We boarded ms Volendam at Singapore for a 28-day Asia cruise that included stops in Mylaysia, Myanmar( Burma) Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and disembarked in Hong Kong. Volendam is a midsize ship and easily reached some of the smaller ports. The route up a river to Yangon ( Rangoon) was quite a site to behold. What we liked most about this cruise was getting out into the countryside to see the magnificent temples and Pagaodas and of, course, meeting the local folks. Some of the areas visited in Myanmar took several hours of bus riding on an ship excursion and stopping along the way was very enlightening. We were two nights in Yangon and three days of shore excursions. Whether it was riding an elephant in Phuket or seeing the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur or exploring four ports in Vietnam, we were always in wonder at these wonderful nations and the people there. We had an overnight excursion to Bangkok that was first class in every respect. We look forward to returning to see more of Asia someday. The flights from Florida, USA are very long and exhausting, but since we had 28 days aboard Volendam we acclimated in due course.

The service, entertainment and facilities aboard a ship of Holland America is usually quite good and this was true of our month aboard ms Volendam. It was never crowded aboard ship and we enjoyed being on deck often due to the nice weather. This is an older ship but fairly well maintained to HAL standards. Most of the guests were older which is standard for HAL cruises. There were few sea days because this cruise is port intensive. And that was a good thing. More to do.