8 Day Crossing Part 2 - She Broke The Egg!

   We are in the last day at sea with Whittier less than 12 hours away. Today at breakfast we spotted 3 spouts. People had see whales in the last few days but they were the first for us .The last few days have been spent in much the same routine as before. However, I have taken up the Zumba exercise in full and I am finally getting the hang of it. This is not Zumba gold but regular Zumba. It has a lot of high impact steps which can hurt the knees. As Walter the 27 year old instructor says, do what you can! Last night was the last of our 6 formal nights. We had our photos taken but did not win the free prints.

      After all the ball room dance classes that we have had, we are finally getting the hang of it although when the Asian take to the floor, we fade into he woodwork. They are so graceful and dance with such flare that it is hard to stay on the floor with them. We spent part of the afternoon packing but need to wait until later tonight to finish the job. We don't leave until 8 am tomorrow but need to do the U.S. Immigration exercise at 6:30. Since we are not leaving Anchorage until nearly midnight it will be a long day. We cancelled our transfer to the airport in favour of a small excursion to take up some of the day. However, I imagine come Sunday afternoon, we will be a bit tired. We still have 4 time zones to make up but that will be done in the air.

Our Prize!

      We entered the egg drop contest this cruise. Briefly, you need to drop a raw egg from deck 7 to deck 5 without it breaking. Since we have seen it done before and assisted on an egg drop on our last cruise, it should have been a piece of cake. We used a Vietnamese type hat to hold a coffee cup (it acted like a parachute) and broke the fall with some balloons. It made it safely to the bottom (as did others ) but when Judy went to retrieve the egg to prove that we were winners, the host had turned the container over. Judy had seen the hours of engineering time that had gone into the development of what was probably the best looking egg drop device. The egg came out unscathed but she did not catch it (I should have raced down there to get the glory) and it promptly fell on the deck and smashed! I made my way to the fifth floor but stayed in the background. The good news is that all entrants received the coveted Princess water bottles. At least it was not a key chain. It was a fun exercise.

    This will be the last post from the ship. If we have an exciting day in Anchorage tomorrow, I may attempt to post something. Thanks to all who have sent emails or left messages. We hope you enjoyed reading of our adventuress and seeing the photos of some of the highlights!

CHEERS!

8 Day Crossing Part 1

     It has been 4 full days at sea since we left Yokohama and as of now (Day 5 at sea) we have 3 more after today. Life at sea is not exactly the same as cruising between ports because now you are always just looking forward to another day crossing the Pacific as opposed to resting after a day ashore . Actually we crossed the International Date Line late last night and now we are on the same day as the rest of North America. Interesting part is that we actually had 2 Mondays this week! We are also advancing the clock 1 hour each nigh as we creep back to Alaska. We have another hour time change tonight.

We Won!

      Our days are filled with a few basic activities. Since Yokohama, the ship now has a real Zumba instructor. This is not gold like in Florida but “real Zumba” . It is a very hard workout for nearly 50 minutes. They started offering it twice a day, morning and afternoon. With the time changes and the early start time, Judy barely has time to make it. I usually get my coffee and start about 15 minutes after her. After that it is either ballroom dancing class or line dancing. Actually we rest during line dancing and just dance when the music is on. With all the ballroom sessions we have had, we can almost dance to whatever is playing. The instructor has done 6 basic dances and have kept the moves the same so the only real difference is the beat of the music. Last night we went to one of the venues with the live band and did some practicing! “Brazil” the instructor is probably the best teacher that we have had except for the professional that were on our Panama cruise about 12 cruises ago. The line dancing is forgettable as is to be expected. We also made it to the big indoor pool for a swim today.

      We usually spend some time having tea in the lobby bar. We find 2 empty chairs (they are grouped in fours), sit down and chat with whoever is there. Sometimes we have morning tea with our dinner companions. It is nice not sitting next to that post during dinner as we did on the first part of the cruise. We now have dinner with 2 other couples, one from Ontario, one from California. 2 nights

Formal Night Attire

ago was a formal night with the Captain's Circle Party. We won the bottle of champagne after saying we never win anything. We saved the bottle for our table so we could all celebrate. My name was also pulled for the question of the day. I won a photo of the Great Wall and a $1 coupon for the casino. Big deal. Gone are the days of winning a free drink! However with 2 wins in a row behind us we have entered the egg drop contest. We will see what happens on Friday.

