Monday, October 27
The “elevator carillon” continues today. Those of you who have been on cruises probably know what I mean. For those who are non-cruisers, I am referring to motion of the ship that causes the elevators to clank against the sides of their shafts. It doesn’t take a whole lot of motion to make this happen, but we have enough out here on the Indian Ocean. The water is a deep deep blue with only a very few whitecaps. The clouds look like cotton balls or white cotton candy and almost close enough to touch. Out on deck in the open, the wind is enough to blow your hair to Madagascar! The air temperature is noticeably cooler than it has been, and the humidity is a lot lower.
Indian Ocean
stretches away...no whitecaps
only one ship...ours.
I forgot to mention that on the tender dock in Bali coming back to the ship I met a couple from Charlottesville! I need to find out their names again, but they live at Westminster Canterbury! The world of long cruises grows even smaller!
Tuesday, October 28
All the way from Seattle to Thailand we gained an hour every so often to where we were about 12 hours ahead of the eastern US. Now we’re headed back the other way and are beginning to lose an hour every few nights. We now bid each other goodnight by saying “Sleep fast.”
We are sailing off the west coast of Australia at present, but pretty far out. The Indian Ocean is still giving us quite a ride today. It’s bouncy even down here on Deck 3, and more so on the upper decks. Well, a nap during the day does help make up for the short nights. This evening things were even bouncier...in addition to pitch and roll, we got the occasional “hula” movement which was quite disconcerting.
Tomorrow we reach Freemantle, Australia which is the port for Perth. I leave the ship there for a five day/four night overland trip to Ayers Rock (Uluru) and Alice Springs, eventually rejoining the ship in Melbourne on November 2. So I won’t be posting on this blog until at least November 3 or 4. Meanwhile, Happy Halloween!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Thursday, October 23
At sea. Wonder of wonders, my absentee ballot, which was mailed to me in care of the port agent in Hong Kong, showed up at Singapore! So now I must deal with sending it back from Bali. From an excruciatingly slow, long and expensive session on the Internet, I found that we shall be nowhere near any access to FedEx or DHL, but I think that the Indonesian Postal Service does offer something called “international express mail.” I am assured by the Front Office that an Indonesian Postal Official will be on board while we are at Padang Bai. Heaven only knows how much it will cost and whether it will actually get back to Albemarle County in time, but at least I’ve got a shot at voting in this election.
We have a new lecturer on board who is an expert on Australian aboriginal cultures. I went to her first session today...very interesting. I hope to catch her other lectures between here and Perth. I am really looking forward to the overland tour in Australia. I’ve just learned that there are only 15 of us going on it...we have an orientation meeting tomorrow.
For those who haven’t heard, I also learned today that the shipment of books that a number of us collected for the ladies who like to read in Grenada have arrived there in good order.
Friday, October 24
At sea again/still. We celebrated Josie’s birthday by most of us table mates having lunch in the fancy Pinnacle Grill this afternoon. All but one of the women at our table have birthdays that fall during the cruise, and Stan’s is two days afterward. So I’m going to “donate” my second birthday to Jill and Yvette (whose actual dates are in August), and we’ll celebrate Stan’s a couple of days early at the end of the trip. Yvette from Hawaii is our new table mate since Singapore.
Then at dinner, we celebrated Josie’s birthday again with a special dessert which, instead of a little cake, turned out to be a decorated and deliciously light lemon mousse on the thinnest of cake bases. Yum. Definitely well fed today!
And kudos to Holland America Line. They have arranged to have absentee ballots for the US election sent via courier from Jakarta to their home office in Seattle where they will be mailed out. A very thoughtful service to offer!
Saturday, October 25
Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia. Up at 0-dark-30 this morning to be ready for an early tender ride to shore for my Bali Arts and Crafts Shopping tour. The monetary unit of Bali is the rupiah with an exchange rate of 10,000 to the US dollar. That’s actually better than the dong in Viet Nam which was 16,000 to the dollar. Fortunately, for each port the ship gives us a little card with a currency conversion chart. Even so, this trip is a bit of a mathematical challenge!
Well, the tender ride was easy on, easy off in both directions! I did see many terraced rice fields, but not the spectacular mountainside ones as we stayed pretty much in the lowlands. The countryside is incredibly lush and green. Almost every square meter is under cultivation of one kind or another. They used to grow three crops of rice per year, but now grow two crops of rice per year and then grow something else like cucumbers, garlic, melons, etc. for crop rotation.
First we went to see a performance of the Barong dance at an outdoor theater. It was accompanied by a gamelan orchestra... not my very favorite music, but certainly appropriate in this case. It was quite spectacular. Next we went to a wood carvers’ village to visit a workshop to see how they do it and, they hoped, buy some of their wares. I didn’t. The last stop was at a painters’ village, ditto.
The traffic is at least as crazy as Singapore. Buses, vans, motor bikes, bicycles, cars. Certainly not as many of each, but then the roads are tiny! At one point we wound up behind a broken down bus, and there just wasn’t room for our bus to get past. Meanwhile cars and motor bikes were scooting past in all directions and on all sides...wherever they could squeeze by. It took almost ten minutes to get enough break in the traffic so that our driver could back up to a place where he could turn around and go another route! He got a good round of applause for that bit of dexterity!
Sunday, October 26
At sea and bouncy. We’ve been sailing straight into the swells, so the ship has been pitching a good bit (i.e. front to back as opposed to rolling which is side to side). Fortunately, I don’t really get seasick, but this much motion does tend to make me sleepy, so that’s what I did for much of the day. “Rocked in the cradle of the deep...”
At dinner this evening I discovered that our new table mate, Yvette, was on the Discovery last year with Virginia and Gil...small world strikes again! It seems like the world of long cruisers is smaller than most. Our other table mate, Phyllis, boarded the Prinsendam last year as Jill and I were getting off in Ft. Lauderdale, and as I mentioned before, there are a bunch of other passengers from our cruise on the Prinsendam on this one.
At sea. Wonder of wonders, my absentee ballot, which was mailed to me in care of the port agent in Hong Kong, showed up at Singapore! So now I must deal with sending it back from Bali. From an excruciatingly slow, long and expensive session on the Internet, I found that we shall be nowhere near any access to FedEx or DHL, but I think that the Indonesian Postal Service does offer something called “international express mail.” I am assured by the Front Office that an Indonesian Postal Official will be on board while we are at Padang Bai. Heaven only knows how much it will cost and whether it will actually get back to Albemarle County in time, but at least I’ve got a shot at voting in this election.
We have a new lecturer on board who is an expert on Australian aboriginal cultures. I went to her first session today...very interesting. I hope to catch her other lectures between here and Perth. I am really looking forward to the overland tour in Australia. I’ve just learned that there are only 15 of us going on it...we have an orientation meeting tomorrow.
For those who haven’t heard, I also learned today that the shipment of books that a number of us collected for the ladies who like to read in Grenada have arrived there in good order.
Friday, October 24
At sea again/still. We celebrated Josie’s birthday by most of us table mates having lunch in the fancy Pinnacle Grill this afternoon. All but one of the women at our table have birthdays that fall during the cruise, and Stan’s is two days afterward. So I’m going to “donate” my second birthday to Jill and Yvette (whose actual dates are in August), and we’ll celebrate Stan’s a couple of days early at the end of the trip. Yvette from Hawaii is our new table mate since Singapore.
Then at dinner, we celebrated Josie’s birthday again with a special dessert which, instead of a little cake, turned out to be a decorated and deliciously light lemon mousse on the thinnest of cake bases. Yum. Definitely well fed today!
And kudos to Holland America Line. They have arranged to have absentee ballots for the US election sent via courier from Jakarta to their home office in Seattle where they will be mailed out. A very thoughtful service to offer!
Saturday, October 25
Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia. Up at 0-dark-30 this morning to be ready for an early tender ride to shore for my Bali Arts and Crafts Shopping tour. The monetary unit of Bali is the rupiah with an exchange rate of 10,000 to the US dollar. That’s actually better than the dong in Viet Nam which was 16,000 to the dollar. Fortunately, for each port the ship gives us a little card with a currency conversion chart. Even so, this trip is a bit of a mathematical challenge!
Well, the tender ride was easy on, easy off in both directions! I did see many terraced rice fields, but not the spectacular mountainside ones as we stayed pretty much in the lowlands. The countryside is incredibly lush and green. Almost every square meter is under cultivation of one kind or another. They used to grow three crops of rice per year, but now grow two crops of rice per year and then grow something else like cucumbers, garlic, melons, etc. for crop rotation. 
