Less Speed, More Time

Somebody go throw a monkey wrench in the ship's engine! This part of the journey can't ever end. First Halloween, then a private 5-course dinner with the Captain, followed by the Crew's Talent Show, topped off with a lightning storm off the starboard side. It's non-stop pandemonium through 2 times zones doing 21 knots. If students needed distraction from worrying about pirates and abductions, they found it. It's true, the Straits of Malacca are like the Bermuda triangle; vessels are known to disappear from hostile take-overs more here than anywhere else in the world. If we make it through the night we dock off the coast of Singapore for a fuel fill-up tomorrow morning. Seamen call this 'bunkering', the rest of us call it a great reason to have our passports stamped again. In preparation for Vietnam, movies and lectures examine how foreign powers have tried to control the country for the past 2000 years. From the Chinese to the French to Japanese to the U.S., I had no idea that Vietnam had to fight so hard and long to maintain it's identity. Many still associate Vietnam with war but it's not just a battlefield anymore. It may be Communist but because of it's fertile Mekong Delta, Truong Son Mountains and Halong Bay, it's rated the most beautiful.