    The Captain was on the PA system today with a special announcement. We immediately thought that “Nor-virus” was back. However he said that he had altered course last night and is headed for one of the Aleutian Islands to land a passenger who has a serious medical problem. There are only 300 people on the island but it has a WW 2 age landing strip. They will offload the passenger to a boat and then air evac him(?) to Anchorage. We have been steaming at around 21 knots (top speed for this ship) since last night. The transfer will occur around 11 PM tonight. He will make his scheduled arrival time in Whittier. My comment was that the Tour office will be open soon with a special tour of the island! Escape Completely the Princess way. I was just commentating today that a stop sometime would be nice! The seas remain moderate to rough but the ship has been very stable. Currently the white caps are still out there (5C temperature) but not as many as earlier in the day.

Sharing Our Chanmpagne

     We seem to have cut down on how often we eat although we do enjoy that part. Missing breakfast and trying to limit the between snacks is now the pattern. That is not as bad as hitting the food wall and not eating anything (except desserts). Glad to see the Red Wings won. Sorry for the Leafs!   

Yokohama – Tokyo

       We were up before 6 yesterday as we had a tour of Tokyo booked and the departure time was 7:00 am. We were off the ship shortly after docking at 7 and on our was for a half day tour of Tokyo. We were actually docked in Yokohama which is about 20 kilometres from Tokyo. We booked the City Drive and Tokyo Tower tour because it was the only effective way to get to Tokyo. The port lecturer who had been giving excellent advice suggested that a tour here was the best thing because of the distances involved and what there was to see. Basically we drove to Tokyo which on this Friday morning took about an hour and drove around the 'sites' of the city before stopping at the Tokyo tower. We hit all the highlights such as the Emperor's Palace, Parliament buildings, shopping districts, etc. However the tour was and all drive tour without any stops. It is not a very effective way to see any city although we can say we saw it.

   

Tokyo Radio Tower

 The Tokyo tower was a little more interesting. It looks looks a bit like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It is an all steel structure with the main observation deck at about 150 meters. There were about 6 buses from the ship there as well as numerous school tours. They did not need to push us into the elevators but they came close to that. The views at the top were good but the smog was very much in evidence. We had a much more pleasant experience in Osaka. After that we basically drove back to the ship.

    After a quick lunch we were out walking the area near the port. The cruise terminal area is very well done with parks, shopping, a Chinatown, etc. all close by. We walked to the Silk Museum which displayed how silk is produced. There were some English titles. Then it was off to Chinatown (yea Chinatown in Japan) for a walk through. It was jammed with people. Finally we walked along a concourse where an old (1930's) cruise ship is docked. It carried many famous people between Yokohama and Seattle

1930's Cruise Ship

Washington. The park area was also preparing for a triathlon . We recognized that from the one that they have held in Clearwater Beach. By then we were getting tired so we headed back to the ship, stopping at the “Shopper's of Japan” to by a bottle of wine for the trip to Alaska. Finally we walked on the cruise terminal top which is a very unique structure. Judy found something that she wanted to buy but we were “15 cents” short so we made like the Amazing Race and found someone to give us what we needed. Picking the right couple to ask was the hard part.

     Sail away with Japanese drum entertainment was very well

Fire boat Display

done. There was also a fire boat on display as well. At night, we

took in the show with a guitar playing comedian. He was among the more entertaining acts that I liked. Finally before dinner, we did line dancing. When we walked into Club Fusion the song was 2 Black Cadillacs. It is a current line dancing song. I found out that the tech had downloaded the music I gave him the night before. As a result there were plenty of songs that we knew the steps. After dinner it was early to bed as we were tired from the long day. We also lost an hour sleep last night. We are starting to get back what we gained/lost? When we travelled west a few weeks ago.

Osaka On Our Own

     We originally had a tour booked for Osaka. But we cancelled it so that we could venture out on our own . We were docked right in the city about 2 blocks from a subway station and used it to visit the city. In all it is a wonderful city that is extremely easy to navigate. The people are very helpful and in one case a businessman on a bike stopped and walked us to where we could see what we wanted. A young woman gave her seat to Judy on one of the subway lines!

 

View From The Top

 
 Once you understand how the ticket machines works it was a piece of cake. They have English menus and there is a person at each machine to walk you through buying the right ticket. It really was an easy way to see many things without having to get on a tour bus. As someone said this has become a cruise of temples! It seems that every tour since we have been aboard has gone to a temple of some type. Our first destination was the Umeda building. It is a twin tower building about 40 stories high with an observation deck on top. The interesting thing is that the last 4 get to the last few stories and the observation deck, you must take an

Esculator

escalator that crosses to the other tower. The deck is above both buildings offering wonderful views of the city. To get down you take the escalator for one side to another before descending in the glass outside elevator. A very nice building. Best thing is that offered a 'senior' discount!