First we went to see a performance of the Barong dance at an outdoor theater. It was accompanied by a gamelan orchestra... not my very favorite music, but certainly appropriate in this case. It was quite spectacular. Next we went to a wood carvers’ village to visit a workshop to see how they do it and, they hoped, buy some of their wares. I didn’t. The last stop was at a painters’ village, ditto. The traffic is at least as crazy as Singapore. Buses, vans, motor bikes, bicycles, cars. Certainly not as many of each, but then the roads are tiny! At one point we wound up behind a broken down bus, and there just wasn’t room for our bus to get past. Meanwhile cars and motor bikes were scooting past in all directions and on all sides...wherever they could squeeze by. It took almost ten minutes to get enough break in the traffic so that our driver could back up to a place where he could turn around and go another route! He got a good round of applause for that bit of dexterity!
Sunday, October 26
At sea and bouncy. We’ve been sailing straight into the swells, so the ship has been pitching a good bit (i.e. front to back as opposed to rolling which is side to side). Fortunately, I don’t really get seasick, but this much motion does tend to make me sleepy, so that’s what I did for much of the day. “Rocked in the cradle of the deep...”
At dinner this evening I discovered that our new table mate, Yvette, was on the Discovery last year with Virginia and Gil...small world strikes again! It seems like the world of long cruisers is smaller than most. Our other table mate, Phyllis, boarded the Prinsendam last year as Jill and I were getting off in Ft. Lauderdale, and as I mentioned before, there are a bunch of other passengers from our cruise on the Prinsendam on this one.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Tuesday, October 21
Sea day. About the only thing different was that there was a very temporary exhibit of efforts of the watercolor class, including 2 of mine.
Oh, and the passenger talent show. For the first time in my entire cruising history, the talent was actually pretty good! Several good singers, a banjo player, a pianist, a barbershop quartet, a cowboy poet, et al. It also included a huge group of passengers who had been practicing as the “HAL Chorale.”
At dinner we said goodbye to one of our table mates who is getting off in Singapore, Mary from Walla Walla, WA. We’ve heard that 300 are getting off, but only 50 are getting on, so we don’t know if we will get anyone new for the second part of the cruise.
Wednesday, October 22
Singapore. Of course Raffles is quintessential Singapore, and I managed to get a photo of it while on a bus tour of the city. We didn’t stop much, but we had an excellent guide who made the trip interesting. We saw most of the different ethnic enclaves as well as newer portions of the city. Near Little India there was one street that was solid fabric shops along both sides! Absolutely amazing! If I were staying here I could spend a whole lot of time and money on that street! It’s a good thing that the bus didn’t stop there.
Singapore is a very neat and clean city...it’s illegal to chew gum there, and anyone who litters gets fined on the spot. Even the traffic is neat and orderly...completely unlike all the other Asian cities I’ve seen so far. Refreshing.
Back on the ship, I spent much of the afternoon with Mary (the one from Seattle) and Josie on the aft deck watching little boats in the harbor, sipping a real Singapore Sling (complete with a small white orchid) and wondering when the Singapore officials would clear the ship for departure. They were counting noses and passports in a very dedicated manner. We actually sailed about an hour late.
Sea day. About the only thing different was that there was a very temporary exhibit of efforts of the watercolor class, including 2 of mine.
Oh, and the passenger talent show. For the first time in my entire cruising history, the talent was actually pretty good! Several good singers, a banjo player, a pianist, a barbershop quartet, a cowboy poet, et al. It also included a huge group of passengers who had been practicing as the “HAL Chorale.”
At dinner we said goodbye to one of our table mates who is getting off in Singapore, Mary from Walla Walla, WA. We’ve heard that 300 are getting off, but only 50 are getting on, so we don’t know if we will get anyone new for the second part of the cruise.
Wednesday, October 22
Singapore. Of course Raffles is quintessential Singapore, and I managed to get a photo of it while on a bus tour of the city. We didn’t stop much, but we had an excellent guide who made the trip interesting. We saw most of the different ethnic enclaves as well as newer portions of the city. Near Little India there was one street that was solid fabric shops along both sides! Absolutely amazing! If I were staying here I could spend a whole lot of time and money on that street! It’s a good thing that the bus didn’t stop there.Singapore is a very neat and clean city...it’s illegal to chew gum there, and anyone who litters gets fined on the spot. Even the traffic is neat and orderly...completely unlike all the other Asian cities I’ve seen so far. Refreshing.
Back on the ship, I spent much of the afternoon with Mary (the one from Seattle) and Josie on the aft deck watching little boats in the harbor, sipping a real Singapore Sling (complete with a small white orchid) and wondering when the Singapore officials would clear the ship for departure. They were counting noses and passports in a very dedicated manner. We actually sailed about an hour late.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Saturday, October 18
Laem Chabang, Thailand. Hot and humid. Very. I had an afternoon tour to Nong Nooch Cultural Center that was a lot of fun. The first stop was at an orchid garden. As usual, I didn’t get very far into it. However, there was a lot of entertainment near the entrance. For 50 baht (about $1.25) you could have your photo taken with your own camera cozying up to one of a number of exotic animals. I wanted a photo of me with a python (for my “collection” of snake photos), but it was evidently the snake’s day off, so I chose a chimpanzee instead as you can see. It was a very solid, heavy and muscular creature, trained to do assorted poses with the tourists...and probably bored out of its skull with the whole business.
The second portion of the tour was an extremely colorful theatrical presentation of various native dances, drumming performances, a kick boxing exhibition and a finale including warriors riding elephants. I had an absolute front row seat for this, right down at elephant level. With my walker, I was taken around the side of the theater and in through the actors’ entrance to park in front of the front row of seats. I got some great photos of all this.
Next we adjourned to an area behind the theater where I again got a front row seat for the elephant show. And a major show it was! They had elephants trained to do all sorts of things from playing darts to bowling to soccer to basketball to riding tricycles. After each “act” the elephants would come over to the edges of the ring to collect banana treats from audience members who had, of course, purchased hands of little bananas from young vendors. I didn’t buy any bananas, but one elephant insisted that I must have some, and carefully checked out my empty hands with her trunk.
The drive to and from Nong Nooch was interesting. Instead of “yard art” (or as Billie McNamara calls it, “lawn ornamenture”) there are many spirit houses in this land of 64 million people 95% of whom are Buddhist. Some spirit houses are small and unassuming while others are large and lavishly ornamented with bright colors and glittery things. We also passed a number of businesses which offered every size and color of spirit houses for sale.
The other very interesting thing was the traffic lights on the main highway. Each one had, in addition to the usual red /green lights, a display that counted down, in red or green, the number of seconds left until the light changed to the other color. All of us on the bus thought that was a great idea. I do believe that Charlottesville could use some of these on Route 29! If they can talk about installing cameras to catch people who run red lights, why not also put in these simple counters?
By the time I got back to the ship, I had about four or five layers of my own sweat sandwiched with one layer of chimpanzee sweat, and one layer of elephant dust to wash off! But first things first...meaning “fluid replacement.” So I headed straight to Ocean Bar for my traditional Myers Rum and Coke in honor of all my cruising friends, especially Mark and Jeff.
Sunday, October 19
Off to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo this morning. As you can see, I did get my photo holding/feeding a baby tiger. It was really neat, even though it was only for a minute or two. The rest of the tour was another exercise in hiking and sweating in the heat and humidity. It would have been a really nice, although smallish, zoo to visit except for two things. First, we were on tour, so I couldn’t just wander around at my own speed. Second, it was Sunday which is the day that the majority of Thais head out with their families to some attraction, so the place was chock-a-block with people.
There was a crocodile show that I passed on...too many people and not enough seats or even standing room. Josie and Stan who were on the same bus with me both gave it a miss also. Next was a tiger show which was pretty good...even had a few trained pigs in the ring (but not at the same time as the tigers). We were in the front row for that one, and fortunately, the front row was far enough back to avoid the shower when several of the tigers peed through the cage. Lastly was an elephant show which I also passed on since I’d seen an excellent one yesterday.
All in all, another successful day. Jill got back from her trip to Angkor Wat last night and is mostly recovered today. She had a great time despite the heat and exertion of the rough terrain. I can’t wait to see some of her photos.
Monday, October 20
Today we are anchored off Na Than, Ko Samui, Thailand. At 13 by 15 miles Ko Samui is the third largest Thai island. As late as 1970 there were no roads on the island and to cross it took a whole day’s trek through jungle. While much of Ko Samui is still quite wild, there is now a thriving tourist business based on its lovely beaches. Access today is by ship’s tender. At present, I’m not planning to go ashore as I am not eager to attempt the standing high jump that will be needed to get back on the ship. Also, a 30 minute tender ride each way just to look at a beautiful beach seems somewhat excessive. I’ll be seeing plenty of sand during the rest of the trip.
