on that link takes you to the tracking page. The map on the lower lefthand corner will provide you with the most updated information.

Also, one of the other passengers, Dale Stenseth, has his own blog that he updates daily via a satellite link: http://dalestenseth.blogspot.com

I have some photos that I'll try to post next time I have some internet access. My cabin is quite comfortable; small, but nicely appointed.

It's been a fascinating experience so far being able to observe the activities in port and on the water. It's a reminder that so much of what we depend on for our modern life is dependent on a lot of people doing physically demanding jobs.

That's about all I have time for at the moment. Apologies again for being such a miserable correspondent, but I'll do my best to keep you updated and provide a more detailed report in the near future.

If I don't post anything beforehand, Happy New Year!