We then took the train to a downtown upscale shopping district called Shinsaibashi. This was not Viet Nam or Korea. We did not see more than a few vendors that had good out on the street. We eventually came to the octopus balls district. These are a piece of octopus in a ball or dough and who knows what else covered with a shredded vegetable and smothered in some type of sauce. We ordered one to try and ended up with an order of 8! We were getting hungry by then so no worries. Only problem was that it is an 'acquired

Octupus Balls

taste' which neither of us had. I finished them but that is enough of what the locals “octopus balls'! After that we headed to our next stop on the tour.

     The ship was docked next to a world class aquarium. It was on our list! They did offer a 'senior discount'! What a great country. It was well presented. The theme was the Pacific Ring of Fire and all the exhibits came from around the Pacific Ocean. They had displays from North and South America, Antarctica, New Zealand, Japan, etc. You start at the top floor and wander down the ramps. The centre section is a massive tank filled with all types of fish! It was probably over a kilometre in length by the time we got to the bottom. The

Jellyfish

distance is marked on the floor.

Our last stop was the massive ferris wheel next to the ship. We have been to the Eye in London but this looked taller although the pods were smaller. It also afforded very nice views of the city. As we made our way around it stopped, started, stopped again, etc. Now I am not the best in a high free swinging basket but this thing is suppose to be continually moving. Turns out as we came to the bottom, we noticed a may working on the main drive area. Just what I needed. At night the wheel is lit up for a very nice photo opportunity. Since we did not leave until nearly 8 pm, we had some very nice views of it from our balcony.

      We were back on the ship for the official welcoming ceremony. After the speeches they had a man and a woman playing what looked like a Japanese banjo. We needed to understand the culture a little better because all the music sounded the same and went of forever and ever. Before dinner they had a line dance favourites hour where they played ship line dances. However, brought my thumb drive with songs on it so we were able to do some other dances. There were only a few people there and other people knew some different dances so it was at least an attempt to keep up our skills. I know we are getting rusty. Because of the radio communication blackout we were only able to connect today.

Busan Walk Around

       Last night was a formal night and the Captain's welcome aboard party. We went to an early production show that we had not seen before and then we went to the champagne waterfall which they now do on the Captain's welcome aboard party as opposed to the final night. I think it is because

A Stop In A Park

they can sell more photos this way. We must have been in the right place because the waiter kept coming by and filling our glasses!

Today we had a full visit to Busan South Korea. Having been here less than a week ago we decided to just go into the city by shuttle and walk around. Our first stop was Yongdusan Park which is just above the main shopping area. This time the bus stopped and we did now have to use the escalator. The day was nice and warm with sunny skies for most of the day so the photos are better. Buddha's birthday was last weekend and the park was decorated with large paper figures. Always nice to get some of the local flavour.

 

Finally A Hat

     As we walked around the streets we found many sock vendors and Judy decided to buy some Nike sport socks at about $2 a pair. In Tamps they are at least $4 on sale. We then walked though the 'cheap' market stall area. Judy found a collapsible straw hat that she liked. She had been looking for one for a few ports now. Of course she found one but the wanted $15 for it. ( Remember the “same” hat for $68 at the friendship store in Dahlain!) I offered them $10 but they shook their head. They let us walk away. Judy really liked the hat so we went back. The price was now $18. We walked away again. There are plenty of vendor stalls in the area. It runs for alley way after alley way. Do you think that we could find a stinking hat vendor. We finally stumbled (I said I knew it was there!) and 3 or 4 hat sellers all in the same location. Judy got the hat for $14!

Save Me!

   

Mussels Anyone

 We made our way back to the Lotte Department store and went to the top

for better views of the city. The views were much better because of the day. We rode the escalator all the way to the bottom level where we again found the wine store. By this time we were getting hungry so we stopped and bought a large steamed pork and vegetable filled dumpling. We ordered the hot and it was! Later we did stop and get a soft serve – 2 for about $1 at MacDonald. I did a quick tour of the fish market just to take some pictures. We finally returned to the ship. We had a very nice day in Busan.  Happy Birthday to Pauline!