Laem Chabang, Thailand. Hot and humid. Very. I had an afternoon tour to Nong Nooch Cultural Center that was a lot of fun. The first stop was at an orchid garden. As usual, I didn’t get very far into it. However, there was a lot of entertainment near the entrance. For 50 baht (about $1.25) you could have your photo taken with your own camera cozying up to one of a number of exotic animals. I wanted a photo of me with a python (for my “collection” of snake photos), but it was evidently the snake’s day off, so I chose a chimpanzee instead as you can see. It was a very solid, heavy and muscular creature, trained to do assorted poses with the tourists...and probably bored out of its skull with the whole business.The second portion of the tour was an extremely colorful theatrical presentation of various native dances, drumming performances, a kick boxing exhibition and a finale including warriors riding elephants. I had an absolute front row seat for this, right down at elephant level. With my walker, I was taken around the side of the theater and in through the actors’ entrance to park in front of the front row of seats. I got some great photos of all this.
Next we adjourned to an area behind the theater where I again got a front row seat for the elephant show. And a major show it was! They had elephants trained to do all sorts of things from playing darts to bowling to soccer to basketball to riding tricycles. After each “act” the elephants would come over to the edges of the ring to collect banana treats from audience members who had, of course, purchased hands of little bananas from young vendors. I didn’t buy any bananas, but one elephant insisted that I must have some, and carefully checked out my empty hands with her trunk.The drive to and from Nong Nooch was interesting. Instead of “yard art” (or as Billie McNamara calls it, “lawn ornamenture”) there are many spirit houses in this land of 64 million people 95% of whom are Buddhist. Some spirit houses are small and unassuming while others are large and lavishly ornamented with bright colors and glittery things. We also passed a number of businesses which offered every size and color of spirit houses for sale.
The other very interesting thing was the traffic lights on the main highway. Each one had, in addition to the usual red /green lights, a display that counted down, in red or green, the number of seconds left until the light changed to the other color. All of us on the bus thought that was a great idea. I do believe that Charlottesville could use some of these on Route 29! If they can talk about installing cameras to catch people who run red lights, why not also put in these simple counters?
By the time I got back to the ship, I had about four or five layers of my own sweat sandwiched with one layer of chimpanzee sweat, and one layer of elephant dust to wash off! But first things first...meaning “fluid replacement.” So I headed straight to Ocean Bar for my traditional Myers Rum and Coke in honor of all my cruising friends, especially Mark and Jeff.
Sunday, October 19
Off to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo this morning. As you can see, I did get my photo holding/feeding a baby tiger. It was really neat, even though it was only for a minute or two. The rest of the tour was another exercise in hiking and sweating in the heat and humidity. It would have been a really nice, although smallish, zoo to visit except for two things. First, we were on tour, so I couldn’t just wander around at my own speed. Second, it was Sunday which is the day that the majority of Thais head out with their families to some attraction, so the place was chock-a-block with people. There was a crocodile show that I passed on...too many people and not enough seats or even standing room. Josie and Stan who were on the same bus with me both gave it a miss also. Next was a tiger show which was pretty good...even had a few trained pigs in the ring (but not at the same time as the tigers). We were in the front row for that one, and fortunately, the front row was far enough back to avoid the shower when several of the tigers peed through the cage. Lastly was an elephant show which I also passed on since I’d seen an excellent one yesterday.
All in all, another successful day. Jill got back from her trip to Angkor Wat last night and is mostly recovered today. She had a great time despite the heat and exertion of the rough terrain. I can’t wait to see some of her photos.
Monday, October 20
Today we are anchored off Na Than, Ko Samui, Thailand. At 13 by 15 miles Ko Samui is the third largest Thai island. As late as 1970 there were no roads on the island and to cross it took a whole day’s trek through jungle. While much of Ko Samui is still quite wild, there is now a thriving tourist business based on its lovely beaches. Access today is by ship’s tender. At present, I’m not planning to go ashore as I am not eager to attempt the standing high jump that will be needed to get back on the ship. Also, a 30 minute tender ride each way just to look at a beautiful beach seems somewhat excessive. I’ll be seeing plenty of sand during the rest of the trip.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wednesday, October 15
Lazy, lazy sea day. I haven’t been taking photos of the various animals folded from towels that appear on my bed every evening, but I had to take this one...a turtle, of course.
Thursday, October 16 (Day 27)
I had a full day tour to Saigon today. Just getting to it required a 2.5 hour bus ride from our dock in Phu My (Foo Mee). Our first stop was at a botanical garden and zoo. The zoo part was too far back in for me to get to during the time we had, but I enjoyed the topiaries in the garden.
A flute pipes, wafting
its notes over the sunlit
topiary garden.
The street people can smell a tourist from a couple of miles away, and they literally crowded around each of us at every stop hawking everything from beaded purses to “pearl” necklaces. I spent exactly one dollar for some postcards, so those of you who receive them will participate in the only “souvenir” I bought in Viet Nam.
“Fi’e dollah for you.
Fi’e dollah fine Rolex watch.”
The entrepreneurs.
Although this kind of hucksterism is technically illegal, the police do nothing unless the salesman is dishonest or a tourist is inconvenienced by the horde of them. If the tourist isn’t upset or cheated and is buying, the police, in their electric avocado green uniforms, leave them alone.
We also stopped at the Reunification Palace Museum, the City Historical Museum, a short shopping stop at a place that makes gorgeous laquerware, and somewhere in there, a nice hotel for a buffet lunch.
The most fascinating thing of the tour was watching the traffic and the people on the sidewalks! Saigon has 8 million people and 3.5 million motor bikes in addition to great numbers of trucks, buses, cars and bicycles. It also has probably fewer traffic lights than Charlottesville! There’s lots of beeping and honking, but everything moves at a relatively sedate pace so I didn’t see any vehicular contact despite many close calls.
A great number of the women wear face masks up to their eyes, hats, and long sleeves or gloves when outside. It’s not a religious or cultural thing...it’s a fashion thing. “White” complexions are considered more beautiful, so the women want to avoid getting tanned by the sun while zipping around on their motor bikes.
As with all the Asian cities I’ve seen so far, living space is at a premium...a high premium. In Saigon, a typical lot is about 12 oor 13 feet wide and maybe 60 or 65 feet deep. So, to get enough living space for three generations, they build up to three or four stories. If a family is lucky enough to be able to afford to buy a home/building, they often rent out the first floor to a shop for maybe $2,000 (US) or more per month which is enough for 5 people to live nicely on here.
Again in Asia as in South America last year, I am struck by the omnipresence of molded plastic chairs. Since much of Vietnamese life takes place outside in front of their shops and homes, all but the very poorest have several of these “things” (the only other word I can think of is “abominations”) very much in evidence.
Jill is off on her overland tour to Angkor Wat. I look forward to hearing about it when she gets back while we are in Bangkok (actually the port is in Laem Chabang).
Friday. October 17
Another day at sea...rainy but very smooth wave-wise. At watercolor class today we each mounted several of our efforts to date. I have no idea what will be done with them. I don’t really care as they are not my best efforts. I have skipped several of the classes when the sea was bouncy enough that I didn’t feel like climbing the stairs to the Loft where the classes are held.
I spent part of the afternoon making a list of my purchases. So far I’ve spent more on tips to tour guides than on souvenirs. Of course that could change at any point or port!
Lazy, lazy sea day. I haven’t been taking photos of the various animals folded from towels that appear on my bed every evening, but I had to take this one...a turtle, of course.Thursday, October 16 (Day 27)
I had a full day tour to Saigon today. Just getting to it required a 2.5 hour bus ride from our dock in Phu My (Foo Mee). Our first stop was at a botanical garden and zoo. The zoo part was too far back in for me to get to during the time we had, but I enjoyed the topiaries in the garden.
A flute pipes, wafting
its notes over the sunlit
topiary garden.
The street people can smell a tourist from a couple of miles away, and they literally crowded around each of us at every stop hawking everything from beaded purses to “pearl” necklaces. I spent exactly one dollar for some postcards, so those of you who receive them will participate in the only “souvenir” I bought in Viet Nam.
“Fi’e dollah for you.
Fi’e dollah fine Rolex watch.”
The entrepreneurs.
Although this kind of hucksterism is technically illegal, the police do nothing unless the salesman is dishonest or a tourist is inconvenienced by the horde of them. If the tourist isn’t upset or cheated and is buying, the police, in their electric avocado green uniforms, leave them alone.
We also stopped at the Reunification Palace Museum, the City Historical Museum, a short shopping stop at a place that makes gorgeous laquerware, and somewhere in there, a nice hotel for a buffet lunch.
