Cruise Ship: Pacific Princess
Cruise Destination: Asia -- Beijing to Bankok
Cruise Dates: June 24 - July 10, 2005
Guest Contributor: Marge
heymargew@hotmail.com
My husband and I returned last week from a wonderful and fascinating Beijing to Bangkok cruise on the Pacific Princess, with three pre-cruise nights on our own in Beijing. I would like to share some practical experiences and advice, especially for those who, like us, prefer to do as much as possible on our own.
A bit about us: We are aged 43 and 48 and this was our second cruise. We chose Asia because we want to get the “exotics” under our belt while we are fit and able to handle the long-distance air travel and extreme heat. And we chose Princess because it offered the most interesting itinerary. In other words, we care more about ports of call and less about the cruise line, ship size, food, or entertainment, although the Pacific Princess was perfectly adequate in all respects.
First things first: plan ahead. Spend some time on the internet researching each port of call. The Fodors and Frommers websites are good places to start, as is Yahoo Travel. You can also get useful information, including maps, by contacting the tourist boards. Given the limited time in each port, list the things you would like to do in order of priority so that you can hit the ground running.
Secondly, do book your own air. Because of the distance, it was important to us to get the shortest rather than the cheapest flight to Beijing from our home in San Diego. Yet by booking early we were still able to fly San Diego – San Francisco – Beijing for about $70 pp less than the cruise line airfare. We also booked The Marco Polo, Beijing, taking advantage of its online offer of the third night free when the first two are charged to American Express. This worked out to just under $80 per night, including a very good buffet breakfast. The hotel is conveniently located within easy walking distance of both lines 1 and 2 of the Beijing subway, a big plus when you’re doing the city on your own.
And, yes, Beijing can be done on your own with some common sense preparation that takes into account that most Chinese speak only Chinese and not a shouted version of English. Younger Chinese (a Chinese neighbor recommended approaching younger, well-dressed Chinese wearing glasses) are more likely to understand English if you’re in a bind. But, even so, you want to have the name and address of your hotel in Chinese when you land at the airport so that the cab driver knows where to take you. We printed ours from this website:
http://www.sinohotelguide.com/beijing
A word about the airport taxi drivers. They seem to be aware that travel guidebooks in the West warn about taking unofficial taxis, so they now approach you asking if you want “official taxi.” Ignore them and join the line, where a dispatcher will write down your destination and the particulars of the taxi you take. It cost 137 yuan to The Marco Polo, which is just west of Tiananmen Square.
If you arrive in Beijing at night, one of the first things you will notice is that the city lights are dimmer than what you are accustomed to back home. You will probably also think that your hotel’s air conditioning is not functioning properly (I read several such complaints online about various Beijing hotels). It IS working; mainland Chinese simply do not share the view that the purpose of air conditioning is to turn your fingertips blue. If that is your pleasure, you need to visit Hong Kong SAR.
Touring Beijing
For our first jet-lagged day in Beijing, we booked a half-day tour (lunch included) to the Badaling section of the Great Wall at tour-beijing.com, which promised to deliver us back to our hotel at 1:00 pm. This was important to us as we knew we would be sorely in need of a nap by then. We also thought that by booking a “private” car and guide we would avoid being dragged to the usual factories that are eager to have us part with our money. Wrong! The free lunch included in the $40 pp charge was provided at a cloisonné factory, but the pre-lunch presentation there was mercifully short. Next, we were schlepped to a silk factory after being prepped by the guide, who waxed lyrical about the miraculous properties of silk. The presentation was actually very interesting and the silk products exquisite, but this was not what we had booked and we simply kept our wallets closed and were finally taken back to the hotel at about 4:00 pm.
The fact of the matter is that the tourist industry is strictly government controlled. When we asked to skip the silk factory, the guide said she could not make any change without checking with her office. So the way to avoid these “visits” is to book a private car through your hotel. You will pay more and your driver will probably not speak any English but at least he will just take you to the Wall and back.
Page 2 > > More of Pacific Princess Cruise Review > >
