Home Again

Sunday, February 21st

Randy was at the airport to greet us when we arrived last evening and, thankfully, he came in the airport to help with all the luggage. It started snowing on our way home and it has now been snowing for 18 hours with no signs of stopping. Bill's Vietnam hat came in handy - it kept the snow off his knit cap as he tried digging us out.

Shanghai, China

Saturday, February 20th

This is my last entry to the blog. I’m writing in the air as we are on the first of our three flights to get home.

When we awoke this morning and looked out our window we were amazed at the sight of Shanghai. It is a beautiful city with a skyline that just might be better than Hong Kong’s.
We took a taxi to the Mag Lev (the magnetic levitation train) and then took the fastest train in the world to the airport. It was an effort as we had to deal with our luggage every step of the way but Bill was thrilled to be on that train. There were no elevators so we used the escalator to transport our four pieces of luggage plus our carry-ons. I was at the top of the escalator and Bill sent luggage up to me, one piece at a time. Fortunately, no one else needed to use the escalator at that time. We then got into the station and three attendants carried our bags. It was like airplane travel was 40 years ago. The train went 431 km/h (approximately 270 miles an hour) and each car had its own speedometer. The train rides about 10 mm above the track, floating on air. We were at the airport before we had a chance to settle in.

We are leaving Asia with a wonderful impression of the people and their culture. For the most part, they are very friendly, helpful and really good looking. The Asian people like to have their picture taken with Westerners. We have posed for quite a few, two the most memorable was a young man on the train that wanted to pose with Bill while flexing his muscles and then a young girl at the train station being urged on by her father. The children are absolutely adorable. We’ve had a wonderful time and, once again, I’m very glad we took this cruise but it will be the last one for us.

Two of the photos Bill is uploading are of the Speedometer on the train and the Pearl Tower which has a roller coaster inside and a glass floor on the top of the building. You step out of the elevator and look down. We didn’t have a chance to do that.

We’ve had a great trip but we are really looking forward to getting home. It has been a whirlwind!

We are sending this from the Seoul, Korea airport terminal while waiting for our second flight.

Okinawa, Japan

Thursday, February 18, 2010

New blog writer, the old other one is sleeping:

Today was Okinawa, Japan. Very, very expensive but then I realized it is the exchange rate that caused the inequity between the dollar and the yen. Obviously, the Japanese yen is worth more than the US dollar either because Japan is doing things better or the US is doing things worst. It cost the equivalent of $2.30 for a can of their cheapest beer in a grocery store and it wasn’t very good. But, then there was Vietnam where the US dollar was king. Enough of that…

The Japanese immigration people were on board to check our body temperature as they don’t want any sick people entering their country. They also took photos and finger printed us. I might add this is the only country of the seven Asian countries that we visited that did the temperature thing and finger printed us.

We took the Princess shuttle to town and walked down the main shopping taking pictures and checking out the people. Interesting all the other countries had an overabundance of 7- eleven stores but we didn’t see any in Okinawa. Okinawa was a very clean city so clean in fact we were unable to locate a trash can and had to carry the Japanese donuts that we didn’t like back to the ship.

Summary of our countries visited:

Bangkok, Thailand – Trash in street, hot and humid, money fairly equalivant to US.
Ko Samui, Thailand – Poor, not very clean, helmet required, hot and humid.
Singapore, Singapore – Clean, money fairly equalivant to US, transit system incredible.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Very poor, US dollar strong, hot and humid, crazy drivers.
Chan May, Vietnam – Motorbikes galore, very poor, hot and humid
Hong Kong– Hustle bustle, great transportation, fairly clean, night skyline beautiful.
Keelung, Taiwan – Cooler, unique good smells from cooking on the street.
Okinawa, Japan – Let down, very expensive, cool climate.

Taiwan

Tuesday, February 16th

Today we are in Keelung, Taiwan. We arrived here after a night of rocking and rolling on the ocean. No one on the ship slept very well (us included) so everyone is a little tired.

My leg has been very sore but not directly because of my knee. I wore my brace too long the first day in Hong Kong and I seem to have bruised my leg. It hurts every time I put my foot down. This is the third day and it does seem to be getting a little better each day. Because of my leg, we decided to do very little in Taiwan. We left the ship and just strolled through the markets. We certainly got a good feel for Taiwan though. The sights, smells and sounds were everything we thought Taiwan would be. The fish markets were incredible – all kinds of fresh fish including Octopus.