The most fascinating thing of the tour was watching the traffic and the people on the sidewalks! Saigon has 8 million people and 3.5 million motor bikes in addition to great numbers of trucks, buses, cars and bicycles. It also has probably fewer traffic lights than Charlottesville! There’s lots of beeping and honking, but everything moves at a relatively sedate pace so I didn’t see any vehicular contact despite many close calls.A great number of the women wear face masks up to their eyes, hats, and long sleeves or gloves when outside. It’s not a religious or cultural thing...it’s a fashion thing. “White” complexions are considered more beautiful, so the women want to avoid getting tanned by the sun while zipping around on their motor bikes.
As with all the Asian cities I’ve seen so far, living space is at a premium...a high premium. In Saigon, a typical lot is about 12 oor 13 feet wide and maybe 60 or 65 feet deep. So, to get enough living space for three generations, they build up to three or four stories. If a family is lucky enough to be able to afford to buy a home/building, they often rent out the first floor to a shop for maybe $2,000 (US) or more per month which is enough for 5 people to live nicely on here.Again in Asia as in South America last year, I am struck by the omnipresence of molded plastic chairs. Since much of Vietnamese life takes place outside in front of their shops and homes, all but the very poorest have several of these “things” (the only other word I can think of is “abominations”) very much in evidence.
Jill is off on her overland tour to Angkor Wat. I look forward to hearing about it when she gets back while we are in Bangkok (actually the port is in Laem Chabang).
Friday. October 17
Another day at sea...rainy but very smooth wave-wise. At watercolor class today we each mounted several of our efforts to date. I have no idea what will be done with them. I don’t really care as they are not my best efforts. I have skipped several of the classes when the sea was bouncy enough that I didn’t feel like climbing the stairs to the Loft where the classes are held.
I spent part of the afternoon making a list of my purchases. So far I’ve spent more on tips to tour guides than on souvenirs. Of course that could change at any point or port!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13
At sea again. The big girl breakfast was a nice treat. Weather is rainy on and off with just enough motion from the following sea to make me really sleepy. Our team did lousy at trivia today. I mean who knew that Harvard College was the first corporation established in the U.S!
I spent much of the afternoon chatting with one of our occasional table mates who is a holder of the Burma Star and a retired policeman from Canada (Winnipeg, I think) who is 88 or 89 years old. He has lots of fascinating stories to tell about the Burma Star organization world-wide. He also provides scholarships for 14 college students each year. A most interesting man.
All us ladies (Mary, Josie, Phyllis, Mary, Jill and I) celebrated Thanksgiving Day (Canadian) at dinner this evening with roast turkey and a great deal of round-table conversation and much laughter. It’s a fine group...reminds me a lot of the lunch group back home.
Tuesday, October 14
Da Nang. I didn’t have any tours booked for here, so slept in with the idea of taking a free shuttle to the center of the city later. We are moored at a container ship dock about 15 km from town, and when I got up on deck and looked around, I decided to give Da Nang a miss as the weather is hot and sticky and the city is a long way away. Only later did I realize that this bridge is still under construction!
Josie came back from her tour and said there’s no use trying to go in on your own because the traffic is so crazy that you wouldn’t be able to cross a street by yourself! She did enjoy her tour which included a pedicab ride, a museum, and a visit to China Beach which she said was a lovely beach with no one there because they have had a lot of rain and the water is way beyond murky.
Da Nang lies away
across olive brown water.
I stay on the ship.
The deck chair beckons,
offers delicious comfort.
I nap in the shade.
After lunch I had another long chat with Stan from Winnipeg. He told me all about his pets: a dog named Buddy, a red tabby cat named Molly, and especially a 30 pound black cat named Paws who must be quite a character. We also talked about everything from wiener schnitzel to the space program before he went off with his binoculars to try to spot the Vietnamese navy across the harbor. Although he’s one of our table mates, Stan seldom comes to dinner because one of his suitcases never made it to the ship, and he says he has only one decent shirt with him. But with his row of medals on his suit coat and the one from the King of Norway on a red and white ribbon around his neck, he looks pretty spiffy when he does come to dinner!
I must say that Holland America is excellent in helping people with all sorts of physical disabilities. I think there are passengers with at least one of every style of walker aboard, along with a fine assortment of wheelchairs and scooters, and several portable oxygen systems. I wouldn’t even begin to count the number of passengers with canes. All the staff on board are most helpful, and the Shore Excursion people are outstanding in this regard both with their planing of excursions that are as accessible as possible and their help while we are on them.
At sea again. The big girl breakfast was a nice treat. Weather is rainy on and off with just enough motion from the following sea to make me really sleepy. Our team did lousy at trivia today. I mean who knew that Harvard College was the first corporation established in the U.S!
I spent much of the afternoon chatting with one of our occasional table mates who is a holder of the Burma Star and a retired policeman from Canada (Winnipeg, I think) who is 88 or 89 years old. He has lots of fascinating stories to tell about the Burma Star organization world-wide. He also provides scholarships for 14 college students each year. A most interesting man.
All us ladies (Mary, Josie, Phyllis, Mary, Jill and I) celebrated Thanksgiving Day (Canadian) at dinner this evening with roast turkey and a great deal of round-table conversation and much laughter. It’s a fine group...reminds me a lot of the lunch group back home.
Tuesday, October 14
Da Nang. I didn’t have any tours booked for here, so slept in with the idea of taking a free shuttle to the center of the city later. We are moored at a container ship dock about 15 km from town, and when I got up on deck and looked around, I decided to give Da Nang a miss as the weather is hot and sticky and the city is a long way away. Only later did I realize that this bridge is still under construction!Josie came back from her tour and said there’s no use trying to go in on your own because the traffic is so crazy that you wouldn’t be able to cross a street by yourself! She did enjoy her tour which included a pedicab ride, a museum, and a visit to China Beach which she said was a lovely beach with no one there because they have had a lot of rain and the water is way beyond murky.
Da Nang lies away
across olive brown water.
I stay on the ship.
The deck chair beckons,
offers delicious comfort.
I nap in the shade.
After lunch I had another long chat with Stan from Winnipeg. He told me all about his pets: a dog named Buddy, a red tabby cat named Molly, and especially a 30 pound black cat named Paws who must be quite a character. We also talked about everything from wiener schnitzel to the space program before he went off with his binoculars to try to spot the Vietnamese navy across the harbor. Although he’s one of our table mates, Stan seldom comes to dinner because one of his suitcases never made it to the ship, and he says he has only one decent shirt with him. But with his row of medals on his suit coat and the one from the King of Norway on a red and white ribbon around his neck, he looks pretty spiffy when he does come to dinner!
I must say that Holland America is excellent in helping people with all sorts of physical disabilities. I think there are passengers with at least one of every style of walker aboard, along with a fine assortment of wheelchairs and scooters, and several portable oxygen systems. I wouldn’t even begin to count the number of passengers with canes. All the staff on board are most helpful, and the Shore Excursion people are outstanding in this regard both with their planing of excursions that are as accessible as possible and their help while we are on them.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Saturday, October 11
Hong Kong. My tour here is for tomorrow, so this morning I just sat around in the shade on the aft section of Lido deck and watched the scenery. The sunlight, as the hours passed, highlighted different buildings of Hong Kong across Victoria Harbor from our dock in Kowloon. The one with the curvy roof is the Convention Center. There was also the never-ending parade through the harbor: lots of ferries, small freighters, tugs towing dredges, cabin cruisers, speedboats and virtually every other sort of floating vessel. The only things I did not see were junks and sampans...unless I just didn’t recognize them with their sails down.
This afternoon Jill and I went ashore to the Ocean Terminal. While the building does serve as a terminal, it is far far more than that. It is one of the biggest, most high-end shopping malls I have ever seen! Every fancy jet-set designer name store you ever heard of is here along with dozens of restaurants. We were “on a mission” to find a place to buy glue. (The reason for glue is that one of my folding canes has a loose handle.) But glue was entirely too prosaic a product to be allowed into this shining temple of high commerce, nor did we see anything so crass as a souvenir shop or a place to buy postcards. We by no means covered even a quarter of the place before we faded and headed back to the ship. After careful perusal of the extensive map of the place, I think I may have located a possible place (at the far end of the third level) to check for glue tomorrow after my tour.
This evening we delayed going to dinner so that we could see some of the nighty lighting up of the city across the harbor. It’s like a fireworks show done with lights instead of pyrotechnics. As you can see, quite spectacular.
Sunday, October 12
I think this was one of the longest half-day tours I’ve ever been on! Our first stop was atram ride up to Victoria Peak. Up top it was windy enough to blow your hair to the mainland! Also a fog had settled in over the city, so the viewing wasn’t very good.
Next we lost 3 people from the tour...one passenger and the 2 ship’s staff which included the official shore excursion escort and the ship’s cameraman. So the rest of us sat on the bus for half to three-quarters of an hour while our guide tried to find them. Eventually the guide called his company to send someone else to find them, and we went on with the tour. All three were eventually found and reunited with the tour at the last stop. evidently none of them had paid any attention to Richard’s very clear announcements of where and when to meet.