     We are headed to Japan for the next 2 ports before heading across the Pacific. Japanese authorities do not allow radio communications so the internet will be down for periods of time as we sail in and out of their territory. Tomorrow is a sea day before Osaka. We will doing our own thing as we will be right in town and have a good idea of how to navigate the subway system.

Ashore in Dalian

Along Russian Street

            After the over night sail from Tianjin, we arrived early this morning in Dalian. The effects of the climb to the top of the Great Wall seems to be lingering more than I expected! Dalian is the third largest port in China and an area that has seen many different cultures occupy the region. There is a Japanese influence from an occupation and a very strong past Russian Influence. A port shuttle was provided to the Friendship store (where else?) located in the main square of the city. The city itself was redesigned by the Russians. It has a series of large hexagonal squares with wide avenues connecting them. The city has a very nice modern feel to it. It was a very nice place to walk around. It did have its share of street venders but nothing like Shanghai or Viet Nam. We had 2 basic objectives for the day and managed to finish one of them.

Farmer's Market

      Our first destination was Russia Street. It is so named because all the buildings were built during the Russian occupation. It looked like what you would see in St Petersburg. Most of the buildings have been refurbished and are very neat looking. They are now occupied by upscale businesses. Along the street were many vendors all selling the same items. We could not figure out why there were so many binoculars for sale. They were everywhere. As we wandered, we found the farmer's market. It was your typical market selling fruits vegetables, meats and bakery products in a very run down area just off Russia Street. They knew that we were not going to buy anything so it was nice just to walk through without people constantly trying to get your attention. We ended up buying some very tasty almond cookies.

Upscale Shopping

      We then headed to the upscale pedestrian area to see what was in there. More street vendors but not packed and overflowing. We were not looking for anything special so we just did the wander thing on our way to the second planned location. First we did find Friendship Square, one of those places that reminds you of Zhongshan Square, the largest in the city. We wanted to get to People's Square because they have Chinese Kite flying at that park. We went as far as the Princess map outlines but the destination was beyond the map. We even asked some students at an English Language School to help us out but not having a map did not help. Later we stopped at a Tourist Information Booth (English spoken here) but they said that they only have maps in Chinese. Go figure on that one! So we wandered back to Victory Square where we found a huge shopping complex associated with a department store. We started at the top and came across Tom's World, a full floor amusement arcade. It was jammed with kids!

      As we made our way back down we passed the camera section. I can now admit that I lost my

Tom"s World

camera case with my extra cards and battery somewhere in Shanghai! Am I glad I can download the photos we take every night. Anyway I wanted to get a case for convenience and we found one. The Chinese girl did not speak English but if you ask the price, they use a calculator and show you the numbers. I think it was cheaper and of better quality than the one I had from Blacks. I could not find a 'Made in China” tag on it. Since we had some money left over, I now have a new bag.

       From there it was a stop at a KFC for a soft serve (about $0.60 each) before heading back to the Friendship store. We decided to have a look inside. Many people from the ship were in that store as it was the main drop

Victory Square

point for the tours – the so called shopping free time. They had plenty of staff but I did not see one Chinese shopper there. The prices were outrageous! Judy tried on a basic collapsible sun hat. They wanted nearly $70.00 for it. No way was not exactly what Judy said! We were back at the ship in time for afternoon tea. We are currently in the Yellow Sea headed back to Busan tomorrow where we will simple take the shuttle in walk around and pick up some more wine!   

The Great Wall Of China

       We were up early today – just after 5 am – as we were to catch our off on our tour to the Great Wall of China at 6:15. There were plenty of people up at that time as there we many early transfers from the ship. They wanted everybody out quickly so that they could do another “deep cleaning” to rid the ship of the virus. 8:00 am seemed to be the magic hour for vacating the staterooms. About 400 people are staying on and I think everyone was on tour. The Captain did announce yesterday that the number of cases had dropped below the allowable “2%” for a ship with nearly 4000 passengers and crew. I predicted that about 5 days ago. In that way when we have another outbreak he will announce that it was brought aboard by an embarking passenger.

        The trip from Tianjin (the port for Beijing) to the section of wall that we were going to visit was 3 hours by bus with 1 short comfort stop on the way. Our guide was a bit hard to understand. At one point as he described the crops we both heard that the fields were growing beans and “pork”. We did not see any pork! We did see plenty of fish ponds with many more being built. There is a new cruise terminal and it not anywhere near the location when we were here last. In fact they have reclaimed a massive area from the sea and are developing it with hotels, ports, housing, etc.