Our second day in Hong Kong we strolled off the ship into a huge modern shopping complex. We then walked out onto the street where Bill located a camera store. Hel negotiated hard for a long time for a lense for his camera. He finally secured a price which he thought was a great deal. He handed them the MasterCard and immediately after the transaction was completed the salesperson showed him a wide angle Macro lense. After more negotiations, we offered him the MasterCard again only to have it not honored (we suspect it was not honored because it was the second large transaction from the same store), however, I came to the rescue with my American Express card. When we got back to the ship Bill checked the prices on the Internet and found out we paid a couple hundred dollars more than we could have bought them for at home. Oh, well.

Yesterday we were at sea and did very little but rest (which Bill does not do well). We are both feeling fine and have really enjoyed this Asian trip. We will be at sea tomorrow and the next day will dock in Okinawa. We’re looking forward to that day.

We depart the ship in Shanghai, China on Saturday, February 20th. Bill wants to take the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train to the airport. It’s the fastest train in the world, even faster than the Bullet train in Tokyo, Japan. We’ll see how well that works with our luggage. He also wants to find the time to go to the zoo and see the Pandas but I don’t see how that will be possible. Our first plane leaves at 2:00 P.M. and the third plane arrives in Reno at 5:30 P.M. the same day. We will have been traveling for 21 hours. I hope my Daisy girl remembers me. I miss her so much!

Hong Kong

Friday, February 12th

Today we’re at sea. I absolutely love being at sea every other day as it gives me time to recoup. I probably won’t be sending this until tomorrow as we are running very short on Internet time. Princess is not nearly as generous as they had been in the past with Internet time and that is the reason I have not sent personal emails to anyone. The cost is .75 cents per minute once we exceed the allocated minutes and we are dangerously close to exceeding the allocated minutes. I write this blog in Word and Bill cuts and pastes it with the photos. With just that, we’re getting close to running out of time; perhaps we’ll send fewer photos. They take quite a bit of time to upload.

Bill is at the gym as I sit here writing my blog. Poor Bill, he had a terrible night last night. He was awake at 2 AM trying to decide what we’re going to do in Hong Kong – it takes a lot of research and planning if you don’t go on the ship’s tours. There’s so much to see here, you just have to chose a few things and be happy with seeing even that much. He finally got up at 3 AM and off he went to the library. He seemed surprised when he didn’t see another soul on the ship (other than the servers). He came back to the room at 4 AM and finally slept, awaking at 7:30 when he heard me bustling around. We are both excited about seeing Hong Kong and we are so lucky that we will be there at the beginning of the Chinese New Year. I expect Bill will get some wonderful photos.

Tonight is a formal night, the Captain’s cocktail party and a birthday celebration for three of the four people at our dining table. Yes, he was also born on January 18th. I plan on wearing a lovely sarong dress I bought for $20 from a street vendor yesterday. I was lucky that it fit as there are no trying garments on with this kind of shopping. It’s not formal and I don’t have the proper shoes to wear with it but it seems appropriate for the area we’re in and Bill likes it as much as I do.

I brought several books with me and I’ve enjoyed having time to read during these “at sea” days. I don’t take the time to read as much as I’d like to at home so this is a real treat for me.

Saturday, February 13th

We spent the morning riding two taxi’s, six underground rapid transit train routes, one bus, talking to a lot of people who didn’t know what we were saying; all the time looking for a china factory that didn’t exist. We should have known when an English speaking person asked when was our tour guide was published. We finally gave up on the china factory when the taxi driver dialed the phone number we gave him and told us the number “no longer exists”. We then made our way back to the ship for some much needed rest. After lunch and a short nap we set off again. We took the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island and had a heck of a time getting to the underground train to get back. It was an exhausting day but quite an adventure.