The trip down the mountains was twisty enough to make a goat sick...or it would have if we’d gone any faster than a crawl. The road was just barely wide enough in most places for two buses to pass without losing paint...and in some places, not that wide. Happily in Hong Kong they drive on the left, so we had the inside lane. Lower down in the city the roads are a bit wider but almost as twisty. There’s very little flat land on Hong Kong island, and it’s rather amazing how they have glued immense condominium buildings to the hillsides.
A brief ride in a sampan in the area called Aberdeen was the next event. It turns out I had seen plenty of them yesterday, but had mistaken them for ordinary water taxis which is what they’ve become with motors instead of sails. Part of this tour was past the houseboat area and the fishing fleet which proved the actual (tongue in cheek) meaning of “Hong Kong” which is “fragrant harbor.” We also passed some mighty fancy yachts in the marina.
After that we visited a jewelry manufacturer’s showroom. I saw a gorgeous jade and diamond ring that even fit me, but I managed to restrain myself.
Our last stop was at a place called Stanley Market. It’s sort of a cross between a bazaar and a street market with each little shop hawking anything from cheap souvenirs to fresh fruit. I speedily acquired a bottle of water and a candy bar (in a 7-Eleven) and retired to a shady spot to people watch . It appeared to be “bring your dogs to Stanley Market” day. Lots and lots of people had multiple little dogs on leashes...mostly Jack Russell terriers, along with a number of shiitzus (sorry for the spelling on that one), a few schnauzers, a small collie, and one small poodle with a rather un-poodle haircut.
By the time we got back through the tunnel under Victoria Harbor to Kowloon and the ship, I had given up all ideas of tramping around the Ocean Terminal mall again and headed for aft Lido, a bit of lunch and a general collapse. Just as well, because I would have missed seeing a junk motoring through the harbor with a couple of sails up for show. Jill turned up on deck singing the praises of the China Arts and Crafts store where she had bought silk yard goods and other stuff this morning, but I just didn’t have enough “legs” left for the 20 minute hike (each way) through the mall to get to it. Hopefuly, I will be able to find silk in Thailand and/or Singapore.
10:30 p.m. I have forgotten the collective term for a bunch of drummers, so I’ll just call them a din of drummers. They are serenading us from dockside as a “flaming” dragon and several fu dogs caper about...either wishing us a speedy departure in half an hour, or perhaps thanking those of us who spent money in Hong Kong. I believe that the ship is listing a bit to port with all the well-fed passengers on the upper decks watching the show. Jill and I decided not to wait on deck for the actual sailing, but instead plan to meet for a “big girl breakfast” in the dining room tomorrow morning.
Hong Kong. My tour here is for tomorrow, so this morning I just sat around in the shade on the aft section of Lido deck and watched the scenery. The sunlight, as the hours passed, highlighted different buildings of Hong Kong across Victoria Harbor from our dock in Kowloon. The one with the curvy roof is the Convention Center. There was also the never-ending parade through the harbor: lots of ferries, small freighters, tugs towing dredges, cabin cruisers, speedboats and virtually every other sort of floating vessel. The only things I did not see were junks and sampans...unless I just didn’t recognize them with their sails down.This afternoon Jill and I went ashore to the Ocean Terminal. While the building does serve as a terminal, it is far far more than that. It is one of the biggest, most high-end shopping malls I have ever seen! Every fancy jet-set designer name store you ever heard of is here along with dozens of restaurants. We were “on a mission” to find a place to buy glue. (The reason for glue is that one of my folding canes has a loose handle.) But glue was entirely too prosaic a product to be allowed into this shining temple of high commerce, nor did we see anything so crass as a souvenir shop or a place to buy postcards. We by no means covered even a quarter of the place before we faded and headed back to the ship. After careful perusal of the extensive map of the place, I think I may have located a possible place (at the far end of the third level) to check for glue tomorrow after my tour.
This evening we delayed going to dinner so that we could see some of the nighty lighting up of the city across the harbor. It’s like a fireworks show done with lights instead of pyrotechnics. As you can see, quite spectacular.Sunday, October 12
I think this was one of the longest half-day tours I’ve ever been on! Our first stop was atram ride up to Victoria Peak. Up top it was windy enough to blow your hair to the mainland! Also a fog had settled in over the city, so the viewing wasn’t very good.
Next we lost 3 people from the tour...one passenger and the 2 ship’s staff which included the official shore excursion escort and the ship’s cameraman. So the rest of us sat on the bus for half to three-quarters of an hour while our guide tried to find them. Eventually the guide called his company to send someone else to find them, and we went on with the tour. All three were eventually found and reunited with the tour at the last stop. evidently none of them had paid any attention to Richard’s very clear announcements of where and when to meet.
The trip down the mountains was twisty enough to make a goat sick...or it would have if we’d gone any faster than a crawl. The road was just barely wide enough in most places for two buses to pass without losing paint...and in some places, not that wide. Happily in Hong Kong they drive on the left, so we had the inside lane. Lower down in the city the roads are a bit wider but almost as twisty. There’s very little flat land on Hong Kong island, and it’s rather amazing how they have glued immense condominium buildings to the hillsides.
A brief ride in a sampan in the area called Aberdeen was the next event. It turns out I had seen plenty of them yesterday, but had mistaken them for ordinary water taxis which is what they’ve become with motors instead of sails. Part of this tour was past the houseboat area and the fishing fleet which proved the actual (tongue in cheek) meaning of “Hong Kong” which is “fragrant harbor.” We also passed some mighty fancy yachts in the marina.
After that we visited a jewelry manufacturer’s showroom. I saw a gorgeous jade and diamond ring that even fit me, but I managed to restrain myself.
Our last stop was at a place called Stanley Market. It’s sort of a cross between a bazaar and a street market with each little shop hawking anything from cheap souvenirs to fresh fruit. I speedily acquired a bottle of water and a candy bar (in a 7-Eleven) and retired to a shady spot to people watch . It appeared to be “bring your dogs to Stanley Market” day. Lots and lots of people had multiple little dogs on leashes...mostly Jack Russell terriers, along with a number of shiitzus (sorry for the spelling on that one), a few schnauzers, a small collie, and one small poodle with a rather un-poodle haircut.
By the time we got back through the tunnel under Victoria Harbor to Kowloon and the ship, I had given up all ideas of tramping around the Ocean Terminal mall again and headed for aft Lido, a bit of lunch and a general collapse. Just as well, because I would have missed seeing a junk motoring through the harbor with a couple of sails up for show. Jill turned up on deck singing the praises of the China Arts and Crafts store where she had bought silk yard goods and other stuff this morning, but I just didn’t have enough “legs” left for the 20 minute hike (each way) through the mall to get to it. Hopefuly, I will be able to find silk in Thailand and/or Singapore.
10:30 p.m. I have forgotten the collective term for a bunch of drummers, so I’ll just call them a din of drummers. They are serenading us from dockside as a “flaming” dragon and several fu dogs caper about...either wishing us a speedy departure in half an hour, or perhaps thanking those of us who spent money in Hong Kong. I believe that the ship is listing a bit to port with all the well-fed passengers on the upper decks watching the show. Jill and I decided not to wait on deck for the actual sailing, but instead plan to meet for a “big girl breakfast” in the dining room tomorrow morning.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, October 9
At sea. Usual slow pace and good weather...rather warmer than when we were crossing the Pacific in the north. Chinese themed formal night this evening with dining room festively decorated with red hangings and lights up the two storey pillars which were also entwined by (inflatable?) red dragons and the staff in colorful Chinese style jackets.
Friday, October 10
Another sea day...love ‘em. The main excitement for today was that everybody had to report to the main lounge this morning to have their temperature taken for the Hong Kong authorities. This is supposed to be an effort to prevent the spread of SARS. The process took all of 30 seconds or less leaving the rest of the day free for Trivia and general chilling out. The fun trivia of the day was “what famous ship was captained by Christopher Jones?” Our team actually got that one right. It was the Mayflower.
At sea. Usual slow pace and good weather...rather warmer than when we were crossing the Pacific in the north. Chinese themed formal night this evening with dining room festively decorated with red hangings and lights up the two storey pillars which were also entwined by (inflatable?) red dragons and the staff in colorful Chinese style jackets.
Friday, October 10
Another sea day...love ‘em. The main excitement for today was that everybody had to report to the main lounge this morning to have their temperature taken for the Hong Kong authorities. This is supposed to be an effort to prevent the spread of SARS. The process took all of 30 seconds or less leaving the rest of the day free for Trivia and general chilling out. The fun trivia of the day was “what famous ship was captained by Christopher Jones?” Our team actually got that one right. It was the Mayflower.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Monday, October 6
Another quiet sea day with calm seas but gray weather. At one point I was filled with wonder at the fact that here I am, sailing on the Yellow Sea en route to Shanghai! Wow!