On The Way Up

Up The Great Wall

Steep Section

         The section of the wall that we stopped at was not the same one as on our last visit. That was good since we had a chance to experience a new section. This section of wall was quite steep and it took some effort to get all the way. Part of the section had the nice brick that you usually see in photos. The next section had just the bare rocks that underlies the capped sections. Then the next section was just a series of rock steps. They went on for about 300 steep steps. All this was after walking uphill for about 45 minutes. I managed to make it all the way to the top. There were only 4 other people there when I finally arrived huffing mightily! After that there was just a dirt trail that lead up over the mountain! That was a trail too far! Of course I was snapping photos all the way. There were blue skies this time as opposed to the grayish ones from the last time. I was happier with the results this time.

Down The Uncapped  Section

There is no graffiti on the wall at all. In fact there we passed 2 workers cleaning it. However they

have allowed vendors selling tacky, plastic souvenirs in many places. I thought that they should be confined to the area where every tourist must pass. This section of the wall crossed a river valley so there was a defensive fortification at the bottom currently filled with sellers. There were old rusted metal freezers on the wall holding beer and other drinks. They all seemed to be selling the same things. How many times can you say no to a resin model of a budda or the wall, etc? It seems to us that a national treasure should be kept nice and clean. Sellers around the bus is par for the course.

      We did stop for a Chinese (what else) lunch served in the traditional large round table with a lazy susan way. They bring a small plate of an item so that everyone could eat a little. There were many courses and we just kept on eating. There was one English speaking person (nationality “unknown”) who folded his arms and sat there through every course. He refused to eat

anything. All he did was drink beer that was suppose to be shared by all at the table. That was OK because we managed to eat his portion of the dish! We all ate with the chopsticks although his wife ate with a fork. I was going to jerk his chain a bit but thought better of it. I am sure he will complain about the food on that tour!

      We did get back to the ship around 4 and the rest of the night was spent resting after the early start. There are about 1700 new passengers on board and it seems most are going through to Vancouver. We did sit at our new table with the people we met in Thailand. The other couple did not join us for dinner. A brief show ended the evening.

Busan South Korea

         Today was a short visit to Busan, South Korea. We were sailing by 1:30 pm so it was just enough time to get in the port, get the tour off and get ready to sail. We have been here before and will be stopping again on the next leg so we decided to go into the city centre and walk around. There was a free shuttle service which was very efficient. We were walking around in the city by about 9 am.   Busan was not at all like the other port. It seemed to lack order whereas even Shanghai seemed

Mama Fish Lady

to have some. Our first stop was the Ja-Gal-Ch'i fish market. We have been in fish markets before but this one was a bit different. Judy described it as smelling more like the ocean and less fishy if that is possible. I think that was because the fish were all alive in tanks with running water . There were areas where the fish were being gutted and filleted but that was not true of the entire market. We wandered into one building which had row upon row of tables. We think that this was a fish cafeteria. You select your choice of fish – and many types of things from the ocean that we could not even begin to describe – and they prepare, cook and

Preparing Fish

serve it to you. We will need to check this out further when we return in a few days. How all those vendors can sell all that fish every day is beyond me! Not only was fish being prepared and sold in the market itself but for blocks around it. We did see the more “upscale” restaurants with the fish tanks out front where you selected you “entree”.

     We then wandered to the typical narrow alleyways filed with stalls that sold clothing, housewares, etc. We even found an area that we called the Home Depot section because it sold pipes, small motors, etc. Another part had fruits and vegetables only. From there we wandered down the street to the 'upscale' district where the fashions are more western like in display and appearance. They have every colour of running shoe that you can imagine and every name brand was on display. We decide to take the escalator up to Yongdusan Park. It is located

One Of Many Street Sculptures

on a small hill that provided views of the city. As we wandered around there was a small fence surrounding one of the buildings. Many locks were closed on the railing with notes attached to them. We have not seen this since Florence Italy although I know it is a common practice in some cities. We walked the 257 steps back down to street level and continued to the Lotte department store.

          The Lotte Department store is a beautiful store 11 stories high. There was one section that had quite a selection of wines. We ended up buying a Chilean Merlot take back to the ship. The ^th floor is a garden and observation deck where again you have wonderful views of the city. Because of the cool temperatures (13C) and winds we did not stay too long. Since it was getting close to the last shuttle time at 12:30 we made our way back to the shuttle stop to join the throngs of people waiting to get back to the ship. There were plenty of buses and although we ended on the 5^th bus, we waited only for a short time. We were back in time to go to the dining room for lunch. We ordered cheeseburgers! Judy's meal arrived a bit rare (a lot rare?) and then brought her another one. This one was even rarer so she settled on soup and pie!