Hong Kong is famous for a nightly “symphony of lights” show. The show had five major themes, taking us on a journey celebrating the energy, spirit and diversity of Hong Kong. The first scene “Awakening” began with flashes of laser lights which gradually illuminated participating buildings using an array of dancing lights and rainbow color. This scene symbolized the powerful growth of Hong Kong. The second scene “Energy” was represented by the display of rising color patterns, signifying the vibrant energy of Hong Kong. In the third scene “Heritage”, traditional lucky red and gold colors were displayed across buildings on both sides of the Harbor symbolizing Hong Kong’s colorful heritage and traditions. The fourth scene “Partnership” featured a display of laser beams and searchlights scanning across the Harbor, representing a connection with the opposite side. Beams reached out to symbolically connect the two sides of the Harbor into one unified partnership. The finale “Celebration” brought out a powerful display of swirling, kaleidoscopic patterns of lights and beams dancing across the Harbor. The final scene signified the celebration of the close partnership between the two sides of the Harbor and represented a brighter future for Asia’s world city – Hong Kong.

Chan May, Vietnam

Thursday, February 11th

It was laundry day for us this morning – we are so happy to have some clean clothes. There are very limited washers and dryers so we picked a day when we thought most people would be off the ship. The cost to get laundry done on board by the cruise line is $2.25 for each tea shirt. You can imagine how costly it would be for a week’s worth of underwear and sox. I see people having it done and delivered to their room though. What we did today should get us home.

We docked at Chan May, Vietnam this morning. We went for a 20 minute shuttle ride to a nice hotel and just looked around and then came back. There were little booths set up at the dock so we did a little shopping there.

If you look at the photos Bill is sending you’ll see that some of the fishing boats are round - interesting.

It’s really hot here but the weather is supposed to be cooler in Hong Kong. I didn’t pack very well. I packed a few short sleeve shirts and one pair of shorts for Bill but everything else is for cooler weather.

I’m having fun shopping and talking to the Vietnamese people. They are very pushy but it’s understandable. This is a Communist country and they don’t have much money. Unfortunately, our bags were packed full when we left home. I’m trying to figure out what of Bill’s stuff I can leave on board when we depart but, unfortunately, the majority of the stuff is all mine.

At Sea - Wednesday, February 10th

Today we just relaxed. It was great. After our second breakfast and before our first nap, we went to listen to a talk on Hong Kong. We found that interesting as Hong Kong and Singapore were the two places we most wanted to visit.

I learned that Hong Kong consists of 260 separate islands and is only 400 square miles. There are 7 million people living in Hong Kong. I’m sure we’re in for another amazing day. We will be in Hong Kong on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the Chinese New Year so we’re in for an extra special treat. All the cities we’ve visited thus far have been decorating for this occasion. There are flowers and decorations everywhere. It is the custom on the New Year for all the people to head towards their home town for the celebrations. Businesses close down and all the people scatter. This is a very superstitious part of the world and the people do everything possible to bring luck their way, for instance, I’ve been seeing the most beautiful petite tangerine trees everywhere I go. I’ve discovered that the tangerine tree is good luck for lovers and newly married couples. It is suppose to grant them a happy marriage and long life together. There are many other superstitions and I’ve found them all delightful. It’s hard for me to believe how serious the people take all of this but they do.

Tomorrow is laundry day and Bill has decided we should go ashore for a short while on our last stop in Vietnam so we probably will. Tonight we’ll be going to a cocktail party at 5:00, dinner at 6:00 and hopefully will forego the comedian/magician act.

Update of Vietnam

Wednesday, February 10th

It’s early, the day has just begun. Bill went up a floor and brought us down our now daily ritual of coffee and donuts which we have on the balcony each morning. So much for our diet – no red meat but sugar has definitely been added back. I was tired last night and didn’t see the photos Bill sent on the blog so this morning I’m adding a few more. One of them is of the men at the lacquer factory with the egg shells beginning to create a wall hanging.

Vietnam

Tuesday, February 9th

We arrived in Vietnam this morning but no where near a city. We left the ship at 8:30 for a two hour bus drive to the city of Ho Chi Minh (the old Saigon) which is the heart and soul of Vietnam. We took the ship’s tour for this trip because of the long drive to and from – 2 hours to get to Ho Chi Minh, 3 hours there and 2 hours for the return trip.

The streets, where much of the city’s life takes place, are a jumble of street markets, shops, pavement cafes, stands-on-wheels and vendors selling wares spread out on sidewalks. The city center is situated on the banks of the Saigon River, 37 miles from the South China Sea and approximately 1,100 miles south of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

How do I begin to describe today’s adventure? We stopped at the Ben Thanh Central Market in Ho Chi Minh for an hour of shopping. That was crazy! Booths were set up next to each other with no space between. There were rows upon rows. The Vietnamese people were sitting on the floor eating. It was unreal. As we tried walking up and down the very narrow isles, the sales people would grab our arms to show us their wares. Bill began negotiating with them and they were clickety clacking their calculators converting to US dollars while Bill was slowly trying to keep up with them while converting back to Vietnamese Dongs. Crazy! At the end of all this negotiating we were sure they got the best of us, especially since Bill, as we were leaving their stall, gave the salesgirls US dollars just to see a smile on their faces. It was hot and stressful but very interesting. We bought a few things but there was so much to see that we just didn’t know where to look or what to do.