Tuesday, October 7
We are docked right next to downtown Shanghai, completely surrounded by skyscrapers. I took a half day tour in the morning. The most spectacular thing was the view from the 88th floor observation deck of the Jinmao Tower on the east side of the river. The Oriental Bright Pearl TV Tower dominates the place as you can see. This tour was mostly for photo ops on a rather hazy day, but we had an excellent guide, and an even more excellent bus driver!
And thank God for the latter as the traffic here is a close second to that of Mexico City (or at least the Mexico City of 40 years ago). Any markings on the roads bear no relationship to where the cars and buses actually position themselves, and cutting other vehicles off by the width of a coat of paint appears to be the national sport. While traffic signals are generally obeyed, the motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians do NOT have any degree of right of way other than what they dare to attempt! Whew! A couple of times I thought the lady across the aisle from me was going to have a heart attack when some mini-car zipped in front of us.
Everywhere old buildings are being torn down to make way for more skyscrapers and “5-star hotels” in preparation for the World Expo to be held here in Shanghai in 2010. According to J.C. Chu, our guide, some efforts are being made to preserve a few older “heritage architecture” buildings, but mostly people are being paid to relocate to the suburbs whether or not they really want to move. Of course, many of the old dwellings in the center city do not have plumbing nor any room to install any, so often a new house in the suburbs plus money is incentive enough for a move.
This evening I went to see a Chinese Acrobat Show featuring the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. DOUBLE WOW! As you may know I love circuses and have seen many, but this show was beyond absolutely fabulous! Acrobatics, tumbling, dancing, juggling and even a bit of stage magic. Incredibly high energy all the way through. And the stage and lighting effects were phenomenal! I just wish I could have taken some photos to share with you...especially the first number. It was a complex pond scene with several things going on, but the most amazing thing was a person (never could decide if it was male or female) dressed as a dragonfly with golden wings who emerged from a large pink lotus bud and, balanced on one hand so that he/she appeared to hover over the flower, did the most amazing acrobatic moves for almost five minutes! Just stunning!
Above the lotus
golden-winged dragonfly.
Insect or human?
Our evening guide, Ping (which means “safe”), talked about getting married next year. Since she and her husband-to-be are both of the “one child” era, when they marry they will be allowed to have two children, but they must be five years apart. She was born on the east side of the river when it was still farmland before all the development there began in 1990. Now that whole area is skyscrapers to the horizon.
Back on board, I went out on deck to admire the night lights of Shanghai and got this photo of the Oriental Bright Pearl TV Tower lit up.
The Galley Golems are at it again this evening. I’m not sure what part pf the galley is above my cabin, but there are often heavy-footed walking noises back and forth as well as something heavy on wheels being rolled around. By now I’m used to it like one gets used to living near the railroad tracks, but I still notice it on occasion. No complaints, though, since room service will deliver a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk 24/7 at the mere touch of a phone button!
Wednesday, October 8
Took another half day tour this morning. We rode the Maglev train out to the airport and back. And I thought the bullet train was fast! 30 kilometers in 8 minutes on this one with a top speed of 431 kph! Back at the station where we boarded there was a large group of school children who had just come off the train also. If I just had half the energy of just one of them...!
We then went back to Jinmao Tower which I had seen yesterday. The elevator to the observation deck is another wonder...88 floors in 45 seconds! I mailed some postcards up there. It’s probably the highest post office in China, if not the world.
I now have a good bit of expertise in getting my “chariot” up and down escalators. I am also fairly surprised at the number of passengers who have come up to me and said they think I am brave or courageous to do all these tours. I don’t feel brave. I just can’t imagine coming on a trip like this and not doing everything I can manage. There are others on board who appear to be worse off than I am who manage just as well if not better than I do.
I was planning to take a free shuttle downtown for some shopping this afternoon, but have decided to sit around with my feet up instead. All aboard is at 6:00 p.m. so that the ship can be cleared in time to catch the tide back down the river by 9:00 p.m.
Another quiet sea day with calm seas but gray weather. At one point I was filled with wonder at the fact that here I am, sailing on the Yellow Sea en route to Shanghai! Wow!
Tuesday, October 7
We are docked right next to downtown Shanghai, completely surrounded by skyscrapers. I took a half day tour in the morning. The most spectacular thing was the view from the 88th floor observation deck of the Jinmao Tower on the east side of the river. The Oriental Bright Pearl TV Tower dominates the place as you can see. This tour was mostly for photo ops on a rather hazy day, but we had an excellent guide, and an even more excellent bus driver! And thank God for the latter as the traffic here is a close second to that of Mexico City (or at least the Mexico City of 40 years ago). Any markings on the roads bear no relationship to where the cars and buses actually position themselves, and cutting other vehicles off by the width of a coat of paint appears to be the national sport. While traffic signals are generally obeyed, the motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians do NOT have any degree of right of way other than what they dare to attempt! Whew! A couple of times I thought the lady across the aisle from me was going to have a heart attack when some mini-car zipped in front of us.
Everywhere old buildings are being torn down to make way for more skyscrapers and “5-star hotels” in preparation for the World Expo to be held here in Shanghai in 2010. According to J.C. Chu, our guide, some efforts are being made to preserve a few older “heritage architecture” buildings, but mostly people are being paid to relocate to the suburbs whether or not they really want to move. Of course, many of the old dwellings in the center city do not have plumbing nor any room to install any, so often a new house in the suburbs plus money is incentive enough for a move.
This evening I went to see a Chinese Acrobat Show featuring the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. DOUBLE WOW! As you may know I love circuses and have seen many, but this show was beyond absolutely fabulous! Acrobatics, tumbling, dancing, juggling and even a bit of stage magic. Incredibly high energy all the way through. And the stage and lighting effects were phenomenal! I just wish I could have taken some photos to share with you...especially the first number. It was a complex pond scene with several things going on, but the most amazing thing was a person (never could decide if it was male or female) dressed as a dragonfly with golden wings who emerged from a large pink lotus bud and, balanced on one hand so that he/she appeared to hover over the flower, did the most amazing acrobatic moves for almost five minutes! Just stunning!
Above the lotus
golden-winged dragonfly.
Insect or human?
Our evening guide, Ping (which means “safe”), talked about getting married next year. Since she and her husband-to-be are both of the “one child” era, when they marry they will be allowed to have two children, but they must be five years apart. She was born on the east side of the river when it was still farmland before all the development there began in 1990. Now that whole area is skyscrapers to the horizon.
Back on board, I went out on deck to admire the night lights of Shanghai and got this photo of the Oriental Bright Pearl TV Tower lit up.
The Galley Golems are at it again this evening. I’m not sure what part pf the galley is above my cabin, but there are often heavy-footed walking noises back and forth as well as something heavy on wheels being rolled around. By now I’m used to it like one gets used to living near the railroad tracks, but I still notice it on occasion. No complaints, though, since room service will deliver a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk 24/7 at the mere touch of a phone button!
Wednesday, October 8
Took another half day tour this morning. We rode the Maglev train out to the airport and back. And I thought the bullet train was fast! 30 kilometers in 8 minutes on this one with a top speed of 431 kph! Back at the station where we boarded there was a large group of school children who had just come off the train also. If I just had half the energy of just one of them...!
We then went back to Jinmao Tower which I had seen yesterday. The elevator to the observation deck is another wonder...88 floors in 45 seconds! I mailed some postcards up there. It’s probably the highest post office in China, if not the world.
I now have a good bit of expertise in getting my “chariot” up and down escalators. I am also fairly surprised at the number of passengers who have come up to me and said they think I am brave or courageous to do all these tours. I don’t feel brave. I just can’t imagine coming on a trip like this and not doing everything I can manage. There are others on board who appear to be worse off than I am who manage just as well if not better than I do.
I was planning to take a free shuttle downtown for some shopping this afternoon, but have decided to sit around with my feet up instead. All aboard is at 6:00 p.m. so that the ship can be cleared in time to catch the tide back down the river by 9:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Sunday, October 5
Back at sea with distinctly gray weather outside. I’m told it’s the remnants of a typhoon from down south. Hopefully it will be gone by the time we reach China the day after tomorrow.
Usual sea day schedule included Team Trivia at noon and Watercolors at 1:00 p.m. Then I put the photos from Japan in order and chose the ones to add to the blog account and uploaded te whole works.
