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.

Add caption

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!

Nha Trang Cham Tower, River Cruise and Rural Village

   Our second stop in Vietnam was a small city of Nha Trang. Today it is a very thriving seaside resort city that is starting to attract foreigners for relaxing vacations. The bay is quite large but we were tendered. From a quick look it did not have a 'cruise terminal”. This location was better known during the “American War” as Cameron Bay. It was the main port for the American war effort.

In contrast to what we experienced in Phu My the day before, this city was very clean and neat. We passed many modern hotels such as Hilton, Best Western and other 5 star hotels. This is not the tourist season but there was a certain bustle to the city.

   At the Cham Tower we had a good explanation of the time periods of each of the temples. The

Cultural Show

Hindu towers were built over a series of years. They are very small compared to some of the ones we have seen. The temples were in use by the local population. There was a brief 'cultural show”. One of the photo shows the traditional dance that they did. After that we walked about 200 meters down an alley to the river where we boarded our small boat for the ride to the rural village. We were only in groups of 8 for the entire tour which was very

Good Hat

good. As soon as we got on the boat, they handed each of us one of those basket hats that seem to be in every photo of the rice fields!

   The stop at the rural village was very different. This entire

Making A Clay BBQ

village (not that many people) are engaged in making small clay BBQ's that the local Vietnamese cook on. The clay is brought in from the rice fields and piled outside the artisan's workplace. From there the clay is wet down and molded into these pots. The pots have an vent for air on the bottom side and then they place an insert in the pot to hold the charcoal. Then a grill is placed on the 3 molded knobs at the top and cooking beginnings. Because they are made of clay they do not last long. They seem to be used only during festivals. In all it was a very interesting visit.

Back on the boat and a short trip down to a place whee we could have a refreshment. It consisted of a coconut cut open with a

Yes - Snakes

straw inserted to drink the water inside. It had a bland taste. We did not have them opened but apparently the inside was tastier than the ones we can purchase back in Canada. Again back on the boat, then the small van and a stop for fresh fruit and hot tea. It had a very nice little store and Judy managed to find a nice silk shawl. Then it was back to the ship. On the dock, we managed to find a few more things to buy. Judy hates the haggling but we were able to pay a lower asking price. The merchants give you a price and if you pay that, they are happy. In all we thought the tour was a bit thin on substance after the village visit.

On The Docks

  Today was a sea day with Hong Kong tomorrow. They found someone to do Zomba so Judy went to that class while I did a few other things. Line dancing, a coffee break with Val and Rob, ballroom dancing, pub lunch and finally wine tasting and a production show at night filled the day. The weather continues to be hot and humid and the seas remain calm. Just arrived in Hong Kong. It came out of the mist.....

Vietnam and the Cu Chi Tunnels

      We have just finished our visit to Viet Nam. We have been on full day tours the last few days and we have not had much time to collect our thoughts. The day after Singapore was a sea day which should have been very relaxing. More recovery than relaxing with an early to bed and plenty of sleep.

Yesterday we took an all day tour of the Cu Chi tunnels. We opted not to go into Saigon proper but an area outside the city. It was called an off the beaten path type of tour. Our tour bypassed the city proper and took us into the Mekong Delta region to visit the tunnels. The Cu Chi tunnels were started during the French period of “occupation” in 1948 and were extended during the Vietnam war with the Americans (as we were told).

     We did stop before we actually got to the tunnels. It was quite a long ride (nearly 2 hours). We had a quick demonstration of how they make “rice paper” for their wraps. Quite an operation. We also had a change to view a rubber plantation and had a brief explanation on how the trees are tapped and what is done with the latex.

     After a short ride we arrived at the tunnel complex. These are no ordinary 'tunnels'. It is reported that the system we visited and are now open to the public stretch some 200 kilometres to the Ho Chi Minh trail. It was used extensively by the Military Region Committee of Saigon. They are better known in the west as the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese regulars who traveled south to fight in the liberation of Vietnam. We were told that the tunnels extended under the American bases because the Vietnamese knew that it was not a place that would be bombed.

   

Disappearing Underground

The tunnels are really well preserved. People come to the tunnels”