Lover's Locks In The Park

other reason for visiting the store is that the 11

        We are now headed for China and the debarkation point for this leg. Tomorrow we have a sea day after the formal tonight. It is packing day for those leaving the ship. When we arrive in China we need to be off at 6:15 as we opted to go back to the Great Wall. We hope that the weather is a bit warmer!

Ashore In Nagasaki

      Nagasaki was the second to last port on this phase of the cruise. Since we were docked in the city

Taking The Trolly

at a very nice cruise terminal, there was no need to shuttle into town. In fact it was easy to take public trolly to the sites that we had selected. Since this city was destroyed by atomic bomb in 1945 it was an easy choice to go to the Peace park, ground zero and the Atomic bomb museum.

We were up very early and decided to complete the immigration check immediately. Since the tours were leaving later, by 7:30 we were ashore to get finger printed and have our photo taken and a stamp placed on the copy of or passport. We did the thermal scanner thing as well. It only took a few minutes and since no one was at immigration, we were back on board in about 10 minutes. We then and had a very nice breakfast before hitting the city by 9. We found the street car and managed it quite well. The port lecturer that has been giving the port talks is very good. The trams have automatic change machines and you deposit the fare when you leave the tram. No matter how far you go, the fare is the same. Of course we were following the crowd like a bunch of lemmings! We were actually able to transfer and then get off at the right stop.

Peace Park!

Paper Cranes

    Our first destination was the Peace Park which was close to ground Zero. It is full of peace monuments donated by countries and cities around the world. We looked for one from Canada but did not find it. However there are many locations for the monuments. There is one main sculpture dedicated to Peace. The park was the site which held ruins from a prison that use to be in the area. All that was left were a few basic wall foundations.

    The second stop was Ground Zero. There is a monument in this park at the exact point where the Atomic bomb detonated. It was very plain and simple. There was also a portion of a Catholic church that was moved there. I can remember seeing that structure in the photos of the damage in Nagasaki. They also have a portion of ground that preserved since the 1945. In all it was very well done in an extremely simple manner. One of the things that we encountered were paper cranes. The crane is the

symbol of Nagasaki. A young girl was dying after the blast and her classmates said that they would make her a string of 1000 cranes. This has become a symbol for peace that is used extensively. You can but multi-strands of the small paper cranes and then hang them on the a memorial. We saw many of these bundles as we walked around the bomb site.

 

Part of Church Not Destroyed 

   Our last stop was at the Atomic Bomb Museum where the story of

Watch Your Step

Nagasaki is retold. They have many artifacts that have been collected and preserved. They also have a model of the bomb that was dropped. It was a very sobering and moving experience. We could only look at the results of the bombing so long before we both decided to leave. It is very hard to describe the feeling that we had in that museum. The photos of the people and the stories that were told made it impossible to dwell for very long. It was very well presented in such a simplistic way.

     We found the right tram to take to get back to the ship. By now it had started to rain steadily and we certainly needed the umbrella that we had. We walked a street with the shops near the cruise terminal but skipped the walk up to the nearby gardens. We wanted to get back to the ship for a cultural show that was being presented in the theatre .It was the local opera company doing portion of Madame Butterfly. The lead singer did a marvelous job during the 35 minute performance. We have not see that many people in the Princes theatre this trip. All in all a very good day despite the rain. Busan will be the last port for this portion of the trip.

Ashore In Shanghai

    Shanghai is the one of the 3 largest cities in the world, the other 2 being Mexico and a future place where we will stop – Tokyo! It is located on the Yangtze River but far inland from a coastal location. In fact the city is on a tributary about 25 miles from the main river. Although we entered the channel early in the morning, we were not along side until 10 am. We were held off the dock until exactly 10 am at a new cruise terminal. We docked about an hour away from the city as this ship is too large to get much further upstream. The river is very busy with a steady stream of barges shuttling up and down.