Tonight is the Captain’s Cocktail Party for the 1,100 of us on board who have sailed with Holland America before. Given that the capacity of the ship is around 1,300 and there are a fair number of single cabin occupants, that doesn’t leave much room for first-timers! Since I skipped lunch, I’m getting a bit peckish so should go and get into the glad rags and A-rocks.
Back at sea with distinctly gray weather outside. I’m told it’s the remnants of a typhoon from down south. Hopefully it will be gone by the time we reach China the day after tomorrow.
Usual sea day schedule included Team Trivia at noon and Watercolors at 1:00 p.m. Then I put the photos from Japan in order and chose the ones to add to the blog account and uploaded te whole works.
Tonight is the Captain’s Cocktail Party for the 1,100 of us on board who have sailed with Holland America before. Given that the capacity of the ship is around 1,300 and there are a fair number of single cabin occupants, that doesn’t leave much room for first-timers! Since I skipped lunch, I’m getting a bit peckish so should go and get into the glad rags and A-rocks.
Wednesday, October 1
Up early for Japanese Customs at 7:30. On the bus and rolling for the overland Tour at 8:30. There are 38 of us plus Cathy from the Shore Excursion staff. Jill is also on this tour. Our guide is Hama who will be with us on the whole tour, although the bus drivers and assistant guides (young women in smart uniforms complete with little hats) will change for each city.
The weather was absolutely perfect, bright blue sky, no clouds, and a very comfortable temperature. Our first stop was at Jodogahama Beach (“hama” means beautiful beach). The beach itself is mainly large pebbles, but it is ruly beautiful with large rock formations just off-shore. Next brief stop was at a very interesting place called Seatopia Naado which was a combination tourist information center, grocery and flower store, then we were off over the mountains to Morioka.
After a spectacular view of the city and surrounding mountains from the Mt. Iwayama Observation Deck, we visited the Nambu Family Garden. The Nambu family were aristocrats under the Tokugawa Shogunate. The family is long gone, but the garden has been preserved. I only went part way into the garden as my walker does not do well on gravel paths (the same situation obtained at several other places on the tour). Japanese gardens are not about flowers, but about trees and shrubs and water features to represent nature. The shapes and colors of the plants and their foliage as well as their spatial arrangements are what make them pleasing and restful.
After a nice buffet lunch, we boarded the bullet train (Shinkansen) for Tokyo. The trip took only about 2.5 hours, and “bullet train” is a real, live description of how it goes! Very fast! The scenery included lots of mountains both east and west of us as we traveled through small cities and rice paddies in various stages of growth. The younger rice fields were a bright green with a touch of yellow while the ripe ones were almost a golden color. Fields where the rice had been harvested and the straw collected to be dried were, of course, dry ad dirt-colored.
When we got to Tokyo (at rush hour), it turned out that we had to tote our own luggage to the waiting bus. This should not have been a problem, but it turned out that the buses are not allowed to park near the train station! I only had my purse and an overnight bag, so could load them only my walker pretty easily. Hama took off at a good clip and we were soon strung out in quite a long line with me getting farther and farther behind with every minute. Cathy stayed with me, and the assistant guide for Tokyo hung back to keep beckoning us on. The actual hike was about a mile from where we got off the train to the bus. Since I was so far behind, I didn’t feel like I could stop to rest, and by the time I got to the bus, needless to say I was in pretty sad shape physically and pretty irate to boot. Fortunately, the rest of the folks on the tour were not upset with me for being so slow as many of them were also worn out by the unexpected hike. This was the only bad part of the whole tour. All the rest, before and after, was excellent.
We stayed at the Keio Plaza Hotel which was very posh. Spacious rooms, lovely decor, and elegant bathrooms. After a nice dinner, a few folks went out for walks, but most of us collapsed.
Japanese toilets...what can I say! I’m sorry that it didn’t occur to me to take a photo of one. You have to be a cross between a civil engineer, hydraulic engineer, and computer scientist to work one...even to figure out how to flush one! Heaven forbid if you want to turn off the music (as I found in one restaurant facility) or on/off the heated seat or any of the other features! In the Keio Plaza, the flush mechanism wasn’t even on the toilet itself, but was discretely located over on the side of the marble counter! Of course there were instructions for each of the buttons (located on a little side arm down at seat level) in Japanese along with one inscrutable word in English...not much help there.
Thursday, October 2
Bags in the hall by 7:00 a.m. and downstairs to a breakfast buffet featuring both American style and Japanese style dishes. Japanese style breakfast is pretty much the same as Japanese style dinner...rice and lots of different vegetables and meats, mainly seafood. Guess which style I chose.
The first stop of the day was at the Meiji Jingu (Shinto) Shrine. Again there were gravel paths along with slopes, so I opted to sit in a nice plaza with tables and chairs and enjoy the perfect weather. There was a Forest of Life Museum there (not open at the time) which had a wonderful inscription over the gate: “We must take care of this shining road. Our forests of both land and sea assure our very lives.”
Our next stop was the observation deck on the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. This is a fairly new building, and the view was amazing! Even given the hazy atmosphere, most of the city was visible. After that we went on to another Shinto shrine that is very popular with the Japanese.
Hama, our guide, did a marvelous job of explaining things to us from historical data to modern day stuff. At one point, she even gave us a lesson in the three kinds of Japanese writing. No wonder Japanese children have to work so hard in school...they learn two different alphabets along with thousands of ideograms! I can now read the signs for “entrance” and “exit,” but that’s about it. Fortunately they also use a number of readily understandable pictures for things in public places. I’m sure I would have enjoyed my tour of Japan even more if I could have read the signs of the places we passed.
We had a wonderful Teppanyaki lunch. The chefs here do not “perform” all the whirling knives and flaming onion tower tricks that the chefs in American Japanese steak house restaurants do. Here they just get right down to it and cook!
Then we boarded the bullet train again for Kyoto. We zipped by Mt. Fuji en route, but it was too hazy at this time of year for a good view. Arriving at Kyoto, we were checked in to the Righa Royal Hotel Kyoto. This was an equally lovely hotel, and even more Japanese in flavor with shoji screens at the windows of the rooms. After a fine buffet dinner, again some went out for walks and some (including me) just made an early night of it.
Friday, October 3
Bags in the hall by 7:30...hooray, and extra half hour! Another buffet breakfast and off we went.
We toured the Sanjusangen-do Buddhist Temple. Photos weren’t allowed inside. This is a photo of a gardener in the courtyard very carefully trimming a tree twig by twig. The temple is a Japanese National Treasure. It was established in 1164, burned, was reconstructed in 1266 and has remained unchanged with only four renovations since. In a few places you can see some of the original ceiling decorations up among the enormous beams of the roof. It contains 1000 gilded standing statues of the Buddhist deity Kannon carved of Japanese cypress and one very large statue of Kannon in the center of a long hall. There are also 33 other statues of guardian deities. Of the latter, I found the Thunder God and the Wind God most impressive. Mos t of the others were variations on the theme of fierce and/or grim which, I suppose, is appropriate for guardian deities.
Next was the Garden of the Heian Jingu Shrine. Again, I didn’t go in very far on the gravel paths, but spent some time perusing the souvenir stalls outside and watching the tourists. Everywhere we went there were lots and lots of Japanese tourists, and lots of school-age groups.
Just before lunch we had a too short visit to an amazing Japanese arts and crafts store called the Kyoto Handicrafts Center where we all could have easily spent the whole afternoon. Lunch was at a nearby hotel and fully lived up to the rest of the meals on this tour.
After lunch our first stop was at Nijo Castle. This was built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu. More gravel. Jill and I stayed around the main gate area and people-watched. One of the people we watched (and spoke to) was one of our table mates who was on a one day tour from the ship in Kobe. The massive gates and stone work of the moat walls were spectacular.
Our last stop was the Golden Pavilion at the Rokuon-ji Temple. I did walk around in these gardens a little as the gravel wasn’t as deep as elsewhere, but I didn’t actually get back in far enough to see the Golden Pavilion as there were lots of steps also.
Our bus then took us about 1.5 hours through Osaka and on to Kobe. A goodly portion of the roadway seemed to be elevated, and the multi-level interchanges with sweeping curves are as, or perhaps more, complex than anything I’ve ever seen anywhere. There was great excitement on the bus when we finally spotted the ship in the distance about 5:30 p.m. The vast majority of us headed straight for our cabins with the intention of calling room service and falling into our own beds!
Saturday, October 4
This was mostly a lost day for me as I spent a great deal of it asleep! In the afternoon I did go ashore to the shops in the Terminal to spend the last of my yen. Then I went to the spa for a facial and massage before dinner.