Our next stop was much more civilized. We went to the Tay Son Lacquer Factory – lacquer is a popular Vietnamese export. It was so interesting to see how these lacquer pieces were made. We bought a couple of souvenirs there – one is a picture made of crushed egg shells and lacquered. We both really loved it. It’s in black and white.

In Vietnam motorbikes outnumber cars by about 100 to 1 – dashing and darting in every direction without regard to human safety. Just crossing the street we were taking our lives in our hands as motorbikes darted in front of you and behind you. We saw many, many instances of entire families on one motorbike – dad driving, toddler standing in front of dad, mom in back cradling the baby. Our bus driver blew his horn at least 50 times and we had many near collisions. It was unreal!

We are so fortunate to live in America. The conditions here are horrendous. We’ve decided not to get off the ship on the next stop which is in Phu My and Danang. We will hang around by the pool and do some laundry. We have seen enough of Vietnam although today was very memorable and we are glad we took the tour. Our Vietnamese currency is gone anyway plus many U.S. dollars.

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Superbowl Monday, Monday, February 8th

It’s 10 AM right now and we’ve been up for almost 5 hours – a really fast start to a day at sea. The reason was that the Super Bowl was being broadcast live in the large Cabaret Lounge. Yes, we saw Super Bowl Sunday on Monday. We got there at 6 AM and found coffee, fruit and pastries awaiting us. The crowd was about 5 men to every woman so it was a little boisterous but we’re glad we went. I told Bill I was shocked to see so many of the men drinking beer at that hour and he told me he was just getting ready to order one himself – which he did. This will be a fun memory to have – Super Bowl Monday on the ship.

We’re back in our room now – Bill lying down as I write. I am so thankful this cruise is set up to have a day of rest between ports. The port stops are exhausting me!

Singapore, Singapore, Sunday, February 7th

What a whirlwind of a day! We left the ship early and got on the shuttle for a 45 minute ride into downtown Singapore. Singapore is just beautiful – green, lush and extremely clean. The people here are so friendly, polite and helpful. We’ve found that to be true of all the Asian people we’ve encountered. There are a lot of them though! Bill always holds onto my hand because he’s afraid of us getting separated. If he loses me off the ship I’ll never be found again!

There’s lots of shopping and many beautiful shopping centers but all the stores are very high end – much too expensive for us. We’ve done little more than walk by them. They seem to be plenty busy though so someone is spending money.

Once again Bill decided not to take any of the Singapore tours put on by the cruise line. He’s pretty nervy and I guess I am too following him around like I do. We found the MRT (an underground massive transit train) and hopped on it heading out towards the famous Singapore Zoo. We heard that this is one of the most beautiful zoos in the world so we decided to spend our limited time there. We rode the MRT as far as we could and then hopped onto a train that took us right to the zoo. Beautiful cannot describe that zoo. There were lush trees, bushes, flowers, plants and water ponds throughout and the animals were incredible. The monkeys had these long hanging noses. Our only problem was that it was hot and muggy again. It was hard to stay cool enough. After the zoo we went back into town and hunted down the infamous “Long Bar” known mainly for their Singapore Slings. I was really, really tired by this time but I kept up. I had one of those famous drinks but I didn’t like it. We had a bit of an experience after leaving the Long Bar. We were only about three blocks from where we needed to be to catch our bus back to the ship but my legs were finished so Bill decided to get us a cab (which would have cost $4.00). A rickshaw driver came up to us and insisted we go with him – “manpower” were his words. Bill asked him how much but he didn’t speak English well enough to understand and answer him. He was so insistent that we decided to go with him for the experience. And what an experience it was! He crossed the street, took us one block and we were there. He then demanded $40.00. Bill said “no, $4.00”. All of a sudden this rickshaw driver spoke excellent English and the verbal fight began. A long story short….Bill paid him $4.00. After that it was time to find that shuttle bus back to the ship. If you don’t go out with a cruise tour and you’re not back in time, the cruise ship does not wait for you. We did fine on the MRT and the buses but in order to cross the street in Singapore you have to go through underground tunnels. That was a problem for us. By the time we figured out what we were doing I was about to expire. We got to the shuttle in time though and back on the ship before we sailed. I was so tired I just took a bath and fell into bed. It was about 4:30. I didn’t want to get up at all but Bill went downstairs and brought us up a turkey sandwich, a couple of cookies and two beers. That food was so good. I think we were starving. We skipped dinner in the dining room and opted for a two hour nap instead. After that we went to an 8:15 comedy show and then called it a day.