 
Our passports and visas were already checked before we landed and except for the checking of everything again, disembarkation was slow but not delayed. Our tour headed out around 11:30 and we did not return to the ship until 7:30 last night. Our tour included only 3 stops. The hour drive to our first stop gave us a good look at the city. There are thousands of high rise buildings of all types. Shanghai is an important gateway to China and many international companies have all build beautiful buildings here in the last few years. They also have a local festival to plant trees and the city is quite green despite all the buildings. They are also preserving many of the old areas so you get high rise buildings next to 2 or 3 story dwelling that date back a hundred years. The city is very clean for the number of people living there. Yesterday was the start of a 3 day holiday so the city was more crowded than it would normally be on a Sunday.

Juinmaro Tower

View From The Top

     Our first stop was the Juinmaro Tower, currently the tallest building in Shanghai. We went up to the observation deck on the 88^th floor. Needless to say the view was spectacular! They are building a higher structure next to it. From there you get the 360 degree view of the city. The centre of the building is “missing” so that you can look down at the lobby! It was a very quick trip up to the top! The day was a bit smoggy (as is usual in a big city) and shooting through the glass hampered the photos.

Looking Down

    The second stop was the Yuyuan Gardens built about 400 years ago while the city was just being developed. Today it is the middle the old city centre. It was a classic Ming Garden featuring more than 30 halls and pavilions with the typical use of rocks, water, trees, etc. It was a very nice quiet spot.

The last stop was actually in the same location as the gardens. We had opted for this tour because it gave us about 4 hours of free time in the old city area or”Old Street”. It was filled with shops

Yuyuan Gardens

and eateries and people. We needed s quick bit so we went to a”recommended” restaurant. We ordered 2 separate dishes and that was an adventure in itself. Because of the time (mid afternoon) we could not order from the entire menu. It was basically dim sum. As expected the waitress spoke as much English as I do Chinese (Sounds like YEE HA which means “hello”) . We pointed to the 2 items we wanted (they use pictures). We never got our spring rolls and the Dim Sum order was not exactly what we ordered. So much for customer satisfaction.   We could have had a much greater variety at a much lower price if we had eaten where the “locals” eat – on the street. However we did enjoy the experience of eating with a young Chinese man and his son who was at the same table (and shared our tea?)

Shopping District

     After that we walked around the area, trying to find the river which has a beautiful park. However it was like the Amazing Race. Maps that don't show the streets, foreign names (in English) and not being able to find which way to go. Eventually we knew the direction but did not have enough time to get to the river and back before our transport was leaving. We would have been eliminated on this leg of the race!

      We arrived back by 7:30 in time for a truly spectacular Chinese Acrobat show with 5 young “very flexible” women. A very graceful and spellbinding show. We did manage to get to the dining room on time but because of the late sailing (midnight) and long tours, it was 'open seating' and the 2 other couples did not make it back from their tours until later. Dinner was one of the best tasting meals we have had.

Today was a typical sea day, rumba, line dancing, tea and talk with friends, a rumba lesson, art auction and then afternoon tea. I sat with a Texan who wanted to know what to do at afternoon tea. How do you answer that. My answer of course was drink the tea! Tonight is line dancing night and we arrive in Nagasaki tomorrow. We will be touring on our own.

At Sea to Shanghai

    We are into the second day of sailing and the weather has warmed and the seas are quite calm

Relaxing At Sea

again. This trip has been very smooth sailing for the most part. Yesterday the day was overcast, windy and cooler but we are fortunate again for the warmer temperatures. A walk around the deck today sees many people out sunbathing – including Judy. I have just finished downloading photos from the past days. Judy snaps away and never ever looks at them again.

   The schedule on this ship has been the poorest that we have

At Sea

seen in a long time. It seems that all they can schedule are trivia contests, spa specials, etc. Last night they had both newly boarded comedians on at the same time. The only things that we can get too are the rumba at 9 followed either line dancing (we went to an excellent port lecture on Nagasaki instead) followed by a ballroom lesson on the cha-cha. Actually we can do that dance quite well but that is because of the cha cha's that we do in line dancing.. There is not one thing on this afternoon that we want to do.

   Last night was the Captain Circle party. It was the last of a series. It seemed that there were fewer people there. We even chatted up the Captain for a bit other than saying hello and going on. There were so few people there that the waiters were taking drink orders! We did find out that there are only 175 Elite class on board.  Yea for free laundry.  Anyway, we did manage to make it to the 2 comedian shows. Judy likes the Australian and I thought the American (reminded me of Rodney

A Mine?

What Is It?

