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.