At Sea, Saturday, February 6th

Today was an at sea day. We started off slowly – nothing planned. We wandered into the lounge and listened to a talk about our next port – Singapore and decided to stay and play Bingo afterwards. I told Bill I didn’t want to play because we never win so he just bought one set of cards and we shared. Guess who won the big jackpot? Yep, it was us - $150.00. That was pretty fun. There is nothing else newsworthy for Saturday. It was just a nice relaxing day.

Ko Samui

Saturday, February 6th – 7:00 A.M. (At sea)

What a wonderful room this is. We are not at all crowded and we have plenty of space to just relax. We are up early again even though we did go to a show at 8:30 last night. It featured an Australian singer named Seamus Earley. She was really good and we both enjoyed it. We were in bed by 10:30 but up early again. We are still falling quickly to sleep and sleeping really well.

Bill has already been downstairs and has brought us a light breakfast which we enjoyed on the deck. It’s still warm enough to be out there this early in the morning. Bill surprised me with a special “coffee” card he purchased this morning. There is a Starbucks like station here but the coffee there has to be paid for so we’ve passed on it. He bought a card that purchases 14 coffees so I’ll be starting my days with a Latte from now on. He really spoils me. He rarely spends any money on himself but denies me nothing.

It was very hot and humid yesterday. We rented that motorbike and road partly around the island. It was too hot to spend more than a couple of hours doing that. I’m glad we didn’t take the ship’s tour. They were loaded into buses and spent hours on the island. It was too hot and humid for that. Bill is so experienced on a motorcycle that I felt safe buzzing around with him. We road to the zoo where we saw lots of elephants just roaming around. They had elephant rides which Bill tried to get me to go on but I elected to just feed them. It was a fun couple of hours. After that we came back to the ship. The island was very poor and very crowded. It wasn’t a great stop so two hours or so was just perfect. Today we are at sea and tonight is our first formal night. I only brought one pair of velvet pants and a couple dressy tops for the three formal nights. The pants fit really well when I left home. I’m hoping they still do. We seem to be eating all the time and our selections of food have not always been too healthy. There are lots of wonderful desserts and it’s hard not to indulge ourselves.

As I write this, Bill is at the gym working out. He is very faithful with his exercise. As for me, I’ve gotten so much more exercise since leaving home that both of my calves hurt (from all the stairs I was forced to take in Bangkok) , my knee is swollen and for some reason both of my ankles have been swollen the last two days. I’m wondering if that is from the long plane ride. I’ve never had this problem before. I don’t need to add one more ailment to my list.

I’m so glad that this cruise has every other day at sea. It gives me a chance to rest up between stops. Today we’re at sea. Tomorrow we dock in Singapore. I have no idea what we’ll do there although I do know we are not taking any of the ship’s tours. Bill is comfortable doing things on our own and it always turns out to be the right thing for us. As he always does, he has researched our every stop so he has a good idea of we’ll be doing. I’m just his tour companion. We’re only taking a ship sponsored tour once on this trip and that will be in Viet Nam since the area we are going to see is about an hour and a half from where we will dock.

I had terrible headaches on the plane ride here but I am happy to say that I haven’t had a single headache since getting on the ship. I pray that continues.

I discovered yesterday that the demographics of Thailand are 95% Buddhist, 3% Islam and 2% Christian. We see Buddhist monks all the time. We have elected not to visit the Buddhist temples (although we did see the palace where the king lives and there was a temple there that we saw). For the first time we are on a cruise where there is no religious service on Sundays. The Asian people are extremely courteous. The Westerners could learn something from them. There are many traditions that MUST be observed at all times while visiting here and the ship is very good at keeping us informed of them.