Jungle Trap

... to understand how was the long – during fight of hardship, to properly comprehend our proud aspiration...” They had displays of weapons, traps, bomb craters from B52 bombing, etc. It tunnels were a basically a city underground, complete with a hospital, living spaces, weapon manufacture (traps, spikes, etc.). The tunnels themselves are actually on 3 levels and it was reported that 55,000 (?) Vietnamese used the tunnels. 400 children were born in this section. In fact one of the Army soldiers that is stationed here was born in the tunnel. They are built on 3 levels: the first about 3 meters underground; the second level about 6 meters with a third level below that. The American bombs could only
reach to the second level so that this spider web beneath the ground continues to function despite the heavy bombing. This area is just north of Saigon and was a staging area for attacks in this part of Viet Nam. There were many points of access but the openings were very small. The tunnels themselves were quite narrow and it would be like a tight squeeze in caving to get through them. The Vietnamese small and could easily move through them. The Americans had special units called 'tunnel rats' to go into the tunnels. They were recruited from Japanese or Hawaiian Americans. The surface openings were very small and well concealed. The air holes were usually buried in termite mounds so that they could not easily be found. When the Americans used dogs to sniff out the smell from the tunnels, the Vietnamese had stolen American equipment nearby so the dogs would by confused. Sometimes they used chilly power to burn the dogs sense of smell. Another adaptation they used was to release the cooking smoke in the early morning when there is a natural mist. When the Americans would trace the tracks from the sandals to the openings, the Vietnamese would use sandals that faced backwards to confuse the patrols. We were told that the Americans had a few tricks that they used to locate the tunnels but we were left with impression that they were not effective for very long.

The Tunnels

Exit

We also had a chance to view some the the bobby traps that were hidden in the area. The original bamboo spikes tipped with poison could not pierce the boots of the Americans because they had a steel plate in the bottom of them. The Vietnamese would collect the steel bomb fragments, melt them down and would use the steel spikes in the traps.

     Finally we had a chance to go into a section of the tunnel.
They have made them bigger so that tourists can fit in them. They are still quite small. There is very poor air quality and after about 20 meters we were ready to get out. Some on the tour started into the tunnels then quickly backed out. Most were glad to see the opening because the tunnels were not lit. All in all it was a very interesting day and one that we enjoyed very much. The lunch stop was adequate with a basic Vietnamese lunch being served along with some local beer. Needless to say we were a bit exhausted getting back to the ship late in the afternoon after a 7am start.

Singapore In A Day

      Yesterday we had the first of our 6 formal nights. The standard champagne waterfall and introduction of the Captain and main officers took place. We also had our first of many formal photos taken. We always like to see how we clean up on formal night. After dinner we tried to stay for a magic show but it was late starting and since we had an early call this morning we decided to turn in.

Today started with a 6:15 am wake up call. We had breakfast in our room and by 7:15 we were waiting for the tour to start. We had been warned by the Captain that the customs and immigration procedures in this part of the world are not the same as in Europe or the Caribbean. (We have already filled out entry/exit cards for 3 places ports. ) In Singapore the authorities only allow so many people in the cruise terminal at a time. We did not experience any delay in getting ashore although we were among the first to get ashore.

   We were on the bus and headed for a tour of the city by 8 am. The tour guide was very good and gave us plenty of information on Singapore and what it is like to live there. She called it the 'fine' city because you can be fined for almost everything. If a smoker is in an area where there are no ash trays, the fine is $1000! If you drive your car into the city as you pass various 'zones' you are charged a surcharge. They are trying to eliminate traffic congestion. It has an excellent public transportation system.

Jurong Bird Park

Our first stop was Jurong Bird Park. It had a great collection of birds from mostly tropical/sub tropical areas. We had a choice of walking with the guide or going off on our own. Needless to say we were able to see all the exhibits rather than the 3 that she stopped at! The park was empty when we arrived so it was a very nice visit. By the time the bird show started at 11 am, the place was packed. A very interesting visit and show. The only problem in hindsight was that, because we were there for 3 hours, we had less time at other venues.

Botanical Gardens

         The next visit was the botanical gardens. We had about 30 minutes to visit the orchid gardens. We could only see a small fraction of the 12,000 orchids growing. They have a VIP section where visiting dignitaries have an orchid named after them. There was one for a small French Prime Minister from Canada! A very nice display but little time to actually get some good shots because of the intense sun.

China Town Lunch

It was now after 1 and we were off to a Chinese lunch! It was “Chinese style” (dishes places on a lazy susan) and was quite tasty although we wished that we had been served some traditional Malaysian dishes but no such luck! Judy and I ate with chop sticks but no one else even tried to use them. After lunch we walked through old Chinatown. Ordinarily we hate these mandatory shopping stops but this was a very interesting place along the old shopping districts. The shops spill out on to the street and the upper levels are living quarters.
Judy bought a loose skirt. With the high temperatures and humidity she needed something cooler that what she packed. We have now headed north so it will get cooler but not until later in the cruise.

Casino

After that we did a side trip on the way back to the ship with a stop at Mount Faber for an overview of the city. We were the last bus to arrive back at the ship and the captain was already announcing that there were only 17 people left to board! They were behind us in the new terminal building.

At dinner last night we discussed our tours. The founder of Singapore was Sir Stamford Raffles and there is an old exclusive hotel named after him. One couple decided to have a beer at the hotel and were a bit shocked at the $50 tab for 2 beers! A long day but successful port. One of the places that you might want to stay for a longer visit. Sea day on Sunday then Viet Nam the next 2 days!