Dangerfield) was the best. Tonight we have an invitation to the
Art Director's wine and cheese party although it is open to everyone. Tomorrow we land in Shanghai quite late - 10 am so we will have a late sailing tomorrow night. We are on a tour with 4 hours of free time built in so we can do plenty of exploring. We have not scheduled anything for the next 2 ports after that or the first 2 of the next leg of the cruise.

    Finally we did see a strange bird on deck today. I managed the photo of it. Strange only in that it looked liked a shore line bird rather than an ocean flier.  

Hong Kong – Stanley Market, San-pan Ride and Victoria Peak!

    As I was posting the the last blog we had just arrived in Hong Kong. It came out of the mist early in the morning. As you might expect is an extremely interesting city which had heard about for years. After having spent the day here, it is probably everything and more of what we have heard.

We had a wonderful full tour of the city. There was not much wasted time from the 9 am start to the 3:30 finish. It is a congested city as many people are crowed onto a limited amount of space. The need for extremely high buildings and population density is obvious. Even the public housing buildings can run to 40 plus stories.

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Apartments are quite small with 4 people living in 400 sq feet of space. Our guide was quite funny, spoke good English and kept the tour light and lively. There were many sections of the city tour on this tour but they followed different routes so that we never had the feeling of hurry up and wait because of the crowds.

    Our first stop was the Stanley Market, which is a popular local for bargain hunters with a wide variety of choices. Judy was looking for some pillow covers for our bedroom and a few other items. She found what she was looking for. Now this is a place where they expect you to bargain. She picked the items she wanted , handed the man the full amount and then asked for a discount. Of course once the money was in his hand what was he going to say? She drives a hard bargain!

   The next stop was the Aberdeen Fishing Village. This was no village and certainly had nothing to ^th or 5^th time!

Sam Pan Ride

do with fishing today. It was the start/end or our san-pan ride

Harbour

through the water area where the “water people” live on their boats. The san pan ride held about 8 people (more of a water taxi) but it was a very different view of the city. The boats ranged from run down to extremely large cruiser type boats. The old Chinese lady who ran the boat was something else. She said nothing, never smiled or showed any sort of interest except for one things. Every few minutes she held up her big glass jar with money in it and shook it in our face. Now we normally tip these people but I was ready to forget it after the 4

     Next was the “wholesale” jewelry shop. The guide gave us a great little speech as to why we are stopping. People need to buy good stuff and the tourism board get complaints about poor quality and high prices so the tour company decided to protect us by taking us to a reputable place. What a wonderful tour company. Of course we did not buy any of it. Fortunately, the stop was not a very long one. However, it is the worse things about ship tours. They insist on taking you to these “friendship” stores. Enough of rug and jewelry stops for the real bargains! Once back on the bus we navigated slowing again through all the traffic to the next stop.

    Victoria Peak at 1805 feet was the next on the agenda. The bus took us up to the top although not to the highest point. It was certainly the most popular with the many modern shops. However it offered wonderful views overlooking the main part of the city below. You are overlooking the Hong

What Else!

Skyline From Victoria Peak

Kong skyline north back towards mainland China. Interestingly enough is the fact that Hong Kong although part of China operates under it's own set of rules much like it did under the British. They enjoy things that are forbidden on the mainland. People from the mainland can't just move to Hong Kong without a whole series of hoops to jump through including have a job. Hong Kong seems to have developed a very good system in all aspects of life. We took the long funicular ride down the mountain to the very bottom where the bus picked us up.

From there it was back to the Ocean Terminal where the free shuttle bus would take us back to the Diamond Princess. We decided that since we will be having hours of free time at our next port, we would go back to the ship. It was docked in another part of the area in the middle of a container port. The port itself was huge with the loading and unloading of ships going on around the clock!

Honk Kong At Night

    There was a cultural show in the late afternoon before we sailed but everyone agreed that it was a bit thin on both culture and entertainment! After we set sail, the Captain had permission to sail slowly through the main channel so that we could experience the light show that plays off the many tall buildings of Hong Kong every night. We were ready for dinner and standing on the high deck forward (above the bridge) to watch the show. The second before the show started, the downpours began. By the time we were able to get off the platform and around to a door to the inside, we were so wet. Judy described it as the same as jumping into the pool with all your clothes on! Soaked to the skin does not adequately describe it. My shoes are still wet. That meant that we had to go back to the cabin and dress in a complete set of drier clothes. We could not even see the building for the rain! Dinner and the sail away deck party completed the evening. Oh, the deck party had to be held inside! 2 sea days before we get to Shanghai!