A couple of general thoughts about Japan...or at least what I saw of it. It is a country of spectacular scenery...mountains everywhere...mostly volcanic. I quickly gave up counting the tunnels we went through, and I can’t imagine how they keep them in repair in this earthquake prone country. It is also extremely neat and tidy. I saw exactly one piece of litter during the entire five days which is somewhat surprising given the general dearth of trash cans in most places. The people are extremely friendly and helpful and, of course, polite. Another thing that we all noticed was how quiet the cities are. I never heard a horn honk and only once or twice heard a siren on an emergency vehicle. My guess is that the Japanese substitute politeness and patience for honking and road rage. U.S. drivers should take lessons.
Up early for Japanese Customs at 7:30. On the bus and rolling for the overland Tour at 8:30. There are 38 of us plus Cathy from the Shore Excursion staff. Jill is also on this tour. Our guide is Hama who will be with us on the whole tour, although the bus drivers and assistant guides (young women in smart uniforms complete with little hats) will change for each city.
The weather was absolutely perfect, bright blue sky, no clouds, and a very comfortable temperature. Our first stop was at Jodogahama Beach (“hama” means beautiful beach). The beach itself is mainly large pebbles, but it is ruly beautiful with large rock formations just off-shore. Next brief stop was at a very interesting place called Seatopia Naado which was a combination tourist information center, grocery and flower store, then we were off over the mountains to Morioka. 
After a spectacular view of the city and surrounding mountains from the Mt. Iwayama Observation Deck, we visited the Nambu Family Garden. The Nambu family were aristocrats under the Tokugawa Shogunate. The family is long gone, but the garden has been preserved. I only went part way into the garden as my walker does not do well on gravel paths (the same situation obtained at several other places on the tour). Japanese gardens are not about flowers, but about trees and shrubs and water features to represent nature. The shapes and colors of the plants and their foliage as well as their spatial arrangements are what make them pleasing and restful.After a nice buffet lunch, we boarded the bullet train (Shinkansen) for Tokyo. The trip took only about 2.5 hours, and “bullet train” is a real, live description of how it goes! Very fast! The scenery included lots of mountains both east and west of us as we traveled through small cities and rice paddies in various stages of growth. The younger rice fields were a bright green with a touch of yellow while the ripe ones were almost a golden color. Fields where the rice had been harvested and the straw collected to be dried were, of course, dry ad dirt-colored.
When we got to Tokyo (at rush hour), it turned out that we had to tote our own luggage to the waiting bus. This should not have been a problem, but it turned out that the buses are not allowed to park near the train station! I only had my purse and an overnight bag, so could load them only my walker pretty easily. Hama took off at a good clip and we were soon strung out in quite a long line with me getting farther and farther behind with every minute. Cathy stayed with me, and the assistant guide for Tokyo hung back to keep beckoning us on. The actual hike was about a mile from where we got off the train to the bus. Since I was so far behind, I didn’t feel like I could stop to rest, and by the time I got to the bus, needless to say I was in pretty sad shape physically and pretty irate to boot. Fortunately, the rest of the folks on the tour were not upset with me for being so slow as many of them were also worn out by the unexpected hike. This was the only bad part of the whole tour. All the rest, before and after, was excellent.
We stayed at the Keio Plaza Hotel which was very posh. Spacious rooms, lovely decor, and elegant bathrooms. After a nice dinner, a few folks went out for walks, but most of us collapsed.
Japanese toilets...what can I say! I’m sorry that it didn’t occur to me to take a photo of one. You have to be a cross between a civil engineer, hydraulic engineer, and computer scientist to work one...even to figure out how to flush one! Heaven forbid if you want to turn off the music (as I found in one restaurant facility) or on/off the heated seat or any of the other features! In the Keio Plaza, the flush mechanism wasn’t even on the toilet itself, but was discretely located over on the side of the marble counter! Of course there were instructions for each of the buttons (located on a little side arm down at seat level) in Japanese along with one inscrutable word in English...not much help there.
Thursday, October 2
Bags in the hall by 7:00 a.m. and downstairs to a breakfast buffet featuring both American style and Japanese style dishes. Japanese style breakfast is pretty much the same as Japanese style dinner...rice and lots of different vegetables and meats, mainly seafood. Guess which style I chose.
The first stop of the day was at the Meiji Jingu (Shinto) Shrine. Again there were gravel paths along with slopes, so I opted to sit in a nice plaza with tables and chairs and enjoy the perfect weather. There was a Forest of Life Museum there (not open at the time) which had a wonderful inscription over the gate: “We must take care of this shining road. Our forests of both land and sea assure our very lives.”
Our next stop was the observation deck on the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. This is a fairly new building, and the view was amazing! Even given the hazy atmosphere, most of the city was visible. After that we went on to another Shinto shrine that is very popular with the Japanese.Hama, our guide, did a marvelous job of explaining things to us from historical data to modern day stuff. At one point, she even gave us a lesson in the three kinds of Japanese writing. No wonder Japanese children have to work so hard in school...they learn two different alphabets along with thousands of ideograms! I can now read the signs for “entrance” and “exit,” but that’s about it. Fortunately they also use a number of readily understandable pictures for things in public places. I’m sure I would have enjoyed my tour of Japan even more if I could have read the signs of the places we passed.
We had a wonderful Teppanyaki lunch. The chefs here do not “perform” all the whirling knives and flaming onion tower tricks that the chefs in American Japanese steak house restaurants do. Here they just get right down to it and cook!
Then we boarded the bullet train again for Kyoto. We zipped by Mt. Fuji en route, but it was too hazy at this time of year for a good view. Arriving at Kyoto, we were checked in to the Righa Royal Hotel Kyoto. This was an equally lovely hotel, and even more Japanese in flavor with shoji screens at the windows of the rooms. After a fine buffet dinner, again some went out for walks and some (including me) just made an early night of it.
Friday, October 3
Bags in the hall by 7:30...hooray, and extra half hour! Another buffet breakfast and off we went.
We toured the Sanjusangen-do Buddhist Temple. Photos weren’t allowed inside. This is a photo of a gardener in the courtyard very carefully trimming a tree twig by twig. The temple is a Japanese National Treasure. It was established in 1164, burned, was reconstructed in 1266 and has remained unchanged with only four renovations since. In a few places you can see some of the original ceiling decorations up among the enormous beams of the roof. It contains 1000 gilded standing statues of the Buddhist deity Kannon carved of Japanese cypress and one very large statue of Kannon in the center of a long hall. There are also 33 other statues of guardian deities. Of the latter, I found the Thunder God and the Wind God most impressive. Mos t of the others were variations on the theme of fierce and/or grim which, I suppose, is appropriate for guardian deities.Next was the Garden of the Heian Jingu Shrine. Again, I didn’t go in very far on the gravel paths, but spent some time perusing the souvenir stalls outside and watching the tourists. Everywhere we went there were lots and lots of Japanese tourists, and lots of school-age groups.
Just before lunch we had a too short visit to an amazing Japanese arts and crafts store called the Kyoto Handicrafts Center where we all could have easily spent the whole afternoon. Lunch was at a nearby hotel and fully lived up to the rest of the meals on this tour.
After lunch our first stop was at Nijo Castle. This was built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu. More gravel. Jill and I stayed around the main gate area and people-watched. One of the people we watched (and spoke to) was one of our table mates who was on a one day tour from the ship in Kobe. The massive gates and stone work of the moat walls were spectacular.
Our last stop was the Golden Pavilion at the Rokuon-ji Temple. I did walk around in these gardens a little as the gravel wasn’t as deep as elsewhere, but I didn’t actually get back in far enough to see the Golden Pavilion as there were lots of steps also.
Our bus then took us about 1.5 hours through Osaka and on to Kobe. A goodly portion of the roadway seemed to be elevated, and the multi-level interchanges with sweeping curves are as, or perhaps more, complex than anything I’ve ever seen anywhere. There was great excitement on the bus when we finally spotted the ship in the distance about 5:30 p.m. The vast majority of us headed straight for our cabins with the intention of calling room service and falling into our own beds!
Saturday, October 4
This was mostly a lost day for me as I spent a great deal of it asleep! In the afternoon I did go ashore to the shops in the Terminal to spend the last of my yen. Then I went to the spa for a facial and massage before dinner.
A couple of general thoughts about Japan...or at least what I saw of it. It is a country of spectacular scenery...mountains everywhere...mostly volcanic. I quickly gave up counting the tunnels we went through, and I can’t imagine how they keep them in repair in this earthquake prone country. It is also extremely neat and tidy. I saw exactly one piece of litter during the entire five days which is somewhat surprising given the general dearth of trash cans in most places. The people are extremely friendly and helpful and, of course, polite. Another thing that we all noticed was how quiet the cities are. I never heard a horn honk and only once or twice heard a siren on an emergency vehicle. My guess is that the Japanese substitute politeness and patience for honking and road rage. U.S. drivers should take lessons.
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