Second Day At Sea - to Singapore

We are into the afternoon of the day before we arrive in Singapore. I had been trying to send my last blog for about a day but for some reason I can't get on the wireless system. Since I am doing this off line and I want to post some photos I had no way of getting the info and the photos into the system. I certainly do not want to start typing everything again. Ops finally logged in!

Last night we had our first meal with our dining group. We have 2 couples from England at a table for 6. It is the oddest table as it is against a post and it is hard to have a conversation with this post. We all asked that the table be moved but for obvious reasons, it is fixed to the deck. I think we are stuck with it! Both couples are leaving in Beijing so we will have new people after that stop.

This cruise is a bit unusual in that there are 40 different countries represented on board – that is the passengers and not the crew. When they make a general announcement, they do it in 4 or 5 languages. That was what happened today when the Captain came on and made the standard announcement that the ship has norwalk and strict measures are being implemented. It seems that this is quite an occurrence on these ships. However it usually takes a few days. We are only on day 3 of the cruise. Anyway this ship has a different feel as far as the passengers. Obviously there are way fewer Americans than we have encountered before. You hear all these different languages as you walk around. As usual Canadians are the second largest group. I think Brazil is next!

The sailing so far has been quite calm. There is nary a ripple as we head to Singapore. If it wasn't for the slight vibration from the engines you would not even know that we have been sailing for almost 2 days. No tilting on the line dancing which was really awful today. The same person did the 'swing' dance later in the day and was quite good. We did not know that line dancing had a count of 4! All these years we had danced in segments of 8!

Tonight is the first of our 6 formal nights. Our chocolate covered strawberries just arrived. Not as many as in the past but they certainly were larger. Since sushi is being served to the “special event” we decided no go for a drink. They are serving champagne or mimosas as the drink. Certainly not like the old days when you could get a glass of wine or a good ole fashion Manhattan! I guess that will have to wait until we get back home!

We did get a nice surprise today. For some reason we ended with more shipboard credits than we had expected! A nice surprise since we are taking tours in the next 4 ports. In the final 2 ports (Nagasaki and Pusan) we will simply take the port bus into town or just walk as in the case of Nagasaki.

Although I am having trouble with my Adobe (I may have to reinstall it) I managed to dumb down the photos enough to load them on the blog. Remember that you can leave messages on the blog. Thanks to those who have done so!

Bangkok To Ship

     Here we are already into the afternoon of the first sea day. We have already been on the ship for a day but with all the things needed to get done after getting here, the least of which is to get the wireless set up, we are finally able to sit down and spend a few minutes going over the last day and a half. We did have a time change last night, lost another hour but we were still a bit tired from the last few days. However, we finally got a very good night's rest.

    Yesterday started at 7:30 for the second day of touring. We had completed all the pre-boarding checks and had our luggage already picked up for direct delivery to the ship. We were on the bus for nearly 3 hours before we arrived at the Nong Nooch Village Company for a Thai Cultural show and an Elephant show. We were given 20 minutes to visit an orchard garden but were rushed back on the bus after 15 minutes. I barely had time to snap a few pictures of the beautiful flowers! We were rushed off to the Cultural show where the venue by North American standards was terrible. The place was packed because of the ongoing holiday. We had to stand through the show. As Judy said she had visions of this whole structure collapsing!

Then we rushed off to see the elephant show. It was quite amazing! You could get picked up by an elephant for a photo! (and a price). The show itself had the elephants doing various tricks – riding a “bicycle”, throwing darts a balloon dart board (they hit it), bowling, painting on shirts (trees, flowers, etc) and things like that. By the end of the show, we were feeling sorry for the elephants. Must be a natural reaction for us! After the show, back on the bus for about 1 hour to the resort where we had a wonderful buffet lunch. This was so much better than the day before. The hot Thai dishes were excellent and they did not let the serving dishes run out. Then it was the hour ride to the ship. In all we were not very impressed with the way the whole day ran.

Boarding was very easy because of the pre boarding that we completed the day before. The emergency station drill was held quite late (6:30) because of the late sailing time. As a result all dining rooms were declared as “open seating”. What that meant is that the early and late fixed dinning serving wee all into one. Then you had groups wanting to sit together. There was plenty of irate people who were “put out” because they cough not get their way. Being good Canadians, we simply went to the front of the line and were seated quickly! (No yelling from us!) The prime rib was excellent!

    Our cabin is located very close to the back of the ship (any further and we would be in a dingy!) However it has certain advantages. The food court is one deck up and the aft swimming pool is up 3 steps. Judy calls it her private pool. We did a walk and then a swim before breakfast today! Line dancing, attending various draws, ballroom dance lesson, eating sushi and just relaxing followed. Judy just decided to go for another swim before we go to the “Elite” pre-dinner hors d'oeuvers with the discounted drinks, then entertainment, then the art champagne evening (invite only) followed by dinner. Feeling tired already! Sea day tomorrow.